THAAD fallout: Korean restaurants in China distance themselves from Korea
Society & Culture
Top society and culture news for March 10. Part of the daily The China Projectย news roundup "A Manhattan mansion for a jailed Chinese tycoon."
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Two Chinese South Korean-style restaurants to stop selling Lotte productsย / Global Times
Multi-brand catering enterprise Halla Group, which is known in China for its Korean-style barbecue, released a statement on Tuesday, announcing that it has never sold or used any products from the Korean conglomerate Lotte, and that the restaurant chain itself, to many peopleโs surprise, is a โ100 percent Chinese-funded enterprise.โ
Following the move by Halla Group, another Korean barbecue restaurant, Quanjincheng, said on Wednesday that the company would stop selling all Lotte products, including liquor and beverages, in all its chain restaurants nationwide, and that the company is also โestablished, funded, and operated by Chinese.โ The two restaurant brands are among many retailers and online platformsย thatย are trying to insulate themselves from the wave of boycotts against Lotteย (paywall) caused by the growing tensions between Beijing and Seoul after the deployment of the American THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.
JD.com, Chinaโs second-largest ecommerce platform, stopped sales of Lotte confectionery last week. Alibabaโs Tmall platform had already stopped sales of Lotte products in January. Meanwhile, accordingย to China-U.S. Focus, Japanese ecommerce company Rakuten issued a statement โbegging Chinese consumers not to confuse its brand name with Lotte,โ as both companies use the same Chinese characters: ไนๅคฉ lรจtiฤn. -
Website removes racist โSave a dog, eat a Chineseโ T-shirtsย / Huffington Post
Spreadshirt, a Germany-based online retailer that allows people to design shirts and sell them through its website, was embroiled in a controversy after a blog posted about the company selling two shirts designed by two internet users, which said, โSave a dog, eat a Chinese,โ and โSave a shark, eat a Chinese,โ respectively. Facing a furious online backlash, the company took the controversial shirts off its websiteย but still has not issued an apology as requested by the Chinese Embassy in Berlin. In January, Air China, the countryโs flagship carrier, becameย the first airline in mainland China to ban shark fin cargo, while shark fin imports to China has declined by 82 percent from 2012 to 2015.
- Chinaโs Pulitzer Prize withdraws awards over misconductย / Sixth Tone
- Chinaโs elderly living longer, but mental, physical fitness declining, study suggestsย / SCMP
- Chinese toy factories open summer camp for migrant workersโ childrenย / The Guardian
- Why Shanghai, China is the place to be for contemporary artย / Conde Nast Traveler
