As the hunger for international power of entertainment agencies in South Korea grows, more and more
foreign idols are scouted to increase the appeal of global audiences. Ironically, while
the number of them keeps increasing over the past years, what these idols gain from their
efforts are usually overlooked compared to the Korean members. Though some just regard
this as a myth, the fact that fans have been demanding fairness for these foreign idols
seems to tell a different story. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Since idols in general are under great influences of management companies, many mistake that
the mistreatment only comes from this higher force; however, the fact is that what these
actions are doing is just the result of an inverse relationship where the way a company
treat foreign idols is strongly correlated to that of the public.
Take the case of TWICE’s Japanese line Mina, Sana, and Momo for instance. In 2018, when
they started their live broadcast on Vlive by Korean but soon switched to Japanese to
converse with one another, the comment was flooded with people coming to criticize the
triad.
According to netizens, as Vlive is mostly used by Korean fans, the fact that the girls
kept conversing in their mother language frustrated them for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, as the
sub on Vlive took roughly a day to be available, not until the next day when the sub was up
that fans could laugh along with what Sana, Mina and Momo were joking about. Fans also
believed that since the members have gone to South Korea to make money, they should
have spoken Korean to show their gratitude and appreciation.
As the broadcast started to blow up online, Sana, Mina and Momo also faced a large wave
of criticism. Some even took the story further by asking if TWICE was still a KPOP group
and why should foreign idols be allowed to debut in the first place.
Even worse, there was also a netizen trying to defend his racist attitude by saying that
though he had no problems with having Japanese members in TWICE, had they not spoken in Japanese
for so long on the platform mostly used by Korean people, then nothing bad would have
happened.
Ironically, he added “KPOP is going downhill because of Japanese members,” which basically
contrasted all his reasoning right before that. Weird enough, some even took that Japanese
speaking thing way too personally as they implied the Vlive as a message telling Korean
fans to learn Japanese.
On the other hand, a proportion of fans were also quick to step in and defend the Japanese
line by saying the members actually spoked Korean for most of the Vlive and they only
answered in Japanese when being asked in that language. Moreover, ONCEs didn’t solely
come from South Korea, they were also Thai, Chinese, American, Japanese and any other
nationalities so it’s totally nonsense to make a big fuss over the members’ speaking
their native language.
Regardless of the polarized opinions, it’s still obvious that there are tons of netizens
who couldn't stand seeing foreign members in a KPOP group.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Remember the inverse relationship I’ve mentioned
in the early part of the video? Considering such a heavy bias toward Korean-related things
in general, and Korean idols in particular, existing in the mind of netizens, there is
no good reason for big companies to not do the same thing, mistreating their foreign
idols.
One of the most recent cases vividly illustrating this statement is that of (G)I-DLE’s Shuhua
whose nationality is Taiwanese. Ever since day one, fans have already been mad about
the ridiculously tiny amount of line distribution and screen time. Except for the debut MV where
Shuhua received the one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have more lines than Soojin, for all the
remaining title songs, she has always been ranked last. However, it’s also not correct
to say that was Shuhua’s unprecedented opportunity because do you know what she got to sing in
“Latata”? A series of “Latata.”
As some fans were well aware of this issue and raised it up, Shuhua got more interpretable
lines in the second comeback—Hann. However, as people started to blast her for imperfect
Korean pronunciation, she literally got no line for the third promotion—Senorita.
Since one idol could only have individual screen time when it’s their turn to sing,
Shuhua had been placed in the back of the group, got little to no lines as well as screen
time.
While it seemed that things would turn for the better after she was more visible during
the promotion of “Uh-Oh” and “Oh My God,” fans, especially those from China,
were outraged with the way Cube Entertainment treated her in (G)I-DLE’s latest comeback
“Hwaa”. During the three-minute-and-nineteen-second song, she only sang 3.8 seconds and appeared
for 17 seconds in the MV, a number that could hardly make her face recognizable to non-fans.
Even when Chinese fans sent Cube Entertainment an email to request answers about the incident,
claiming that they would halt the order of (G)I-DLE’s album, stop supporting the group
and instead only root for Shuahua’s solo promotion. Still, no response was made by
Cube. Obviously, the company has turned a blind
eye on the situation for ages and since only Shuhua’s fans in China asked for a change,
the problem is totally negligible. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Even among big companies, the ideology of "Koreans are better" is still clearly reflected.
Most recently, the discrimination in treatment with two foreign members of aepsa—Giselle
and Ning Ning has also upset a lot of fans. During the performance on SBS Gayo Daejun
where the group did a dance-break as an intro for their performance, fans were hugely disappointed
to see Karina and Winter took all the spotlight, whereas Giselle and Ningning were neglected.
In this dance-break, not only the choreography was made for Karina and Winter to take turns
in the center position but the cameraman also focused solely on the visuals of the Korean
line. Whereas, Giselle and Ningning were always set to stand on the outermost and danced some
complementary moves. Fans even said that they were nothing much than two back-up dancers
in this intro.
If you only watch this cut, it totally makes sense to say this was the couple dance-break
of Karina and Winter. While the foreign line was down on the ground, the camera was all
on the sharp moves of the 2 Korean members. As BoA once commented that aepsa was an all-rounded
group, from singing, rapping to dancing and even modelling, it didn’t make sense to
just give Giselle and Ningning zero spotlight like that.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Mistreatment to foreign idols has never been
anything new because turning back the clock a little more, we have the foreign line in
NCT. Even though half the members are foreign, no one was treated better just because of
their being a majority in the group.
One big recent controversy was the general and blatant mistreatment of Renjun, a Chinese
member of the subunit NCT Dream. You can see here an instance where Renjun is showing photos
to viewers of the livestream and the staff behind the camera tell him to shut up. What’s
worth discussing is that Renjun didn’t look surprised at all and just said "okay" as if
he's used to it and this situation has happened before. As the staff was that blatantly rude
in public, many assumed things that took place when the camera wasn’t rolling could be
even ten times worse. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Another big, but ongoing controversy surrounding SM Entertainment and NCT is the even more
extreme mistreatment and the sudden erasure of the subunit NCT 127's Winwin—another
Chinese member.
Winwin has been with NCT 127 since their debut in 2016, but when he joined the Chinese subunit
WayV, he literally “disappeared” completely from the former group. One example of this
case is how SM chose to exclude Winwin's name on the member-based metal straws after his
debut with WayV. To make matters worse, it was never officially announced if he had left
NCT 127 or not, which has caused a giant commotion among fans.
Then, Winwin was completely taken out of NCT 127's promotional activities, so he did not
join NCT 127 on their tour. However, there is no real reason as to why he couldn't join
them. WayV has worked for years with the line-up of NCT 127 to just then evaporate without
explanation. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Going a little further back in time we have Kris Wu, who terminated his contract along
with two other members, Tao and Luhan, with SM Entertainment after roughly one year working
under EXO.
In May, 2014, Kris was the first member to file a lawsuit against SM, due to “being
treated differently from the Korean members and treated like a machine rather than a person”.
Even when he was diagnosed with myocarditis, a severe heart condition, SM still forced
him to overwork, which ended up worsening his condition
In October, 2014, Luhan was the 2nd member to file a lawsuit against SM for the same
reason as Kris - favoritism towards Korean members. In July, 2016, he officially left
EXO and just like Kris, his contract with SM remains valid till 2022.
In August 2015, Tao became the 3rd member to file a lawsuit saying that “he lacks
freedom and the 10-year contract was unfair and had unjust terms.” Unlike Kris and Luhan’s
cases where the issue resolved a compromise with SM, Tao’s was the only one where the
court ruled in SM’s favor.
Though some believed that the company used their power and experience in the two previous
cases to deal with Tao, nothing was ever confirmed. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Still, there are exceptions. As the KPOP industry always puts money on top, if an idol wants
to be well treated, they must first be extremely famous like BLACKPINK’s Lisa and TWICE’s
Tzuyu.
While many fans have non-stopped demanded fairness for Lisa, these claims were mainly
baseless except for the time she had the worst outfit [ảnh]. After Lisa gained worldwide
love and recognition for the Barbie visuals, dancing talents and interesting personalities,
she is the member receiving most promotions and advertising. For now, she is the one with
the best costume, makeup and even gets advertising like crazy in China. Despite being a lead
rapper, in many BLACKPINK’s songs, she even got the solo rap part. Take Ice Cream for
example, Lisa is assessed to have the second most impressive lines, just after Selena Gomez.
She also was able to show almost all her potential and then went on to be the mentor of a famous
survival show in China “Youth With You” for two season straight.
Not stopping in the music field, YG Entertainment even pushed her further in the fashion industry
by constantly getting her ambassador endorsement and modelling contract. According to the latest
statistics of South China Morning Post, Lisa is currently the richest member in BLACKPINK
with assets estimated to be around US$10 million net worth.
Besides Lisa, Tzuyu is also deemed another exception in the way foreign idols are generally
treated thanks to her explosive popularity ever since day one. A little different from
Lisa, ever since TWICE’s debut, Tzuyu has already received the best possible treatment
thanks to her pre-debut reputation in “SIXTEEN”. With this explosive reputation, she has managed
to become the richest member in TWICE, with the net worth of $2 million thanks to the
large number of solo contracts and personal activities. While many foreign idols usually
have their salary much less than the domestic peers, in TWICE, her salary from 2016-2019
is also estimated to be the highest among members. Last but not least, for the humongous
love toward Tzuyu, she was never once mistreated in line distribution, screen time or anything
like that from her debut.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– So, do you think mistreatment towards foreign
idols is really a big thing or just another myth in KPOP? Comment down below to share
your thoughts with us. Also, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe to BeBossTV as
more intriguing news is waiting for you ahead. Thank you for watching!