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Post by Admin on Nov 10, 2018 4:54:27 GMT
A popular South Korean boy band was set to appear on one of Japan's biggest TV stations this week, but that appearance has been canceled due to a clothing choice one of its members may have made. Per the Guardian and CNN, K-pop group BTS was scheduled to be on TV Asahi's Music Station program Friday night, in advance of the band's upcoming Japanese tour, but a pic emerged that seemed to show one of the bandmates, 23-year-old Jimin, sporting a long-sleeved tee with the words "Patriotism OurHistory [sic] Liberation Korea" repeated several times, as well as an image of a mushroom cloud over one of the Japanese cities hit by an atomic bomb during WWII (the Guardian says it's a pic of Hiroshima; CNN says Nagasaki). It also shows imagery of Koreans celebrating their liberation from Japan after the bombs were dropped. It's not clear when Jimin allegedly wore the shirt; the Guardian says it was in August 2017, CNN says local media reports it as happening in 2013, and the BBC says it may have been this past summer. Either way, many people weren't thrilled to see him wearing it in the now-viral photo, with Japanese fans calling it an "insult." "I can never accept the act that #BTS member wore the atomic bomb T-shirts," one commenter wrote on Twitter. TV Asahi made a statement on BTS' nixed appearance, noting, "We have seen news that a T-shirt worn by one of the members has set off a [furor]. After asking their record company about this, we made the decision to postpone their appearance on our Nov. 9 show." Meanwhile, per AllKPop.com, the controversial T-shirt itself has sold out on its vendor's site since the photo of it went viral. (Kim Jong Un apparently enjoys K-pop.)
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Post by Admin on Nov 12, 2018 20:32:52 GMT
A Jewish human rights organisation has condemned the K-pop band BTS over photographs of them wearing Nazi-style hats. The Simon Wiesenthal Center accused BTS of “mocking the past” The band were dropped from a Japanese TV show last week after one of its members wore a T-shirt that appeared to celebrate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Wearing a T-shirt in Japan mocking the victims of the … A-bomb, is just the latest incident of this band mocking the past,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Los Angeles-based centre, said in a statement. Cooper referred to the release in early 2015 of teasers for a photo-book that showed a member of the band wearing a hat featuring the symbol of the Death’s Head Units – SS organisations that administered the Nazi concentration camps. The statement also linked to images of band members posing at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin and to footage of them waving large flags on stage that were “eerily similar” to the Nazi swastika. “It goes without saying that this group, which was invited to speak at the UN, owes the people of Japan and the victims of the Nazism an apology,” Cooper said. “But that is not enough. It is clear that those designing and promoting this group’s career are too comfortable with denigrating the memory of the past. The result is that young generations in Korea and around the world are more likely to identify bigotry and intolerance as being ‘cool’ and help erase the lessons of history. The management of this group, not only the front performers, should publicly apologise.”
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Post by Admin on Nov 14, 2018 18:22:43 GMT
K-pop began its international expansion largely thanks to its success in Japan, the world's second-largest music industry after America. In the early 2000s, solo diva BoA became the first Korean singer to top the charts in the island nation with her Japanese debut album Listen to My Heart. This paved the way for second-generation K-pop boy bands (like TVXQ!, BIGBANG and SHINee) and girl groups (Girls' Generation and Kara) to hit new heights in the market and become regular fixtures on the Japanese media scene -- hitting a new jackpot when it came to overseas earnings by the early 2010s. Largely, though, many groups (particularly TVXQ!) were considered to have worked from the bottom up in the industry rather than riding an already-popular trend. Still, with an idol scene all its own, Japan had seemingly struggled to balance the popularity of Korean artists compared to its domestic acts. In 2011, thousands gathered in Tokyo to protest the Korean wave in Japan after an actor said he felt "brainwashed" by the amount of K-content on a popular TV network and was subsequently fired. Jungkook (BTS)'s Halloween costume By 2013, the Wall Street Journal was reporting on small but "hostile demonstrations against the country's Korean residents" staged every weekend across the country. Around this time, K-pop acts began promoting in Japan less frequently when it appeared that broadcasters had a general sense to slow down on K-pop. It's only been with the recent success of new-generation leaders like BTS and TWICE that it seemed like the time for K-pop's Japanese comeback.
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Post by Admin on Nov 18, 2018 18:00:54 GMT
Korean boyband BTS got in trouble. Japanese TV Asahi’s Music Station cancelled a planned live performance after old photos resurfaced of member Jimin wearing a shirt with photos of the Nagasaki atomic bomb overlaying the repeated fragment “PATRIOTISM OUR HISTORY LIBERATION KOREA.” Shortly thereafter, the Simon Wiesenthal Center released a public statement denouncing the group for featuring Nazi-like imagery on member RM’s cap in 2015, and during its concert in 2017. “Those designing and promoting this group’s career are too comfortable with denigrating the memory of the past,” the Center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper said in a statement. Big Hit Entertainment, BTS’s management company, quickly apologized, citing the company’s mission to “heal and inspire all the people of the world through our music and artists” and its dedication to “diversity and tolerance.” BTS itself has yet to directly address the controversies. It’s likely that BTS will emerge unscathed from the two scandals, not least because of their immense popularity and quick damage control. The scandal, however, speaks to the shifting expectations fandoms often have for their “idols,” how K-pop idols are construed as apolitical emissaries for South Korea, and the ways they unwittingly become collateral damage in a region simmering over geo-political disputes. The conservative wisdom that celebrities have no business in politics, however, still prevails with regards to “entertainers” like K-pop idols. First- and second-wave hallyu stars rarely speak with regards to electoral politics or geopolitical quagmires in the Asia-Pacific region, certainly for fear of offending fans, but also because of expectations to keep the frivolous realm of celebrities separate from the serious stuff, lest it destabilize deeply entrenched social norms. This is especially true when it comes to criticism of the government. Last year, The New York Times reported that former president Park Geun-hye blacklisted more than 9000 celebrities for being “unfriendly” to Park’s administration, including Oldboy director Park Chan-wook and prize-winning author of The Vegetarian Han Kang. Any indication of perceived anti-Korean sentiment in a K-pop star translates into the complete destruction of their career. An infamous case is the singer Yoo Seung-Jun, who was accused of dodging his mandatory military service, causing him to be deported and permanently barred from entry to Korea to this day. In 2009, Korean-American Jay Park was ousted from boy band 2PM for comments he’d made about hating Korea and Koreans back in 2005.
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Post by Admin on Oct 14, 2020 20:45:58 GMT
Chinese nationalists erupted in anger at South Korean boy band BTS after its leader thanked Korean War veterans for their sacrifices.
The singer, who goes by RM, made the remark in a recorded acceptance speech for an award from the Korea Society for promoting U.S.-Korean relations.
“We will always remember the history of pain that our two nations shared together and the sacrifices of countless men and women,” RM said in the speech, which included no mention of China.
“After 70 years, the world we are living in is much closer than before. Boundaries in many aspects are getting more blurred,” RM said. “As members of the global community, we should build a deeper understanding and solidarity to be happier together.”
Chinese internet users and state media took RM’s comments as a slap at China, whose soldiers fought alongside North Korean forces during their failed attempt to annex South Korea in the 1950-53 war. They accused RM of ignoring the role played by China in the war, which Chinese Communist Party propaganda blames on the United States, instead of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung’s attack on South Korea.
“Before, I thought some BTS songs were pretty good. Now, they seem to be covered in excrement,” said a commenter on the microblog service Sina Weibo. “Insulting China is absolutely not allowed.”
An account titled “BTS Insults China” had been viewed more than 4.5 million times, according to Sina Weibo.
“Many Chinese netizens pointed out that the speech plays up to U.S. netizens, but the country played the role of aggressor in the war,” said an article in the Global Times newspaper, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
The attacks reflect Beijing’s assertiveness abroad and enduring Chinese sensitivity about the Korean Peninsula.
Asked about the controversy, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said, “What I want to say is that it should be our common pursuit to take history as a mirror, face the future, cherish peace and promote friendship.”
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