"Someone Came Wearing Hanbok"... Woman in Hanbok Publicly Shamed at Hangeul Festival Audition [What Do You Think?]

[Financial News] A story has emerged of a woman who participated in a citizen-model audition for a Hangeul festival sponsored by Uijeongbu City in Gyeonggi Province being publicly rebuked by a judge who said, "It would be a problem if you insist on wearing only hanbok." The incident has sparked outrage among online users.
On the 20th, a post appeared on the social media platform Threads about an unpleasant experience at the audition for "Recruitment for Citizen Models for the 3rd Uijeongbu Hangeul Festival," held the previous day.
The author, A, attended the audition in a neat hanbok outfit she often wore, including a teal jeogori and a light-green skirt.
The advance text message provided no dress restrictions other than "neat attire and shoes." In addition, the event poster featured numerous hanbok illustrations, so she judged that her outfit matched the purpose of the festival.
At the venue, where about 200 participants had gathered, the judge made a remark aimed at a specific participant even before the audition began: "I noticed someone came wearing hanbok. This isn't a fashion show where everyone wears only hanbok. It would be a problem if you insist on wearing only hanbok."
When A finally stood before the judging panel after waiting for four hours, the criticism continued: "If you had properly read the advance text message, shouldn't you have understood from the context that hanbok wasn't allowed?"
A said, "I felt wronged because they said nothing to other participants wearing dresses or Western-style skirts with a full, voluminous silhouette, yet applied an arbitrary standard only to traditional hanbok." She added, "I don't understand why they use the image of hanbok while being rude to people who actually wear it."
When she was given an opportunity to make a final statement, A said, "I told the organizers, 'Please don't treat hanbok as such an unusual garment elsewhere, either.'" She added, "It left me feeling bitter, as though I alone had been made to look like someone without common sense."
Online users who heard about the incident criticized the organizers. They condemned them, saying, "Putting up even illustrations of royal ceremonial attire on the poster, then publicly rebuking a participant dressed in hanbok, is an insult to hanbok," and, "Sejong the Great, who created Hangeul, also wore hanbok."
Many also took issue with the judge's manner of speaking. Online users responded, "Why make remarks that publicly humiliate someone?" and, "If hanbok did not meet the judging criteria, they could simply have declined to select the participant. Making deliberately humiliating remarks was abusive."
One online user who said they had been at the scene posted an explanation to the effect that the organizers had only tried to encourage participants to wear pants to assess their walking, and that the matter had been distorted because the notice was insufficient—not because they meant to disparage hanbok. However, comments continued to push back, saying, "The organizers should first issue a formal apology for hurting the participant with their inconsiderate wording." The controversy has yet to die down.


[email protected] Seong Min-seo Reporter