A Chinatown in South Korea is supposed to attract tourists, instead it has sparked anti-Chinese sentiment
- Located in Gangwon province, the Korea-China Culture Town is expected to be completed in 2022
- A petition calling for an end to construction has gathered more than 415,000 signatures
The oldest Chinatown in the world is in Binondo, Manila, in the Philippines. It was established in 1594 by the Spanish colonial government as a settlement for Chinese immigrants who had converted to Catholicism and intermarried with Filipinos. At the other end of the continuum is a Chinatown currently under construction in South Korea’s Gangwon province and expected to be completed in 2022.
According to an article published by AirAsia, “Binondo was said to have been intentionally situated to put some distance between the Spanish elite and sangleys – an archaic and derogatory term for pure-blooded Chinese immigrants – but close enough to keep an eye on them amid fears of an imminent invasion from China.” In a contemporary context, such Sinophobia would be considered racism, and it seems that similar sentiments are swirling online in reaction to Korea-China Culture Town.
“An online petition has been filed on the Cheong Wa Dae [government] website recently, calling for an end to the ongoing construction of a Chinatown and Legoland in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province,” reported English-language newspaper The Korea Times, on March 31. “The petitioner wrote that Koreans do not understand why Korea should provide cultural experiences from China, or why there should be a ‘little China’ in Korea.”
Korea-China Culture Town will feature “a range of facilities and attractions”, including traditional Chinese gardens, and will be 10 times the size of South Korea’s only “official” Chinatown, in Incheon. It was planned – alongside the Legoland theme park, which will include a hotel catering to Chinese visitors – to drive tourism to the region, namely Chinese tourism.
By April 5, the petition had gathered more than 415,000 signatures. “Petitions recommended by more than 200,000 people typically prompt a response from Blue House officials,” reported English-language daily The Korea Herald. However, if the provincial government response to the petition is anything to go by, the construction of Korea-China Culture Town will continue; “The government of Gangwon Province said that the culture town is only a tourist attraction, not a facility for the collective residence of Chinese people,” reported The Korea Times.
In 2019, before international tourism was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, South Korea recorded 17.5 million visitor arrivals, of whom 6 million were Chinese, according to the Korea Tourism Organisation. That was an increase of almost 30 per cent from the previous year and a significant rise from 2017, when China banned package tours to South Korea following Seoul’s deployment of a United States anti-ballistic missile system. Resulting political tensions carried over into “tourism, cosmetics and entertainment industries, which had prospered thanks to Chinese demand”, reported financial newspaper Nikkei Asian Review.
Then, just as relations appeared to be improving, along came Covid-19 and forced everyone inside and online. Unable to engage in actual physical cultural exchanges, armchair warriors in China and South Korea instead engaged in digital culture wars over the origins of delicacies, dress and even acupuncture. Needless to say, it got personal, and ugly.
According to a February 2020 Al Jazeera report on rising anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea, “It is hard to tell where exactly the racism and animosity come from, but tension over real estate and South Korea’s hazardous air have been long-standing, even before the coronavirus outbreak.”
The reaction to the development of Korea-China Culture Town suggests, sadly, that such sentiments could outlast the pandemic, too.
Japan’s cherry blossoms peak early because of climate change
Every year, Japan’s cherry blossoms are eagerly awaited, their blooming and subsequent waning a reminder to make the most of the fleeting time we have on Earth.
This year, that reminder has greater importance; in Kyoto, cherry blossoms peaked on March 26, the earliest date since records began, 1,200 years ago! According to scientists, the anomaly is a sure sign of climate breakdown.
“In Kyoto, records of the timing of celebrations of cherry blossom festivals going back to the 9th Century reconstruct the past climate and demonstrate the local increase in temperature associated with global warming and urbanisation,” stated a 2009 paper published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), March 26 is not only the earliest peak bloom but 10 days ahead of the 30-year average. Shunji Anbe, an official at the JMA, told the Associated Press: “We can say it’s most likely because of the impact of the global warming.”
Good news for Macau’s tourism industry as visitors return
And finally, good news for Macau’s tourism industry, as it records its highest single day and weekly visitor arrival totals since the start of the pandemic.
According to the Macao Government Tourism Office, 189,843 people entered between March 20 and 26, an average of 27,120 per day and “up 109.5 per cent over the recent Golden Week holiday period and 77.8 per cent over the February 2021 average”, according to online gaming industry publication Inside Asian Gaming.
Mainland Chinese visitors, who are exempt from quarantining upon entry, accounted for almost all of those arrivals.
In 2019, the World Travel and Tourism Council identified Macau as the city most dependent on tourism, with more than half of its economy directly supported by visitation. If the critics of Korea-China Culture Town don’t want Chinese tourists, Macau most certainly does.
