An Influencer and Online Nationalism: The Case of the “Kimchi” Dispute on YouTube

Abstract

This study aimed to reveal the relationships between a Chinese influencer’s “kimchi” video content on YouTube, news reports about it in portals, and online nationalism, which will help explore how the issues of history and traditional culture in portal news reports are conveyed and understood. The results demonstrated that the correlation of nationalism and the Chinese Northeast Project, and responsibility frames was the largest in the Naver portal. The more the origin and pride of kimchi are emphasized, the more the kimchi issue is attributable to the Chinese Northeast Project, which is one of China’s policies. This is the responsibility of China and affects anti-Chinese sentiment in Korea. As Chinese government officials accelerate this issue, it is ultimately amplified to develop into public opinion. On the other hand, the correlation between the anti-Korean sentiment and conflict frames in the Baidu portal was the largest, which means that shifting the responsibility for conflict between Korea and China tends to enhance anti-Korean sentiment inside China, resulting in enhanced cohesion of the Chinese people.