Last Thursday, the internationally-renowned Chinese performing arts group “Colorful China” was invited by the MSE Symposium, in partnership with the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Chinese Embassy, to put on a cultural showcase. The event, which sought to display the many different ethnic minorities and their cultures in China, was the group’s debut performance in America.
Though the goal of the perfor- mance was to bring to view the many different ethnic groups of China, controversy has re- cently erupted around its portrayal of Korean ethnic minorities in China.
The Korean Student Association (KSA) felt that the performance was insulting in the way in which it displayed the Korean ethnic minority group in China, the Chosun Jok culture.
“They used Korean culture from Korea, but they’re presenting that as this people’s culture. It’s not right to show traditional Korean culture as Chosun Jok’s culture. There has been a movement of the Chinese government to try to include Korean heritage as their own culture,” Vice President of the KSA, Peter Kim, said.
The group apparently also used songs from a recent Korean drama that, according to Kim, had nothing to do with the Chosun Jok culture.
Aside from anger that the performance has aroused in the Korean student community, an unknown person sent a clip of the performance to MBC News, a major television channel in Korea, which has given the issue an international platform for scrutiny.
Kara Mirski, one of two independent organizers that worked to bring the cultural group to Hopkins, said that it was in no way her intention to incite controversy. The second organizer requested that they not be named.
“A lot of the facts that are being buzzed around are not true. It’s a misunderstanding, it was actually meant to be an educational program to foster and recognize ethnic minorities in China,” Mirski said.
Mirski added that the piece was a national heritage piece that has toured internationally before coming to America and that it is a performance that has been approved by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“The person that gave the information to the Korean media didn’t recognize the fact that the Chinese weren’t trying to steal Korean culture, in fact it’s trying to recognize the influences that shaped Chinese culture,” she said.
The KSA is currently seeking an apology from the University for approving what they deem to be a performance that was culturally offensive.
“Our goal is to get an official apology from the school for approving something without checking it. Hopkins is a diverse student body so when a cultural event takes place it has to go through evaluations,” Kim said.
“For now we want an apology from who’s in charge of this because a lot of Korean students are offended.”
Mirski said that she and the MSE Symposium have notified the Chinese embassy, and that they are currently taking steps to remedy the situation.
“It’s not MSE’s fault or SGA’s, it’s been performed in many different countries and none of us knew that there would be such an adverse reaction,” Mirski said.
However, many Korean students still say they were offended by the way in which Korean culture was portrayed as being a sub-culture of Chinese culture.
Sophomore Minji Kim – who has no relation to Peter Kim – is of Korean decent but spent six years of her life in China.
She said that she felt hurt by the portrayal of Korean culture in the performance. Though she did not see the event in person when it was performed on Thursday, she watched the video of it that has been posted online.
“I was pretty angry because, well basically the music that they used and the costumes that they were wearing, any Korean would tell you that they were traditional Korean costumes,” Kim said.
“It still angers me that there were people sitting in the audience just thinking that it was Chinese culture. There is a country that is distinctly different from China that still preserves this culture.”
“I just hope that MSE takes a little more care in selecting the contents of their performances or speeches. I think they should be more sensitive towards a group that is pretty largely represented on campus.”
MSE Programming Chair Mohammad Elsayed also agreed with Mirski that the event was not meant to be incendiary.
“We had hoped to demonstrate through this event how music and dance can participate in a global dialogue that broadens our understanding of other cultures of the word,” Elsayed wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
“This performance highlighted the multiple cultures and ethnicities in China, including the many influences that have shaped them. We regret any misunderstandings and hope that these issues can be taken up with Colorful China directly.”
Students who attended the event but were not of Korean descent however seemed unaware of the controversy.
Junior Bryn Carroll, who is on the MSE Symposium staff but did not organize for the group to come, felt that her experience was very positive.
“I had a great time. I had no idea that anyone was upset at the event,” Carroll said.
Sophomore Marina Palma-Lima agreed.
“To be honest, I was not aware of the controversy at all,” Palma-Lima said.
She added that she thought the event was a very engaging way to introduce people to different cultural groups in China.
“I think it displayed a lot of the variety that China has as a culture...I liked the runway style of it, presenting a country’s different cultures through dress was actually really different. I thought that was very dynamic.”
Mirski felt that overall, the performance accomplished the goals that she had set out for it to accomplish in inviting them to perform at the MSE Symposium.
“It was more about the Chinese performers that came over, and learning about each other and realizing that we’re not that different...It wasn’t at all supposed to be a terrible or controversial piece, it was supposed to promote and foster cultural understanding,” she said.
