YouTuber Hamzy eats ssam in a video. (YouTube)
SEOUL — As popular Chinese YouTubers create videos implying Korean foods such as kimchi and ssam are Chinese dishes, Koreans have decided to take a stand in the name of Korea’s food culture.
A Chinese agency for popular mukbang, or “eating shows,” terminated its contract with Korean YouTuber Hamzy on Sunday after she said that kimchi and ssam were both Korean dishes.
Chinese YouTuber Dianxi Xiaoge eating ssam (YouTube)
The controversy began when Hamzy uploaded a video of herself eating snail soybean stew with ssam, or a vegetable wrap, in November. She was apparently unaware that popular Chinese YouTuber Dianxi Xiaoge had been criticized by Korean viewers a few days earlier for uploading a video of herself eating ssam.
China also has its own way of eating the vegetable wraps — as do many cultures in Asia — but the way Dianxi Xiaoge had eaten meat with hot pepper and garlic in a lettuce wrap largely resembled Korea’s ssam culture. His caption on the video read, “I’ll continue to share my life and Yunnan-styled food in my uploads.”
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Hamzy had “liked” one of the comments on her video that said, “Ah, after seeing this video, I am angry again. Chinese punks are now saying ssam is their traditional culture.” The comment was made in reference to Dianxi Xiaoge’s video.
When this comment was translated to Chinese and posted on China’s Twitter-like social media Weibo, the word “punk” was translated as a much harsher swear word. Hamzy apologized for the miscommunication through a Weibo livestream, and in response to a viewer’s question, reiterated that she thought that ssam and kimchi were “of course, Korean food.”
