According to reports released on Tuesday, Nov. 16, a university in China has ordered a K-pop lecture to exclude any information related to BTS. Read more about it here.
According to the South China Morning Post, Jeong Ah Reum (37-years-old), a Korean assistant professor at the Sichuan University - Pittsburgh Institute, was scheduled to lecture concerning the power of K-pop. The Sichuan University - Pittsburgh Institute is a business university that is co-founded by Sichuan University from China and Pittsburgh University from the United States.
Jeong Ah Reum was all ready to give her lecture. However, the university authorities had told her to exclude any mention or information relating to BTS.
"I was so angry that the university authorities tried to censor my lecture because of absurd allegations made by (Chinese) nationalists," Jeong said. "I will not practice self-censorship."
The hate for BTS in China started in October. That month, BTS accepted the Van Fleet Award for its contributions to the betterment of U.S.-South Korean relations. During their speech, BTS spoke about how music can unite others and hoped that their music would continue to act as a link for people all over the world.
However, during the speech, leader RM had mentioned the Korean War, and the sacrifices of soldiers from both the United States and South Korea had to endure. Mentions of the Korean War are taboo in China and are not often mentioned. During the War, China had fought on North Korea's side against South Korea. With that, numerous Chinese soldiers lost their lives.
Chinese netizens accused BTS and RM of being insensitive to the Chinese soldiers who lost their lives at war. The backlash got so intense that Samsung China and FILA China were forced to remove all BTS-related content. Samsung China removed the product BTS was endorsing, while FILA China deleted all their posts with BTS.
Chinese netizens who claimed to be former fans of BTS also shared videos of them burning their merchandise and deleting all their Weibo posts supporting BTS.
The South China Morning Post report that many Chinese Millennials are interested in and fascinated with K-Pop. However, they are more involved with Chinese politics and have become increasingly nationalistic.
It was also reported that 120,000 Koreans living in China have confessed to being afraid of voicing their opinions concerning South Korean politics and problems while in China. It is known that there are still tensions between South Korea and China. K-pop stars are still restricted from performing in Mainland China. In 2016, China blocked any Hallyu related products and activities from entering China. This was a huge blow for K-pop, as they were enjoying high popularity in the country at that time.
One Korean student, who chose to remain anonymous, told South China Morning Post, "I have lived in China for more than a decade, but the Communist Party of China is still threatening. It is not a good idea for Korean student to express their political opinions while in China, even if they are talking about Korea's problems."
What do you think of the situation?
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Written by Alexa L.
