Should South Korea Be Embarrassed By Gift To House Speaker Pelosi?

That is what this Korea Times editorial is claiming:

National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang gave the wrong gift to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during his visitto the latter in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, with a group of lawmakers.

The gift in question was a scroll with Chinese calligraphy he presented in person. The photo of the occasion has been posted on media websites and carried in newspapers. 

There are two problems ― the first being plain to see and the second more subtle and more damaging. 

The first is “Dear Pelosi” written on the right side of the scroll. Missing isthe honorific “Madam” or job title “Speaker” or “Madam Speaker” ahead of her last name. 

Addressing the speaker just as Pelosi is inappropriate at best and ignorant at worst. 

Then, “Dear” looks misplaced because it is not a letter but a scroll. Then, it violates the usual rule of scroll writing that allows for the name of the writer with their pen name and stamp of their seal, not that of the recipient. 

The second is the four Chinese characters writ large. 

Chinese characters were used by the upper class to boast of their knowledge and show their superiority over the ordinary classes in the Joseon Kingdom, a tradition that has survived in pockets of society. 

Moon and his aides should have remembered what happened after the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Mar-a-lago Hotel in Florida. 

Trump quoted Xi as telling him that Korea belonged to China during their private walk. Trump’s lack of historical knowledge and resultant gullibility, most likely shared by much of the American public, is reinforced by Western society’s Sino -centric view of Asia.

It wouldn’t be a great exaggeration if Moon had helped strengthen such a Western belief with his Chinese gift. Of course, the chance is that Pelosi won’t be as single dimensional as Trump. 

Then, the meaning of Moon’s favorite phrase is detrimental to Korea’s image _ the Yellow River of China flows through countless turns and twists but only heads east.

The speaker uses it to express his conviction that North Korea’s denuclearization and establishment of a peace structure will eventually be achieved despite many challenges.

But the history of the phrase is rather unsettling. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the “Dear Pelosi” on the scroll really does stand out and just looks odd to be on there. Besides that does anyone really think Speaker Pelosi knows the difference between Chinese characters and Hangul? Does anyone even think she knows where the Yellow River flows and the significance of the phrase?

Plus she probably receives so many gifts that this one will probably just be stored away somewhere or given to someone. It seems to me the Korea Times is making more of this than they should.