Simida Zongzi Gate: dispute over Dragon Boat Festival between China and South Korea

| June 16th, 2010

Dragon Boat Festival  (or Duanwu Festival) occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar. In 2010 this day falls on June 16. According to the custom the celebrations includes eating zongzi, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

Recently, a forum post titled “Korean beauty student teaches you how to eat zongzi” stirred up a storm on the Internet.  One girl claimed to be a Korean student studying in a Language University in Beijing, accused Chinese people do not know the etiquette of eating zongzi and posted a lot of pictures to teach Chinese people how to eat zongzi step by step.  Once the post spread, debate over Dragon Boat Festival echo through the Internet.  So called “Simida zongzi gate”, this post once again sparked off the dispute on Dragon Boat Festival between China and Korea.


Hi, I am a Korean student studying in Beijing Language University.  Now lived in Beijing for 3 years, there are so many different kind of food here, I really like Beijing.


Duanwu Festival (Dragon Boat Festival) is almost here, I believe many people in Beijing especially love to eat zongzi, I also love to eat zongzi.


Even thought in my hometown Seoul during  Dragon Boat Festival, we hardly eat zongzi anymore, I still kept the traditions our ancestors passed down.  I respect the elders very much and I am awe of the ancestors.


But I noticed Beijingese people eating zongzi is like eating rice and pickles, showing no respect to ancestor Qu Yan (屈原).  (Maybe Beijingese people already see Qu Yan as our ancestor, smirk)


Many people eat zongzi while drinking beer, I have never seen this kind of sentiment in our Korea before (Let me imitate Beijingese people, smirk)


Some read newspaper and magazine at the same time, sitting on the couch and starting eating already, really are not particular about it.


Some people who like playing games and chatting online eat zongzi while typing, chatting and beaming with joy, so unsanitary.


And some pretty girls especially love to eat zongzi, even before putting on clothes, and already start eating while lying on boyfriend’s legs.


I am most surprised that, my roommate right after a shower, covered with a bathrobe, with a zongzi in her mouth, eating while humming a tune.


Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional holiday that our Great Koreans pay serious attentions to.  In order to commemorate our ancestor Qu Yuan, we also already applied for protection of heritage.


Since childhood, my family taught us festival etiquettes, eating zongzi must learn the etiquette passed down form ancestors, first must clean hands and prepare to tidy up appearance.


Then, put on makeup, cleanup appearance and put up hair.  In our hometown no one eats zongzi with their hair down.


After makeup, we must change into Hanbok and clean our hands one more time.  Must wear the Hanbok, one time when I was young, I was punished by my dad for eating zongzi without wearing Hanbok.


After completing all the preparation etiquettes, then we start eating zongzi.


When eating zongzi, first peal the wrapper. While eating only peal parts of the wrapper.  We would never peal all the wrapper before start eating.


Also, eat slowly with small bites, because the ancestors were afraid of us chocking, smirk, actually the real reason is to keep a civilized eating habit.


After eating, keep the zongzi wrappers, do not throw them away like trash.  Put them into appropriate container and air-dry them, finally throw them into the river.


Now the Dragon Boat Festival in our hometown, mainly has other memorial ceremonies, entertainment events, dancing, singing etc.  Due to the overly complicated etiquettes, not many people eat zongzi, but we still kept the etiquettes of eating zongzi.


Even though zongzi is delicious, we can not eat too much of it, otherwise it will be hard to digest.  Especially pretty Chinese girls who love to be beautiful, eat too much will make you fat.


Ok, everyone already learned. I am Pei Zhengxi (裴正熙)  from Seoul [simida], bye bye.


According to, this is not the first time dispute on Dragon Boat Festival between China and South Korea led to great public opinion and concerns.  In 2008, because South Korea registered Dragon Boat Festival as their intangible cultural heritage which triggered widespread debate.  Two years later, “Simida zongzi gate” incident once again hurt Chinese people’s national sentiment on the issue of this traditional festival.

[From Qiaobao] This controversial post was quickly picked up by various forums and greatly angered the Chinese netizens.  Some Chinese Internet users pointed out that Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, after China successfully applied Dragon Boat Festival onto the World Heritage List, without a  question, it already told the world that Dragon Boat Festival belongs to China.  And zongzi is the traditional food for the festival which has two thousand years of history, so Koreans have no place to say these things.  This argument was supported by many netizens, however some netizens said that although the Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, in terms of how best to inherit and carry the traditional culture forward, Korea obviously is ahead of us.

As for the dispute triggered by zongzi, folklore expert Wang Zhisong said, “The Korean Dragon Boat Festival is actually not the same as China’s Dragon Boat Festival.  Dragon Boat Festival is originated in China, that is indisputable fact, and zongzi is the traditional food of the festival.  In China, zongzi first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period.  There were mainly two kinds of zongzi back then, zongzi wrapped with water bamboo leaves into horn-shaped package millet is called “Jiaoshu” (角黍);  rice loaded into bamboo and then sealed and cooked is called “Jianzong” (筒粽).  In Jin dynasty, zongzi became a national custom, and the phrase “midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, cooking Jiaoshu” which was clearly documented in a book of Jin dynasty “Feng Tu Ji”  (“风土记”).  In tang Dynasty, eating zongzi during Dragon Boat Festival became a even more common folk practice.  Now, zongzi become the food people love.  As for the way of eating zongzi, I think except in a formal occasion, following the dining etiquette, there are no need for other restrictions.  Because the culture tradition is not just for show, what is more important is to pay attention to the meaning of the festival and identify with the national tradition.”

As for the controversy caused by “Simida zongzi gate”, Wang thinks that as our fast-paced modern life accelerates, people have limited time and energy and the traditional festivals are more commercialized, resulting people paying less attention to the more traditional festivals such as Dragon Boat Festival.  He stressed that currently there are many companies are serious about spreading traditional culture and history.


Background information on the term Simida from fifty five:

Korean and Japanese affectations ::
思密达 (sīmìdá, also 斯米达) is a Chinese transliteration of a Korean honorific (하십니다) that is used as a sentence-ending particle in net-speak. It invaded Tianya’s Entertainment Gossip boards in 2008, to the point that people made posts asking people to please knock it off, and it’s spread across the net since then. There’s an undercurrent of anti-Korean sentiment to its use in some contexts (online jokester Chun Baba has the line “Everything belongs to Korea simida” 什么都是韩国的思密达), but it’s also used generally as a mark of sarcasm, or even simply a cute affectation that flies over the heads of many ordinary netizens. What’s particularly amusing about the mystery surrounding 思密达 is that when it shows up in the title of a web page (which pushes it to the top of search engine results), it’s most likely being used as the transliteration of Smecta, a diarrhea remedy for young children, so casual netizens who run across the term in forums remain in the dark, unless they take advantage of one of the many Ask sites, where the term is defined quite widely. There’s something similar going on for the Japanese sentence ending particle です, which has been taken into Chinese as 的说, most likely through soaps imported from Taiwan. It’s much less tied to Japan than “simida” is to Korea, and is mainly used as a cutesy, exclamatory sentence ending word. There’s a contentious Baidu Postbar devoted to the term where enthusiasts and denigrators fight it out through the use of other contemporary memes. And then there’s the meta-commentary: “The word desu was invented by the Koreans simida” (的说”这个词是寒国人发明的思密达).

73 Comments | Leave a comment | Comment feed

  1. White Monkey says:

    OmFgWtFbbQ? All I can say is *Whut an idiot*

  2. Mike Mai says:

    can someone tell her that we eat zongzi while having wild sex???

  3. th says:

    Well, it’s not the first time the Koreans declare something that others made or invented to be theirs. What ever others have done, Koreans have done it earlier and better. Of course this only fools Koreans themselves since the non-Koreans usually know who achieved what and when.

    • chris says:

      “The Koreans”? One chick posts some pics on the tubes and even here on Huch people are stupid enough to talk about “the Koreans”. Man, Asia is a funny place.

      Oh, did you know that The Koreans invented the paper almost 3 centuries prior to China!?!!!1

  4. Mark says:

    I got distracted…what was she talking about?

  5. Eason says:

    This is a custom of Chinese origin but separate development. The Korea version has a different development and heritage than the Chinese, it’s more like two versions, not that one belongs to another.

  6. Crystal says:

    As she depicted it, Chinese way of eating zongzi is way much better 🙂

  7. GuoBao says:

    Zongzi is crap but I’ve got a feeling it’s more about getting famous than food. Maybe it’s just me but I think it’s possible to talk about food without using underwear shots or posing on a sofa in your night dress. She’s hot though so I don’t mind.

  8. Eason says:

    Good PR stunt for sure, knew the Chinese would totally freak out about it because she’s Korean. Better than Feng Jie-ing.

  9. albino says:

    Koreans like to start sh!t anyway, just let them.

    But I’d rather see her naked than to talk about a damn piece of dumpling. See where that zongzi is going? I’ll have something better there.

  10. xino says:

    what a nice tasty woman!

  11. Jay says:

    Chinese netizens make “hurting the feelings of the Chinese people” too much fun. It’s cruel to tease them so.

  12. Eidolon says:

    Looks like a troll post or a publicity stunt – unless said woman really is that much of an attention whore.

    Incoming human flesh search.

  13. Hudson says:

    this is definitely a troll post by a Chinese netizen to incite anti-korean sentiment among countrymen.

    she says about giving proper respect to “ancestor Qu Yan” (the 3rd century BC Chinese scholar commemorated in Duanwujie). korean “dan-oh” festival (yes, same name 端午）has nothing to do with Qu Yan or dragon boats. It’s a festival that celebrates the completion of sowing season in May.

    zongzi is a Chinese delicacy! no Korean in their right mind would recognize it as a korean dish, let alone lecture Chinese about how to eat their own food.

    last clue- if this was a genuine korean girl well-trained in traditional etiquette and heritage as she claims, she would have known than a proper hanbok jacket has a single bowtie facing left, not this ridiculous butterfly double bowtie that she has on.

    • Bob says:

      There’s another thing that she faked… her entire face! It screams plastic surgery hahaha and not the skillful kind they have in SK either lol

  14. Eason says:

    Now that you mention it, I didn’t think she looked Korean. Human flesh search?

  15. Stuffah says:

    ‘Patriotic’ Chinese kids getting angry online is always funny- but in my book the stuff against Korea is funniest. It always looks like they can’t think of any actual historical grievance (unlike when they rant against Japan, Britain, etc)- I don’t think Korea has ever invaded China- so instead it’s this meaningless crap about ‘stealing culture’. The best thing is, they often say the Koreans ‘steal Chinese culture’ because they’re insecure and jealous of China’s 5000-year history- when it’s obvious that they are far more jealous that Koreans, on their little peninsula, are on average richer than the mighty Chinese.

  16. malagebi says:

    Do people enjoy eating Zongzi? Maybe I haven’t been buying the right ones, but so far all those I’ve tried are boring. It’s rice…with a tiny bit of fruit or meat. Meh…

  17. georgeson says:

    Raping this girl is the same thing as eating a zongzi. You remove the clothes, and see her naked body. haha

    • malagebi says:

      You are fucking creepy georgeson. If you’re gonna bring up rape at least follow with a good punch line.
      Eating zongzi is like eating out georgeson’s mom. Disappointing, salty, and meaty.

  18. Cleo says:

    I can’t wait to grow my own pond garden in a drainable tub so I can have lotus leaves whenever I want for steaming food not just zongzi. It’s the original parchment paper cooking technique. No matter what graceful tradition is involved with handheld leaf wrapped food, I’m still going to introduce these foods using chopsticks because the leaves are cooked and soggy. Sometimes modern comfort and logic is better in practice and we can leave cultural heritage to the movies and television. Nobody does our tradition better than ourselves so I don’t care how many robust foreign girls try to profit off of our culture. Maybe other foreigners will buy it but I don’t have to. P.S. I have tasted a number of jiaozi sold in Korean supermarkets made in China but packaged as Korean dumplings and they are tastier than the Korean fare but nowhere near as wonderful as the original Chinese recipes. Our center still holds. Our future generations will only strengthen that center. Stronger than ever is our destiny.

  19. momo says:

    Yikes….her face looks as plastic-icky as her zongzi wrappings. Or is it vice versa.

  20. Jerry says:

    OK, so why don’t we reduce life to over-simplified generalizations!? Koreans are horrible people. Korean women are prettier! Korean women are sluts. Chinese men are rapists. Chinese are racists. All Korean women have plastic surgery! And one or 2 people represent their entire nation! Wow, that was easy! Good god!!

    I like zhongzi! I like Gong Li! I like Kim Sun Ah!

  21. keiketsu says:

    chinese love to pose as foreign nationals inciting their small national pride. I know a handful of chinese guys in the US posing as Japanese, but, posing as a Korean? that’s a new low even for chinese.

    • Vasopressin2010 says:

      Your attempt at trying to piss off Korean and Chinese people at the same time doesnt seem to be working well is it?

  22. keiketsu says:

    btw, knowing chinese and their business ethics, I’d take chimaki over zongzi any day. god knows what they put in there. I’ve tried one at t&t and that’s the last time I ever trust chinese with any kind of food preparation.

  23. kimchi girl says:

    Korean culture and history goes back at least a thousand years before China’s history. Of course Korea greatly influenced Chinese culture.

    • Koreansentry says:

      If that’s true then you Chinese won’t be speaking in Chinese dialects. Welldone Chinese.

  24. fireworks says:

    Another one of those attention starved supersmart people wanting to get celebrity fame real quite but having a cheap shot at another group’s culture.

  25. pedro says:







    • lol says:

      Korean thinks they’re better than the Japanese and Chinese.
      and by calling “Some Chinese internet retard” you’re one of them already. If it’s not true why do you even bother replying to these stupid entries.

    • phoebe says:

      Shitty Chinese cultural products? Two Asian countries that are so near to each other are bound to have cultural similarities. I am not saying that Korea’s culture is all from China. It’s not. However, to deny any relationship or origin classifies as denial. The FACT is that the two countries are related. They borrowed cultures in the ancient world, and therefore, have similarities in today’s world.
      By the way, you are basing your whole insult on like, three examples. If you’re going to bash, bash on those individuals, not the country as a whole. “I’m not even generalizing here cause most Koreans really do find the Chinese despicable”. Really? Based on what? I’d like to know. A poll? What was the sample size? Who did the poll?
      “So please quit accusing us of copying this and that.” SURE! I’ll stop, even though I never started. I’ll stop, once you quit accusing us of pretending to be Korean. I never pretended to be Korean, so why are you yelling at me? Oh, your comment was meant for all the OTHER Chinese people who pretend to be Koreans? Then make it clear.
      Learn to write a convincing argument that is more than just full of insults. Unless of course, you never intended to make an actual argument for discussion, and you just wanted to bash on the internet. In that case, you are no better than this woman who is claiming to be Korean. You are a troll.

  26. DuckHunter says:

    Holly mama, that is yummy!

  27. SDS says:

    This ‘supposed rivalry’ is sooooooooooo boring… Can’t we just enjoy the lovely lady in these pics… I find it much more intellectually stimulating than…

    If only culture-bashers (from any ethnicity-nationality) would take more time and read some social theo… woops I better stop there, I don’t want to suggest anything that might upset all that has been said.

    You know what the problem is? Its not someone stealing culture (firstly I don’t even know how culture can be appropriated in the nature of being ‘stolen’) or people generating hate. Its a lack of respect and empathy, and a bit too much shortsighted hubris- and that goes for anyone who tries to reclaim the integrity of either side.

  28. HolySmite says:


    LMAO literally. That’s a dead giveaway. No Korean would say that. This was definitely fabricated on purpose. Most likely, she’s not even Korean. Gah, seriously. Why do they keep doing this?

  29. HolySmite says:

    Btw, do Koreans even eat “zongzi” at all? o_0

  30. LOLatChinese says:

    No, Koreans don’t eat “zongzi”. Koreans don’t even know what that is!

    The girl who is the center of the storm, turns out to be Chinese:

    You guys are really pathetic. Really. I never used to hate Chinese, now over the years… I can see how pathetic you guys are.

    If you want to hate on us for something, at least find something that’s real, not

  31. Koreansentry says:

    LoL, Koreans don’t even eat that jungle food from China. This is a some kind of joke?

  32. Koreansentry says:

    more over she claimed her name to be 裴正熙, frankly for Korean girl’s name this is bit strange, Korean girl don’t use 熙 as last character. And to be honest with you Chinese guys, this name doesn’t sound like typical Korean female name. Welldone to Chinese media for spreading yet another lies.

  33. Hye Rin says:

    here….to MAKE THINGS CLEAR….
    I don’t think this girl is KOREAN, because the way SHE PUT ON OTGOREUM is FALSE! (Otgoreum= one loop bow in front of hanbok)
    real korean should be able to tie on otgoreum in PROPER WAY! she was making a RIBBON BOW instead of traditional ONE LOOP BOW of otgoreum.

    could we say that she is a korean? or if she really a korean then WHY she couldnt tie on a simple otgoreum? AND my KOREAN fren which is live in outher country can tie it in proper way. although they’ve not been raised in Korea itself.

  34. Hye Rin says:

    One MORE, There is NO ZONG ZI in KOREA! WTF this bitch…

    Can awfully made you quarelling all the time?

    no need to point out which one is better. everything is beautiful on its own way.
    and last. WE ARE STILL ASIATIC MONGOLOID race. so please, Think a bit wiser.

    juts don’t let this awful stupid post and pic turns you crazy

  35. FANHANGUO says:

    there is no right way to eat Zongzi, and I think the Chinese know how to eat someone they made. and Dragon Boat Festival have nothing to do with Koreans, they just registered it to show the world that they actually have some culture and history

  36. FANHANGUO says:

    wtf is with that “WE GREAT KOREANS” Koreans are not great they’re fucked up

    • DumbChinese says:

      That’s because it’s always the cheap fake Koreans which are made in China.
      It’s been told and told again and again, it’s a Chinese model, she doesn’t even look Korean. Her name is Lei Fang Fang.

      Can we stop falsely accusing Koreans for a change, dumb stupid chink people?
      It’s no wonder everybody look down on you. It’s not as if you people’s lack of critical thinking and boorish ugly rude behaviors has got nothing to do with anything, right?

      • phoebe says:

        Right back at you. Stop accusing Chinese people of having a lack of critical thinking and boorish ugly rude behaviors. I’d also like to see your evidence that “cheap fake Koreans are made in China”. Lol, does it make it any better that there are a lot of perfect girls in Korea who are fake? Fake is fake. If fake doesn’t bother you, then that’s great. If fake does bother you, then don’t blame it on another country.

  37. Nick Tao says:

    anyone who can translate this article？

  38. DumbChinese says:

    Why are Chinese so stupid? They believe everything that appears on the internet. They don’t ask questions, just believe everything. These dumb chink creatures are hopeless.
    They keep on pretending to be Koreans, as this Chinese woman in the story has proved to be. Trust me, no Korean would want to eat that whatever that shit is, OK? You dirty oily smelly monkies can relax now. Maybe you guys can go take a shower and wash your hair for a change even. Cause you guys are some of the most filthiest people I’ve ever seen.

    Lei Fang Fang.. a Korean, so she says…ah right. Another Chinese pretending to be Korean trying to bash on Koreans again.

    • phoebe says:

      Do you realize how hypocritical you are being? Even if this girl is not actually Korean, and is a huge liar, she obviously got what she wanted – people talking about her.
      If this were swapped the other way around (I’m not saying that Koreans would do that), would it have angered you? There are millions of people on the internet just reading things. And the degree of gullibility has NOTHING to do with race. Koreans are a proud race. Chinese are a proud race. Asians as a whole are quite patriotic. Maybe you yourself are not as gullible and would do your research before believing some girl on the internet. However, the right thing to do in this situation is not to immediately bash the other side but to just inform people that this girl is ridiculous and not actually Korean, so there is no reason for resentment.
      The opposite of love is not hate. It’s indifference. So why are YOU hating on the Chinese so much? A lot of the above comments are defensive, saying “Why do the Chinese pretend to be us? What have we ever done to them?” Well, what have the Chinese ever done to you (assuming you are Korean)? This is one example of a bad seed. I’ll even admit that there are plenty of bad seeds in China – the ancient culture that used to be full of respect is now being soiled because of the modernization and globalization. HOWEVER, by using phrases such as “dumb chink creatures” and “dirty oily smelly monkies” you are generalizing all of China which is completely unfair.
      Also, you said that “They keep on pretending to be Koreans, as this Chinese woman in the story has proved to be.” Buddy, that’s one person. By “they” you are referring to a whole nation of people. Fine, give me another example. Heck, you could even give me 10 examples. That’s NOTHING compared to all the people in China.
      Just because you don’t like zongzi, don’t hate. I personally don’t like kimchi, and you don’t see me parading around on the internet, proclaiming that kimchi is nothing more than marinated cabbage and that no Chinese “would want to eat whatever that shit is”.

    • phoebe says:

      So many people have been saying that this Chinese girl pretending to be Korean has caused so many gullible Chinese people to hate on Korea. It’s also caused the same thing the other way around – Koreans hating on China. Seriously, why is EVERYONE getting down on each other because of this ridiculous and retarded woman? For all of you who are saying that you can’t believe Chinese people would believe this shit, and they’re just looking for a reason to hate Korea.. well same to you. This girl is stupid, yes. Hate on the girl. Don’t hate on China.
      -_- Seriously people…

    • phoebe says:

      One last thing. Did you know that South Korean ATHLETES, at the Asian Olympics, held up SIGNS during the award ceremony when they won? What did those signs say? “Mount Baekdu is ours”.

      These are your athletes. Your athletes added fuel to the fire. So stop saying that the Chinese are just accusing Koreans of wanting to steal their shit. Their governments ARE arguing on what belongs to them, and what doesn’t.

      “In 2005, anti-South Korean sentiments in China became a major trend as China began disputing South Korea’s attempts to register the Gangneung Danoje Festival as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. China claimed the Gangneung Danoje Festival derived from the Chinese Dragonboat Festival, and pursued a joint-registration of Gangneung Danoje Festival and Chinese Dragonboat Festival.

      South Korea held the position that the Gangneung Danoje Festival is a unique cultural tradition of Gangneung, Korea, completely different from the Chinese Dragonboat Festival, and rejected Chinese contentions for joint-registration. Despite Chinese opposition, UNESCO has registered the Gangneung Danoje Festival as an intangible cultural heritage. Upon registration, the Chinese media began making accusations of South Korea stealing Chinese culture, and expressed regret and humiliation at losing Chinese Dragonboat Festival to South Korea.” -Wikipedia

      Read that first part again. South Korea tried to claim the festival as their own. China then pursued a JOINT-REGISTRATION, because the festival had the same origin as the Chinese Duanwu festival. KOREA REFUSED.

      You think China is obsessed with accusing Koreans falsely? Koreans are also obsessed with these negative Chinese stereotypes. You are the first example. The next example are Korean forums on the internet.
      Are these real or fake? No one even knows. Like you said, “they believe everything that appears on the internet”. But, but, you’re saying, these are ACTUAL LEGIT PICTURES!! How do we know these are real? How do we knows these are actually pictures of China? How do we know how RECENT these pictures are? Same thing about this blog can be said about this video of this fake Korean girl.

      Lastly, seems like the Koreans are also in dispute with Japan because Japan claims Korea is stealing their culture as well.
      Bottom line is that Korea, Japan, and China are three countries that have similar cultures just like how the western world has similar cultures. So STFU because all three countries are guilty of claiming things to be theirs, and accusing others of stealing.

  39. noninfected says:

    shes fuck all korean chicks.i think i got the spirit.

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