What Koreans Know About China That Many Chinese Don’t Know

Everyone knows that Chinese media is heavily censored. I recently learned from my Chinese tutor, who is from Korea, that the South Korean media delights in spreading China-is-scary-and-weird stories, which tend to be censored in China. Here are examples:

1. A frozen dumpling made in China contained part of a cigarette. Someone took a picture and posted it. Someone from Korea noticed before it was censored. News of this spread all over South Korea.

2. Someone in China took a picture of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province full of pill containers (e.g., blue/green capsules) floating on the surface. Censored in China, the picture was publicized widely in South Korea. I saw it on my teacher’s cell phone.

Along similar lines, on May 2, a Korean journalist reported that she secretly entered a factory where medical pills were being made and found that among the ingredients were human baby parts. It sounds impossible, yes, but that is what was reported. (I wrote this several days ago, I should have posted it sooner.)

“I never take Chinese medicines,” said my teacher. I asked her why the Korean media like these stories so much. “They show that something impossible is happening in China,” she said.

5 thoughts on “What Koreans Know About China That Many Chinese Don’t Know

  1. whatever the credibility problems of China, the South Koreans seem to have a penchant for lying to make themselves look good.

    From Wiki “Hwang Woo-suk (Korean: 황우석, born January 29, 1953)[1] is a South Korean veterinarian and researcher. He was a professor of theriogenology and biotechnology at Seoul National University (dismissed on March 20, 2006) who became infamous for fabricating a series of experiments, which appeared in high-profile journals, in the field of stem cell research.”
    In addition, as i recall they were sore losers at the Olympics. the story about human baby parts sounds like pure bullsh*t. The other 2 examples are plausible.

    Seth: I don’t think the “baby pill” story makes South Koreans — in particular the journalists who reported it — look good. Rather, it makes Chinese look bad.

  2. I’m not sure if the following article is the one you are referring to or not, but it’s pretty similar. Although it’s not the Yangtze river.

    https://www.chinasmack.com/2012/pictures/rainbow-river-unused-medicine-capsules-dumped-in-henan-ditch.html

    But this story is available for viewing in China, having said that it’s not in Chinese, but was translated from the original story that was in Chinese.

    Seth: Thanks. I was told the story was censored in China…that doesn’t mean it was entirely censored, but what you link to raises the possibility that it wasn’t censored at all.

  3. I’m puzzled by these stories of Chinese “medicines” being made from ground-up fetuses, or rhino horns, or bear bile, or some such crazy thing. Why don’t the manufacturers just use fake ingredients? Who would ever know? Plus, it’s a lot cheaper. God only knows how much real rhino horns cost these days.

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