National Branding through Food: The Cultural Perceptions of Kimchi and Sushi Among Food Enthusiasts

Introduction

Food has evolved into more than a necessity or form. of leisure over time and it has increasingly become a powerful medium through which nations communicate their identities and values to the world. As part of this cultural diplomacy, food plays as a symbol that conveys meanings shaped by historical, cultural, and political contexts (Sutton, 2001; Watson, 2006). In East Asia, Korean kimchi and Japanese sushi are two key cases of culinary symbols that have increasingly become recognized all over the world. This study investigates how these two food items are beneficial to the international image of their own countries Korea and Japan from the cultural perception and national branding’s perspective. This study aims to explore how they function within a broader framework of soft power and nation branding through revealing publicly available online content created by food enthusiasts.

The charm of kimchi and sushi is deeply originated from how they are represented and perceived among international audiences. Sushi, often related to precision, elegance, and minimalism, always has been regarded as a symbol of Japanese refinement and cultural essence (Rath, 2010; Rockower, 2012). On the contrary, Kimchi represents bold flavors and collective heritage, which reflect Korea's resilience, communal spirit, and historical narrative (Park, Jeong, Lee, & Daily III, 2014; Patra, Das, Paramithiotis, & Shin, 2016). This study critically explores their semiotic and discursive constructions based on digital contents and then reveal the complicated role between food, identity, and nationhood.

Research Objectives

This study focuses on how two iconic national dishes—Korean kimchi and Japanese sushi—play as cultural symbols that is conductive to the soft power and international image of their respective nations. This study aims to realize how these foods are constructed and perceived symbolically and how these perceptions are connected with ideas of national identity and branding through analyzing digital content created by food enthusiasts. The three primary research objectives can be listed as follows.

Research Objective 1: To explore how food enthusiasts perceive the symbolic meanings of kimchi and sushi aligned with Korean and Japanese national identities.

Research Objective 2: To examine how online narratives promote the construction and reinforcement of national branding by food culture.

Research Objective 3: To compare the transnational cultural flows and reception of kimchi and sushi on different digital platforms.

Research Questions

The three specific research question can be listed as follows.

Research Question 1: How do food enthusiasts interpret the cultural symbolism of kimchi and sushi in online discourse?

Research Question 2: How do online discussions in terms of kimchi and sushi construct or reveal the nation branding strategies of South Korea and Japan?

Research Question 3: What similarities and differences can be observed in the cultural perception and reception of kimchi and sushi on different online content platforms?

Significance of this study

This study is beneficial to expand literature on food and cultural identity by illustrating how culinary practices and products serve as channels for symbolic communication. Furthermore, it involves the ongoing discussions in cultural studies, media studies, and international communication on the role of everyday cultural commodities in shaping ideas of national character.

Central Theme of the Dissertation

This study focuses on the symbolic power of food in the construction of national identity and the promotion of soft power in the global cultural marketplace. Based on kimchi and sushi as emblematic national dishes, this study analyzes how they are represented in digital content created by food enthusiasts and how their representations promote the cultural branding of Korea and Japan. It shows that food is a dynamic medium through which national narratives, identity claims, and cultural diplomacy are constructed and argued.

Titles of Main Chapters and Outline of Their Content

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter includes the research topic, problem statement, research background, research questions, research objectives, significance of this study, and explains the rationale for focusing on kimchi and sushi. It stresses the significance of food as a medium in terms of cultural expression and introduces the concept of national branding (Sutton, 2001; Watson, 2006). Finally, the chapter also provides an overview of the structure and scope of this whole study.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter reviews main academic discussions on cultural branding, food and identity, and soft power in this research field and explores how researchers have conceptualized food as a marker of national identity and how it has been used in international image-making. The literature on kimchi and sushi as cultural products will be reviewed, which stresses the knowledge gaps in existing studies and positioning the current research among these scholarly conversations.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

This study employs a qualitative discourse analysis approach to examine how kimchi and sushi are represented and shaped by food enthusiasts in digital environments. The study aims to reveal symbolic meanings, narrative structures, and value judgments conveyed through digital contents. This chapter will list the research design and research tools and especially specify the procedures of qualitative discourse analysis in this study. The researcher will explain why this method is appropriate for examining online cultural discourse and how the study will be carried on using publicly available data. Besides, it summarizes the data sources, sampling strategy, and ethical considerations and shows the usage of NVivo software for thematic analysis.

Chapter 4: Data Collection and Analysis

The study will collect a sample of 50–100 pieces of digital content posted between 2020 and 2025 created by food enthusiasts through purposive sampling and the researcher will present the data sources and details the process of collecting. Sources will be collected through keyword searches and hashtags aligned with kimchi, sushi, Korea, Japan, and national food. Screenshots, text extracts, and video captions will be saved in NVivo for data analysis. It includes a series of cases from blogs, Reddit threads, Instagram captions, Xiaohongshu posts, Bilibili videos, and digital food articles.

The analysis will be presented based on those recurring themes including authenticity, heritage, global popularity, and national pride and the initial coding categories and representative cases will be illustrated. A thematic analysis will be employed using NVivo software to code patterns and emergent themes. Analytical categories include authenticity and heritage, modernity and innovation, cultural pride and ownership, global popularity and exoticism, identity and nationhood. The findings will be interpreted from the theoretical perspectives of national branding, representation, and globalization.

Chapter 5: Findings and Discussion

This chapter will introduce accordingly the main findings of the discourse analysis. It discusses how kimchi and sushi are conceptualized in terms of national culture, identity, and soft power. In addition to, it not only compares the similarities and differences in how Korea and Japan are represented by their culinary icons but also considers how digital contents showed from online communities contribute to the global circulation of cultural meanings.

Chapter 6: Conclusion and Future Directions

This chapter summarizes the main insights of the study and reflects on its implications in terms of cultural branding and transnational media discourse. At the same time, it also illustrates future research directions. For example, the examination of other national foods or the role of influencers in shaping food narratives.

Theoretical Frameworks

National Branding and Soft Power

Soft power theory emphasizes how some countries project influence through cultural appeal rather than coercion (Nye, 2004; Anholt, 2007). National branding includes crafting a favorable international image employing cultural resources, such as food or other national cultural symbols.

Cultural Representation and Identity

The representation of food in media is helpful to construct national identity (Hall, 1997). This theoretical foundation aims to examine how discourses surrounding kimchi and sushi create meanings associated with Korea and Japan.

Food and Cultural Globalization

Food is not only a site of national pride but also a transnational cultural commodity (Appadurai, 1996; Heldke, 2015). These theories are conductive to analyze how food functions within global flows and how authenticity and exoticism are negotiated under the cross-cultural contexts in this study.

Empirical Sources and Data

The empirical data will consist of publicly accessible online digital content created by food enthusiasts. Approximately 50–100 data points will be collected from the following sources including Blogs (Food travel blogs and cooking blogs discussing kimchi and sushi), Reddit (Threads in subreddits such as r/food, r/Japan, r/Korea), Instagram (Public posts tagged with #kimchi, #sushi, #koreanfood, #japanesefood), Xiaohongshu (Reviews and photos posted by Chinese users), Bilibili (Commentary videos on Korean and Japanese cuisine). Digital food magazines and articles are originated from Articles from Bon Appétit, Eater, The Kitchn, and Korean/Japanese culinary websites. The digital content created by Food Enthusiasts in terms of Kimchi and Sushi will be selected using purposive sampling to ensure relevance, diversity, and richness of information.

Ethical Considerations

There are no direct participants in this research. Data will be collected from publicly accessible online content. The following ethical principles can be listed as follows. Only content posted voluntarily in digital space will be used. There are no content from private accounts, password-protected platforms, or subscription-only websites. All identifiable data including usernames or profile photos will be anonymized in the data analysis and final thesis. The whole study will comply with the University of Warwick’s ethical guidelines for digital research.

Project Timeline

References

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Heldke, L. (2015). Exotic appetites: Ruminations of a food adventurer. Routledge.

Nye, J. S. (2004). Soft power: The means to success in world politics. Public affairs.

Park, K. Y., Jeong, J. K., Lee, Y. E., & Daily III, J. W. (2014). Health benefits of kimchi (Korean fermented vegetables) as a probiotic food. Journal of medicinal food, 17(1), 6-20.

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