Just curious, as I've been reading about the recent uproar and see that now Wikipedia (I know, I know) has its place of origin as "China". I've been looking for unbiased historical sources, but as with so many things in the region, it's difficult for the layperson to separate the academic from the political.
Is there any basis whatsoever to the claim that anything resembling kimchi originated from China? Or is it a uniquely Korean creation from start to finish (with, of course, the addition of New World peppers)?
Edit: its, dammit.
I don't know of any consensus or conclusions, but perhaps I can share a little about why there is a dispute here.
Before that, it's important to note that Kimchi isn't just one food, it's an overarching term for traditional fermented ethnic food of Korea. It's the same for the Chinese counterpart, Pao Cai. There aren't just one, but many different types and varieties.
The earliest records of Chinese Pao Cai came from Classic of Poetry sometime during the Zhou dynasty (1046-314 BCE)
中田有庐，疆场有瓜，是剥是菹，献之皇祖
In the midst of the fields are the huts, and along the bounding divisions are gourds, the fruits are sliced and pickled, to be presented to our great ancestors,
Take special note of the word 菹 because that will be the center of contention soon. For the Chinese, this word has been used to refer to Pao Cai from this poem.
What happened in Korea was that only in many texts and records from much later than Zhou dynasty did 'kimchi' appeared and they also used this same character 菹 and it's alternate forms to mean their version of fermented food, which we now know as Kimchi.
Such as 高麗史/卷六十三 here from Goryeosa and 高丽史节要十 from 高丽史节要 .
Now because Korean traditionally doesn't have its own writing systems and only developed Hanja with the incorporation of Chinese characters , there were many interpretations.
Some interpret the use of 菹 as a wholesale copy of the concept and believed that they learnt it from the Chinese who called it that way and hence followed suit.
Some interpret it as merely an adaptation of the word to describe the Koreans' version, which they already had, since that was the meaning of the word anyway.
And of course this is not every clear cut (at least to both sides) because of the frequent interactions both sides had in the past. Those supporting either interpretation acknowledged that both countries had some kind of fermentation food , but with various opinions on the origins. Hence we have a dispute right here.
Some sources I looked at regarding this dispute and their opinions
Discussion on the origin of kimchi, representative of Korean unique fermented vegetables - ScienceDirect (Korean Source, strong opinions for Korean origin)
第四屆西太平洋韓語教育與韓國學國際學術會議 (pccu.edu.tw) (Taiwan Source, no clear conclusion, but stated that the originating from China, spread to Korea, then Japan is a logical and legitimate assumption)