Kimchi wars: new China vs South Korea row sparked by internet star Li Ziqi’s vegetable pickling video

The vlogger posted a video in which she pickles vegetables, using a method similar to kimchi making, and added the hashtags ChineseCuisine and ChineseFood

The video prompted a backlash, with critics insisting kimchi is Korean and accusing Li of stealing from Korean culture. A similar row over kimchi flared earlier

Reading Time:2 minutes

Internet vlogger Li Ziqi posted a video of vegetable pickling using the hashtags ChineseCuisine and ChineseFood – but Koreans say what she’s making is kimchi. Photo: SCMP

Published: 4:15am, 14 Jan 2021Updated: 10:48am, 18 Jan 2021

Chinese internet culinary sensation Li Ziqi has sparked a renewed cultural clash between China and South Korea over kimchi.

The Chinese vlogger found herself embroiled in an international social media storm after posting a video on January 9, in which she makes pickled vegetables, using the hashtags #ChineseCuisine and #ChineseFood.

The 19-minute video prompted a backlash online, with some of her critics accusing Li of stealing from Korean culture by claiming kimchi is Chinese, and reignited a long-standing cultural clash between the two countries.

Some viewers said the video – which was part of a series Li began last year – was an insult to Korean culture, and there were demands it be removed from the internet.

In Li’s newest video, she shows how to pickle cabbage with bok choy, radish and sausages. Photo: YouTube/Li Ziqi

“Do you have a kimchi refrigerator in your house? I have one in my Korean home,” one commentator wrote in Korean.