The southwestern city of Gwangju will launch a new research facility on kimchi as a part of efforts to globalize Korea's culinary trademark.
Gwangju faced intense competition from other cities to house the new R&D center. ``We decided in the end to give Gwangju this unique privilege because it is a region that prides itself on superior expertise on kimchi,'' said Prof. Roh Jae-sun of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Seoul National University. Roh headed a state committee organized to select the venue of the institute.
Wanju of North Jeolla Province, Goesan of North Chungcheong Province and Geochang of South Gyeongsang Province also applied to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to house the institute.
Gwangju Mayor Park Kwang-tae made the announcement at a press conference Wednesday, underlining Gwangju's long tradition of promoting kimchi at home and abroad through various projects and festivals.
. . .
[T]he city has about 200 kimchi researchers at Chosun University, Chunnam Techno College and Chonnam National University, among other universities and institutes in the region.
The city has already committed to establishing a comprehensive kimchi center with processing facilities and museums.
To be completed by 2011, the institute will focus on globalizing kimchi through expanding research on the nutritional and cultural merits of kimchi and other fermented dishes.
``One of the most important goals of the institute is to take a global approach for advancing kimchi studies. For example, we could share the fermenting techniques of Kimchi with countries like Japan and China, which also have a tradition of consuming fermented vegetables,'' the professor said.
Christ Almighty.
The Gwangju institute will also work closely with the Secretariat for Kimchi Globalization, founded in June by the Korea Food Research Institute in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province.
I just messed myself. Yesterday the Jeonnam Ilbo told us Gwangju has taken the first steps to becoming a "세계 김치 메카," the "World Kimchi Mecca." I've added it to my list of Meccas in Korea, and I'm sure GFN will be all over this hard-hitting news on Monday morning.
14 comments:
Kimchi globalization, oish. Said it before and I said it again, when your national cuisine is globalized, you lose control and you risk another nation, city, or people creating the dominant form. Italy has all kind of rules about what true pizza is but tell that to a pizza chef in Chicago or New York.
I wonder if Koreans are thick skinned enough to watch "California Style Kimchi" or "Shanghai Kimchi" go on to win international kimchi contests or show up on the menus of trendy restaurants?
Not sure how to contact you directly, and not sure if this is a common theme in korean papers, but looks like an article from the korean herald basically copied large portions of a wikipedia article.
Herald article on lobster:
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/07/18/200907180021.asp
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster
Look at the sections on the history of lobster and the ethical issues surrounding whether they can feel pain. Copied almost word for word.
Interesting, thanks for passing that along. It looks like the KH writer just paraphrased chunks of the Wikipedia article, demonstrating that the writer wasn't too knowledgable about the subject---hell, I don't know anything about eating lobsters, either---and didn't know where else to turn. How did you notice the similarities?
My email address, btw, is in my profile on the right side of the page about halfway down. deutsch.brian [at] gmail.com
sent email
I think it's standard practice these days for journalists everywhere to crib from Wikipedia and other sources - that is, when they're not just publishing press releases verbatim. At least give the guy some credit for actually doing some research...
Journalists can get caught out with this, mind, especially with Wikipedia. There have been cases of people deliberately planting false information just to trip up lazy hacks: http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/wire/3817
In another blog post, Brian, you mention Korean beurocrats wanting to change the national "branding" (Korea Sparkling, etc.) in order to gloss over Korea's "negative image". I think this silliness about Kimchi "research" goes along with that quite well. The heavy-handed "marketing" of Korea to the rest of the world --combined with the fact that the geniuses behind this marketing seem to be completely oblivious to how clumsy and ridiculous phrases like "Korea Sparkling" and "Secretariat for Kimchi Globalization" sound to non-Koreans -- certainly adds to any negative image Korea may have.
Chinese food did not achieve global culinary ubiquitousness through Secretariats or other such rot, nor did French cooking techniques or Italian food. Tourism and immigration are typically the major means by which a cuisine proliferates. Much as Vietnamese cuisine has become popular in the US due to the large influx of immigrants. (Same with Mexican food, etc.)
The PR approach being attempted by the Koreans is so completely stupid because they are making several assumptions. First, they are trying to create research to prove a point of view, rather than research creating the point of view. They "know" (assuming actually,) that kimchi cures everything and is good for everything, so the aims of their "institute" are to justify their feelings about kimchi rather than actually learning about kimchi. What if, par example, the institute discovered that kimchi actually is harmful? I'm not saying that it is, but if that were discovered during the "research" -- would that information be released? Of course not. They are being disingenuous because it's obvious that only findings supporting their preconceived hypothesis would be released. That is much like the global warming crowd's "scientists" suppressing or ignoring research debunking their ideology.
The problem with the Korean version of nationalist PR is that Official Korea tends to think that everyone thinks the same as they do. They try to be "foreigner friendly" without really understanding foreigners -- nor do they seem to care to. They try to impress upon people their point of view rather than respecting others. Thai food, for instance didn't get popular because the Thais thought the world should love Thai food. It just happened, through tourism, immigration, etc.
Excessive nationalism is paradoxically why much of the world gets turned off by the silly Sparkling Korea type campaigns. Americans can be nationalistic as well, however the major difference is that America, by definition is a collaboration of cultures. The cultural "superiority" complex of Korea is a major limiter to their global success because they are unwilling to open themselves to the world stage. The current issues with the mobile telecom industry are a great example. They want the benefits of trade and cultural exchange without the obligations. The great irony is that by making their country and effectively one-way street, they lose out on those opportunities to influence.
I might have rambled a bit, sorry, but I think you probably get the general idea of what I'm trying to say.
Micromegas, I've just finished a large lunch (sub day at work) and I'm rather tired so maybe I'm not reading those two links closely but I can't seem to find word for word copies. An easy way to tell is take both sources, paste them in word, and then sort on sentences. If you find duplicate sentences, bang. I did that and didn't find any.
Clearly the author used the text as his source and cribbed some terms, used the basic structure, etc. But he seems to have largely re-written things.
Wiki: Prior to this time, eating lobster was considered a mark of poverty or as a food for indentured servants or lower members of society in Maine, Massachusetts and the Canadian Maritimes.
KH: The history of lobster is particularly interesting because of its transformation in status throughout its existence. Unlike the Europeans, Americans considered lobster a food for the poor before the mid-19th century. The lower members of society in Massachusetts, Maine, and southern Canada were known as the predominant lobster eaters.
Wiki: Into the 1950s, people in these regions would bury lobster shells rather than dispose of them in their rubbish to not be seen to be eating lobster.[1
KH: People would hide their lobster shells because it was considered "low-class" to eat lobster.
Wiki: Prior to the American Revolutionary War, dock workers in Boston went on strike, protesting having to eat lobster more than three times a week,[citation needed] and servants specified in employment agreements that they would not eat lobster more than twice per week.
KH: People would hide their lobster shells because it was considered "low-class" to eat lobster. Another interesting little fact -- before the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the Boston dockworkers protested having to eat lobster more than three times a week -- imagine that!
You can see basically from the above what he did. He went thru the wiki entry, followed the flow and structure, and put things in his own words.
It's not the most brazen instance of copying in a Korean english paper. Lazy? Sure. Plagiarism? A weak form.
Korea! Mecca of Kimchi and Stomach Cancer! Come for the food, stay for the chemotherapy!
Oh boy, here we go. I'm sure stories like this will get short shrift:
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/may/21/world/fg-kimchi21
It's just embarrassing, isn't it? It's like the last gasp of a fading generation that is desperate to believe the lies that they've been told as their gospel. Their time has passed and the myths that were fed to them as justification for the many sacrifices that they made have proven hollow. I'm not saying that there's not some small amount of pathos to be had from this sad passing, but I believe that they have had their moment, and it's time to move on...
Douglas:
In a post in May I brought up a similar article. An exceprpt:
***
"I'm sorry. I can't talk about the health risks of kimchi in the media. Kimchi is our national food," said a researcher at Seoul National University, who begged not to be quoted by name.
Among the papers not to be found in the vast library of the kimchi museum is one published in June 2005 in the Beijing-based World Journal of Gastroenterology titled "Kimchi and Soybean Pastes Are Risk Factors of Gastric Cancer."
The researchers, all South Korean, report that kimchi and other spicy and fermented foods could be linked to gastric cancer, the most common cancer among Koreans. Rates of gastric cancer among Koreans and Japanese are 10 times higher than in the United States.
***
Brian:
Good points. I just got finished watching an EBS show about a couple Koreans in Bangkok manning "Do you know tobokki?" booths, trying to built up an awareness for the food, so I was feeling especially cynical. I'm sure Korea feels slighted because people know more about other countries than about Korea, but I think eventually Korea's strengths will grow to speak for themselves. I mean, I can easily think of a bunch of things I like about Korea, and a bunch of things that Korea does better than back home. Forcing it down people's throats and using hyperbole just looks silly, and is counterproductive because the foreigners who know Korea---the ones who have actually been here---just roll their eyes and let this dillute their enthusiasm.
Ooops, I see the article you posted, Douglas, is the same one I did. Sorry.
any cancer is multifactorial (outside factors) not to mention genetic propensities. The question that i want to ask is, without the widespread alcoholism and smoking amongst the general Korean population, what are the chances of getting CA? Maybe the Kimchi Research Center will shed light on this
Let's see... Uh, research... we have veggies. Those have been researched since time began. Check. Red pepper paste. Meh - go to the place where said paste is made. Check. Fermentation - it's been around for millenia now. Check.
In short, you lucky guy you to live in the mecca of kimchi :) Let them 'research' away...
As for the international kimchi contests - go ahead, just NIMBC (Not In My Big City).
WORD VERIFICATION: snesses - the sound made while eating kimchi.
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