Ondol (left) vs kang.
Ondol is ours!
Not so fast, say the Chinese. A dispute has erupted between China and South Korea, which announced preliminary plans to register the traditional underfloor heating system known as ondol with the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list.
“We have decided that ondol technology is worth being protected as a World Heritage for all mankind,” the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on Sunday.
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In traditional Korean architecture, homes were heated by transferring heat from an outdoor stove, which warms the floor of a house through horizontal smoke. In modern times, Korean homes now use electric water heaters to warm the floors of their apartments and homes but it is still called ondol.
Chinese netizens were outraged at the news, saying the ondol originally came from the Chinese kang, sort of a raised clay oven that was used by the people in northeast China.
“They must have borrowed the idea of kang from us,” one blogger said, according to the South China Morning Post.
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However, some cooler heads advised caution, pointing out the many small differences in the two traditional heating methods.
Nevertheless, Korean netizens were quick to defend the country’s honor.
“In Korea, no matter which house you go to there is ondol, but what about in China?” said one blogger, according to SCMP.
“We have to get it listed before China!” said another.
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