Nationalism

Who is gloating over South Korea's failed space-launch?

who is celebrating Korean's failure.jpg
Happy?

A photo containing a screen-shot of yesterday's CCTV news program reporting South Korea's failed rocket launch has been circulating on the Net.

On the TV screen, one can see two characters "高兴" (gāo xìng: glad; happy; pleased; elated; joyful; cheerful) in the position reserved for the location where the news took place. Coming in the midst of an anti-Korean "cyber-jihad" triggered by a stampede at the Shanghai Expo, some nationalists netizens believe that this is a sign that the state media has also taken a side.

It seems they are wrong: "高兴" is really a place name (Goheung County). According to Wikipedia:

The Naro Space Center was completed during 2008 in southern Goheung and is operated by the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The space center includes a launch pad, a control tower, rocket assembly and test facilities, facilities for satellite control testing and assembly, a media center, an electric power station, a space experience hall (visitor center) and a landing field.

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There are currently 3 Comments for Who is gloating over South Korea's failed space-launch?.

Comments on Who is gloating over South Korea's failed space-launch?

有意思,这个地名在这个时刻是在很微妙

maybe the Koreans would change its Hanja from 高兴 to 糕亨 (some other foreign sounding name that have no meaning in Chinese following the example of 首尔) after this "incident"

Doc

Just so you know, Seoul's name has changed several times. New governments often change the name of their capital city to show a break from previous rulers. Look how many names Beijing has gone through for examples.

Seoul was called Hanseong (汉城) during the Joseon dynasty but was later changed to Gyeongseong (京城) under Japanese rule. After the establishment of the ROK the name was changed from 京城 to Seoul.

Due to the Cold War though the Chinese continued to call Seoul 汉城 and Korea 南朝鲜 instead of 韩国.

The Korean government was absolutely right to ask the Chinese to call their city by its proper name instead of 汉城 which hasn't been used in Korea for over 100 years. It's just normal.

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