China's Baidu deletes word 'chosunjok' from description of poet Yun Dong-ju

Social Affairs

Published: 28 Nov. 2023, 12:13

China's Baidu deletes word 'chosunjok' from description of poet Yun Dong-ju

Baidul's web encyclopedia, left, introduces poet Yun Dong-ju's ethnicity as "chosunjok" before the word was deleted. The updated version on the right shows that the word "chosunjok" has been removed while still introducing Yun as a Chinese national. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

China's largest search engine, Baidu, deleted the word chosunjok, meaning Korean Chinese, in its description of Korean poet Yun Dong-ju, according to professor Seo Kyoung-duk from Sungshin Women's University on Tuesday.

Yun, who lived through the Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945, is well-known for his poems dedicated to the Korean independence movement. He died in prison in Japan.

"Through years of public appeal and filing complaints, the misrepresentation of Yun's ethnicity is now finally gone," Seo said in an Instagram post.

"Deletions of the chosunjok label on Korean independence activists, including doctor Yun Bong-gil, doctor Ahn Jung-geun and poet Yun Dong-ju, are highly meaningful. Baidu encyclopedia's expression was distortion."

"It is still a bummer to see that Baidu is introducing Yun's nationality as Chinese. I will do my utmost best to retrieve his nationality back to 'Korean' through raising awareness on such distortions and consistently protesting against them."

In September, Seo also brought attention to the fact that Baidu described Ahn Jung-guen as being Korean Chinese. The search engine later removed the expression in October.

According to Seo, a due diligence investigation is underway to determine how Baidu has identified the nationalities and ethnicity of Korean independence fighters.

"If the misstated information is found, I will chase until the end and make changes," Seo added.

BY LEE JI-YOUNG, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]