Arts & International Affairs: Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2018 | Page 66

KOREAN POPULAR CULTURE AND HISTORICAL SENSIBILITIES IN EAST ASIA
“Park Jin-young is the worst. He forced her to apologize to make profits
... What’s wrong with a person from Taiwan to hold a Taiwanese flag?
Answer, JYP!!” (Stone Rock, 돌바위 , 471 likes, 20 dislikes).
“Huang An was the problem, but I was more disappointed by JYP.
16-year-old Tzuyu did nothing wrong at all. Despite this, JYP forces
her to apologize because he is concerned about restrictions on his
business by China” (A Mole Goes, 두더지가간다 , 383 likes, 17 dislikes).
“Why did Tzuyu have to apologize when she did not wave the flag in
China? The one that forced her to do this is deplorable” (Angel, 천사 ,
129 likes, 3 dislikes).
“JYP is responsible for protecting minors. JYP’s action cannot be accepted”
(Sharwhina, 샤르휘나 , 145 likes, 5 dislikes).
“I am not interested in Huang An. I am frustrated with the JYP’s handling
of this issue. Cheer up, Tzuyu ... I began to support you through
this incident” (Toward the Pinnacle, 정상을향해 , 35 likes, 1 dislike).
Apology is “a truthful expression of remorse and includes the unreserved acceptance of
moral responsibility for an act while also paying tribute to the perspective of the victim”
(Daase et al. 2015:14). To many in South Korea, Chou’s act of holding her nation’s flag
is nothing to be reprehended, an act which she did not have to apologize for. Moreover,
given that the status of the apologizer matters (Daase et al. 2015:12), to Korean netizens,
the head of JYP Entertainment, not the 16-year-old girl, had to apologize for the controversy
caused. 15
JYP Entertainment is one of South Korea’s major cultural enterprises, pioneering the
hallyu boom in Asia and other regions. Park Jin-young, or J. Y. Park, established the company
in his name in 1997. Park himself is a cultural artist who developed his music career
as a singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He also famously served as one of the
three judges of the music audition program called, “K-Pop Star,” aired by SBS. 16 His principles
of how to sing, such as using “half air and half sound” as a method of abdominal
breathing and “sing as you tell a story,” have become well known among South Koreans.
The company produced popular hallyu bands, including Wonder Girls, 2PM, 2AM, miss
A, and GOT7. Twice is not the only band that includes foreign members. A girl-band
composed of four girls, miss A, includes Wang Feifei, who is originally from China. Korean
netizens’ overwhelming criticism of JYP Entertainment demonstrates that an ap-
15 Issuing an appropriate and acceptable apology is one of the key aspects of resolving conflicts in the East
Asian context. See Dudden (2008) for the centrality of political apology in East Asian international
relations.
16 SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) is a South Korean national television and radio network.
65