They Are Now Claiming Even “Hanok Is Chinese Culture,” Chinese People Post Malicious Comments on Cultural Asset Data

Captured from Unreal Engine Marketplace

The government released the 3D data of cultural assets for free to encourage the creation of games and metaverses using Korean cultural assets. However, they are now facing a nightmare due to malicious comments posted to the data by Chinese people.

According to the game industry on May 1, Chinese online users are posting a stream of malicious comments along with 1-point reviews on hanok assets (data including modeling, texture, and sound used to produce games) posted on Unreal Engine Marketplace, run by Epic Games, claiming that they are not Korean culture, but traditional Chinese culture. Unreal Engine Marketplace is an online store for content developers to share and trade tools to produce 3D content.

The target of the online “terrorism” by the Chinese are the 3D model data of House in Changwon and Jejumok Gwana Government Office, traditional buildings of the Joseon Era, along with images of various traditional patterns, which the Korea Culture Information Service Agency posted last month. Hanok assets received good reviews from developers of various countries shortly after its release because it was better in quality than the ones created and posted by individual developers and it could be applied for free in games.

The problem is that when the news reached China, some Chinese users began posting comments with foul language along with absurd arguments such as “Korean culture is a part of Chinese culture,” and “It’s not Korean culture, but Chinese culture, since there is Chinese characters on the sign and pattern.” The comments in question have been reported by other users and are currently covered with a notice, “Reported as inappropriate content and currently pending review.”

A representative of the Korea Culture Information Service Agency said, “Some malicious comments have been deleted, but new comments are still being posted in Chinese and English,” and explained, “We are monitoring the situation and collecting cases.”

Chinese people argued that traditional Korean culture was Chinese culture several times in the past.

In 2020, the Chinese game-maker Papergames, added hanbok to a game where players dressed their characters when the game launched in South Korea. But Chinese people stirred controversy by arguing that it was hanfu, the traditional costume of China’s Ming Dynasty. Papergames immediately removed the hanbok costume, posted a notice supporting the argument made by the Chinese users on its official online café, and shut down the South Korean server in less than two months after launching the service.

Early this year, Disney also came under fire from the Chinese people when they used the term “Lunar New Year” on Disney Land’s official Twitter account. The Chinese people demanded Disney change the term to “Chinese New Year.”