'Hallyu strategy needs overhaul'

Tzuyu of TWICE

By Kim Jae-heun

Unexpectedly caught in the middle of a sovereignty row between China and Taiwan over a flag seen in an online video, “hallyu” (Korean wave) faces a change of direction in its overseas promotions.

Culture experts said the entertainment industry needs a new system to thoroughly understand and keep awareness on history, cultural differences and international affairs for the future of the Korean culture industry’s overseas expansion.

A recent controversy involving Taiwanese singer Chou Tzuyu of JYP Entertainment’s girl group Twice brought an unexpected political storm after the 16-year old performer waved the Taiwanese flag during MBC’s online broadcast “My Little Television” last November. It was the first international dispute connected with hallyu.

China argues that Taiwan is part of its territory despite the island state’s 1949 declaration of sovereignty, splitting from the mainland after a civil war. The Taiwanese flag symbolizes the country’s independence and when Tzuyu waved the flag, it angered Chinese viewers.

The row grew into a boycott of Twice in China and temporary banning of Tzuyu’s name on Weibo, Chinese biggest social media platform, while anti-hallyu sentiment formed in Taiwan amid concerns China is threatening the island state’s independence.

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female president elected earlier this month on a pro-independence platform, said in her speech after winning the election that “a 16-year old Taiwanese entertainer living in Korea has been oppressed for waving the Taiwanese flag. No one needs to apologize for the Republic of China’s identity.”

China is one of the largest markets for hallyu and JYP's inexperienced handling of the controversy has worsened the blow.

“The world is getting smaller and smaller. There are many foreign entertainers active in Korea now and the hallyu market has expanded in size, around the globe,” said culture critic Bae Kook-nam during a phone interview with The Korea Times.

“Not studying enough about world history and culture has caused such a big controversy. It should not end here and the entertainment industry needs to study the culture and emotions of where hallyu is popular.”

Bae also pointed out that JYP Entertainment was immature at handling the issue. Park Jin-young, the company chief, posted a written apology online after the public criticized him for forcing Tzuyu to apologize through the girl band’s official YouTube channel earlier the same day.

“Not only JYP but all other entertainment companies in Korea need to establish a special task force that can prevent the worst from happening in early stages in case a similar incident happens again. It applies not only to entertainers but also staff in broadcasting networks and agencies,” Bae said, reminding that the producer of MBC’s “My Little Television” is also responsible for the Tzuyu controversy by providing the Taiwanese flag as a prop.

CJ E&M’s music channel Mnet chief producer Han Dong-chul said the channel has been aware of international audiences from about a decade ago since K-Pop gained popularity over Asia.

The target audience of Mnet shows 20 years ago were local fans only, but nowadays the channel considers about audiences abroad as it knows fans from China, Japan, Thailand, Philippines and many more watch its shows.

“I’ve been working in this industry for 20 years and we only thought that K-pop is sung by Koreans and listened by Korean fans, but that is not true anymore. The world is listening to K-pop and we produce TV shows having international mindset,” said Han.

“Mnet produces all contents in dual-language for international audiences who hate watching with subtitles and we dub. For example, the Chinese audience is not a big fan of subtitle, so we voice over the TV series in Chinese. For Filipino, we dub in English,” added Han.