Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee on Feb. 5 holds a news conference on Hanbok's appearance at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics at the event's Main Media Center in Beijing, China. (Yonhap News)

By Kang Gahui and Yoon Hee Young

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee says he wore Hanbok at the opening ceremony for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to "announce that Hanbok is Korea's traditional attire as a representative of the Korean government."

In a phone interview with Yonhap News of Korea on Feb. 6, he said, "As I heard news of the entrance of a Hanbok-clad performer in the trailer of the opening ceremony, I packed my Hanbok outfit before leaving Korea just in case."

"I think that wearing Hanbok at the opening ceremony could be a silent protest." 

In a news conference on Feb. 5 at the Main Media Center in Beijing, the minister said on the controversy over Hanbok, "The Chinese side judged that Korean Chinese are an ethnic minority group in China and expressed this as such, but in this case, a minority group generally refers to a subgroup that failed to develop into a sovereign country." 

"Korea has already developed into one of the world's top 10 economies, but this controversy could lead to misunderstanding in the good relations between the two countries."

The Olympic opening ceremony on Feb. 4 depicted a woman wearing components of Hanbok like a daenggi (braid loop) on her hair, pink dress and white jeogori (jacket) as one of 56 performers representing ethnic groups across China who brought the Chinese national flag into the stadium.

kgh89@korea.kr