‘Snowman Destroyers’ Are Going After South Korea’s Roadside Winter Creations

From good ol’ snowmen to sculptures that look straight out of a museum, South Koreans are having some fun with this year’s heavy snowfall. It’s a nice little escape from being stuck at home due to the coronavirus and now snowmen stand on roadsides and fill people’s Instagram accounts. Even K-pop celebrities like BTS are all in on the trend. But while most love building them, some are more interested in toppling the winter creations. People have been caught on CCTV cameras destroying snow sculptures, leading to pretty icy situations.

Cases of snow sculptures being destroyed have even made the news. Some are upset about this, seeing it as a form of violence and generally just a mean thing to do. But others describe those affected as snowflakes — getting too emotional over a stack of frozen water. They argue that some snow sculptures also block traffic, making them potentially dangerous.

The issue isn’t new — people have gotten into heated arguments about decapitated snowmen in the past — but it snowballed this year as South Korea experiences one of its coldest winters. According to the government’s weather data portal, heavy snow warnings were issued in the Seoul metropolitan area five times, just in January. There have been nine snow days in Seoul this year, three days more than the average number of snow days over the past five years.

The presence of “snowman destroyers” is now a national issue. Last month, a popular YouTuber, who goes by the name General Sso, was forced to delete and apologize for a video that shows her destroying a snowman someone else made. 

“I feel responsible for the criticism — that I failed to consider the sincerity of the person who made the snowman,” she said.

Ryu Kang-eon, the manager of a cafe in the city of Daejeon, experienced the other side, after making an impressive 3D snow sculpture of Elsa from the Disney film Frozen.

“I gathered snow with two employees and carved the shape using my hands and a screwdriver,” he told VICE. “It took five to six hours to complete.”

Snow Elsa became a local celebrity, with people stopping to take pictures as they pass by. But the next day, she was gone. Through CCTV footage, cafe staff confirmed that an unknown man approached the sculpture and hit Elsa’s neck with one hand. The head fell to the ground.

“I expected the snow sculpture to melt away, but I was not happy to see someone smash it,” Kim Bong-doo, a cafe employee, told VICE. “It would have been better if it had warmed up and melted away spontaneously.”

Kim Se-young, from the city of Ansan, recently experienced something similar. She made a snow sculpture in the shape of No-Face from the anime Spirited Away, but someone kicked and destroyed it.

“I made a snowman with my younger brother for two hours hoping for customers visiting my parents’ restaurant to be pleased. But, the next day, I felt a little bit disappointed because it seemed that someone had broken the snow sculpture by kicking it,” Kim told VICE, adding that she actually expected that someone would destroy the sculpture.

“Those who break down snowmen are suspected of having some personality issue, but I think it would be difficult to punish them,” she said.

That’s how most people see snowman destroyers. So much so that singer-songwriter Lee Juck even posted a short story on Instagram about a girl who decided to break up with her boyfriend over a snowman. 

“I decided to break up with my boyfriend after seeing him smiling while kicking a snowman on the side of the road without mercy,” the character says. The post now has about 70,000 likes.

A Twitter user who saw the post wrote: “A person who breaks a snowman and has a lack of sympathy can wield violence at any time at someone weaker than him. ...He is not even aware that his act may be wrong.”

Jeong Se-jin, an illustrator, also created an animation criticizing people who break snow sculptures. 

“I read a lot of posts expressing their disappointment after seeing broken snowmen. ...I felt sorry for them, so I made an animation using my skills.”

“Actually, breaking a snowman itself may not be considered a crime,” said Jeong. “But kicking a precious object that was made with one’s sincerity, while enduring cold hands, is no different from showing violence without sympathy.”

But lawyer Kim So-yeon told VICE that it’s unlikely snowmen will be protected under the law.

“Normally, snowmen on roads melt away spontaneously over time, so it’s hard to say that snowmen can be legally protected,” Kim said. “It may be seen as an obstruction of business if the snowman that was made for advertising was broken down, but this case would be very unusual.”