Vogue Magazine Under Fire For Allegedly Mislabelling Chinese Hanfu—Korean Netizens Claim Its Hanbok Instead

“Anyone can tell those are hanboks.”

The 2022 Lunar New Year recently began its festivities, as people all over the world celebrate the holiday. In an effort to observe the Chinese holiday, Vogue recently uploaded a series of photos onto their Instagram account. The festivities, however, were cut short when Korean netizens realized what Vogue had posted.

The American magazine company shared 4 pictures of different Chinese models wearing the hanfu, which is a type of traditional Chinese clothing. While the stunning colors and the intricate patterns captivated global Instagram users, it was Korean netizens who shared their outcries after reading the accompanying caption.

In Vogue’s Instagram caption, they introduced the hanfu has an “authentic form of historical [Chinese] clothing.” The reason why this sentence brought forth an angry response from Korean netizens is due to the ongoing cultural battle between China and South Korea over different Korean traditions.

Photo of Chinese hanfu used in “Vogue” | @voguemagazine/Instagram

In South Korea, the trademark traditional clothing is called hanbok—and the look is very similar to the Chinese hanfu. With the color palettes, flowy fabric, robe-like top and voluminous skirts, the similarities are definitely hard to ignore. As both nations claim that one was inspired by the other, the issue has been continuing to grow.

Chinese hanfu (left) versus Korean hanbok (right) | @voguemagazine, theqoo

Following Vogue’s Instagram upload, a Korean netizen shared the post with their fellow K-Netz—and the response has been fiery. Hundreds of angry netizens began pouring out their resentment for the magazine company, while demanding them to fact check their information. Some even went as far as reporting Vogue’s post, hoping that it would be removed from the social media platform.

| theqoo
  • “Wow these f*ckers. Anyone can tell those are hanboks.”
  • “Are they f*cking crazy. They need to know their boundaries. The idiots who keep arguing its theirs and the idiots who uploaded the pictures are the same type of human.”
  • “Was Vogue this amateur? Their trustworthiness dropped so much.”
  • “Even just a few years ago, they wore their queue hairstyle and qipao well and said it was theirs. Now, since the world has fallen into Korean media and it all looks cool, are they trying to copy us? What is the difference between this and throwing a tantrum you f*cking idiots.”
  • “F*ck, our country’s culture is being stolen and nobody is doing anything. The ones who are sitting there silently are disgusting.”
  • “They made up some random word and invention. They’re pissing me off.”
Chinese hanfu (left) versus Korean hanbok (right) | @voguemagazine, theqoo

The territory battle between the two nations have been ongoing, as China continues to claim numerous Korean traditions as their own. Previously, China attempted to claim kimchi, “Arirang”, the Korean flag and hanbok as Chinese traditions, despite these cultures’ firm foundational history with South Korea. You can read more about it here…

China Refers To South Korea As “Thief Country” After Claiming That Kimchi And Hanbok Were Stolen From Them

…and here.

A Quiz Show In China Is Claiming That The Korean Flag Is Chinese

Source: theqoo