VANK and the Lee Je-seok Advertising Research Institute have unveiled a new poster campaign aimed at exposing the distortion of the Great Wall of China in global textbooks, encyclopedias, museums, and websites. The poster features the iconic independence activist Ahn Chang-ho, who is depicted with a smartphone in hand, expressing shock at the erroneous inclusion of the Great Wall stretching into the Korean Peninsula.
The poster’s headline reads, “What? The Great Wall in textbooks all over the world extends to the Korean Peninsula?” This campaign highlights the widespread error that has led to the portrayal of the Great Wall as extending into Korean territory, as well as China’s ongoing distortion of the histories of Goguryeo and Balhae through its so-called ‘Northeast Project.’
This campaign is the second in a series that features prominent independence activists as models. The first campaign, launched on October 25 for Dokdo Day, depicted another independence activist, Ahn Jung-geun, along with Yun Bong-gil and Yu Gwan-sun, using smartphones to express dismay over the erroneous depiction of Dokdo and the East Sea in global maps.
In the current campaign, Ahn Chang-ho is seen holding a tablet and pointing at a map in a foreign world history textbook. The map shows the Great Wall extending into the Korean Peninsula, symbolizing the significant problem of historical distortion on a global scale. The poster’s message urges awareness of how the history of Goguryeo, which China claims as its own, is being presented as part of Chinese history worldwide.
The campaign’s design team, led by Lee Je-seok, stated, “Through the distorted world map showing the Great Wall extending into the Korean Peninsula, we are highlighting how the history of Goguryeo is being wrongfully incorporated into China’s historical narrative. The thought of how independence fighters, who fought to defend our land from Japanese imperialism, would have reacted to this historical distortion deeply inspired this ad. The message is clear: we must continue to defend our land and history in the 21st century.”
VANK also emphasized the words of Ahn Chang-ho, who famously said, “Who is the true worker? The one who made a meal of grass for a starving cow, rather than debating what to feed it a hundred times, or giving a thousand speeches, or holding endless meetings.” The organization called for every citizen to take action in protecting Korea’s history from distortions, just as independence fighters fought to protect the country from imperial forces.
The campaign urges global Koreans and citizens to report any inaccuracies regarding the Great Wall, Goguryeo, and Balhae found in overseas websites and textbooks. By doing so, they are continuing the legacy of independence activists, who fought to preserve Korea’s sovereignty a century ago. VANK encourages those who find such errors to report them through the “21st Century Yi Sun-shin Error Correction Project” website.