Exhuma has become a hot potato in China.
The movie surpassed 8 million admissions in Korea just 18 days after its release, but some Chinese netizens expressed their disapproval after the movie’s official release in Taiwan on March 8th. They found the Chinese characters tattooed on the actors’ faces disrespectful and humiliating.
Chinese netizens’ comments included, “In China, writing or tattooing words on the face is considered a highly insulting and humiliating act,” “It’s truly bizarre to see Koreans tattooing Chinese characters they don’t understand,” “These Koreans are marking their faces with Chinese characters. How shameful.” and “In ancient times, only criminals received facial tattoos.”
Korean netizens countered these arguments, stating that Chinese characters are not exclusive to China. They commented: “Chinese characters are used in other languages,” “Does anyone scrutinize the usage of English alphabets with such intensity?” and “You have no right to criticize when you’re watching the movie illegally.”
China’s history of nitpicking Korean content and artists is not new. Previously, China criticized IVE’s Jang Wonyoung for wearing a phoenix hairpin, accusing her of stealing their culture. BTS also faced accusations of disrespecting China for mentioning the 70th anniversary of the Korean War. Additionally, numerous Korean artists, including BLACKPINK, NewJeans and IU, have been subjected to unwarranted attacks from Chinese netizens.
Furthermore, Chinese netizens have accused the Korean drama Anna of defaming China by depicting a scene where a character calls a Chinese-made watch a fake.
Source (1)
