Australian museum removes display wrongly labeling Chinese clothing as ‘Korean traditional attire’

This combination of photos shows the before and after of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia, removing a Chinese-style outfit displayed in front of South Korea’s national flag. The images were posted on the Instagram account of Seo Kyung-duk, a professor of liberal arts at Sungshin Women’s University, on Thursday. (Instagram)

The Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia, has removed a display that mistakenly labeled Chinese-style clothing as “Korean traditional attire” following complaints from the Korean community in Australia.

Seo Kyung-duk, a professor of liberal arts at Sungshin Women’s University and a prominent advocate for promoting Korean culture abroad, shared this news of the display’s removal on his Instagram on Thursday.

"I heard about this from a lot of Koreans in Australia. It’s such a great outcome," Seo wrote.

He explained that after concerns were raised, the museum acknowledged the mistake and corrected the label to indicate that the clothing was Chinese-style. The final removal of the display, he said, was the result of collective action by the Korean community in Canberra.

Seo also underscored the significance of the display’s removal.

“Even if the label is corrected, placing Chinese-style clothing in front of the Korean flag is bound to cause misunderstandings among foreign visitors,” he said. “Given that China has recently been making false claims that hanbok originated from its own culture, this decision was very much welcomed.”