How Miracle Friends, a nonprofit that helps immigrants, views comments starting with “Chinese people…”
By Shin Hye-young
Published Aug. 15, 2026
Translated by Marilyn Hook
During this especially hot summer, I met up with my younger brother’s family for the first time in a while, and had dinner together. As we were chatting about this and that, my sister-in-law said this:
“I heard that, in our apartment complex, there are some Chinese people that wander around at night to catch cicadas. They’re a middle-aged man and woman, maybe a married couple, and they wear headlamps and check the trees from top to bottom looking for cicadas. And supposedly they eat them.”
At the words “Chinese people,” I felt myself become suddenly upset.
“Did the person spreading this story actually speak to them? Did this person say the couple said they are Chinese people? You have to be careful about this kind of rumor!”
My sister-in-law said the story had been posted on an online forum for neighborhood moms, and that the poster had claimed she asked the couple directly what they were doing and was told that they were catching cicadas to eat.
Later, I told this story to some students and teachers at the Seoul Global Youth Education Center, where I work. The subject of cicadas had come up during a class for the high school diploma equivalency exam. One student from China said that cicada molts [shedded exoskeletons] are sometimes used as medicine or may indeed be eaten. An online search turned up similar stories posted to several local online communities. But what caught my attention was not the contents of these stories but their titles.
‘Chinese in (Area Name) are catching and eating cicadas’
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Posts about Chinese people catching cicadas have gained attention in a variety of online communities and forums. [The headlines here read “Is it possible to report Chinese people for catching cicada larvae?”, “I heard Chinese people like to cook with cicada larvae,” and “I was checking out cicadas at the park… Chinese people, yikes!“.] But “there are people who catch cicadas” and “Chinese people catch cicadas” are different ideas.
Criticize problematic behavior, but don’t judge an entire nationality
Last year, a duty-free shop targeted toward Chinese tourists opened up near our center. Now we’re seeing an increase in large tour buses pulling up to the shop from early in the morning. Some people who visit our center mistakenly believe that our center was opened in this area because of the duty-free shop.
On my way back from a recent off-site assignment, I stopped by a cafe in front of the duty-free shop for the first time in a while and had the opportunity to chat with the owner.
"There are a lot of Chinese students there [at your center], aren't there?" they[1] asked me, then hesitated before continuing, "I'm having such a hard time these days because of the Chinese people."
The owner said that people visiting the duty-free shop keep coming into the café to sit and chat without buying anything or to just throw away their garbage, or during busy times they’ll disrupt business by standing in front of the café, talking in groups. Putting up notices in Chinese hasn’t helped, and having to say something to the customers each time is difficult. The owner said they opened the cafe as a fun way to make a living, but lately they’ve been miserable to the point where they’re having trouble sleeping.
After hearing these stories, I understood the café owner’s frustration. Disrupting business and using another person’s space thoughtlessly is bad behavior. It deserves criticism regardless of nationality.
The café owner said they even wondered if they should put up a sign forbidding Chinese people from entering, but they didn’t want to go that far. I, of course, don’t think that should be the solution to the issue.
As I left, I told them to get in touch whenever they needed help, and thought about the situation on the way back to my office. There are definitely behaviors that are actually problematic. But what should we do when we want to criticize someone for such behavior without generalizing it to their nationality and condemning the rest of the group, too?
I want to tell students, “You don’t have to represent China”
I talked about this problem with students at the center. A student of Chinese nationality said, “I feel embarrassed when I see people like that, too. So when I go out with my friends, we don’t use Chinese at all. I want to do something to stop Chinese people from acting like that, but I don’t think it’s possible.”
These words made my heart heavy. This student was feeling embarrassment and a sense of responsibility about behavior that they didn’t even engage in, just because they were of the same nationality. This is feeling as if someone else's actions are your own.
Actually, even after having this kind of conversation, I always end up burdening the students, even though it isn't really a burden.
I tell them, “When you’re out and about, you need to be careful about your behavior. People will look at how one person behaves and use it as their image of everyone from that country. The people from that country may be cursed at because of one person’s actions.”
My heart is heavy every time I say this kind of thing. Truthfully, what I want to tell my students is, “You don’t have to represent China.” But in reality, there are many times when all you can say is “You need to be careful about your behavior.” I end up as someone who imposes stricter standards on the students.
Due to the Korean language, cultural differences, unfamiliar surroundings, and so on, youth with immigrant backgrounds face many difficulties in adjusting to Korean society. However, it appears that school students from China have to live with one additional burden here: the prejudice of a society that generalizes about them, attaching negative labels to “the Chinese.”
New experiences and an open mind are what change prejudices
In February of this year, we began a new activity at Miracle Friends that involves thinking about prejudices and stereotypes regarding Chinese people: “Visits to Modern Chinese Cities.” While we were preparing to travel to the second city, I came to watch an episode of the tvN show Undercover Chef. The show’s format involves Korean chefs going undercover as entry-level workers at restaurants abroad, and in the episode I saw, chef Jeong Ji-seon was filming in Chengdu, in a large restaurant with a long history.
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Comments on a YouTube clip of the Undercover Chef storyline featuring Jeong Ji-seon in China, which aired from May 21 to July 23 on tvN. [The first reads “An entertainment show taught me that I have [unfair] prejudices against the Chinese =( Everyone is so kind”; the rest are similar remarks on how nice the people and work environment seem.]
Many people had recommended this program to me, and as I watched it, I understood why. The viewers' reviews were also positive. They were captivated by how the staff remained cheerful and humane even in the hectic kitchen, the restaurant owner's professionalism and pride in the cooking, and the other chefs' warm welcome and generous encouragement of their newest colleague. Many comments on the YouTube clips of the show were to the effect of "I see now that I had misunderstandings about Chinese people."
At around the same time¸ I saw an episode of MBC’s I Live Alone where a famous trot singer (Park Ji-hyeon) walked around reminiscing about Shanghai, the Chinese city where he lived as a child.
Watching that, the stories regarding "hyeom-jung [anti-China sentiment]" that have been frequently mentioned in our region recently, along with images associated with the word "China," came to mind. Suddenly, a thought struck me.
We often think first of education, public awareness campaigns, or logical rebuttals to misinformation when hoping to change people's distorted views on an issue. Of course, such efforts are necessary. We must continue correcting false facts and explaining why discrimination and hatred against specific groups are problematic. However, an image already established in people's minds will not easily be changed by logic alone.
When someone says, “We must eliminate prejudice against China,” people perceive it as forcible teaching or a public campaign message. However, seeing someone I like go to China, travel, eat local food, meet locals, and say, “I really like this place,” is a little different. It’s an indirect experience, rather than an assertion directed at me.
A favorite travel program, a movie, a YouTube video, a personal reminiscence by someone—as these positive inputs stack up, the images attached to the word 'China' might gradually change.
For example, let's imagine that a travel program visits a city in China, and local people are shown eating cicadas. Viewers may think, “Oh, that’s what they eat in that area.” If someone I like eats it with me here and says, “It’s better than I expected,” it becomes a different experience. There is no change in the behavior of catching or eating cicadas. What has changed is the context in which I see it.
When I first heard it, the phrase “Chinese people catch cicadas” sounded strange to me. Was the act of catching cicadas really what was unfamiliar to Koreans? Perhaps what we need to examine more deeply is not the cicada, but the two-word phrase “Chinese people” that has become attached to that sentence so naturally.
About the Author: Shin Hye-young is the director of the Seoul Global Youth Education Center. Established by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2022, operation of this support organization for immigrant youth has been entrusted to Miracle Friends since April 2025. Ms. Shin began meeting with youth with immigrant backgrounds in 2007 and has since supported these youths and their families in areas with high concentrations of immigrants, while also conducting activities to improve multicultural awareness. Since 2022, she has moved her area of activity to the southwestern region of Seoul to support the healthy social adaptation of immigrant youth.
*Original article: https://www.ildaro.com/10524
[1] Translator’s note: The café owner’s gender is not clear from the text.
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