by Foreign media also reported that the biased judgment made in the men’s 1000m semifinals of the 2022 Beijing Olympics has spread to a war between the BTS fandom ARMY and Chinese netizens.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on the 9th (Korean time), “Fans of the K-pop group BTS and Chinese netizens fight over the controversial Korean short track disqualification. When BTS RM’s Instagram post sparked outrage online in China, ‘BTS ARMY’ jumped into the defence.”
The media introduced the post-war process in detail, saying, “The world’s most popular K-pop boy group BTS has been caught up in an SNS storm.” When Hwang Dae-Heon was disqualified for contacting Li Wen-rong of China in the men’s 1000m short track semifinal on the 7th, RM, who has 28.1 million Instagram followers, posted a scene of Hwang Dae-here’s overtaking on his Instagram, giving him applause and thumbs-up emoticons. . He left no special notes.
However, on Weibo, some Chinese netizens were outraged by posting a hashtag, ‘#BTSinsultingChina(#防弹少年团辱华)’, meaning that BTS insulted China. An article published by a Weibo user saying, “We Chinese should support our country unconditionally, and China won the gold medal fairly,” received more than 800 ‘likes’.
Some Chinese left comments on RM’s Instagram to attack his appearance and leave the Chinese market, SCMP reported. RM’s words were inactive, so some netizens shared screenshots of words on Twitter, and Chinese netizens painted vomiting.
According to SCMP, the “Army confronted them by posting a purple heart, the colour that symbolizes BTS.” A purple heart, an emoticon with an expression of love, etc., covered the vomiting emoticon. ARMY has purged her spear with ‘Bulletproof Class Defense’. “Many Twitter users were taken aback by this fight and responded that they did not understand why the Chinese were so angry,” the SCMP said. Overseas fans also responded, “Why are you doing this to China?”
In the midst of this, Suga, another member of BTS, posted a picture of himself wearing a hanbok with the word ‘D’ on his Instagram on the 8th. This is a picture of Suga wearing a Gonryongpo while filming the music video for Suga’s ‘Daechwita’ in 2020. It may not have any special meaning, but it is when one of the Chinese ethnic minorities wore a hanbok at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on the 4th, and domestic fans are paying attention.
Conversely, Ning Ning, a Chinese member of the K-pop group Espa, posted on a private message platform, “Wow. You got your first gold tonight. I am happy,” but domestic netizens criticise him.
Professor Seo Kyung-Duk of Sungshin Women’s University, who runs the history protection movement, said, “It is difficult to understand the intention of BTS’ Suga, Korea’s representative artist, but he posted a picture of hanbok. It is an opportunity for us not only to be angry but to naturally spread the word through cultural content such as K-pop and OTT (online video service) dramas.” Professor Seo continued, “Chinese netizens flock to my SNS and say, ‘Korea stole everything’ and ‘The Thieves Kingdom’. As China’s largest portal site Baidu Encyclopedia says that ‘Hanbok originated from Hanfu’, Chinese netizens who cannot help but be misunderstood are attacking indiscriminately. We need to get it right from Baidu.” Regarding the Ning-Ning case, Professor Seo said, “If you are working in Korea, it is natural that you should understand the national and cultural sentiments.”
As domestic celebrity stars speak of their beliefs about biased judgments, some say that the Korean Wave (Korean Wave ban) in dramas and movies will be completely blocked again. However, Professor Seo said, “The situation is not yet completely resolved. Netizens in Korea and China are arguing with each other, and I don’t know if the two countries’ popular cultures will exchange well. If they admit it and fix it, there will be no obstacles.”
