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On November 28th, the General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) was held in Paris as scheduled.
After more than 180 countries voted, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was awarded the right to host Expo 2030.
The result of this vote means that South Korea's previous nationwide bid for the Busan Expo failed, and it also means that South Korea's behavior of sending kimchi to 170 countries around the world and trying to use kimchi culture to export and capture countries has become a laughing stock in the world.
Behind the failure of South Korea's bid is not only the lack of preparation for the bid and the incompetence of the government.
At a deeper level, it reflects the collapse of South Korea's cultural output across the board, highlighting the shallowness of the Korean nation's cultural heritage.
It's a pity that South Korea has failed to recognize this.
Korean kimchi culture
Kimchi, a cultural symbol that can almost be equated with Korean culture.
In Korea, kimchi has long gone beyond the general food culture and has been integrated into every aspect of Korean life.
Kimchi is almost ubiquitous on the table, and it is an essential dish in both home kitchens and restaurants.
In life, kimchi is an important carrier of Korean people's daily socialization, and it will be regarded as an important delicacy in Korean festivals, weddings and other occasions in front of Koreans.
It can be said that the significance of kimchi to Koreans is not only a representation of food culture, but also carries the emotions and social culture of Korean life.
Koreans call kimchi "filial piety food".
Out of love and gratitude for their mothers, Koreans associate kimchi with mother's love, calling kimchi "family affection pickled with mother's love" and the taste of kimchi "mother's taste".
It can be seen that kimchi has a deep impact on the Korean people and society.
Nowadays, when it comes to kimchi, the first thing that comes to mind in the world is South Korea, which has become a cultural business card of South Korea, and South Korea is also nicknamed the "country of kimchi" by the outside world.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with kimchi culture itself, and it is understandable to elevate food to the level of national culture, but what is ironic is that Koreans use kimchi culture as a means of cultural export.
In mid-November this year, on the occasion of the 75th birthday of King Charles of the United Kingdom, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol sent Charles an ingenious gift - a can of kimchi.
In fact, this is not the first time that the South Korean government has given kimchi as a national gift to the head of state.
In the eyes of Koreans, kimchi is the proudest and most accessible cultural business card of the nation.
Therefore, when Koreans were preparing to apply for the right to host the 2030 World Expo, it was logical that they immediately thought of using kimchi as a cultural export bridge.
Before the bidding was held, South Koreans sent a jar of kimchi to more than 170 countries around the world that had the right to vote, in an attempt to show the charm of South Korea's culture.
It is a pity that the kimchi culture, which Koreans are proud of, has become a laughing stock in front of people from all over the world.
South Korea's Shenbo failed miserably
On November 28th, the 173rd General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) was held in Paris as scheduled.
Delegates from more than 100 countries will vote for the host city of Expo 2030, including Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Rome in Italy, Busan in South Korea, and many others.
Busan's bid to host the World Expo was decided in 2014.
At the time, Busan was facing a recession, job losses, and population loss, and South Koreans were trying to use the Expo to promote Busan's recovery.
It is estimated that Busan's successful bid to host the World Expo will create 500,000 jobs and attract more than 50 million tourists to South Korea, with a total economic benefit of 61 trillion won.
Therefore, all the people of South Korea have high hopes for this bid to host the World Expo.
Exhibition Bureau General Assembly
Since July last year, President Yoon Suk-yeol, Prime Minister Han Deok-so and other national leaders have supported Busan on various national occasions, and the whole country has also done their best to bid for Busan's bid.
Yoon Suk-yeol himself has held more than 150 meetings with the leaders of 96 countries and held phone calls with dozens of heads of state, trying to persuade other countries to side with South Korea.
Sending kimchi to governments that represent Korean culture is a way to show the cultural charm that Koreans think they have, and to show favor to voters in advance.
Before the voting began, South Koreans were optimistic about the success of the bid, and until the day of the vote, South Korea still believed that it had a chance to enter the second round of the competition.
South Koreans are confident that Busan is capable of hosting the World Expo, and that South Korea's cultural exports are enough to convince the world and convince other countries.
However, the voting of the General Assembly of the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) was a slap in the face to the South Koreans.
Yoon Suk-yeol
The results of the first round of voting showed that Saudi Riyadh won the first place in the first round with a huge margin of 119 votes.
The self-confident South Koreans received only 29 votes, the vast majority of which came from Western countries that had already been friendly with South Korea.
After the first round of voting, Busan's bid to bid for the Expo has failed.
At noon the next day, Yoon Suk-yeol delivered a speech at the Yongsan Presidential Palace, apologizing to all the people for the failure of the bid.
Regarding Busan's Shenbo failure, South Korean society is full of accusations and abuse.
A Korean netizen posted: "I only got 29 votes, I feel ashamed to be a Korean." ”
There are also South Korean people who do not hesitate to criticize the Yoon Suk-yeol government: "I am really speechless, taking the tax money of Koreans in the name of Shenbo, wandering around the world, and in the end only getting only 29 votes!"
South Korea's state-run JoongAng Ilbo responded: "While Busan did its best to try to turn things around, Riyadh, backed by Saudi Arabia's 'oil money capacity,' won the right to host the event." ”
The Yoon Suk-yeol government blamed Saudi Arabia's oil wealth for the failure.
At the same time, the South Korean government believes that although Busan Shenbo is defeated, it is still glorious.
In order to realize the bid, the Yoon Suk-yeol government has launched a "global bid" war, and the diplomatic network has expanded unprecedentedly.
In just two years, the South Korean government and business people have traveled a total distance of more than 19.89 million kilometers, equivalent to 490 circles around the world, to reach more than 180 member countries of the Bureau International des Expositions.
Based on this, Korea TV said, "Although the bid was not successful, South Korea has strengthened exchanges with other countries through preparatory activities, which has laid the foundation for South Korea's rise as a world pivotal country." ”
The Yoon Suk-yeol administration has been unashamed to say that Operation Shenbo is a valuable diplomatic asset for South Korea.
However, the South Korean people are not buying it.
South Korea's opposition MP Woo Won-sik said: "We may lose, but the seriousness of the problem is that we lost miserably by a huge disadvantage of 29 to 119, which is Yoon Suk-yeol's incompetence!"
Woo Won-sik blamed the failure of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration on the inaction of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
In the process of reviewing the failure of the bid, experts and the public have pointed the finger at the Yoon Suk-yeol government, believing that the government's incompetence and failure have caused the current tragic situation.
However, South Korean diplomatic expert Kim Jun-hyung pointed out in a different way: "South Korea has not read the world, and the failure of Busan's bid is a diplomatic disaster with wrong values!"
South Korea's cultural exports collapsed across the board
Judging from an objective point of view, Kim Junhyung's analysis has a certain degree of reasonableness.
The failure of Busan's Shenbo is not only the incompetence of the leaders and the mistakes of the government's decision-making, but also the failure of South Korea's cultural export and the exposure of its shallow cultural heritage.
As Kim Jun-hyung put it, "Koreans can't read the world." ”
The Korea National News reported: "Stop the so-called petrodollar crowding out rhetoric! Don't forget, South Korea has also hosted many world competitions despite its poor economic situation." ”
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also responded to South Korea's "petromoney capability" after the success of the bid: "The key thing is that we listened to the advice from our partners and were clear about what the people of the world expect from the World Expo, and what kind of cultural output we need to provide to win their trust." ”
As he said, Riyadh's success in the bid reflects the international community's trust in Saudi Arabia, and the claim that South Korea has been "defeated by oil money" is completely absurd, because South Korea's economic aggregate and financial situation are better than Saudi Arabia's.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia's GDP exceeded the trillion dollar mark for the first time, while South Korea's GDP reached $1.6 trillion in the same year.
Perhaps a comparison of the propaganda documents submitted by the two countries in the process of bidding for the Bo can give a glimpse of the truth of South Korea's defeat.
In the promotional video of its bid to host the World Expo, Saudi Arabia focused on its large-scale technology and infrastructure projects, highlighting the self-confidence and strength of a major country.
South Korea, on the other hand, focuses on pop culture, with elements such as Uncle Bird, BTS, Korean songs, and Korean girl groups running through the promotional video.
Since the 80s of the 20th century, Korean TV dramas, Korean music, and Korean idols have indeed been widely sought after in Asia, the Middle East, and even Europe and the United States.
However, Koreans one-sidedly elevate pop culture to the level of national symbols and Korean business cards, and in the end they can only laugh and be generous.
In addition, a week before the voting meeting, Saudi Arabia held a series of exchange summits with Africa and the Arab world, signed a number of memorandums of understanding with the vast number of Asian, African and Latin American countries, and reached many cultural, scientific and technological and economic exchange agreements between the two sides.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia has pledged to the Caribbean, Africa and other developing countries to export energy infrastructure and projects to these regions, which has won the sincere support of many countries.
On the other hand, Koreans are busy using traffic stars in the entertainment industry to do publicity.
With the support of giant companies such as Samsung and LG, South Korea has put up slogans in developed Western cities such as Paris and London, trying to convince the world through cultural soft power.
At the United Nations General Assembly in September this year, Yoon Suk-yeol even mentioned South Korea's bid to host the World Expo dozens of times, wanting to lobby the leaders of various countries to side with South Korea face-to-face.
In contrast, Saudi Arabia, which has demonstrated its great power and strength and promised many practical benefits to many countries, and South Korea, which is filled with shallow pop culture and wants to convince the world with just one lip service, is afraid that anyone will take sides.
epilogue
Once upon a time, Korean pop culture was popular all over Asia, and was even sought after and loved by the Western world, which was the success of Korean cultural export.
However, the Koreans, who have a shallow cultural background and are complacent about their roots, regard kimchi culture and pop culture as national treasures, and try in vain to export them to all over the world, and even win the right to host the World Expo.
So in this World Expo voting meeting, the world gave the South Koreans a slap in the face.
This defeat is the collapse of South Korea's cultural output across the board, and it is a naked manifestation of the lack of Korean national cultural heritage.
Sadly, few people in South Korea are aware of this, and they one-sidedly blame the government for the failures.
Such a situation is not only sad, but also pitiful.
Resources
- Du Shu.On the cultural export of South Korea[J].Communication Power Research,2020,4(04):26+71.
- CHEN Jie. A comparative study of the foreign cultural strategies of China and South Korea[D].Shanghai Foreign Chinese University,2021.DOI:10.27316/d.cnki.gswyu.2020.000513.
- LIN Sen. "Shenbo" failed, and Yoon Suk-yeol apologized to the people[N]. Global Times,2023-11-30(016).