On 31st, October, several Chinese portal websites released [1] the news: the Korean professor Zheng Zaishu in Ehwa University [2] suggested that, contrasted with the common sense, the Chinese mythology mainly originated from Korea. His theory was based on the fact that many gods mentioned in Chinese mythology Legends of Mountains and Seas [3] could be found in Goguryeo [4] frescos.
Below the text, the websites furthermore attached a list that numerated the controversies on culture between China and Korea from 2005 to now, including those on Dragon Boat Festival [5], the origin of printing [6] (one of the 4 great inventions of China) and traditional Chinese medicine [7].
Soon, Chinese blogsphere began to protest against his theory. in 163.com [8], for example, more than 3000 replies [9] put Professor Zheng Zaishu under critiques. More than half of the replies despised Korea as a country of self-contempt that tried to seek comfort in self-deception and steal culture from its neighbor China. Many netizens stroke back the professor’s idea by claiming that Koreans are actually descents of Chinese. The most widely cited comment, a metaphor concerning plastic surgery, straightforwardly disdains Korea. Because most of the catcalls had impolite remarks, a netizen from Korea (the location is shown on the website) urged Chinese netizens not to abuse, but was soon inundated under the 100 pages of discussions. In a survey by 163.com, 1960 people vote the option that Korea is a “small country with provincial people”, while 1244 people think “we Chinese had better rescue our culture rather than to dispute with others”.
(No netizens’ comments directly quoted to avoid further controversy)