Images from Chinese reality show misrepresented as 'US television debate on Korean culture'

"A Chinese woman who claims South Korea is inferior to China is taught a lesson in just five seconds," reads the Korean-language title of a video featuring the images, which was posted to Facebook on November 29, 2023.

The pictures showing the women facing one another are accompanied by English-language audio of two voices arguing over everything from the origin of kimchi to the success of Korean and Chinese businesses.

"In the middle of a debate between Asians on 'Chinese culture' that was featured on a US debate programme," says a caption overlaid on the images.

Subtitles also appear on screen that translate the women's supposed exchange into Korean.

One of the voices alleges South Korea "stole" aspects of Chinese culture including kimchi, a fermented cabbage dish, and that its leading companies are falling behind Chinese firms.

The other then refutes the kimchi claim and argues that Chinese companies have failed to replicate the success of their South Korean peers.

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A screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured December 5

The debate reflects a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment across South Korea in recent years that has been recorded in surveys (archived link).

Kimchi's origins have been a sore point, with South Korean social media users alleging China wrongly attempted to claim the dish as its own in 2020 (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked other social media posts falsely purporting to show Chinese people making claims about Korean culture, including here and here.

The video of the two women was first posted to YouTube in April, where it was viewed more than 200,000 times, and subsequently shared on Facebook here and here.

Comments left by social media users indicated some believed it was a real exchange on US television.

"All Koreans everywhere stand up for our country," said one.

"The Korean woman speaks beautifully and forcefully, she put that Chinese woman in her place," another wrote.

Chinese show

Reverse image and keyword searches on Google and Chinese search engine Baidu found the images of the women were taken from a reality show called "Hi, City Hunter" produced by Chinese streaming platform Youku. The programme was also posted to YouTube on March 30 (archived link).

It features contestants competing for a job at a top headhunting firm in Shanghai and sheds light on the expectations and goals of young urban jobseekers.

The women pictured in the false post appear in a panel discussion between the participants and human resources representatives from different industries on salaries from the show's first episode.

The two women are seen interacting on screen at the episode's one hour and 27-minute mark.

The first woman is a contestant named Zhou Yichun, who says: "I previously focused positions in biomedical research and development." She goes on to talk about how many years' experience a person with a doctorate or masters would need to earn a salary of 80,000 yuan ($11,200) a month in the field.

The second woman in the image is named Chen Chu-ai. She appears a few seconds earlier and discusses the traits of a person earning a salary of 50,000 to 80,000 yuan a month and notes the kinds of job position will differ across industries.

Nowhere in the panel discussion do the women mention South Korea or any aspects of Chinese culture raised in the false video.

Below are screenshots of the women as seen in the false posts (left) alongside the matching frames from Youku's reality show (right):

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Screenshots of the two women as seen in the false posts (left) alongside the matching frames from Youku's reality show (right)

Separate keyword searches in both English and Korean found no evidence of any US debate programme featuring two women arguing over South Korean and Chinese culture.

"Hi, City Hunter" can be watched in its entirety here on Youku (archived link).