A cold war is raging in K-pop idols’ comment sections.

Hostility between Korean and Chinese netizens has reached an all-time high since the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics kicked off, due to cultural disputes and accusations of biased refereeing.

The clash of Chinese nationalism and anti-Chinese sentiment in Korea has resulted in K-pop idols of both nationalities being caught in the crossfire, showing how high emotions are running.

On Feb. 7, RM of boy band BTS posted on his Instagram account a clip of Team Korea’s short-track speed skater Hwang Dae-heon coming in first in the 1,000-meter semi-final race with clapping and thumbs-up emojis. Hwang was later disqualified for an infraction, while a Chinese skater who appeared to have pushed Hwang during the race was not penalized and made it to the next round.

After the result became a point of contention between Korean and Chinese netizens, the latter took their anger out on RM.

Since RM has always kept the comment function disabled on his account, Chinese netizens took to BTS’s official Instagram and left a slew of vomiting emojis in the comment section. BTS’s fans dubbed ARMY “fought back” with purple heart emojis symbolizing the band, but BTS’s account eventually had to shut down its comment function temporarily. Although Instagram — as well as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube — are officially blocked in China, many Chinese people access them through virtual private networks (VPN).

But the case of RM was only the beginning of the online war. Singer Chungha hosted a livestream on Feb. 9 in celebration of her birthday, during which she said, “I recently took my season’s greetings photos wearing hanbok [...] Be aware, hanbok is Korea’s traditional clothing.” Afterward, Chinese netizens commented emojis of thumbs-down, the middle finger, feces and vomiting.

In recent years, radical Chinese netizens have been claiming that hanbok, along with many other elements of traditional Korean culture such as kimchi, originated in China.

Chinese game developer Paper Games had to withdraw its newly-launched Korean version of its dress-up mobile game “Shining Nikki” in November 2020 after Chinese netizens condemned its description of hanbok as “special Korean items.” The Olympics’ opening ceremony on Feb. 4 further infuriated Koreans by featuring an ethnic Korean woman in hanbok as one of China’s ethnic minority representatives.

K-drama stars have not been spared. Actors Park Shin-hye and Kim So-hyun were met with similar malicious emojis after they posted Instagram photos of them dressed in hanbok last week. Chinese online commenters claimed that the actors were “stealing” China’s traditional clothing.

“Younger Chinese generations born after 1990 are very proud of China because they grew up seeing the country develop rapidly,” said Korea’s former Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo. “But rather than having a sense of cosmopolitanism, their pride is more like ‘China only.’ Their behavior is very nationalistic online, to the extent of arrogantly not caring at all about how they are perceived by others.”

Shin added that promoting such intense national pride has also been part of the Chinese government’s policy.

"Communist ideologies weakened in the post-Cold War era, so nationalism was introduced as an ideological replacement to unify Chinese people and justify authoritarian rule,” he said. “As a result, Chinese society in general has become very nationalistic, and that is showing in the current Olympics. The Olympics are supposed to be an international festival, but China’s priority seems to be securing as many medals as possible to hype up its domestic audience — no matter what other countries think of China — to solidify [Chinese President] Xi Jinping’s rule.”

Apart from swarming Korean celebrities with unpleasant emojis, Chinese netizens are also posting memes insulting Korea on various social media platforms, along with hashtags in Korean so that Korean netizens see them.

As social media has become a battlefield, K-pop idols are weighing in either directly or indirectly. BTS’s Suga and Hyoyeon of Girls’ Generation posted photos on Instagram flaunting hanbok last week — an online trend welcomed by Koreans. Younghoon of The Boyz was praised by Korean netizens as “brave” for speaking up on community platform Universe to criticize alleged biased refereeing in Beijing.

At the same time, the hostility goes both ways. K-pop idols of Chinese nationality have also become targets of online hate from Korean netizens.

Ningning of girl group aespa faced backlash for expressing excitement on fan community app Dear U bubble that China won its first gold medal of this Olympics on Feb. 5. The win that she referred to did not involve Korean athletes, but the Chinese athletes were accused of getting away with an infraction. As more biased refereeing controversy ensued in the days that followed, the Korean public is expressing disdain toward her celebration, while Chinese netizens are defending her.

A post titled “Goodbye Renjun” was uploaded on Korea’s popular online forum Nate Pann on Feb. 8, proclaiming to no longer support NCT’s Renjun and other Chinese members of the boy band. The post has garnered over 1,600 likes and only about 50 dislikes. Top comments read, “I won’t sell my country to be a fan” and “I was a fan, but not anymore. Go back to your country [expletive].” Another post called for Chinese member Shen Xiaoting of girl group Kep1er to be deported and for Korean entertainment firms to stop debuting Chinese members in general.

“The Olympics are supposed to be about friendships among countries, but there’s been a lot of controversy between Korea and China recently,” said a Chinese K-pop fan who wished to only disclose the name Zhi. “As a Chinese person who has always felt close to Korean culture, I’m so depressed to see this [online feud] has turned so ugly.”

“Anti-Chinese sentiment in Korea was already brewing due to repeated cultural distortion disputes,” pop culture critic Jeong Deok-hyun said. “Combined with issues that came up during the Olympic games regarding the referees and criticism that China is using the Olympics for a political agenda, Koreans’ accumulated emotions toward China have been amplified. The hostility is also more visible when it happens online and involves celebrities.”

The critic continued to warn against Korean netizens aggressively retaliating.

“I understand where [Koreans’] emotions are coming from and that recent events are further inciting such feelings,” he said. “However, we should refrain from becoming overly emotional to the point of demanding that Chinese K-pop idols be deported. We shouldn’t fall to that level. I believe Chinese members active in Korea are feeling a lot of pressure in the current situation [...] And the best way for Korean celebrities [facing criticism from Chinese netizens] is to stand by their opinions but not react to the hate.”

“Koreans’ resentment toward China is at an all-time high, but reacting fervently only when celebrities and sports are involved is superficial,” said former Vice Minister Shin.

“Of course, it’s okay to express human emotions. I believe the pent-up emotions also have to do with Koreans’ frustration that the Moon Jae-in administration has been rather subservient toward China. But that also means people should have been, and should be in the future, just as angry and vocal regarding actual political disputes with China. Especially in a complicated geopolitical situation like Korea’s case, the Korean people should show more interest in more fundamental issues like foreign policy and actively voice their opinions too.”

BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]