Dandy ‘Gat’ ain’t from you, China!
China, it’s you again?
Dandy ‘Gat’ ain’t from you.
There’s no room here for Chinese cultural imperialists!
‘Gat’, the hat of Joseon, is receiving worldwide attention through ‘Kingdom’, a Netflix Original Series. Regarding Gat, Chinese netizens are arguing forcibly that Gat is of their own.
‘SKY: Children of the Light’, a mobile social adventure game developed and serviced by Thatgamecompany, LLC, released a new item called ‘Dancing Choreographer Spirit’s Hat’, which is a reminiscent of ‘gat’.
The item is originally designed in a similar shape to the Korean ‘gat’, and the clothes worn together remind us of ‘durumagi’, a traditional Korean overcoat, of Korean hanbok. Unlike the global server, on the Chinese server, the item was originally designed as a traditional Chinese hat rather than the shape of ‘gat’. Regarding this, Chinese users protested; “Isn’t the company recognizing ‘gat’ as a unique culture of Korea because the design of ‘gat’ is in a different appearance only on the Chinese server?”
After Chinese users protests, the company at first stated “Chinese culture influenced all Asian cultures. This hat item also used the Song and Ming Dynasty hats as the source of the design, and referenced many other elements of China.” But as Chinese users were not satisfied with the statement, Thatgamecompany even changed and added a description of the item as ‘Hat of Ming Dynasty in CHINA’.
China, interpreting and absorbing ethnic groups(peoples) around today’s borders, is ignoring the dignity of human beings by suppressing the unique traditions and expressions of other ethnic groups(peoples). The behaviors of Chinese users who claim that Hanbok or Gat is the clothing of Chinese Nation(Zhonghua Minzu), not admitting it as Korean traditional clothing, and accusing the company to delete it from in-game description are acts of denying and damaging the identity of other ethnic groups.
After the unfair pressure of Chinese users, Thatgamecompany, whose motto is to be ‘a game studio dedicated to creating timeless interactive entertainment that inspires human connection worldwide.’, has deserted their own motto and surrendered to the pressure. Their dream of bringing compassion and peace to the community, based on a common thread of humanity, is possible when they recognize, respect and enjoy each other’s cultural differences. Their motto can never be fulfilled on the basis of suppressing human dignity without acknowledging the cultural diversity of other peoples.
China’s ‘Northeast Project’, which distorts the history of Goguryeo into the history of China and promotes it to the world, is now expanding to the entire culture of Korea, a cultural powerhouse, including Korean celebrities, kimchi, hanbok, gat and so on.
If the international community neglects Chinese cultural hegemony, it will pose a great threat to peace in Northeast Asia, and cast a cloud to world peace.
Accordingly, VANK created a digital poster parodying the distortion of China in English and Korean and inform the world through social media, to gather global public opinion against China’s cultural hegemony.
The poster states “China’ it’s you again? Dandy ‘Gat’ ain’t from you. There is no room here for Chinese cultural imperialists!” in order to tell that the Chinese cannot take all the wonderful cultures of other ethnicities as their own.
VANK will keep trying to tell the global community of China’s cultural hegemony, and make peace in East Asia.