Do most Korean people prefer China or Japan?

大多数韩国人更喜欢中国还是日本？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Benjamin Lassmann

English Teacher in Korea (2000–present)Author has 3.3K answers and 1.2M answer viewsTue

Until recently, it would have been China for sure. There’s been long resentment toward Japan due to the annexation of Korea in the early 20th century. Politicians dig up old grievances, and this keeps that resentment current. Chinese have similar historical resentments, which means that for the past decades, China and Korea have had some shared sentiment.

从古至今，肯定都会是中国。日本在20世纪初吞并了朝鲜半岛，韩国人对日本的怨恨由来已久。政客们挖出了历史的仇恨，所以这种怨恨长期存在。中国人也对日本有着相似的历史仇恨，所以在过去的几十年里，中国和韩国对日本同仇敌忾。

China, however, is a looming threat to pretty much everyone else, including Korea. South Koreans, living on the border with the co unist North, are leery of seeing a co unist superpower develo so nearby.

但对于包括韩国在内的几乎所有国家而言，中国都是一个迫在眉睫的威胁。生活在与中国接壤的朝鲜隔壁的韩国人，对中国这个在近在咫尺的超级大国的高速发展十分忌惮猜疑。

So right now, it’s kind of a choice between resentment of the past and fear of the future. Koreans who harbor resentment will never embrace Japan, and will prefer China. Those who fear the future of a super-strong China will shy away from that country, and will prefer Japan.

所以现在，我们要在对过去的仇恨和对未来的恐惧之间做出选择。心怀怨恨的韩国人不会接受日本，会选择中国。但那些担心将来中国会变得超级强大的人会选择日本。

Eric Wang

Lives in California (1991–present)Author has 418 answers and 35.2K answer viewsTue

Without politics, people of all nationality get along just fine. I have good friends from Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, France, Germany, and many other countries. They have no preference. They have one thing in common, though, which is they all despise politicians.

只要不涉及政治，不同国别的人民都能相处得很好。我有来自日本、韩国、越南、柬埔寨、法国、德国和很多其他国家的好朋友。他们没有喜欢哪国不喜欢哪国的观念。不过，他们有一个共同点，那就是他们都很鄙视政客。

Joonie

English EducatorAuthor has 381 answers and 2.9M answer viewsMon

It’s hard to know. Preferences are different for each category. Some prefer one or the other when visiting. More would probably want to visit Tokyo. I think more prefer Japanese food, but most haven’t tried the vast dishes China has. I am even when it comes to both. I love food from both, probably China more overall, even though my favorite noodle dish is Japanese.

Some like Japan better because it’s clean, but that doesn’t matter to me. I love the old run down parts of places, parts that haven’t changed. Some of my students loved the relaxed city of Ghangzjou, but some Chinese buddies told me it’s ghetto there. It’s different with the people too. I’m sure everyone has their opinion of who they like more.

这很难说吧，每种人的喜好都不一样。有些人去哪个国家玩，就会更喜欢哪个国家。想去东京的人估计更多。我觉得喜欢日本菜的人会更多，但可能大多数人还没尝过花样繁多的中国菜肴。这两个国家的食物我都喜欢，可能更喜欢中餐，但我最喜欢的面条是日式的。

有些人更喜欢日本，因为日本干净，但我无所谓。我喜欢那些老地方，那些保持原貌的地方。我有些学生喜欢杭州这种轻松的城市。我相信每个人都有自己喜欢的人。

James Lansdowne

Lives in Jeonju, South Korea (2010–present)Author has 108 answers and 15.5K answer views3h

I’d say it’s complicated.

要我说，这个问题很复杂。

Korea defines itself largely in opposition to Japan, at least historically.

历史上，韩国多数时间与日本是对立的；这种对立多少会延续到今天。

Jang G P

Works at Consulting (2004–present)Author has 65 answers and 5.1K answer viewsMon

Prefer China or Japan? In terms of what? I think we probably have evolved closer to Japan in our everyday life but obviously share a lot of history with China.

喜欢中国还是日本？在哪方面呢？我们在日常生活中可能跟日本更亲近，但我们跟中同经历了很多历史。

Emanuel Leung

Lived in China (2011–2012)Author has 3.8K answers and 6.8M answer views3y

Related

Do Koreans feel closer to Japan or China?

I think in terms of daily life and everyday habits they are somewhat closer to Japanese than to Chinese.

In terms of historical issues, they may prefer China over Japan especially in regards to modern history though China isn’t really fully trusted either.

我认为在日常生活和日常习惯方面，韩国人跟日本人更亲近，而不是中国人。

对于历史问题，特别是在近代史方面，他们可能更喜欢中国而不是日本，但中国也不能完全信任。

Neky Choe (Kim inwon)

Studied Korean Language & Literature at Pukyong National UniversityAuthor has 2.7K answers and 11.5M answer views3y

Is Korean mentality closer to that of China or Japan?

Partly Chinese, partly Japanese.

有些人喜欢中国人，有些人喜欢日本人。

So, given my personal appreciation, daily mentality of Koreans is more similar to Chinese, but social and business manners are closer to Japanese.

But I think the Chinese would be basically nothern people in or near Beiing.

就我个人看来，韩国人的心态跟中国人更接近，但社交和商业礼仪跟日本人更像。

我说的中国人基本指的是北京或周边的北方人。

Paul Karaitis

Lives in Los Angeles1y

Do you know why Koreans hate China and Japan?

Disclaimer: The following is only MY opinion.

I don't think the greater balance of Koreans 'hate' China or Japan. There are a lot of younger Koreans who really like, enjoy, and feel comfortable with modern Japanese culture (especially music and fashions). A lot of them are really too young to have any memory of what the military junta that ruled Japan around the turn of the 20th century put Korea through - to them, that's ancient history.

为什么韩国人讨厌中国和日本？

我不认为韩国人大多“讨厌”中国或日本。很多韩国年轻人非常喜欢现代日本文化(尤其是音乐和时尚)。他们太年轻了，对20世纪日本军政府对韩国犯下的暴行一无所知——对他们来说，那是老黄历了。

As to China, they may have more mixed feelings; they may be interested in general Chinese culture, but the way the has been throwing its weight around over the past few years (plus the recent issues where China seems to want to claim kimchi, hanboks and other Korean things as being really of Chinese origin instead of authentically Korean) is definitely causing conflicts, if not mere annoyed side-eyeing from many Koreans.

tl;dr: Korea has lots of long-standing reasons to dislike both China and Japan. I don't think the majority of Koreans really “hate” either country.

至于中国，他们的感情可能更加复杂；他们也许对中国文化颇感兴趣，但中国过去几年里咄咄逼人(加上最近发生的一些事，中国似乎有意宣扬泡菜、韩服和其他东西源自中国)，这么做肯定会引起冲突。

基于很多历史原因，韩国人会不喜欢中国或者日本。但我不认为大多数韩国人会真的“憎恨”这两个国家。

Sulskis Galina

Author has 601 answers and 1.5M answer views4y

Do you prefer China or Japan?

A2A:

I am a Chinese, and my country suffered a lot from Japan in WWII, so the answer is quite obvious.

我是中国人，我的祖国在二战期间因为日本饱尝苦难，所以我的答案不言而喻。

Joseph K. Kim

Upvoted by

Ma Tohigh(马向高）, lives in China (2001-present)Author has 587 answers and 3.1M answer views3y

What do Koreans think of Chinese?

I am talking about myself, and South Korean people in general here, not the governments.

我是为我自己还有普通韩国人发言，不代表政府。

Chinese people are generally more easy-going than South Korean people.

中国人通常比韩国人更随和。

Chinese people may seem very straight-forward, but when doing business, it’s not really the case. Koreans find it somewhat hard and difficult to figure out what Chinese people want when doing business.

中国人可能看起来很直率，但做生意时就不一样了。做生意的时候，韩国人很难搞清楚中国人的真实想法。

Chinese people are much more diverse. I like interacting with Chinese people in non-business settings because of this. They are all different and unique, which is not the usual case when interacting with Koreans.

中国人要更加多样化。所以在非商业场合，我很喜欢与中国人交流。他们都彼此不同，非常独特，跟韩国人交流时通常不会有这种感觉。

Chinese people are much more open-minded(except with related matter, which I think it would polite not to bring it up as a subject when talking to Chinese).

When Koreans see something that is unusual to them, they are often critical and negative about it, but Chinese people at least to my experience, is much more curious and open-minded towards new things.

中国人心胸更开阔。

韩国人看到不寻常的东西时，通常会持批评和消极的态度，但根据我的经验，中国人对新事物更为好奇，更为开明。

They are good conversationalists. One thing I find it common between Japanese people and Chinese people is that they are much more individualistic compared to Korean people. Each Chinese person have distinct personal values and beliefs.

However, Japanese people tend to keep things to themselves, but Chinese people tend to open up more easily, expressing themselves colorfully. So even a brief conversation with a stranger at the airport gate can result a very interesting dialogue when in China.

他们很健谈。我发现日本人和中国人之间的一个共同点是，他们比韩国人更为自我。每个中国人都有不同的个人价值观和信仰。

但日本人喜欢把事情藏在心底，相比之下中国人则更容易敞开心扉，表达自己。所以，在中国，就算在机场门口和陌生人简短交谈，对话也会很有趣。

Any Korean that have visited more than one city in China will admit how vast and diverse China is. Like all other countries in Asia, learning about Chinese history is a must to understand his/her country’s history.

去过中国多个城市的韩国人都会承认中国非常广阔，地大物博。和亚洲其他国家一样，要了解自己国家历史就必须了解中国历史。

Chinese are proud people, but sometimes it is a little too much to a degree that neighboring countries like Korea and Japan to feel threatened.

中国人是骄傲的民族，但有时会让韩国和日本感到威胁，这就有点过头了。

I think if China can propose an alliance or partnership to its neighbors, that places each countries on more of equal terms, things could be a lot different.

But we all know that’s nearly impossible due to our fucked up history in past. Some country in East Asia, you-know-which-one, have basically wiped up any chance to form a true meaningful alliance among East Asian countries. Yes, I am talking about Japan.

我认为，如果中国能向邻国抛出橄榄枝，组建联盟或伙伴关系，让每个国家更加平等，事情可能会大不相同。

但鉴于过去糟心的历史，我们都知道这简直是天方夜谭。东亚的某些国家，你知道是哪个，就基本上放弃了在东亚成立真正联盟的机会。是的，我说的就是日本。

Yes, Chinese are late bloomers compared to Japan and Korea, but we all know they are now bigger than the rest of us. Urbanization is still happening rapidly, and it is obvious people are changing in China.

是的，和日本和韩国相比，中国人大器晚成，但我们都很清楚，他们现在已经比我们强大得多了。中国的城市化仍在迅速发展，很明显，中国人也在改变。

I personally feel a little regretful because China has much more potential than Korea and Japan when it comes to cultural values and original philosophy.

Korea and Japan nearly lost all of its core Asian values and mindset, and I was ho China to once again revive them being the root of it all, but seeing how things are going, it seems China will most likely be no different.

我个人觉得有点遗憾，因为在文化价值和独特哲学观方面，中国的潜力比韩国和日本大得多。

韩国和日本基本抛弃了亚洲核心价值观和思维模式，我希望中国能重新唤醒这种价值观和思维模式，因为它们正是起源于中国。但就目前形势来看，中国可能也一样。

Jasper Ko

Studies English (language) at Korea University (Expected 2024)Author has 103 answers and 893.2K answer viewsUpdated 2y

What do Japanese and Korean people think of China?

Pretty chill.

挺害怕。

China's a pretty big country, and most (educated) Koreans know that. They also recognise the fact that, China's quite different from us, although we share a lot of culture and history.

First off, China in itself is, once again, EXTREMELY LARGE. China has the world's largest population, ranging in at somewhere around 1.3~1.5 billion, compared to the 50 million of the ROK, which pales in contrast. This means that China inevitably has a lot more going on over there, and we can't exactly categorise the entire Chinese population into one stereotype.

中国是一个非常庞大的国家，大多数(受过教育的)韩国人都知道这一点。他们也清楚地知道中国和我们有着很多共同的文化和历史，但我们两国非常不同。

首先，中国自身，我再强调一次，太太太大了。中国是世界上人口最多的国家，大约有13-15亿人，而韩国只有5000万，相比之下就相形见绌了。这意味着中国不可避免地会发生更多事情，我们不能把所有中国人混为一谈。

Take, for example, the common misconception that all Chinese people are poor people who don't shower and eat weird food. Sure, some people may not have the privilege of daily showers, but that doesn't mean that the entire population hates hygiene. It's just that if, say, a tiny 10% of the population was in poverty, that's still a whop 15 million, 3 times the entire population of Korea. We statistically KNOW that China isn't like that, but what we actually SEE, is rather different.

例如，大家普遍误会中国人都很穷，不洗澡，总吃些奇奇怪怪的食物。当然，有些人可能没条件每天洗澡，但这并不意味着所有中国人都不讲卫生。就算中国贫困人口只占总人口的10%，也会是个惊人的数字-1.5亿，相当于整个韩国人口的3倍。

And on another point, I personally say that China has influenced a lot of NEA's culture, including both Korea and Japan. (And Vietnam) Not to say that we outright copied China, but there's a lot of visible evidence that we, at one time, used to view China as a father/big brother country, with the Opium wars triggering the slow collapse of that kind of viewpoint.

还有一点，我个人认为中国极大地影响了东亚的文化，包括韩国和日本(还有越南)。我们虽然没有完全照搬中国，但有很多明显的证据表明，历史上我们曾经把中国视为父亲/老大哥，从鸦片战争开始这种看法才慢慢消失。

Back to the present though, we see China right now as a... rival? Can't really find the right term here, but to put it in other words;

China has a lot of shared industries with us, namely the IT industry and general production. (Samsung, Hwawei and the sort)

China sided with North Korea in the Korean War, which a lot of our elders still regret.

说回现在，我们认为中国现在是一个……竞争对手？我找不到合适的词，那试着换句话说；

中国和我们有很多共同的产业：IT产业和制造业。(三星、华为等)

中国在朝鲜战争中选择站到朝鲜那面，我们的许多长辈至今仍对此感到遗憾。

However, we do recognize that China is an enormous powerhouse and will probably catch up enough to completely smother companies like Samsung and LG. (Within the next decade or so)

We also know that a large portion of our economy consists of trade with China. When the THAAD problem was a thing and China smacked us with the sanction hammer, our economy quite literally fell over for while.

但我们承认中国是一个非常大的经济强国，很可能会迎头赶上我们，完全超越三星和LG等公司(也许在未来十年内)。

我们还知道，韩国和中国的贸易占到了韩国经济的大头。当萨德问题发生时，中国对韩国进行制裁，我们的经济确实崩溃了一段时间。

In the end though, I'm personally more of a "Asian Union like the European Union" kind of guy, and I envision the day when we can finally overcome our differences and grow together.

不过，我个人更希望“类似欧盟的亚洲联盟”能实现，我希望有一天我们能够克服分歧，共同发展。