South Koreans have slammed a major Canadian sports broadcaster for “ignorance” after it labelled a clip featuring high-flying taekwondo martial artists as “ninja training”.
Taekwondo is South Korea’s most famous martial art, while ninjas – the black-clad spies and assassins of Japan’s feudal era – are known for secrecy and stealth.
The controversy erupted after TSN, which bills itself as Canada’s sports leader, shared a clip of taekwondo practitioners performing acrobatic jump kick routines on social media last month with the caption “Ninja Training?”, prompting a wave of criticism from South Koreans demanding the description be corrected.
“Taekwondo is a Korean martial art. Why are you using a Japanese expression?” one user asked.
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Some users described the mix-up as a “really upsetting incident” and questioned TSN’s “ignorance”, noting that taekwondo had been part of the Olympics since 2000. Others wondered if the phrasing reflected what they saw as Western enthusiasm for Japanese culture.
“If there’s something good, everything will be in Japan,” one commenter wrote.
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Others suggested the broadcaster study more about Asian culture to avoid inflaming tensions between the neighbours who have been at loggerheads over Japan’s colonial past and territorial claims.
Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University and a well-known advocate for correcting overseas misinformation about South Korea, said taekwondo has often been mislabelled abroad.