I was not going to post on this girl group, because I had no idea if they were going to last- they don’t even have an MV out yet. However, a fervent commenter alerted me to the fact that this girlgroup was posted on allkpop.com, and furthermore, with a picture that wasn’t even of them, of someone else in SNSD outfits, just to bash.
Ok, so first, the second picture of them wearing the sailorsuits, is of COSPLAYERS who aren’t singers at all. These girls are a different group, with only the member number 9 the same, a number that both Morning Musume (Jp) and Hey Girls (Tw) had before SNSD. And SNSD is not really that popular in China – all 3 groups have about the same popularity in China, aka, not a lot – only around 3000 registered fans at their baidu.
These are the only sets of pics of the girls that I know of. Some individual pics can be seen here. These girls are from a new company called Ai Duo culture. They just released an EP (digitally?), with three original songs. They also have guys in their company that may possibly debut in the future.
Their debut is unfortunately marked by all the bs that Chinese groups had to face. When there was that influx of boybands last year, news compared them to SJM, and the attacks were vicious. Poor, hardworking A-One got bashed. Top Combine got booed by elves when they went on stage to perform as newbies, and allkpop wrote another asinine article using SJM’s popularity to say Chinese groups suck.
I’m not thrilled about an influx of idol groups in China, just like I wasn’t happy about the boybands but they serve their purpose. In the meantime, these girls make a nice diversion until the anticipated eeMedia girl group (Top Combine’s female version) comes along.
Hetalia, a Japanese manga spoofing all the different countries, spoofed Korea’s reputation for claiming things as theirs first. And Korea, despite being only one of the many, many countries spoofed, was the only one who kicked up a storm about it, calling for the cancellation of the anime version. This copy-cat calling doesn’t really help that reputation. Promoting your culture is a good thing, but if you have to continuously mock others and look for “copy-cats” to show how popular it is, then that’s just in poor taste and projects that distasteful image to others.
Most of the people I’ve met from Korea were really nice. It’s just the vocal few who feel the need to bash others to make themselves feel better that ruin it unfortunately for them.
This video was made by urasiansourcecpop@yt to further clear up misunderstandings (Using cutie Xue Zhiqian‘s music!)
December 13, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Bravo, bravo!
Now, if only we could hack into allkpop and post this up…hehe =)
December 13, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Whatever…I just figured this would give me site hits. LOL. People should also watch Hetalia. It’s a cute anime. China wears a little Mao outfit in there.
But really…it’s not just allkpop. Whereas Omona usually questions every single thing from allkpop when it has to do with their own idols, but they pretty went into mob mentality mode here. Kind of disturbing. Allkpop is bad, but it’s all about the same everywhere really when it come to __ vs ___.
But seriously…. Chinese people =/= Chinese Americans. In China the only ones that really get attention are , Shinwa, DBSK, and SJ – the SM guys. SNSD and f(x) aren’t that well known at all. Not to mention the non-SM groups.
December 13, 2009 at 3:44 pm
You’re going to a lot of hits because it’s near impossible for non-chinese speaking people to find out anything about Aiduo Girls. =)
I’ll watch Hetalia when I get the time… sounds interesting.
Hopefully, SNSD and F(x) will stay unknown.
Sigh… I don’t even like Aiduo at all, but I’m still rooting for them. Whatever. I’m just looking forward to TC’s album…hopefully that will calm me down.
December 13, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I really have this thing about rooting for people who are unjustly maligned so early in their career. Like Kitty Zhang Yuqi who Popseoul, without proof, said got surgery to look like Song Hyekyo. But Kitty Zhang Yuqi is turning out to be quite a talented, charismatic actress with a gift for comedy. Or Top Combine, who everyone said was a copycat of TVXQ, because Doremi over in Korea couldn’t hire an MV director who was less lazy, and just rehashed his own work.
I don’t know if I’ll feel the same protectiveness over Idolgirls, since Zhang Yuqi and Top Combine are both really talented and deserve to known for their own qualities, but there’s definitely some sympathy here again – because again – they’re be bashed for untrue rumors/facts.
December 13, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I know…Did you read the comments on Allkpop? They were saying that SNSD was better when they never even listened to their songs. Also, I don’t think they’re similar at all apart from having nine members. Their genres are totally different.
Sigh…. I hope one of these days, people will be more open minded.
December 13, 2009 at 4:53 pm
@Julie
You know most of the people over at allkpop are like really into Kpop and plus they take in whatever allkpop feeds. Most of its subscribers are pretty young.
I was so furious to read copycats because SNSD WAS NOT the first to start the ’9′
————–
…Okay, so the number of members can easily be the same, right? But that’s not it. According to a Chinese site, the Idol Girls are an average of 18 years old, and are supposedly talented not only as singers, but as actresses, models, MCs and more.
—————
So these girls can’t be actresses, models, MCs and more? When did people say ONLY KOREA can have them? allkpop people are seriously ugh. They’re pro-SNSD. (not really into YG family members.. that’s another story)
but yeah i was extremely pissed and i even went to make an account
December 13, 2009 at 4:59 pm
lol yelei…I was about to make an account to and defend them…but I got too lazy to. LOL
Before we didn’t have to be a member to post comments. Sigh. I’m still really pissed
December 13, 2009 at 5:06 pm
It’s funny how when they think something Chinese has copied something Korean, they waste no time into ridiculing it, and twist it to say how inferior Chinese are. When something Korean copies something American or Japanese, it’s always: “Oh, I see the similarities, but no big deal.”
Reading the comments there puts an expression like this = _ = on my face.
“= _ =”
December 13, 2009 at 5:10 pm
It’s funny how hypocritical some Koreans are.
December 13, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Sometimes it’s not just the Koreans – sometimes it’s Chinese Americans who are so immersed in Korean culture that are saying crap.
Don’t get mad. Just be glad you actually know that there’s more Chinese culture out there, and you won’t feel embarrassed by every little single negative news. Because some Chinese Americans don’t, and with each news like this, their inferiority complex gets bigger.
I hope in the future, when Chinese entertainment becomes well-known, Chinese Americans won’t be douchey about it. Because that would embarrass me more than anything.
AND @ BENJI – Jane wrote that song herself!!!!!
December 13, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I had to say something over at soompi. Someone posted the article at k-bites, couldn’t stand it any longer.
i saw comments saying why are chinese girls so ugly and have mssed up teeth while koreans dont?
I LMAO at that comment. HELLO!!? alot of those celebrities either got braces/teeth surgery.. see how messed up these ppl are
December 13, 2009 at 5:38 pm
What? They attacked the teeth? LMAO. Jiang Yingrong has one of the nicest smiles I’ve ever seen. The entire Meteor Shower cast had lovely pearly whites.
Can you pimp this site while you’re at it?
December 13, 2009 at 5:42 pm
LOL, it’s at allkpop.. the article was awhile back where allkpop wrote an article saying hey girl is SNSD’s replica
http://www.allkpop.com/index.php/full_story/girls_generation_replica_hey_girl/
December 13, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I’m Chinese-American and I don’t think that. Please don’t stereotype us :-/ you’re domewhat dissing your own people… I like Kpop but I don’t think like that.
December 13, 2009 at 5:59 pm
It seems to me that the Chinese Americans who are so in love with Korea are the same ones who think that there are only two Chinese dialects — Cantonese and Mandarin — and that “Mandarin” is an ethnicity (and one encompassing all of Mainland China, at that). How ignorant of your own culture can you be. Really.
You can see the difference in China, where the responses to Korean antics are not so forgiving. After all, if Chinese spectators dislike South Korea enough to not just boo them at the Olympics, but to actually cheer for Japan against Korea? (Yes, Japan.) Well…you must have done ‘something’ to offend them.
And, still, lots of Koreans seem to think that China loves Korea…
@ cfensi: She did?! T _ T
Aw, I’m so proud of her. I remember during some interview when Jane said that she couldn’t write songs, and when she tried to write one, it came out like a children’s nursery rhyme. She’s grown so much as an artist since Super Girls ~<3
@ yelei: Back during WWII, the common American perception was that Japanese had crooked teeth whilst Chinese had straight, normal teeth. (They even had booklets distributed to US soldiers saying this so they could tell them apart).
A lot of Chinese and Korean people could easily pass for each other, especially those from Northern China. Put them naked next to each other and you wouldn't be able to pinpoint their nationalities. Except, now, virtually all Korean celebrities have had cosmetic surgery, compared to virtually no Mainland Chinese celebrities. I don't think spending money for a new nose, a new pair of eyelids, liposuction and botox is really anything to be proud of.
And yes, allkpop only exists to feed the Korean ego.
December 13, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Kitty Zhang Yuqi is the teacher in CJ7 right? She’s pretty.
Wonder Girls’ popularity is getting there in China, but they deserve it. Unlike the SM girls (with the exception of BoA and The Grace) they actually have talents and stage charisma. I never understood where SNSD’s popularity came from (remember 2008?), their songs and dances are catchy – but that’s their company’s work. So, I don’t understand why out of all the girl idol groups from Korea would anyone want to copy SNSD? If they want to really “copy” a girl idol group why not Wonder Girls? They are actually making it outside of their comfort zone, away from the stage that their xue zhang prepared for them. Or The Grace, who are the definition of talent and … grace. As for f(x), it’s too early to judge since they only have 2 singles out, or 3 if you count commercials.
Also, if this girls group’s actually copying someone, I would’ve thought it was the Hey Girls, since they are more well known and popular in China then SNSD. And these girls’ music style’s a lot more similar to Hey Girls than SNSD. BTW are these girls under the same company as Tuxedo Boys?
And as for being copycats, SM stated when they formed SUJU that it was based on the Morning Musume concept (a rotational group), just because the plan didn’t go through doesn’t make them less of a copycat.
Do you think TC would be expanding outside of China soon? I wish TC could go to Korea, and show them that idols can compose too. And I hope the eeMedia group wouldn’t be too dependent upon their looks or dance moves, in moderation is ok. But I really want them to be a group that young Chinese girls can really look up to.
December 13, 2009 at 6:21 pm
honestly…how much of the people that comment on sites like allkpop do you think are actually koreans?
December 13, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Oh, probably no more than 25%, I’d guess. With the rest being mainly Chinese and Filipino.
December 13, 2009 at 6:28 pm
they’re pretty young to.. 12-18 most i mean..
December 13, 2009 at 6:29 pm
@Yelei: WTF?! Hey Girls copy SNSD?! How are yo suppose to copy something that doesn’t exist yet? I know Hey Girls’ vocal and dance isn’t that great, but their selling point is (like that article says) their diversity and range of personalities.
@Benji: There are a lot of natural beautiful Korean actresses, you shouldn’t stereotype. I not a fan of SNSD, but they really do seem all natural, the little differences just seem to be due to make up.
December 13, 2009 at 6:29 pm
@yoon ji – I said some. If I said this was all Korean Americans’ words, I’d be lying. because it’s not just them. And I’ve read too many self-deprecating comments that say they feel sorry for themselves for being Chinese. And the people who do know about the culture in China are pretty quiet about it. It’s frustrating me as someone who doesn’t really want to post.
@chinkirox – Wondergirls is even less popular actually. They only have like 1000+ fans on their baidu. It may seem they’re more popular because they’re doing activities there – but they’re not. SM is the one who studied how China works since he started his business – no one beats him at gaining Chinese fans.
And I hope TC keeps their butts in China instead of running off which would mean their Chinese fans can’t see them.
@smith – What Benji said. It’s not just about allkpop though – this article pretty much got the same reaction wherever it was posted.
December 13, 2009 at 6:39 pm
it seems to me all korean blog/sites are posting the same thing = copycats.
omgkpop, k-bites, omona they didn’t, allkpop etc…
—————-
@960
LMFAOOO if you’re chinese & that proud to be one why are you on allKOREANpop? you say snsd has zilch popularity in china? that’s why all you chinese bitches are doing parodies of them & shit? i don’t know ANY chinese groups & i don’t even bother to know while mad chinese people want to be korean, don’t even deny it -_- why don’t you stop being a hater & admit you guys are biterssssss or get off allKpop & go on allCpop
————
way to be proud buddy.. T_T (he was refering to someone else)
December 13, 2009 at 6:48 pm
@ chinkirox: It’s pretty standard procedure for Korean female celebrities to get something done whether they really ‘need’ it or not. (All of SNSD have had botox). The necessity of plastic surgery is debatable, of course. Leeteuk from Super Junior got his eyes done, even though he has big eyes to begin with. I could barely tell the difference, myself.
The mere fact that the term “natural beauty” even exists should tell you something about the prevalence of cosmetic surgery in Korean entertainment industry.
But it’s not restricted to Korea, of course. Just about every A-lister in Hollywood has had plastic surgery. Even the Bs and Cs. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find any top-tier celebrity who hasn’t undergone some sort of cosmetic procedure.
Tom Cruise, David Beckham, Megan Fox, Hilary Duff, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Simpson, Mariah Carey. Just about anybody who’s anybody. It’s a very strong majority.
December 13, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Oh…let’s not get into the plastic surgery thing. It distresses me to see the comments in Asian communities like “They’re pretty…are they natural?”
And let’s not criticize any particular groups.
December 13, 2009 at 7:30 pm
@Benji
Jane has published one other song that she composed herself for the Sichuan earthquake. I’m excited that the top Super Girls are starting to put out their own compositions, and good compositions, too.
December 13, 2009 at 7:34 pm
didn’t wonder girls just had a concert in Shanghai with super expensive tickets? If they are not popular, i wonder how their concerts would have turn out (lol no one shows up~).
Sorry to link allkpop but look at the ticket price! http://www.allkpop.com/index.php/full_story/wonder_girls_headed_back_to_korea/
When I saw the article about Chinese SNSD in Omona, i naturally skipped over it, cause I knew I would I get worked up if I actually read it.
Sigh, someone need to push SM out of China! Or bring other popular K-pop bands to China so there is some competition between kgroups versus having the media always comparing kgroups to Chinese groups. Saturate the market a little bit!
p.s.
Question: is Big Bang popular in China? (yep, until TC or A-One release more stuff to fill up on my playlist, I am still a VIP and is saving up $$ to be a consumer of G-Dragon’s super expensive concert DVD in Feb).
December 13, 2009 at 7:43 pm
@curious
Not really (Big Bang-wise). Super Junior is five levels above pretty much everyone else.
December 13, 2009 at 7:45 pm
@idarklight – I yeah, I forgot about that one. Jane does seem to have a real love of the entire music process- not just singing.
@curious – That’s the normal ticket price for concerts in China. My cousin, always gets the 1280 yuan seats. I had to pay 380 yuan for really crappy seats where I had to squint just to see the actors in a play. Just because it’s China doesn’t mean everything comes cheap, and people will fork out money.
But wondergirls and bigbang fans can’t match the SM boygroup fans at all in number, although their fans seem more dedicated than the fans of the three girlgroups I mentioned.
I think I’m selling my SJM first album on ebay to pay for all the new releases. There’s so many Chinese albums released this December, and I don’t have the money to buy them all.
December 13, 2009 at 8:03 pm
wow expensive! i was doing a mind calculation, a normal broadway ticket cost $100 USD (for pretty good seats) and that’s only 700 yuan…
Chinese youth these days are very rich indeed! No wonder all the Taiwanese (and others) celebrities these days is going to mainland to have concerts, very profitable business~
December 13, 2009 at 8:15 pm
i like the style of the group its pretty and sweet
December 13, 2009 at 9:01 pm
allkpop is stupid. i cna’t believe after so many false info that ignorant people still believes them.
allkpop fans are the scariest netizens, worse than k-netizens that drove off jae bum. they are hypocrites, b/c helloooo, koreans aren’t original themselves.
wooo they stole the number 9~ big deal!
December 13, 2009 at 9:17 pm
If these girls have even slightly nice personality and 内在, they’ll succeed in China…. cuz honestly there are pretty much no nice/mature girl groups in Asia or even in the world, since most are either extremely slutty or extremely dumb and immature *coughsnsdshecough*….
As for the boy groups, well let’s just say make-up doesn’t match Chinese boys. I can totally drool over pretty Korean and Japanese boys (maybe they have a true girlish quality that’s acceptable), but when Chinese boys do it I go “dude, don’t be so gay”. This is probably why I like BOBO over Top Combine… BOBO’s just somehow more natural and less make-upy than the DBSK-like Top Combine.
BOBO rules! haha…
December 13, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Yeah, I was really PISSED off that allkpop would actually post that up. Whether they intended to or not, it is inflammatory and it ignited bashing of China. Allkpop knew it would happen because it’s happened before.
However, what I find about readers on allkpop, is that they’re kind of ignorant and really shallow… kind of dumb flocks of sheep who don’t think for themselves. Most of them are some Asian-Americans looking to kick up trouble. Don’t mind them.
After listening to them, the style is absolutely different. The sailor suits may have been plagiarism, but then again, so much of K-pop is copied off of American hip-hop. As I say: those who in live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. I find the best K-pop stuff is actually the original stuff, like some of their ballads and stuff like that.
December 13, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I am chinese american and am in no way “embarrassed” about the idol girls. You know how koreans are so proud of their country to the extent that they think others want to be like them. Why can’t chinese be like that too (united–not cocky) what happened to the chinese pride? Pathetic chinese allkpop readers don’t even know how to embrace their own cultural identity. Because of people like them, koreans think that they are all that. wtf.
Also, the person who wrote the article in allkpop should be shot.
i appreciate kpop, kdramas, but never will i ever want to be korean.
agree with cfensi…cant wait till cpop gets known out there.
December 13, 2009 at 9:43 pm
my question is—how the hell did allkpop make it into the best breaking news award….
sure it provides the latest gossip and kpop updates, but articles like these—makes me question them again.
i know i won’t be voting for them until they fix up their allkpop staff/writers
get all the facts straight
December 13, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Myipp, because you’re Chinese-American you might not realize that Chinese nationalism and pride is very strong on the mainland and in places with heavy concentrated Chinese populations. Never underestimate the power of Chinese culture. After all, it has last the test of time and has kept so many diverse factions and ethnicities within China as a united country, despite outsiders trying to break it up.
Chinese people are very proud. For goodness sakes! All this controversy is about cheap POP MUSIC? It’s so ridiculous. China is a developing country, but it has developed quicker than any other country in the world, especially with 1.3 billion people. DON’T EVER FORGET that Chinese people were the ones who civilized and had advanced technological, scientific, arts, cultural innovations before the rest of the world. It’s no wonder countries around China were heavily influence by Chinese people. Since we’re talking about Korea, did you know that the Korean flag is a Chinese symbol? Go figure.
200 years ago, Napoleon said about China: “THAT IS A SLEEPING DRAGON. LET HIM SLEEP! IF HE WAKES, HE WILL SHAKE THE WORLD.”
How right he was. As China fully awakens and develops, it will resume its place as a world power, like it has been for most of its history. Think about all the people struggling to learn Mandarin and struggling to come to terms about the rise of China. And yes, as silly as this sounds, China will also lead in “pop music” in coming decades.
Believe it, and be confident. When other people short-shortsightedly insult China or Chinese people, remember the strength of our heritage and culture and the strong future ahead.
December 13, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Thank you for posting this up. It made me feel a lot better after reading the crap that allkpop was feeding to people and kbite’s comments.
I just realized something about myself after reading this blog and its comments.
December 13, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I don’t even particularly like Ai Duo Girls (hoping ee’s will be better than them, really), but reading the allkpop article drove me up the wall. I don’t even have words for it other than it was a judgmental, hugely biased piece of slander.
It makes me hope that these girls, or at least the ee girl group, will go on to prove them wrong.
December 13, 2009 at 11:08 pm
*is really happy*
Although All-kpop is a pretty good source for performances on music bank etc etc Well since they posted some really bad articles about Hello!Project and Morning musume…I kinda have to search up things like this cos those pictures just looked too suspicious….The girls in the tell me your wish outfits look different than the girls *look at their legs they are just different* xDDD
Chinese music grow plzzz…I want to see your music but it hardd cos I have no idea where to look xP
I’m not chinese or korean or japanese but I do like to listen to their music xD K-pop is just very American…J-pop is very european xD I wonder what C-pop is xD *I’m not comparing or saying anyone copied merely relating to music genres I know very well*
Thank you so much for this post =) It’s nice to see truth :3
December 13, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Hi Shamie,
Some well-known C-pop artists are:
- Jay Chou (super popular)
- Wang Leehom (also popular)
- F.I.R. (a famous trio)
- S.H.E. (girl group)
- Khalil Fong (one of my favs)
- Jane Zhang (was on Oprah)
- Stefani Sun (one of the best artists)
Hope that helps.
December 13, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Is it bad that the short haired one screams “Zeng Yi Ke” to me?
Personally I don’t think much of this group either but labeling it as a copy is really a mindless attack. Asians need to stop segregating themselves and mocking each other. Because really, how different can we be?
December 13, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Well cfensi, you certainly got the hits you wanted LOL
December 13, 2009 at 11:36 pm
korean fangirls are such hypocrites. and the chinese people saying “i’m ashamed of being chinese for this” are even worse. wow. this really pisses me off.
December 13, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Sometimes I think that they’re Korean pretending to be Chinese so they can increase the propaganda
December 13, 2009 at 11:48 pm
i dont know if you guys can read korean,
but if you go here
http://sstv.freechal.com/News/Detail.aspx?cSn=1&pSn=71639
or
http://www.todaykorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=89691
or
http://www.gooddaysports.co.kr/news/?cset=star&bset=view&tot_code=47&code=11667&num=1&bpage=
and MANY MANY other OFFICIAL korean news site,
it CLEARLY says that those dressed in the sailor clothes are the Idol Girls…
and im pretty sure allkpop translates off korean sites, so
dont blame allkpop. theyre the only site that actually puts decent news up…and fast too.
if it werent for them, the idol girls wouldnt be getting much attention anyways..
December 13, 2009 at 11:52 pm
“Because really, how different can we be?”
Pretty dang different. Come on, now. That’s a Western stereotype that needs to go away.
And yeah, I do wonder if those people really are Chinese in any form. I find it hard to believe anyone would mock their own heritage that way.
December 13, 2009 at 11:53 pm
wow and im not even chinese or korean and this article really hit me hard o-o…
December 13, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Sigh…This kind of attitude from kpop fans is why I completely lost interest in korean music and dramas.
I’ve also noticed that the most fervent supporters of kpop tend to be chinese-americans….it’s kind of pathetic.
December 14, 2009 at 12:18 am
@Neph
We’re more similar than different. I mean, if human genes are 99% the same as apes, then it’s only that small difference that we notice. Unfortunately, most of the time, we pick out the differences first.
There is the idea that we should never homogenize groups of people, but we also shouldn’t overlook their similarities. For example, are Asians that different from Americans that Americans would think that a nation of people can be born evil when those people are people just like them?
December 14, 2009 at 12:21 am
My List of Awesome Cpop Artists:
1) Jay Chou (dont listen to him sing, but he’s a great composer)
2) Wang Lee Hom (My Home <3)
3) JJ Lin (back after illness)
4) Anson Hu (great composer and singer)
5) Stanley Huang (metal/rap/hip hop)
6) Zhang Jie (baby face w/ a great voice)
1) Fish Leong (I consider her a pop legend)
2) Stephanie Sun (beautiful voice)
3) Deserts Chang (alternative musician)
4) Alan (even though she's always in japan)
5) Jane Zhang (powerful voice)
6) Zhang Li Yin (even if she's under SM)
1) Mayday
2) F.I.R
3) Sodagreen
4) Phoenix Legend
5) S.H.E (the girl band that made it)
6) Da Mouth (cpop version of black eye peas)
December 14, 2009 at 12:24 am
I just realized I can’t list any idol groups, like you would w/ kpop. I can only think of S.H.E, Twins(?), BBT, FLH, TC, BOBO … seriously is that it for idol groups?
December 14, 2009 at 12:28 am
@ idarklight – Biologist that I am, I know how similar we all are. That doesn’t mean that we should consider ourselves a homogeneous mixture, though, especially given that most of that similarity is irrelevant when we’re talking about matters of the mind, rather than matters of coding genetic sequences, gene expression, and structural blahblahblah biochemistry can die. Sorry about all of that nonsense.
The point is that there are cultural differences – differences in the style of music that I hope will be preserved. Listening to C-Pop made me realize just how different aspects of it are from K-Pop, and that’s something I hope won’t be washed away in this meshpot of globalization.
December 14, 2009 at 12:29 am
C-pop isn’t known for idol groups.
December 14, 2009 at 12:31 am
Lol…has your perception been skewed by Kpop chinkirox? You still are too immersed in it. Kpop is overflooded with groups – no other country has so many.
In America there’s only Jonas Brothers – who despite writing their own music and just being themselves – get dissed as inferior to Asian boybands – not really.
@idarklight – I think there will always be a competitiveness between the Asian countries, just like between the European countries. Asia’s competitiveness does need to be toned down however – there’s been a lot of bad history there that hasn’t been resolved.
December 14, 2009 at 12:40 am
@Benji
You’re so right about the dialects issue. I’m Chinese American myself and when I tell other Chinese Americans that I’m Chinese, they’re like, “Do you speak Mandarin or Cantonese?” Then when I tell them that I’m Hakka, they’re like “What’s that?” Arrgghh. Some Chinese Americans are really ignorant, but that’s not what makes my blood boiled, it’s when they start calling us minorities from the mountains/hills in China, not that my ancestors didn’t live up in the mountains, but their tones sound so prejudiced.
December 14, 2009 at 12:47 am
@Cfensi
American culture is the most culturally individualistic nation in the world, so it’s hard to compare Americans with East Asians who are by far more collectivist and interdependent. It makes sense that Korea would have so many idol groups because of their collectivism.
December 14, 2009 at 12:47 am
@Neph
I mean yes, we are all different. You can group yourself under Asian, then Chinese, then Han Chinese, then Han Chinese from Dongbei, etc etc etc. I’m saying that differences should be recognized but not stressed. Mindlessly clumping asians together together is ignorance from the western world but relentless comparisons of superficial differences between asian groups is something asians have to get over. I’m sick of the whole Taiwanese vs Koreans vs Japanese…who is better shit. As humans, we are much more similar than different, are we not?
December 14, 2009 at 12:49 am
I think I am, I’ve been listening to nothing but kpop for the past few month. I guess it’s true, I’ve never seem so many groups since elementary school, which was when backstreet boys and nsync were battling it out.
I’ve never listened Xue Zhiqian (am I being deprived of good music?), and I’ve only heard one song from Hou Xia so I wouldn’t know enough to rank him. Also, he reminded me too much of Jay Chou so got kind of put out.
In America, the word band really have a new definition. JoBros are “big” because of their tween fans, they are technically a pop/rock band and there is currently a surplus of pop/punk/rock band that’s dominating the American music industry right now. And the way that teens are creating their own bands are like Koreans teens auditioning for talent agencies. But they even it out with country and hiphop/r&b (i guess), at least these bands aren’t winning every award in creation.
December 14, 2009 at 12:52 am
Speaking of country music… I actually like some of it. I think the use of fiddles and banjos and what not are similar in style to traditional Chinese songs…
December 14, 2009 at 12:54 am
I don’t even know who said this about K-Pop sounding American and J-pop sounding European … but what does that mean? How does American sound and European sound (since I only listen to tokio hotel and british music)?
December 14, 2009 at 12:57 am
I think modern country music is similar to zhong guo feng in China, taking the old, mix with the new, and create a something completely different and unheard.
December 14, 2009 at 12:59 am
Chinese have reputation of being copycat because of notorious copying tactic. Why Idol Girls band have 9 girls? when they could have select the lucky Chinese number “8″ and looking at their sailor’s outfit looking extremely lookalike to SNSD, makes me wonder if they breach serious copyright. There are 20 or more South Korean girl bands and SNSD is just one of them with rare nine girls. Most girl bands have four or five girls. South Korean girl bands have been reported of copying Japanese girl bands but these copied cat versions are all dead now, remember SES, FinkL? They’ve started girl bands fame in Korea. I don’t think copying style is much problem, but trying to be “look alike” is extremely disappointing.
December 14, 2009 at 1:04 am
@Koreansentry –
Well….reasons?
1) even number formations look awkward – that’s probably why they didn’t choose 8.
2) Seven is pretty much taken by the upcoming eeMedia girlgroup
3) Maybe they had too many trainees and needed to get some of them out there?
I don’t see member number as a reason to say they were influenced by SNSD, especially when other girlgroups have had the same number.
And yeah, I love FinKL! Thanks for being civil.
December 14, 2009 at 1:06 am
@Angela – I am so sorry. You must have faced a lot that I can’t even comprehend. I feel like I’ve been very lucky – I’ve never experienced racism. Maybe once or twice, but in middle school or something when everyone was not exactly well-educated so it didn’t matter to me so much.
idarklight and I were going to do a Chinese celeb minority post – It was taking forever, but we should do it. China’s minorities should be celebrated, as well as their languages.
@A – I always compare China to America because of the size and diversity. It takes about the same amount of effort to get famous in such a large country. America has had so many failed acts, so many one-hit wonders. I hope that won’t be a problem for China.
I don’t think collectivism has much to do with it. Kpop used to be individualized until the cute personalities of the groups took over and made it hard for soloists to compete.
December 14, 2009 at 1:07 am
The K-pop fans over at Omona, Allkpop, etc. are getting really worked up over this. None of them seem to be reading that Aiduo Girls is just a “cover group”…
And now they’re all turning in C-pop haters. They’re fully having a go at how the Chinese girls don’t have as nice legs or aren’t as pretty.
It sickens me.
I’m glad Cfensi readers over here have a much more sensible attitude towards this matter.
December 14, 2009 at 1:19 am
@Koreansentry
Yeah, China has a reputation of being copycats, but that’s because China’s a developing country asnd this news-story is magnified due to huge media attention and hype surrounding China’s rise. When South Korea was developing (It is an NIC now, a Newly Industrialized Country), it had the same problem, and I’m sure there is still copyright stuff going on in South Korea even now. Because Korea is so much smaller, there wasn’t as much focus on Korea.
SNSD is actually very similar to Morning Musume, especially the whole “9 members” concept. So you can’t say SNSD is totally original. In fact, “Tell Me Your Wish” was a European song that SM bought. Can’t say K-pop is original either because a lot of it is similar to American R&B/hip-hop. In fact, a lot of their songs have no cultural or distinctly “Korean” taste to it, but are very Westernized. I even read a story about G-Dragon plagiarizing concepts from the Black Eyed Peas. Hypocrisy, much?
Don’t blame Chinese for being copycats. Next time you eat noodles, use a compass, watch fireworks, use paper, use chopsticks, consume Chinese medicine, use Chinese characters (including the Chinese characters in Hangul alphabet), engage in Confucian philosophy (like bowing), raise the Korean flag’s symbol, you can thank the Chinese people for it.
I’m not going to call you a copycat, because we Chinese are generous people.
But it’s just FOOD FOR THOUGHT. I hope you truly think about it.
December 14, 2009 at 1:20 am
@megan
It’s funny because they diss the Chinese girls for being fat or having bad legs or whatever, yet I doubt they’re even half as good-looking themselves.
December 14, 2009 at 1:24 am
To Megan
Aiduo Girls isn’t a “Cover Group”….The picture of the girls dancing to SNSD’s song aren’t even Aiduo Girls and these dancing girls are parodying in a cosplay competition at a Game&Comic Convention.
At here http://act.17173.com/games/2009/
December 14, 2009 at 1:25 am
Ah – let’s not turn this into a who did what, or who took how much from each culture.
I have a very big fear of Chinese Americans/Canadians/etc, when Cpop gets massively popular (and it will – I’m estimating three-five years from now) being condescending and arrogant.
Because it doesn’t take that much for Chinese to go from saying how ashamed they are at being Chinese to dissing other countries for not having much – it all stems from the same insecurities.
December 14, 2009 at 1:25 am
A. Brilliantly said!!!! I love you.
Cfensi and idarklight…work hard on the minority post!!!!! I’m looking forward to it.
December 14, 2009 at 1:26 am
lol, I was suppose to spend my afternoon watching Autumn’s Concerto and Born Rich (last2 episodes!) but this is exciting LMAO!
so yeah while reading some awesome and pissed off comments, I decided to make a video. LOL.
December 14, 2009 at 1:27 am
I can’t wait until 3-5 years passes! And I swear I won’t be douchey and arrogant and racist about it =) *wink*
December 14, 2009 at 1:27 am
Yelei…I want to see the video you made!
December 14, 2009 at 1:28 am
I’m Korean and I’m sick and tired of idol groups… half of them don’t even have real talent, anyway. And groups with 7+ members are really kind of pointless. The only reason why you would want to be in a group like that is if you have no talent to show but want to be known for your pretty face. I really hope China doesn’t go on an idol group splurge like Korea is doing right now. It doesn’t do anything for the quality of music.
I like Top Combine but they really don’t showcase themselves well, imo. In all the shows I’ve seen with them in it, they always sing the same songs, do the same dances, and do the same tricks. And no offense, but S.H.E., Fahrenheit, etc. are not impressive at all. Chinese/Taiwanese companies really aren’t good at producing or marketing idol groups.
I hate how some people judge Koreans based on some dumb netizens’ remarks. We are people too. We have lives. We don’t spend all our time trying to come up with ways to make Chinese look bad.
December 14, 2009 at 1:29 am
@A Says:
Agree 100% with your post, but now Koreans are noticing the loophole in their thinking and are starting to fix it by…..taking credit for all those inventions!!
No joke, in recent years Korea has been churning out articles claiming that everything from Confucius to Chinese medicine to Sun-Yat-Sen (not even kidding) originated in Korea… And the cultural takeover is not just limited to Chinese culture, but also Japanese culture as well….
Really laughable…
December 14, 2009 at 1:32 am
Yeah in a few years time, we’ll be the ones with the best idol groups ;p
@A
You make such a good point with K-pop having very Western flavours to their music nowadays. Honestly, I don’t want to call anyone copycats either, but I just think that some K-pop netizens should watch what they’re saying…
Oh and I also want to see yelei’s video (:
December 14, 2009 at 1:33 am
@julie
December 14, 2009 at 1:34 am
@owldpg: I’m sorry if you got offended in any way. This is not directed at you at all…only at the mindless netizens who make stupid hypocritical comments before they do any research just to make themselves feel good
December 14, 2009 at 1:34 am
True Chinese-American Pride.
This is the girl you should all be looking up to (minus the pain and suicide)
RIP Iris Chang on the 72th anniversary of the Rape of Nanking:
People should stop less time making villains of other people who supposedly copied their idol who they don’t know and do more to make a difference in the world.
December 14, 2009 at 1:35 am
Thanks Yelei!!! =) And omg!!! you’re urasiansourcecpop?!?!!? I never knew that!!! I’m 2100549
December 14, 2009 at 1:38 am
Haha I love the video, yelei. And WOAH I totally didn’t know that you’re urasiansourcecpop!!
December 14, 2009 at 1:40 am
This is weird…me and megan are like the same person…We think the same lol =)
December 14, 2009 at 1:40 am
You guys need to learn the difference between Kpop fans and Koreans. Koreans don’t give a crap.
December 14, 2009 at 1:41 am
@yelei
Wow – I don’t have anything to say – except I am very jealous of your video skills. Yay for using Xue Zhiqian’s music! Oh, and I’ll add it into the post.
@idarklight – She really did give it all up to get Chinese people some closure that was badly needed. RIP.
December 14, 2009 at 1:41 am
@cfensai on cpop getting massively popular
im sure that it will get popular, cause your population is so big im sure their are huge number of musically geniuses….but do you think the way mandarin sounds will be a factor.
December 14, 2009 at 1:43 am
i mean like the accents and pronuncation
December 14, 2009 at 1:44 am
Haha Julie ;p Yeah we do think the same :L
@smith
“the way Mandarin sounds”?
December 14, 2009 at 1:45 am
@smith: That is the stupidest thing I’ve heard all day. And believe me, I’ve heard a lot of stupid things.
December 14, 2009 at 1:45 am
@cfensi
Oh god, I feel like douchiness is inevitable but I don’t think it will last. Maybe douchiness is just part of that “Recently Developed” thing. It’s like in high school, you finally become a sophomore after a year of being called “freshie” and the first thing you do is find a new freshman and make fun of them… Bad analogy?
@owldpg
No worries. There are dumb netizens everywhere.. every time I go on youtube I become painfully aware of that fact…
December 14, 2009 at 1:46 am
@megan & julie:
LMAO! yeah well urasiansourceCpop was suppose to be under urasiansourceKpop/urasiansource, but things didnt go the way we plan out so they’re not really related except for the username.
@cfensi: haha. I use to make fanvids, but it’s been awhile since I did that. anything regarding idols seem to get alot more comments.
December 14, 2009 at 1:48 am
@Smith: If you think mandarin is all “chings and chongs” you are sorely mistaken. In reality, mandarin doesn’t sound like that at all, it just sounds like that when westerners try to pronounce it.
December 14, 2009 at 1:49 am
Uhh…sorry for using the word westerners. I meant non-chinese speakers.
December 14, 2009 at 1:49 am
@Cfensi
I think 3-5 years is way too soon. The music industry needs more developing and innovation.
The reason why K-pop is hot among Asian-Americans and some non-Asian Americans is because it’s heavily Hip-Hop/R&B flavoured. C-pop is not like that, nor will be like that. C-pop will be distinctly different, and will not become popular in the West until China confirms its place as a cultural superpower and Chinese culture becomes more global. Never say never though… after all, no one thought China would sustain this much economic development in just 30 years.
@owldpg
I was pointing out the hypocrisy of netizens, not Korean people in general. I have respect for Korean people as a whole. You have to admit though, while Koreans are a distinct and unique people, there was cultural influence from China. I bring this point up whenever netizens start calling Chinese people cheap copycats.
@ megan
Ironically, while most K-pop fans like the bubblegum pop/hip-hop/R&B stuff, I mostly like the more select traditional K-pop stuff, like the ballad singers with the husky tone. I like this distinct K-pop stuff better, rather than the superficial mainstream stuff you hear about.
December 14, 2009 at 1:53 am
@A
Same. I don’t like the hip-hop, mainstream stuff either.
“The reason why K-pop is hot among Asian-Americans and some non-Asian Americans is because it’s heavily Hip-Hop/R&B flavoured. C-pop is not like that, nor will be like that. C-pop will be distinctly different…”
THIS.
People need to get that in their heads.
December 14, 2009 at 1:54 am
LOL, “ching-chong-cho” doesn’t even exist for god’s sake!
December 14, 2009 at 1:56 am
@A.
I also prefer those indie/ballad/jazz artists over mainstream Kpop group/artists. Some may have a good voice, but I wouldn’t call them a musician.
December 14, 2009 at 1:58 am
@yelei: wow on the video. And I wan going to watch Autumn Concerto today too but this thing become so much fun to read (both on here and allkpo). When I first read the news on allkpop, I’m like ok another China bashing session w/e moving on. And then this article appeared…
@1233: your high school analogy made me laugh, but it totally made sense.
@julie: I don’t think that’s what smith was tying to say, maybe it was talking about the way Chinese differs from English or even Korean words. That the Chines language might not be made for bubblegum pop, but better more original musical style.
December 14, 2009 at 1:59 am
@yelei:
Exactly!!! God I hate stupid Chinese stereotypes that aren’t even true…>_<
Also, someone mentioned the whole "are u mandarin or cantonese" thing… Um, there is no such thing as a "mandarin person" okay…mandarin is just a dialect (as opposed to cantonese which is a dialect but can also be used as a regional identifier)…what's sad is that even chinese people (well, chinese americans) ask me this. I'm always like, uh, I'm not mandarin but I speak it… *rolls eyes*
December 14, 2009 at 2:00 am
@A – I’m judging on how fast it’s developed already. Just look at far it’s gotten from 2006 to 2009! The Chinese companies are learning fast. And eeMedia went from completely disorganized to organized in one year. All you need is capital and vision.
And Kpop’s popularity rise was about the same. I looked at that for a while and I think 3-5 years is a perfectly possible. It will at least be popular amongst Chinese people abroad, which are a lot.
Kpop has good ballad singers, but I prefer Chinese/Japanese ballads overall.
December 14, 2009 at 2:00 am
@chinkirox: I lolled at the high school reference too. =P
I don’t think that Chinese has a specific genre of music though…
December 14, 2009 at 2:01 am
@ yelei.
Somebody needs to tell SNL that ching-chang-chong is neither accurate or funny.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/110317/saturday-night-live-china-cold-open
December 14, 2009 at 2:03 am
@cfensi: *In a british accent* My god this post is getting so many comments. I think it beat the boyband post. woah
December 14, 2009 at 2:03 am
@Lily
Ugh tell me about it. “Are you Mando or Canto?”… gosh I’m CHINESE and I SPEAK Mandarin…
@cfensi
I agree. At the rate that Chinese companies are learning, we’ll soon catch up and become more widely known. I mean C-pop has so much potential…
Wow, this is a really hot topic :L
December 14, 2009 at 2:09 am
I hate how everything asian is automatically thought to be chinese. Like the dog eating thing. China doesnt even have many people who eat dogs unlike some other country (not pointing out any names) where 1/3 of the population eats it.
December 14, 2009 at 2:09 am
@1233: we all know SLN make their money off of making fun of people. haha @ obama trademark habits lol but dont take SLN too seriously, they make fun of everyone, it doesn’t make it right but that’s what SLN do. wtf at the sex thing?
December 14, 2009 at 2:11 am
ugh… i read the article at allkpop… but i’m so glad i read this first because the pictures seemed very weird since they didn’t look alike at all.
I,too, signed up just to comment on it
I just wish I could make my font size 100 times bigger so people would see my comment and look at the bigger picture!
Koreans need to lose their ego. It’s just too much. and I can’t believe they are also bashing Hey Girl and saying they copy snsd when they debuted first! wth is with allkpop?!
Do they need to make china look bad?!
I’m so pissed! Ugh. Just wanna punch the person who wrote that and those abc’s that are ashamed of china. There music is nothing alike!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@#$$%&^%$*&$%&*$#$%^@$!%!
December 14, 2009 at 2:13 am
@Koreansentry
Did you post this? Ugh
http://forum.koreansentry.com/viewtopic.php?t=1963
I didn’t know there was a more ego stroking place than allkpop.
December 14, 2009 at 2:13 am
@julie
hey your attacking korea that time…not just netizens
December 14, 2009 at 2:13 am
@Cfensi
Hmm… very interesting observation. I trust your judgment more than mine, since you’ve been monitoring this from the very start.
That song on the video that yelei posted was pretty good for that type of style. I didn’t expect that.
December 14, 2009 at 2:15 am
@Annie: Remember, they make fun of cpop to make themselves feel more secure. Lol. This reminds me of my guidance counselor talking about bullies.
December 14, 2009 at 2:17 am
@ smith: so telling the truth is attacking? Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with eating dogs or whatever. If you think pointing out such a fact is “attacking Korea”, that shows your own negative perception of the act more than the commentator’s intentions.
December 14, 2009 at 2:17 am
I’m not saying theres anything with eating it, nor did I mention a country. Also there’s the prejudice that chinese ppl are short (Less now cuz of Yao Ming) when it’s actually another country in asian that has a short height average.
December 14, 2009 at 2:19 am
well the commentator wished they didnt say china did it so it was obviously negative…
December 14, 2009 at 2:20 am
@Smith: No, China does it too, but on a much smaller scale
December 14, 2009 at 2:20 am
@julie:
haha… it really did sound like that
December 14, 2009 at 2:21 am
I KNEW there was something fishy/familiar about the name “Koreansentry”! That just confirmed it.
These Korean nationalists, like Chinese, Japanese, or nationalists of any other ethnic group are sick in the head. They live and breathe solely for their country.
I wonder if they have any non-Korean friends or have met any non-Korean person before *rolleyes*.
December 14, 2009 at 2:21 am
i meant the bullying not the dog eating!
December 14, 2009 at 2:22 am
China, to outsiders, stands for not only China but Korea and Japan. So when something bad happens, or a bad stereotype appears in Asia, China takes the heat even if they have nothing to do with it. And the Chinese American kids being raised in the US, isolated from Chinese culture wouldn’t know the difference, and turn to self hate. I blame western media more then Korean fanatics on this Asian vs Asian bias.
December 14, 2009 at 2:24 am
don’t stereotype ALL abc’s
cuz i’m and abc and i don’t believe all the stuff that the media is saying!
December 14, 2009 at 2:26 am
@ chinkirox: uh, you are so totally right. The only thing we can do in this situation is to keep an open mind and have the ability to form our own opinions, despite what the media feeds us.
December 14, 2009 at 2:27 am
Thank you chinkirox for saying what I want to say.
December 14, 2009 at 2:27 am
Hey, let’s not turn into dumb netizens either. I too feel annoyed about the whole China = anything Asian in outsiders’ eyes, but let’s just not get too carried away (:
December 14, 2009 at 2:28 am
yeah… the girls in the sailor outfits with the poses were a bunch of school girls competing in a cosplaying contest at a convention. not a group who were/are/will become idols. so the whole point of those poses and outfits and hair was to make it look as close to SNSD as possible. heck, they were probably even dancing to Genie.
i think everyone (chinese and korean) alike should feel more foolish now about debating over a silly misinterpreted cosplaying picture like this…
December 14, 2009 at 2:29 am
@annie: I’m sorry if I offended you. But I’m not stereotyping ABCs, there are some ABCs who’s parent raise them in a Chinese orientated environment. But it’s the one’s that doesn’t that worries me. I once babysat this kid who’s father is American and Mother Chinese, I spoke Chinese, but I wasn’t allowed to speak Chinese to the kid. I hope when that kid grows up at least his parents would sent him to Chinese school.
December 14, 2009 at 2:29 am
Annie… I’m kind of an abc too. And I’m not like them either. We are just talking about the majority of them who have inferiority issues. LOL
December 14, 2009 at 2:32 am
did allkpop really didn’t know it was just a cover group or did they just “forget” to mention that?
December 14, 2009 at 2:32 am
What’s maddening for me is that I feel like allkpop isn’t going to any about the arcticle or say ” oops sorry we got the wrong picture”
December 14, 2009 at 2:33 am
ah I see… lol
i can’t believe they wouldn’t let their kid speak chinese!
December 14, 2009 at 2:34 am
Knowing Allkpop, they won’t even realise their mistake for ages and even then, as if they’re going to retract it.
December 14, 2009 at 2:36 am
@everyone
While I understand this incident sort of magnifies pretty much everything we hate about the generalizations of cpop/chinese people, I don’t think this should be turned into a bashing party for everything else. Cpop is already young and prone to bashing, why make enemies?
December 14, 2009 at 2:36 am
the funny thing is,
allkpop never said idol girls were the sailor outfit girls.
the writer says something like
“there are cover group other than the idol girls…blah blah”
i ono i cant remember the exact words,
but i think everyones just getting overhyped about a stupid article..
and people are just misunderstanding each other…
December 14, 2009 at 2:37 am
I hope more people will watch yeleis video and see the truth.
And it’s saddening how people think the song is by wilber pan when it’s actually by jacky xue. Sigh
December 14, 2009 at 2:37 am
I’m a CBC, Chinese-born Canadian. I’ve never been an ABC before so I wouldn’t know, but I think our experience is different due to government policy of multiculturalism. If you live in Vancouver or Toronto with huge Chinese populations, I think the experience is better than the situations that ABC’s face.
December 14, 2009 at 2:38 am
@megan
There is a “contact” button at the top. Contact the allkpop admin and complain about the article’s inflammatory nature and the inaccuracies.
December 14, 2009 at 2:40 am
A. I’m a CBC living in the USA LOL. But I totally understand. Toronto had a huge Chinese population, so it wasn’t bad at all.
December 14, 2009 at 2:45 am
You know what, I think I will contact Allkpop. Does anyone have a link to the original photo of the cosplayers?
December 14, 2009 at 2:47 am
wooh megan! You go girl. It would be cool if we petition.
December 14, 2009 at 2:48 am
@Julie
Haha, yup. If you ever go to Richmond, BC for example, it’s like 55% Chinese with these huge ultra-modern Asian-themed malls and shops with flashing Chinese characters. It’s like walking into Hong Kong, Canada.
December 14, 2009 at 2:48 am
@annie: I think the parents didn’t want the kid to fall behind once he started school because he doesn’t speak English, but still it’s not like he need to learn that much in kindergarten/first grade.
@megan: allkpop isn’t known for it’s accuracy, it’s known for how fast their articles appear (factually correct or not).
Lucky people who have a large Asian population that mix. Where I live, even though we have a large Asian population, the Korean and Chinese and ABC do not mix with each other at all.
December 14, 2009 at 2:50 am
Wow the different Asians don’t mix in your area? Here in Sydney Koreans, Chinese, Malaysian, Taiwanese, Japanese and other Asians all mix; many just don’t tend to mix with Westerners.
Asians are like rice; we stick together
December 14, 2009 at 2:50 am
why is the boy band trend article private all of a sudden?
December 14, 2009 at 2:51 am
@chinkirox:
Interesting. Which state or city would that be? In British Columbia Canada, Asians in general mix well. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.
December 14, 2009 at 2:53 am
@chinkirox:
Huh…When I was in kindergarten I could speak english, chinese, and japanese (I went to chinese and japanese school on the weekends)…and I did just fine in school.
Actually, where I live all the asian-americans get along with each other really well…even the fobs, which is saying something. It’s just on the internet that I find these kinds of dumb people…
December 14, 2009 at 2:53 am
@chinkirox – because that’s just a whole ‘nother can of worms. It’s enough work to keep track of this post.
@A. I live where there’s basically no Asians – I didn’t really experience racism and I’m not sure why.
I want this to be a place for people who don’t really have anywhere else to go to sort of let out their frustrations. I obviously understand the need to vent – I’ve done it several times on this blog. At the same time, I really hope no one will be generalizing or bashing others.
I meant what I said – most Koreans I’ve met were nice. I haven’t met a lot of people who were mean.
December 14, 2009 at 2:55 am
In Toronto… The majority of Asians are Chinese so I don’t really know about mixing.
We should start a website like anticnn! We should call it allkpoplies or something. But I’m like computer-challenged so I have no idea how to to it.
December 14, 2009 at 2:55 am
lol @ megan’s rice analogy
idky but they just stick with their own “people” and exclude others by speaking Korean or Chinese and the ABC are too involved with general high schoolness to bother making friends with Korean/Chinese. And being an semi-ABC (born in China but when to middle and high school in the US) the Chinese/Korean people does seem kind of distant, and don’t want to befriend ABCs or KoreanBCs.
December 14, 2009 at 2:58 am
@chinkirox:
same here! where I live. None of the asians mix with each other. Japanese stick with Japanese. Koreans stick with Koreans. American born asians stick with each otehr. Not even taiwanese and chinese stick together. Taiwanese have their own group and so do chinese.
But over here… the Korean fob population overwhelms that of all the other asians. So whatever the koreans do, the white-americans all think every asian does that. Which kind of sucks b/c all the other asians are completely different from them and are placed a stereotype that has nothing to do with them -_-
December 14, 2009 at 2:58 am
One of best friend is Korean… And even though she sometimes annoys me to death, she’s very sweet and I love her
December 14, 2009 at 3:00 am
Huh. The Asians I’ve been with, unless the populations of Asians are really low, have tended to stick to those of their own heritage. The Koreans and Chinese students at my university, for instance, are pretty distinctly separated, and we kinda do throw (mostly harmless, joking) barbs at each other now and then. There’s definitely a bit of racism going on, though.
And please, no anti-groups. There’s enough hate going around already. That’ll just escalate into flame wars, and I see enough of them with my online fanboy crowds. They’re not pretty.
December 14, 2009 at 3:00 am
But besides her, most of the Koreans/Japanese/Chinese sit at different tables at lunch.
December 14, 2009 at 3:01 am
@A: I live on the east coast, I heard west coast is a big Asian melting pot but not here, here’s like vinegar and oil. If there were less or more Asian it might not be like this, but it’s just at the perfect amount of diversity and non diversity to form ‘gangs’ (not literally of course). If there’s less Asian diversity, all the Asian would stick together or if there’s a lot then the division between groups wouldn’t be as clear.
@Lily: wow, lucky … HOW?!
December 14, 2009 at 3:02 am
I need to clarify – we’re all on good enough terms with each other. But god knows there are definitely stereotypes, and the “fobby” Koreans don’t mix with the rest of the Asians. Indeed, we really do cluster Chinese with Chinese, regardless of ABC or “fobbiness”. We have one Korean friend in our large friendgroup, and she’s more or less an “ABK”, so…
December 14, 2009 at 3:02 am
LOL I don’t want to start an anti group. I just want to start a site that exposes misleading information on allkpop.
December 14, 2009 at 3:03 am
@ chinkirox: do you mean the school thing or the mixing?
December 14, 2009 at 3:04 am
@lily: the language thing!
December 14, 2009 at 3:06 am
okay so i know this is random but did TopCombine’s new album come out and where could i like see their new songs or do they only have two new songs?>.<
December 14, 2009 at 3:08 am
No tc’s album didn’t come yet. Only 2 songs have been revealed, but there will be like 10 new songs.
I think the mv and the album is coming sometime next week
December 14, 2009 at 3:09 am
@chinkirox: oh, that lol…I was born in Tokyo, lived there for five years, and moved to the US. I think for one year I stayed with my grandparents in China.
In the US, I picked up English pretty easily. I used to go to Chinese school on Saturdays and Japanese school on Sunday…it was like torture at the time, but in retrospect, it really helped me
it’s nice to know more languages
. When I have kids I’m going to teach them Japanese along with Chinese, even though they probably won’t have any connection to Japan XD just cuz XD
December 14, 2009 at 3:10 am
@L: I Know! I’ve been waiting for it too! I think it’s next week
December 14, 2009 at 3:14 am
@yelei – thank you for creating urasiansourceCpop!
@A & megan for your smart comments ^_^
December 14, 2009 at 3:15 am
I’m really looking forward to eemedia’s new girl group.Hopefully they’ll actually announce the members on new years
December 14, 2009 at 3:17 am
@L – Top Combine’s album release occurred on the 13th, but I don’t know when the album will be out exactly to uh, download.
Also I don’t know who cares but Kimi Qiao Renliang’s album should be released soon too – like any day now. He also just had an album launch, and they previewed his MVs – there’s 3 of them.Xue Zhiqian’s compilation album was also released, and so was his Unfinished MV. I’m waiting for his My Athena MV to post on him though.
There’s also a whole bunch of other releases, including indie I love.
I’ll try to post on all the releases this December. That’s what break is for right? I may be gone for a few days though.
I also want to do a post on “The Hotties of the new Four Classics Adaptations” for fun, because – heh I found a hot new pic of Nie Yuan bald. I still need to finish my upcoming romance movies post, so there’s lots of stuff I’m going to cover.
December 14, 2009 at 3:20 am
During the break I’m going to watch hua Mulan and then listen to all the new songs that came out.
I’m looking forward to jackys my Athena mv!!!
December 14, 2009 at 3:23 am
oh yea and btw… You guys are saying(the comment under mine) that “mandarin” is a type of Chinese?! Are you stupid?! Mandarin is a type of Chinese LANGUAGE…. I think you are referring to Han Chinese which is the type of Chinese people who live in mainland China.
December 14, 2009 at 3:26 am
@yoon ji: your comment makes no sense. Please clarify.
December 14, 2009 at 3:27 am
Yea for Kimi’s new album! (I care!) Do you thing eeMedia would “debut” the girl group on their new year show? or would that be too much? I’m going to (finally) watch Red Cliff over break and catch up on my sleep =]
*sidenote: I think cfensi got the hits it wanted w/ this article.
December 14, 2009 at 3:33 am
China is where Korea was 10 years ago when the U.S. Was dominate in the boy/girl group scene. Don’t worry in less than 5 years China will be awesome if not better than kpop… I’m chinese-American, but I know how the people from my motherland act.. Don’t underestimate us. Also if neitzens are so spiffy of numbers. Then beloved DBSK and BB are all copies of NSYNC and backstreet boys… I do love them the kpop music, but shouldn’t bring down other ethnicites… With really unreasonable comments… When it comes to dissing my motherland…. That is where I come in defending it.
December 14, 2009 at 3:33 am
Btw, cpop = copied pop according to some user. oh man this is getting more interesting!
Why must everyone try debuting at the same month?! *sigh* im excited for Top Combine.
I wanna watch Hua Mulan too. Bodyguards and Assasins seem so interesting! darn, i wish iw as in chinaor something right now.
December 14, 2009 at 3:35 am
@yoon ji: I would have seriously mistaken your username to be korean. =x sorry.
December 14, 2009 at 3:41 am
Lol it’s the Korean version of my Chinese name.. I don’t want to use by real name on online things :-/ it’s kind of a cover up…. Don’t mistaken it @ lily, if you don’t understand look of Han Chinese and Mandarin Language, then you’ll know the difference. :-/
December 14, 2009 at 3:45 am
@yoon ji: Well I know that mandarin is one of the many dialects of the Han Chinese language if that’s what you were trying to say -_-…
December 14, 2009 at 3:46 am
Sigh… Everyone is getting so worked up about a little girlgroup people in china even don’t know much about. This is ridiculous, why must Asians be so competitive?
Stupid stupid stupid netizens.
December 14, 2009 at 3:46 am
What. The Top Combine album is delayed again?
Anyway, yeah Korean fobs never mix with anyone…
“cpop = copied pop according to some user” – ouch.
December 14, 2009 at 3:47 am
Thanks so much for putting this up. Omg, the stupid coming out of some people. It hurts. BTW, I’m going to China in two days OMGYEYYAYYAY!!!!! Any recommendations for what I need to pick up music movies wise??? I totally need to backtrack you blog to find some figure out what to buy there. /excited
December 14, 2009 at 3:48 am
I wish I could pop out of whoever wrote that’s computer and taser them
December 14, 2009 at 3:48 am
@megan: lol…..whoever wrote that is an idiot ;P If they’re going to say that, then kpop and jpop and whatever elsepop are all copies too…*shrugs*
December 14, 2009 at 3:49 am
@ Megan – No, it hasn’t been delayed, and there was a release party yesterday. It’s just that there hasn’t been a download available for it, and no one overseas has the album yet.
December 14, 2009 at 3:50 am
I hate how theirs jpop kpop and cpop… But in the US/England/Canada it’s just pop. Not epop or apop.
December 14, 2009 at 3:51 am
Oh okay thanks for clearing that up, Neph ;p
December 14, 2009 at 3:52 am
@Julie: ROFLMAO
December 14, 2009 at 3:52 am
@Julie: being competitive is what makes us Asian lol jk jk
@Neph: I want the actual album, so where can I buy it cheap (so no yesasia)
December 14, 2009 at 3:52 am
Lily: LOL I know
December 14, 2009 at 3:53 am
@windowwatcher
I’m going to China in two weeks. My list of albums to get (mainland wise…I also want Wang Leehom):
Li Yuchun’s new self-titled/self-composed album “Li Yuchun”
Laure Shang’s “Time lady”
Zhang Jie’s “the most beautiful sun” EP
Zhang Jie’s “After tomorrow” album
Xue Zhiqian’s “deeply loved you”
BOBO’s “the world is big”
Meteor Shower OST
Huang Ling’s album
December 14, 2009 at 3:54 am
Hopefully this will die down in a few days
December 14, 2009 at 3:54 am
You know what’s interesting. Many Chinese immigrants I know (like myself) used to want to be white when they were little. Recently, I overheard my mom’s friend talking about her 10 year old daughter who supposedly pestered her about wanting to be korean. I was just like…. OTL. New trend? Can’t wait for the day that little Chinese girls will be comfortable being.. little Chinese girls.
oh god……………i really need to work on my paper. So distracted by this thread…………………………
December 14, 2009 at 3:55 am
@windowwatcher: lol at how worked up you got in you article. good points but calm down =]
December 14, 2009 at 3:55 am
Well, cfensi. Tons of hits. You can start putting ad/banners on this site and make tons of $$$.
Haha. Jokes.
December 14, 2009 at 3:55 am
idol entertainment trainees
http://fmn031.xnimg.cn/fmn031/pic001/20090309/18/05/large_oTdS_21691f206100.jpg
December 14, 2009 at 3:56 am
Idarklight… Have fun shopping. When I went to china I spent over 600yuan on CDs.
December 14, 2009 at 3:58 am
@1233: Ahhh I should be studying for finals but I’m distracted by this thread too >.<
But yeah, I totally get you. I mean, I've always been proud of being Chinese myself, but I suspect some of my closest friends have a secret wish to be Korean…..(thankfully at least my best friend is not like this).
I reall think it has to do with how in-touch you are with your own culture. If you have close connections with your culture, no amount of outside influence can distort your view of your identity.
December 14, 2009 at 3:58 am
let’s make alphabet pops..
apop,bpop,cpop,dpop… so on and so forth! yay for pop musc LMAO!
December 14, 2009 at 3:59 am
I’m glad I’m not one of those people who don’t have self confidence
December 14, 2009 at 4:00 am
@1233 &lily: I know need to be studying for my finals!
LMAO @ yelei but what’s dpop? Danish pop? lol
December 14, 2009 at 4:00 am
@1233
You know, that really is the problem with pop culture in general. It makes young kids hate themselves, or make them desperately desiring to be something which they are not. And it often ends up damaging the child’s self-esteem. Stuff like that is pretty sad, and I hope it’s not widespread. That’s the first time I’ve heard something like that.
December 14, 2009 at 4:00 am
Yay alphapops!!!!!
December 14, 2009 at 4:01 am
@1233
Yeah heaps of little ABCs wanted to be white :L I know I did too. But then getting older, you grow out of it and realise that being Asian is cool ;p But I get the feeling that a lot of Chinese now want to be Korean or Japanese which makes me pretty sad…
@windowwatcher
You should get the lastest Zhang Jie’s album, it’s called Through Trilogy or something- really really good though.
December 14, 2009 at 4:02 am
LOL you make it sound as if it’s candy now
December 14, 2009 at 4:04 am
@megan:
LOL, where I live (mostly viet & chinese) they listen to Korean artists that are Big Bang, SNSD, SUJU, Epik High, BoA, WG, 2pm, 2am, Shinee.. mainly the mainstream popular groups.. and way to go with the “I love korean music” because THOSE groups/artists only belong under one genre: mainstream kpop.
December 14, 2009 at 4:04 am
alphapops … i wonder what it would look like as a candy … ?
December 14, 2009 at 4:05 am
I wonder what appeals to abcs about being Japanese or Korean… Music? Anime? I just don’t see it.
December 14, 2009 at 4:07 am
but there are white people who want to be asian so …
December 14, 2009 at 4:07 am
Alphapops would be Popsicles shaped like letters. Mmm I’m getting hungry now.
December 14, 2009 at 4:07 am
@ Julie: probably the male celebrities ;P
December 14, 2009 at 4:08 am
大家都是中国人，
问什么要用英文聊呢？？
December 14, 2009 at 4:09 am
i seriously think this blog should be turn into a website, but i know it’ll be alot of work on both idarklight and cfensi. *sigh*
December 14, 2009 at 4:09 am
@Julie: i imagined it to be those big carnival lollipops w/ rainbow colors and stuff.
December 14, 2009 at 4:09 am
Chinkirox: at my school, the white people who want to be Asian are those weird gothi/emo people
December 14, 2009 at 4:11 am
大家都是中国人，
为什么要用英文聊呢？
December 14, 2009 at 4:11 am
@anon: b/c I’m raised outside of China, and my Chinese isn’t good enough to defend China with so it kind of defeats the purpose.
December 14, 2009 at 4:12 am
@julie: omg my too lmao maybe it’s a trend…
December 14, 2009 at 4:13 am
@Lily
LOL It’s definitely the hotties and shiny boybands ;p
I find it a bit weirder that white kids want to be Asian that Chinese wanting to be Korean or Japanese.
@o(╯□╰)o
Most people here were born and raised out of China so we use English. And I’m sorry I can’t really write Chinese…
Anyway, my internet is capped , so I’m going to leave this discussion now. Bye everyone (:
December 14, 2009 at 4:14 am
@yelei – I’m terrible with technology. How does one turn this into a website?
I was thinking there should be a Chinese forum – it’ll make the workload easier on us – that way people can share what they find in baidu and post it there because we only cover a small fraction of what’s going on.
@windowwatcher *waves* Now it’s like a big party here.
Um…
Movies – I’d definitely watch The Message and Bodyguards and Assassins. I haven’t seen either yet, but hoping that I do soon! There’s some other big releases worth looking at but I can’t think of them just yet off the top of m head.
You should get – I guess the stuff I listed would be coming out?
Xue Zhiqian’s Compilation because he writes nice songs, and it’ll have his best.
Top Combine – I just want to support Ma Xueyang for actually writing half the songs for their first album. It’s given back the love I had for boybands.
Cao Fang – she had an excellent release recently.
And Crowd Lu just because he makes one smile
December 14, 2009 at 4:15 am
@ julie and chinkirox: I think it’s always been like that lol….
but yeah I’m serious about the whole male celeb thing. Never underestimate the influence that male celebs have on impressionable little girls (hello Jonas brothers). They’ll grow out of it….hopefully.
December 14, 2009 at 4:18 am
你们不在中国生长，
倒对中国那些不入流的选秀“歌手”挺了解呀~~~
o(╯□╰)o
December 14, 2009 at 4:20 am
@lily: but all these Asian girls are not little girls! And I like Kpop b/c the members are funny jokwon lmao. And the fact that my parents don’t understand what they are saying (lyrics) so I can blast it w/o feeling embarrassed about my parents hearing me listening to love songs or stanley huang/mc hotdog-ish stuff. It’s like watching a ‘sex’ scene w/ you parents.
December 14, 2009 at 4:22 am
I’m kind of embarassed but I have no idea what that meant =(
December 14, 2009 at 4:23 am
@chinkirox: lol I wasn’t saying there’s anything wrong with liking boybands, just that their “hotness” can alter people’s perception of their identity (like it was discussed earlier). But whoa….I never though of it as watching a sex scene lol O_O…
December 14, 2009 at 4:24 am
@anon: there are ways to find out about the super girls/boys. Just because we don’t live in China doesn’t mean we don’t know at lest some of what’s going on in China. Also, cfensi is keeping us up to date with all the happening in c-ent.
December 14, 2009 at 4:26 am
@lily: but doesn’t it like if you really listen to some of the lyrics it’s so … mushy … not like a sex scene but like something really intimate.
December 14, 2009 at 4:26 am
Ok… I understand what anons saying now.
We have very very good ways to keep track of things happenning in china
December 14, 2009 at 4:27 am
WOW, i just realize, it’s 200 something posts. O__________O
cfensi, congratulations. Idol groups are seriously something, huh?
December 14, 2009 at 4:27 am
LOL I should really sleep. It’s midnight and I need to get up at six
December 14, 2009 at 4:30 am
@chinkirox: lol I don’t really pay that much attention to the meaning of the lyrics when I listen to songs XD, but when you put it that way…. *decides to pay more attention to lyrics in the future*
@o(╯□╰)o: 我还了解汉服呢~~
December 14, 2009 at 4:30 am
translation of o(╯□╰)o for Julie (is this what you have no idea what it meant … or was it my comment?)
so (s)he’s first comment was: “everyone’s Chinese on here, why aren’t you speaking Chinese.” and (s)he’s second comment was “Even though you guys didn’t grow up in China you seem to know so much about the competition ‘singer’”
December 14, 2009 at 4:30 am
@o(╯□╰)o
The competition “singers” are sure a lot better “singers” than those random boy/girlband members from everywhere or the random cpop “idols” that most companies once promotes.
They may have came out of a competition, but they deserve to be judged by their singing abilities just like everyone else. Jane Zhang, He Jie, Laure Shang, Liu Liyang Zhang jie, Su Xing, Wei Chen, Huang Ying, etc. all have beautiful voices and are no less singers than anyone else.
December 14, 2009 at 4:33 am
Thanks chinki! =)
December 14, 2009 at 4:33 am
@Lily
Hanfu!!!!
I’m determined to get one this trip in China…thanks to my various relatives, I now own three qipaos….when all I really wanted was either hanfu or a Uyghur dress..or a peacock dress.
December 14, 2009 at 4:34 am
啥好方法？
December 14, 2009 at 4:34 am
Megan, if you’re still here, did you write a message to allkpop?
December 14, 2009 at 4:35 am
@idarklight – I don’t think they were judging them for that. Were they?
But yeah I agree – eeMedia tapped into a freakish goldmine there. So many awesome artists that I think can last the test of time.
December 14, 2009 at 4:36 am
@idarklight: SO LUCKY!!!!! I don’t know when I’m going to China next, so now I’m searching for someone to bring it back for me TAT….Do you know which store you’re going to? Or are you ordering it from taobao?
December 14, 2009 at 4:37 am
We should make a forum. =\ It’d discussions a lot more open and easier to carry over time.
It doesn’t have to be administrated by one person; all it takes is for one person to set it up.
Because this discussion is really hard to follow in this format. I want to talk, but it’s like we have multiple subjects going on at once.
December 14, 2009 at 4:39 am
对于超女，
我只喜欢张靓颖。。。
你们知道春哥吗？
December 14, 2009 at 4:39 am
@Neph – I really want to make a forum for cpop discussions but I don’t know how.
December 14, 2009 at 4:45 am
Those Chinese people wanting to be Korean or Japanese must be really shallow. Why would you want to sacrifice five thousand years of history for twenty years of pop music? = _ =
But if anyone going to China wants to smuggle back a panda cub for me, well…that would just be awesome.
Eee…I want one! T _ T
December 14, 2009 at 4:46 am
o(╯□╰)o 您是哪里人？我爸妈经常有‘啥’
您是不是在问我们是怎么样知道的超男超女？
春哥? 李宇春?
wow my grammar’s pretty bad there.
December 14, 2009 at 4:47 am
Thanks for this article! Really informative and totally changed my perspective. =)
December 14, 2009 at 4:50 am
eeMedia MV!!!!!
http://video.sina.com.cn/ent/v/m/2009-12-14/120159838.shtml
@o(╯□╰)o
Jane Zhang is the most “proper” singer, and definitely one of the most talented and intelligent.
But the other girls shouldn’t be discredited for wanting to sing. Liu Liyang has my favorite voice, and He Jie has the best stage performances. Even Li Yuchun should be commended for her dedication and attitude toward music and life.
December 14, 2009 at 4:50 am
(⊙o⊙)
你知道春哥！！
那曾哥呢？？？
December 14, 2009 at 4:50 am
I’m an Overseas Chinese, linked here via Seoulbeats. I think there’s a difference between the cultures of China and Overseas Chinese(Taiwan, HK, Singapore). The culture of Overseas Chinese is very similar to Korea’s, ie based on ancestor worship and Confucianism.
……. Whereas, the culture of China is capitalist communism, with little ancestor worship and Confucianism. 70 years of Communist rule has wiped out the old imperial traditional Chinese culture. So, basically, China’s culture is the pursuit of wealth and communalism. In a sense, no traditional culture. Eg during recent Chinese New Year concerts on Chinese TV, many operatic national communist songs are sung. Only pop singers favored by the govt, are invited.
So, I think some Koreans and K-Ams are justified in criticizing China’s pop culture as lacking and copycats. Coz China’s industries are mostly copycats and pirates.
Also, pop songs were non-existent in China from 1949 to around 1989. So it’s only natural that China’s music companies copy others. China is experiencing a case of pop amnesia, due to Mao’s communist rule. So sad for my motherland.
December 14, 2009 at 4:51 am
Sheep voice Zeng Yike is our fav.
And OMG! How is it that’s the first one released? Before Yu Haoming or Top Combine?
@person above – eh , Your motherland’s not that bad off. I can’t seem to stop posting on the entertainment. -_- So addicting.
December 14, 2009 at 4:53 am
@ GEEzer aka teluklitik: Umm….what? I fail to see how confucianism, traditional culture, pop songs, and copycatting are interconnected. Please make your argument more coherent.
December 14, 2009 at 4:53 am
OMG…my computer stopped but the video looks so epic!!!!
December 14, 2009 at 4:55 am
@idarklight：
Thanks! i shall upload that
December 14, 2009 at 4:57 am
Well, I’ll be finished with my finals next week… I can try making one for you and idarklight. Would a format like TCP’s be okay?
Also, does anyone have a DL link for that MV? I’d love to sub it. =D
December 14, 2009 at 4:57 am
Benji <3 you made my day … or night … or day
o(╯□╰)o why do you call them 哥? they're girls aren't they?
December 14, 2009 at 5:01 am
@Neph – Yay! It’s set. Gargoyles and a forum.
December 14, 2009 at 5:03 am
@GEEzer aka teluklitik:
cpop has nothing to do with the government or political hitory, if the cctv chinese new year gala is the only form of Chinese entertainment you watch then you don’t know much about what’s going on in Chinese entertainment right now. Also, I’m an overseas Chinese, I don’t do any ancestor worship, I don’t know where that came from. I think people in China are more into it then people overseas.
December 14, 2009 at 5:05 am
你们知道百度WOW吧吗？
不明白可以去问问~~~
这是链接：
http://tieba.baidu.com/f?z=0&ct=318767104&lm=11&sc=0&rn=50&tn=baiduKeywordSearch&rs3=0&rs4=0&word=%C4%A7%CA%DE%CA%C0%BD%E7&pn=0
December 14, 2009 at 5:06 am
LOL the whole ancestor workship gave me goosebumps.
my parents dont do much of those workshipping, but I actually enjoy going into temples<3
YAY for a forum!
December 14, 2009 at 5:11 am
So, what name would you guys like? I’m going to try seeing which service works out best right now, and fiddle around with it while I’m on break from studying…
December 14, 2009 at 5:12 am
信春哥，得永生
信春哥，不挂科
春哥教信徒华丽地路过
December 14, 2009 at 5:15 am
Haven’t got a clue…it took me forever to pick out this one, and then I didn’t realize how to work wordpress, so it’s both the site and my username.
Is anyone more imaginative? Cpopsource?
December 14, 2009 at 5:19 am
i dont like forums cause you have to register to post but I guess it would take some load off of cfensi & idarklight
how about ‘alphapop’ lol
December 14, 2009 at 5:21 am
@GEEzer aka teluklitik
“So, I think some Koreans and K-Ams are justified in criticizing China’s pop culture as lacking and copycats. Coz China’s industries are mostly copycats and pirates.”
That’s not true. First of all, as I’ve pointed out before, South Korea also had copyright/pirating problems when they were industrializing. You just never heard about it because Korea is not a large country that caught the attention of the Western media. Secondly, while there is a great deal of pirating in the Chinese economy, this is by no means the backbone of the economy. The Chinese economy is based on manufacturing products, most of which are legitimately ordered by companies.
“Also, pop songs were non-existent in China from 1949 to around 1989. So it’s only natural that China’s music companies copy others. China is experiencing a case of pop amnesia, due to Mao’s communist rule. So sad for my motherland.”
That is also not true. In fact, this ties to the first point I addressed. BECAUSE of China’s black market, Chinese people were able to get pop music during China’s isolationist era. Ever heard of Teresa Teng? She was the legendary songstress who was not only immensely popular in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, but also Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, even Korea, etc. There’s a saying that by day, Deng Xiaoping rules China, but by night, a different Deng (Teresa Teng/Deng) ruled China. This just shows how China has had pop music in the past.
December 14, 2009 at 5:22 am
@cfensi
I like Cfensi. It’s cultural. It’s unique and different.
December 14, 2009 at 5:24 am
oh geeze, i got linked to this from a comment on allkpop.
I don’t even know why theyre making such a big deal about a chinese girl group. I don’t even know why its being compared to SNSD. other than the nine member thing, and thats not even a valid reason to call for plaigarism.
not to mention its the music industry, similarities to follow trends and CREATING trends will no doubt happen.
and for those bashing the chinese. cmon now, koreans obviously were not the ones to come up with music groups and so on. koreans evolved off other nations.
December 14, 2009 at 5:27 am
I think CFensi would probably be as good a name as any, LOL. Your blog, after all, is essentially the homepage for C-entertainment news…
As for the forum thing, I’m going with a free host for now, but that has some dangers. I hope you’re not expecting anything fancy, because I can only do functional for now. =\
December 14, 2009 at 5:27 am
@BASIL: some people just refuse to see the obvious *sighs*
December 14, 2009 at 5:27 am
Haha. Good job, Cfensi is getting linked from comments on K-pop sites!
December 14, 2009 at 5:34 am
@Neph – Ha, I have no idea what the difference is btw the fancy and non fancy. I’m sure whatever is fine.
We actually got linked to from quite a few kpop sites. Because unfortunately this false news was posted at every kpop site.
Going to bed – will post up the eeMedia MV tomorrow. Poor fountainpark723…she probably got so many racists comments in her inbox for her idolgirls vids suddenly, and she didn’t know why.
December 14, 2009 at 5:38 am
@ CFensi – would you mind the forum being called “CFensi”? I really can’t think of a good name, and “CFensi” actually gets across the point quite well – fans of C-entertainment…
December 14, 2009 at 5:40 am
No, sounds good! idarklight – if you see this and you have something else in mind – give a shout out! And thanks for making the forum – don’t stress about it during exams though.
December 14, 2009 at 5:42 am
Excited.
December 14, 2009 at 5:45 am
————
BTW, can’t your country CREATE anything genuine on its own???? Guess not. You make Americans sick with your shitty lead toys, crappy contaminated food, etc. I haven’t seen any big name CHINESE companies anywhere…….have you????
———–
LMAO, very pro-SNSD. fanboy.
December 14, 2009 at 5:48 am
does fensai mean entertainment?
December 14, 2009 at 5:50 am
@yelei:
In a couple of years or so those people will be eating their words ;P
December 14, 2009 at 5:50 am
@yelei
Hmm…there was an apology from the American toy company – Mattel or Hasbro, can’t remember which, to the Chinese manufacturer for setting bad standards in their instructions in making the toys – and then causing the Chinese manufacturer to lose their reputation even though it wasn’t their fault. That got mostly glossed over though. It always really bothered me because it threw the Chinese company in turmoil.
@smith – fensi means fan.
December 14, 2009 at 5:52 am
@yelei
I think it’s kind of sad how the comment is so filled with “we [insert nationality]” and “you [insert nationality]” comments. Like one person can represent a whole nationality, or vice versa.
@neph
The MV’s not out on TV yet, and sina said they were “first air” so you’ll have to wait for a good version. The sina one has sound cut off for a part, too….
@smith
fensi=fans
December 14, 2009 at 5:52 am
I’m slowly starting to dislike KPOP, and honestly it’s all SNSD fault and their fans. Then again, I suppose I could blame Kpop lovers in general too. I used to be a huge fan, but now I see more and more Kpop fans being racist towards the Chinese (for no reason mind you)! I’m not even Asian and that still hurts for me to read. Can’t Cpop and Kpop just get along!? Besides, Kpop copies a lot from American music, so they have no right to complain! Like G-dragon plagiarizing Flo-rida? But thanks to this huge Idol girl VS. SNSD mess I’m starting to like Cpop now. Might even be my replacement fandom.
Side note:
Allkpop is certified bullcrap 100% of the time.
Remember that children!
Sookyeong FTW (OMTD has disappointed me).
December 14, 2009 at 5:52 am
Oh I just googled – here’s the apology:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297558,00.html
“Toy giant Mattel issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, saying most of the items were defective because of Mattel’s design flaws rather than faulty manufacturing.”
Yet that fact gets lost in the mud slinging, and the Chinese companies got their reputation destroyed.
@Wilbor – Glad you’re looking at Cpop. It’s a pretty exciting time for Cpop releases actually right now.
December 14, 2009 at 5:58 am
@Willor
Yeah, all the racism is a huge turn-off. It’s awesome that you’re open to other stuff. To be honest, Kpop and Cpop are not necessarily rivals because they’re just so different, but the fact that pro-Kpop fans bash other Asian music is pretty classless and tasteless.
December 14, 2009 at 5:58 am
I’ve been stalking Aiyahtheydidnt and your blog also looking for some new Cpop artists/groups. So far I’ve managed to hear more idol girl songs and a song by Jane Zhang (her new one?). I’m still lurking for more but am not having much luck.
D:
Are there any more International Cpop sites I should know of?
Youtube channels would be great too.
December 14, 2009 at 6:01 am
@ A
I hate how people are so hypocritical (not just Kpop fans, but racists in general). They can whine and complain all day about people being prejudiced against them, but then turn around and talk a bunch of racist crap about others. Where’s the sense in that? They wouldn’t like it if we dissed Kpop/Koreans with racism, why would they do that to the Chinese? It’s one thing to say “it sucks”, but to make such racist hurtful comments? It hurt reading a lot of that (and like I said, I’m not even Asian I just know how it feels).
December 14, 2009 at 6:05 am
@Willor:
To be honest, I’ve read enough of such things that I’ve pretty much built a wall of immunity to them =_=
December 14, 2009 at 6:06 am
@willor
there’s a list of cpop youtube channels we recommend in the pages section on the right side column of the cfensi front page.
Another really good place to listen to newest Chinese music is xinge.baidu.com
They have the highest quality (technically) music.
Did you know that Jane Zhang composed the song herself? Yay!
December 14, 2009 at 6:10 am
@Willor
Check out urasiansourceCpop on youtube. It has tons of C-pop stuff of very diverse variety.
While you’re at it, check out Khalil Fong. He is a pro at jazz/R&B stuff that IMO is a good “appetizer” to get into C-pop, haha.
December 14, 2009 at 6:11 am
Not to mention, a total staple too!
December 14, 2009 at 6:12 am
@ idarklight
Yeah, I read something about Jane Zhang composing her songs on aiyahtheydidnt I think. Which is why I was so impressed by her. Such a strong voice.
Me and baidu don’t get along because I don’t understand anything whenever I go there, but I’ll be sure to check out the “pages” section to see some YT videos. Thanks so much, you’re all so nice!
December 14, 2009 at 6:16 am
@ A
It’s decided, Cpop is my new obsession!
Khalil Fong has decided it! His voice is…wow…
I’ve honestly never really slower Kpop songs (snore), but that song you posted was amazing.
December 14, 2009 at 6:17 am
*I’ve never really liked slower Kpop songs (snore)
That’s what I meant to say.
December 14, 2009 at 6:26 am
http://doloroushaze.com/2009/12/cheap-chinese-knock-offs/
Cheap Chinese Knock-Offs….
and the person continues even after reading. *sigh* im going bed
December 14, 2009 at 6:29 am
And there is a list of popular Chinese artists somewhere posted in the comments.
Here it is…
chinkirox’s list:
My List of Awesome Cpop Artists:
1) Jay Chou (dont listen to him sing, but he’s a great composer)
2) Wang Lee Hom (My Home <3)
3) JJ Lin (back after illness)
4) Anson Hu (great composer and singer)
5) Stanley Huang (metal/rap/hip hop)
6) Zhang Jie (baby face w/ a great voice)
1) Fish Leong (I consider her a pop legend)
2) Stephanie Sun (beautiful voice)
3) Deserts Chang (alternative musician)
4) Alan (even though she's always in japan)
5) Jane Zhang (powerful voice)
6) Zhang Li Yin (even if she's under SM)
1) Mayday
2) F.I.R
3) Sodagreen
4) Phoenix Legend
5) S.H.E (the girl band that made it)
6) Da Mouth (cpop version of black eye peas)
The thing about C-pop is that it really is very diverse and different. If one is looking for hip-hop American stuff, your probably won't find it in C-pop. But I'm you'll find something you like!
December 14, 2009 at 6:30 am
Is B.I.Z mentioned anywhere? Their one song “Zhui Qiu” is really good ^^
December 14, 2009 at 6:40 am
Hey guys, a writer over at omgkpop actually pmed me about this issue. Im asking them whether they can correct the confusion:)
December 14, 2009 at 6:48 am
actually if you’re looking for hip-hop amercian stuff, i know some underground Chinese singers. I can try asking them because I don’t know much.
soft lipa seems to be good.
http://www.youtube.com/user/asianrapworldwide
has some chinese rap artists as well as korean.
December 14, 2009 at 6:56 am
@willor
If you like Khalil, you might also like Joanna Wang and Su Xing.
And in that general area (though not really), one of my favorite voices in cpop – Anson Hu:
December 14, 2009 at 7:03 am
@ idarklight
I loved both of those songs (especially the first).
If only the videos were in higher quality.
Hopefully gets more well deserved exposure in the future.
December 14, 2009 at 7:06 am
@ yelei
OMGkpop is an EXTREMELY SNSD biased site from what I’ve seen. If you read the comments on any article even slightly mentioning SNSD you’ll see hordes of crazed SNSD fans writing rude unnecessary comments. So even if they did clarify things, SONEs (SNSD’s fanbase) would still bash like crazy. I’d suggest writing OMTD (Omonatheydidnt) and trying to reason with them. They’re a really good Kpop news site and they always question their news (except for in this case which has disappointed me).
December 14, 2009 at 7:08 am
damn racism on youtube is so effed up
December 14, 2009 at 7:14 am
@willor
There’s also Li Jiuzhe (he’s actually Korean-American, but sings in mandarin and is awesome) and Zhou Bichang.
December 14, 2009 at 7:25 am
Nicky Lee’s r&b songs are freaking awesome!<3
December 14, 2009 at 7:26 am
Oh, better version of the MV: http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=681767350
The TV HQ version should be coming out sometimes today.
December 14, 2009 at 8:21 am
The thing that I find most amusing is that JAPAN came up with the idol concept first (at least the Asian version of it), and KOREA who copied it.
Pot calling the kettle black, much? =p
December 14, 2009 at 8:28 am
i noticed that the SNSD copy article on allkpop was altered slightly. now it reads–
“Meanwhile, cosplay cover groups other than the Idol Girls are making even the Girls’ Generation fans do a double take because of the amazing similarity.”
they added a cosplay in there. to make it more “accurate”. why do i feel like this is the extent to which they will go to correct their mistake? but of course, i’ll still keep my fingers crossed and hope that yelei came in contact with a more righteous writer of allkpop.
December 14, 2009 at 8:46 am
Wow nearly 300 comments guys
And LOL @ Allkpop! Looks like we’ve sort of won :L
December 14, 2009 at 8:53 am
@megan
But the harm’s already been done. There’s no winning in something like this. When a woman is raped, does winning a lawsuit really matter? When you soil someone’s name, will it ever be clean again?
culebrasty on youtube just ruined my day/night by posting a comment against the Iris Chang video a minute ago. I think I’m going to have nightmares tonight.
…not to say that BS’ing on China is equivalent to committing a massacre, or is it?
December 14, 2009 at 9:31 am
@idarklight: I don’t know what the comment is and I don’t want to look at it, but try not to take it to heart – there’s a lot of dumb people on youtube *pat pat*
December 14, 2009 at 9:38 am
@idarklight
Lily’s right. The ignorance on youtube… they’re like animals without brains.
And I think I’m going to limit going to allkpop from now on. Any self-respecting Chinese person should refrain from that site as much as possible. I can’t stand such petty, cowardice reporting.
December 14, 2009 at 11:28 am
do they even have a mv?
December 14, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Just a heads up about the Hunan TV MV… I managed to upload it YouTube after a lot of fiddling. I’m not sure how to embed, though…
Like that? Or…? In any case, it’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4BTpTe5R40
December 14, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Oh hey, it worked. Anyways, I’ll upload a sub of it as soon as I have time.
December 14, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Lawl at naming the site Alphapops.
It should be Cfensi. Very unique and cultural. =)
GRARRRH I want to watch the Kuai Le Chu Fa MV so badly but I’m in school now so I can’t…7 more hours to go.
December 14, 2009 at 5:10 pm
are you f*cking kidding me. 300 comments. i checked yesderday night and there were only 34 comments. wow.
December 14, 2009 at 5:58 pm
@PENG: LMAO!
im excited for the forum
December 15, 2009 at 1:41 am
My friend just told me that this issue has made to Taiwan news!
I wonder if the management team of Idol Girls will file a lawsuit against AllKpop. Is that even possible? The reputation is damaged and I don’t think the management team of Idol Girls is going to let this go.
December 15, 2009 at 1:46 am
@ Neph
> The Asians I’ve been with,
> unless the populations of
> Asians are really low, have
> tended to stick to those of
> their own heritage.
That’s been my observation for international students or 1.5 gen. But from what I see, the 2nd gens do mix with each other.
I’m Chinese and my Korean/Vietnamese/other-Asian friends do poke fun of each others stereotypes sometimes but it’s all in good fun.
And the best way to quiet them—and annoy all of them—is to say, “But you guys know deep down you’re Chinese anyway…”
December 15, 2009 at 1:46 am
Wow, this has really blown up, hasn’t it? That’s fortunate in the sense that it brings the issue to the fore, but I hope it doesn’t cause loads of conflict between fandoms and cultures…
December 15, 2009 at 2:00 am
@Neph: thank you for the MV! I wish Yi Chun’s solo was a bit longer! aw wang yue xin <3
@Angela: can they sue allkpop? do you know if the "news" originated from allkpop? Poor girls, they're just starting out.
lmao @ the Chinese name: Love Petal Girls.
December 15, 2009 at 2:06 am
@chinkirox
I don’t know where the false news about Idol Girls ripping SNSD originated from. I read about this accusation here, and now Taiwan’s Apple Daily News is also reporting about this issue insinuating that they are copycats. I don’t know how the management team of Idol Girls is going to feel about this issue now that it’s made headlines in Taiwan. Taiwan sure is fast in reporting rumor mills.
December 15, 2009 at 2:12 am
@Angela
Their company probably wouldn’t want to waste so much money on a messy lawsuit. What would they sue for anyway? Besides, allkpop is mainly popular among a loud, Asian-American minority who probably would never like the Aiduo Girls.
If the Aiduo Girls (sounds way less generic than “Idol Girls”) want success, the best way is to target the enormous mainland Chinese population exclusively. The overseas market is negligible.
December 15, 2009 at 2:16 am
@Angela
As far as from what I know, they won’t be able to sue Allkpop and why waste on this site anyways. Honestly, I don’t really think this group will last long =/ Yes, Ive been defending them, but I was never really a fan of them.
December 15, 2009 at 2:17 am
@A.
Haha, I wouldn’t want them to waste their time with a messy lawsuit either. But I find it amusing that Taiwan’s news is so fast at reporting about this issue when there’s no news about it yet in mainland China. Everyone’s like wasting time on Idol Girls, a group that hardly anyone in China knows about or cares about. I find this all amusing.
I’d better get back to my studies.
December 15, 2009 at 2:19 am
Haha, yup. China doesn’t give a bleep.
December 15, 2009 at 3:12 am
For the group itself, it’s actually really good. Free publicity. XD For Chinese entertainment, though, it gives it a bad name…. but it’s not like the TW media/celebs like mainland anyways.
December 15, 2009 at 3:46 am
I just wanna say thank you for clearing that up! when i saw it on allkpop, i noticed that the people in the first pic was different from the second one, but when i tried searching it up, nothing came up.
I really like you blog, please keep it up.:)
December 15, 2009 at 4:07 am
HQ “Happy, Go!” MV download: http://www.rayfile.com/files/ddb08aa6-e910-11de-9671-0014221b798a/
December 15, 2009 at 7:01 am
I just sent an email to Allkpop asking them to change the article :-\ hope this helps. I really want to change the situtation. SONE is really pissing me off right now….
December 15, 2009 at 7:23 am
http://community.livejournal.com/omonatheydidnt/2239957.html
OMTD has clarified the issue with their readers, which proves that OMTD is way classier than all the other K-pop sites.
I will be avoiding allkpop from now on, and their hordes of ignorant animals.
December 15, 2009 at 9:17 am
@ idarklight – thanks! Will sub it after finals.
Side note, but is anyone else having problems with videos on Sina? Nothing plays for me – it just loads the page without the video.
December 15, 2009 at 10:34 am
I am Sones,honestly when i heard about this news i’m kinda angry with Idols Girls because they totally copied SNSD(referred from sailor suit pic)..but then it turned out that the pic wasn’t them….now,i feel sorry for them because of this misunderstanding…currently,i’m listening to their song titled “Strange Journey”..and i’m lovin’ it~i hope this girl group will success too..^_^
December 15, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Thanks araria for having sense and doing research. I wish all SONES were like you
December 15, 2009 at 9:20 pm
wow. SBS actually called the company to ask…
“韩国SBS给我们打电话？有点惊悚了·我们不是山寨，大家伙能看清不？没想到韩国先火了，偶还怀疑是不是snsd是不是因为亚洲巡演所以在cz！！！”
December 15, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Ok… this has gone too far. Everyone’s fussing over such a stupid thing.
December 15, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Umm Yelei… a little translation help please? Google translate sucks.
December 15, 2009 at 9:29 pm
wait … what?! they’re calling? for what?! for “copying” their member size? for the girls for having talents outside of being “idols” ? or are they still confusing the cosplay group for the ai duo girls?
I want to hear that conversation.
December 15, 2009 at 9:49 pm
The person who wrote this.. I’m not sure what her role is but maybe an intern in this company. Anyways, the person basically said
“Korea’s SBS called us? quite suprised. We’re not copycaters(山寨),can people look at it carefully? just because korea became popular, I’m suspecting whether it’s because SNSD is having a tour that’s why ‘cz’ (no idea what that means)
and this is what the leader said
“我們並沒有模仿少女時代 但是無端被朝鮮日報登了頭條 主要是裏面的模仿照片並不是我們 那張照片是另外一個cosplay的團體 在一個我們的歌和照型並沒有copy少時的 難道只要是九個人就是模仿他們？ 而且我們公司本來的模式就是早安少女組的模式 鬱悶的是被別人說我們可恥”
basically she was clarifying that the girls in the picture arent them.. korean media mentioned them even though it wasn’t them. Their company is somewhat modeled after Morning Musume (& the company: HP)
December 15, 2009 at 10:02 pm
that’s a good point , ” I’m suspecting whether it’s because SNSD is having a tour” If SNSD’s having their concert in China soon, it’s probably a publicity stunt by SM. First they put Jessica, “the most popular SNSD member”, in super girl mv. Now they’re calling a Chinese girl group copycat (and so close to the expected debut date of super girl group) that can’t be a coincident.
December 15, 2009 at 10:04 pm
@chinkirox
really shows that SM has his eyes on China.. dang, he’s goooood. LOL
December 15, 2009 at 10:08 pm
@yelei: they’re playing dirty! Chinese entertainment companies never do that (i hope), if both sides play dirty then w/e but this is just low (…if it’s really want’s going on)
December 15, 2009 at 10:18 pm
@chinirox:
well as outsiders, we may never know. *sigh* this is what happens when business is involve.
December 15, 2009 at 10:48 pm
seoulbeats edited their article: “EDIT: Okay, my information was wrong. Forgive me. From what I’m hearing the folk song was a parody or a cover of SNSD’s “Gee.” So it looks like China isn’t copying Korea.”
December 15, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Sigh…they should do that on allkpop
December 16, 2009 at 12:03 am
OK… I was just on seoulbeat. That was the stupidest edit I’ve seen in my life. They put it on the very bottom and didnt change anything at all in the top. They couldve atleast bolded it.
Well…still better that nothing i guess.
December 16, 2009 at 1:32 am
Im so annoyed… all the comments on allkpop are still stupid and dumb
December 16, 2009 at 2:12 am
lmao got a one word reply “cool” from allkpop (after I wrote like a short essay lol) … ok.
December 16, 2009 at 3:06 am
Whew… I think I just managed to read through all of these posts. Hehe, I’m quite proud of myself now.
Yeah, I just read the seoulbeats article… But at least it’s better than nothing, no? However, I really doubt most people even read the whole article before commenting.
@ chinkirox
That’s IT? “COOL”?!
I’m really disturbed…
“cool”
Not even a “thanks for the heads up”? I mean, really? Umm… I really don’t know how to voice what I’m feeling right now. ¬.¬
December 16, 2009 at 6:34 am
@ying
Allkpop cares more about business. The more hits they get, the more money they get. I heard they were paid to interview people.. like Rain. When they ask Rain to give shoutouts to his fans at allkpop, rain didnt know whatto say… obviously he could care less.
I actually reread everything in here yesterday too.. haha. I’m glad thiswhole deal is settled down. Allkpop = douchbags.
December 17, 2009 at 2:55 pm
seems like the Idol Entertainment wants an apology from the korean media…uh oh.
朝鲜日报社：
贵报社在未作详细调查和事实确认的情况下于12月13日发表的一篇关于我公司——北京爱朵文化旗下少女偶像组合Idol girls的新闻。在文章中由于发布未经事实确认的图片，并引发多家媒体转载和引用，而使得Idol girls被误认为是某个COS社团而导致到韩国网友和中国网友的争执，更让爱朵女孩在未出道前便被认为是“从发型到服装，甚至拍照姿势都抄袭”。针对这个事件我公司提出以下声明：
首先，在新闻中发布所谓“Idol girls海军服”的照片与Idol girls成员存在有明显的不同，贵报社不做人物比较和验证就将图片发布，已经严重的违背了作为一个新闻工作人员所必需的职业操守，以及对新闻真实性的理念追求。而我们也严重怀疑这是否是韩国少女时代为即将展开的亚洲巡演而单方面的宣传炒作。
其次，由于这篇新闻的发布，直接或间接煽动了中韩网民在某些方面的情绪，使中韩两国偶像团体的FANS之间产生争执，并使韩国网民对中国社会产生很多负面印象。
最后，希望朝鲜日报能根据这个事件给予澄清，也希望其他韩国媒体在发表或者转载新闻上能够秉承更加真实负责的态度，让以后此类乌龙事件不会再次发生。爱朵文化保留对此次事件的法律追究权利。
北京爱朵文化传播有限公司
2009年12月16日
December 17, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Oh, I really like how they worded it.
They were brief but they brought out all important points that people raised.
- Was this basically a promotional tool for a SNSD/other Korean girlgroup tour?
- It caused fans to start attacking each other.
- Lack of professionalism on the Korean news agency’s part.
December 17, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Well, Korean journalism and news reporting is already very sub-par, as it is. I mean, after all, this is a media industry where a random girl on youtube saying she thinks kimchi smells bad is actually newsworthy.
People criticise Chinese journalism as having poor standards and acting as a propaganda tool of the government; and half the time I’d agree. But South Korean journalism is not much better, and a lot of times, much worse. Having free press is great, but when every journalist in the country writes for the greater glory of Korea and the glorious Korean race, there’s really not much difference between that and propaganda.
However, I don’t think the news breaking in such a manner was any particular sort of marketing ploy. Korean news agencies have a tendency to report on the most minor of things if they happened overseas and have anything to do with Korea. (And, if possible, take a jab at Japan while they’re at it). This just happened to be something they mistakenly picked up along the way. I think it goes a bit far to accuse anyone of orchestrating all this as part of some convoluted scheme to promote SNSD et al.
It is a nicely written letter, but I don’t expect anybody to pay much attention to it in the end.
December 17, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Lol… I hope they do get an official apology
December 18, 2009 at 3:07 am
Man, I don’t get why a lot of Koreans just won’t stop bashing the Chinese. There seems to be this ‘Koreans are superior’ and ‘Chinese are inferior copycats’ mentality going on. People just automatically make absurd speculations and racist generalizations about China/Chinese people without actually reading the ‘news’ meticulously.
When a Korean artist or group does a remake, they would get praised like “omg this is so better than original!”, but when a Chinese does a REMAKE, people would go “omg they COPIED from us, China is such a copy machine” or “i’m ashamed of being Chinese.”
See the double standards? Those people who are ashamed of being Chinese should be ashamed of themselves. C’mon, embrace your culture and stop kissing people’s arses. I’m Vietnamese, and as much as I love Cpop and Kpop, I don’t go and disparage my own ethnicity.
December 18, 2009 at 3:09 am
Well said, Benji.
December 18, 2009 at 3:21 am
@Akimi,
Well said also!
December 18, 2009 at 3:43 am
benji-
Do you read korean news often?
Akimi-
“Koreans just won’t stop bashing the Chinese”
I think most of those comments are not from koreans. Lets stop generalizing.
December 18, 2009 at 3:55 am
Smith, I was only referring to the MANY comments coming from Koreans that I have encountered on forums and video sharing websites. Of course, not all Koreans are like that because there are ignorant and condescending people in every ethnicity.
But yeah, at least I never bashed or called any names like a lot of.. err people.
December 18, 2009 at 4:03 am
@akimi
Unfortunately, Smith is right. Many of those Chinese-bashers are Chinese themselves. In fact, most overseas kpop fans are Chinese Americans.
December 18, 2009 at 4:19 am
Just to reiterate, I said ‘a lot of Koreans just won’t stop bashing the Chinese.’
‘A lot’ can mean 10, 50, 100, 1000, or any number. It means a different quantity to different people. I never said most Koreans or Koreans in general, therefore I wasn’t really generalizing. Sorry, if had offended anyone. I should word my sentences more carefully next time.
idarklight: Sad yet true.
December 18, 2009 at 4:45 am
It’s because a lot of 2nd gen Chinese Americans (or overseas Chinese in general) have low self esteem because all they consume is Hollywood media, which tends to stereotype all Asians.
So when they start to look at k-dramas and k-pop, which is very similar to American-ish pop entertainment, they all of a sudden become drawn to it, trying to find a sense of identity and pride.
Add in the fact that China constantly gets bashed in the US media, you then have a group of Chinese Americans with no sense of self worth thinking that China is embarrassing them, when in reality China just doesn’t give a crap and will do whatever the hell she wants
Also most Chinese entertainment companies don’t seem to care about people outside of China that much, while Korean entertainment companies have to make the effort since they’re consumer base is so small.
December 18, 2009 at 4:45 am
Um from what I’ve seen some Taiwanese people dissed about China as well.. but that’s another topic.
December 18, 2009 at 4:50 am
@ yelei
I’m from Taiwan so I’ll say from my observations that a lot of it has to do with the tensions between the Mainland and Taiwan along with how the Taiwan media likes to blow things out of proportion.
Also, a lot of politicians’ careers are on the line so they try to fan the flames as well.
Most Taiwanese that I know actually admire the acting in Mainland dramas (as compared to Taiwan’s pop idol dramas).
Of course they do make fun of the accent
*And yes, I know the Taiwan-ish Mandarin accent is funny too…
December 18, 2009 at 5:28 am
@JJ #2
. Don’t get me wrong, I dont have anything against taiwanese people or whatever.. but it would be nice to see less bickering between both places. =D
It’s funny because I grew up watching Taiwanese dramas (+ Mainland) but my accent is my towards Taiwanese. It’s good to switch between Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese dramas once in awhile.. they kind of balance each other out
December 18, 2009 at 10:29 am
@ smith
Yeah, I read a lot of Asian news for my studies, though most of it is not entertainment-related. There’s a lot of recent focus on China’s economic development and North Korea being, well, North Korea.
Avoiding all forms of political correctness, a lot of Koreans actually ‘do’ look down on Chinese people. If you’re from China (where all Chinese are certainly from), then you obviously ride a bicycle to the pollutive factory where you work and mass produce cheap knock-offs (of quality Korean products). It’s a stereotype, but not one that’s easily dismissed in South Korea.
However, the vast majority of this negativity comes from the younger generation of Koreans — just as how the younger generation of Chinese is more strongly anti-Japan than the older generation. So perhaps the perception is skewed since we are discussing a generally “youthful” topic.
On the other hand, there is also a sizable number of pro-China supporters in Korea, typically to contrast poor Korean-US relations, whenever they should arise.
The Chinese American issue is a big one, and I could go on and on about it, but I think it boils down to just a couple of points:
Most second-generation Chinese Americans have parentage from places other than Mainland China (mostly Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Taiwan), and so, don’t hold any allegiance to China
And that many Chinese Americans see themselves as being “Asian American,” and therefore don’t find anything extraordinary in associating with Korean or Japanese contemporary culture, rather than Chinese culture.
December 19, 2009 at 5:46 am
Akimi & JJ: Agreed.
Smith: Read it carefully, she wasn’t generalising. Stop trying to nitpick.
Oh, and is it just me, or every single videos on Youtube that are relevant to Idol Girls are rated badly? I see a bunch or 1, 2, and 3 stars. LOL bias people.
December 19, 2009 at 5:17 pm
@Benji – Not that I think it’s necessarily some plot on Korean companies’ part to get a Korean girlgroup popular in China, but I think it’s worth pointing out all the same.
I’ve been wondering about SM’s tactics in China ever since idarklight pointed out that Han Geng has lots of dating rumors. And compared to the rest of Chinese celebs he has way more, with less evidence. He’s not the most famous in China, and Chinese news usually doesn’t post that many rumors of people going out unless there’s hardcore evidence.
Idol girls apparently will be debuting formally on the 21st:
http://ent.sina.com.cn/y/2009-12-19/17482816083.shtml
December 19, 2009 at 6:05 pm
@ Benji
And it’s not just the Korean or Chinese media that suck at reporting.
The American news gets biased when it comes to China, and the British news is pretty much the worst I’ve seen, despite the fact that in general the British pwns when it comes to literature and the like. There was this one article on BBC about selling babies on ebay that was then found out to be false, but they never retracted their statement or acknowledged their mistake. And then TIMES UK has that nutter of a reporter Jane McCartney who loves to pull out Chinese netizen quotes to makes Chinese people seem narrow-minded.
Like “Chinese netizens criticized the Olympics 2008 London Closing Program”, based on a couple quotes.
And then a whole bunch of American/British/others on LJ, who said pretty much the same thing when they watched it, but on a wider scaled, started attacking everything about China, like Chinese people live in shacks, Chinese people eat dogs, Chinese people get beaten daily.
It was revolting. Way more revolting than any comments I’ve seen for this.
Bad reporting occurs frequently when there’s a bias. And in international relations, there’s always a bias. Not everyone is friends.
December 19, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Im starting to think allkpop are a bunch of idiots. In their latest article, once again they attacked China for being copycats. They did not clarify that SNSD copycats were their mistake, instead they brought up an old issue about some Chinese guy who plagarized Big Bang’s Last Farewell. It’s funny because allkpop said the MV was a group called Ok-Bang or something.
sorry, but allkpop’s racist remarks are starting to piss me off.
December 19, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Allkpop doesn’t bother me that much – I have no expectations for them.
But it’s when places you think are pretty normal like Omona that show their ugly side at slight provocations – that’s when it’s disappointing. People in general sometimes – I don’t know. It’s just disappointing.
Idolgirls is known everywhere known as “Chinese SNSD”. -_-’ I really want to post on their debut, but I don’t know if I’ll be in town when that happens
@Akimi – Sorry…going back through comments here. I agree that Vietnamese don’t seem to be so bothered by their background.
But at the same time, Vietnam is not as big a target for media as China. China’s so big and feared. Anytime China does anything, it gets reported on. And half the time, the news is twisted or reported falsely. Rarely is good news from China reported on in the media. And being such a big country, there’s a lot of news to selectively pick and choose from.
Not that hating your culture is right at all, but I do feel like Chinese abroad have to trudge through a lot of crap.
Sorry – I’m getting flashbacks to all the news articles I’ve read that were distorted all of a sudden.
December 19, 2009 at 7:05 pm
http://english.cri.cn/6826/2009/12/19/1601s536623.htm
…On Aug. 20, the website controller of “Tomato Garden”, which provided downloads of pirated softwares including Windows XP, was sentenced to 3 years and a half in jail and fined up to 1 million yuan (146,000 US dollars). It was the country’s first criminal case of Internet piracy.
December 19, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I’ve always wondered what kind of people go around digging for this kind of stuff. I know there are Chinese netizens that digging up on peoples’ lives too, but I never heard anything like what the Korean netizens are doing. For example, did you hear about the car accident, where the drunk driver hit a women but got away unscathed? And he made a 40 minute phone call to someone right after he realized he hit someone (it was caught on camera). The netizens somehow found out who he made the phone call to, it was to a district official, who obviously helped him get out of trouble. Even though what the Chinese netizens did was a good thing, but I still feel like both Chinese and Korean people are so blog hit oriented, that they are willing to do anything to get more hits.
@yelei: I read that too (about big bag)! I blame the stupid company, for adopting “Korea’s idol group training system”. I think this one might actually be a bored netizen, b/c BB wouldn’t need this kind of publicity to expand into China. But I don’t understand why allkpop would bring up an old issue, without changing or adding anything. (unless they’re just seeking attention, like those girls cutting themselves for their idols. ew)
@Akimi: I totally agree! You know the song “Deal With It” by Corbin Bleu? I love how when it’s a Korean boy band copying the exact beat all the netizens are like “OMG this is so much better then the original” and when someone say that SHINee copied the beat, the netizens are like, “but SM brought the right to the track” and “they wrote their own lyrics” And yeah, I really hate how this turned into a complete ethnic/race thing instead (of what it should be) the poor judgment of the company.
December 20, 2009 at 2:58 am
@yelei: Haha, I think so too. Some of them are really biased.
@cfensi: I concur with everything you said. But just to let you know, 70% of Vietnamese songs are plagiarized (copied without giving due credit or buying the rights) from mostly Hong Kong and Taiwan. Even so, I still don’t see a lot of Viets complaining whatsoever! D:
@chinkirox: I know right?! Super Junior M made a remake of Sandy Lam’s 至少還有你, Kim Hyung Joong made a remake of Guang Liang’s 童话, Hyesung & MLTR made a remake of Jacky Cheung’s 吻别, and I don’t see any one going all berserk. Some people even accused Guang Liang of copying Tong Hua from Kim Hyung Joong when he himself COMPOSED it. There was even a thread on Soompi that had a long list of Korean remakes of foreign songs, but the moderators took it down because the members complained.
I honestly don’t see what’s wrong with remaking songs. Sure, it may be deemed as unoriginal to many people, but as long as it’s legal, then why not? However, I do have to admit that artists like WILBER PAN, Jolin Tsai, Energy, K ONE, Show Luo, Rainie Yang, etc aren’t original AT ALL. They’re diluting the reputation of Cpop. (my opinion)
December 20, 2009 at 3:40 am
Vietnamese seem to look at Viet’s music industry as, “Well, most of our songs are really essentially plagiarized, but that’s how it is in Vietnam right now. We’re still developing and we’ll get better in the future, so we’ll support what we have now”. I envy that. Again, I think it’s because Vietnam is not really a target in the western news.
But overall, what I dislike about remaking songs is that it kills development of the music industry. It’s a cheap money-saving tactic of music companies. If someone can make X amount of money covering songs, then why bother to make new music? Like Wilber Pan…he just does covers and covers. And he can sell a million album each time. So he just keeps doing it. It doesn’t help the industry grow and he doesn’t seem to care.
Even with Khalil Fong’s Timeless, where it’s explicitly stated that it’s a cover album, and you can tell he’s an artist and did a really good job bringing in his own flavor to them, I still feel uncomfortable with the fact that it can sell so so well, beating original albums. Because essentially, the songs were there already…he’s not making new songs. And I’m afraid it’s going to lead to more cover albums.
Actually it already did…Warner (also Khalil’s label) let Jam Hsiao do a cover album, Love Moments, one that I really didn’t like. Songs were good…but Jam didn’t add too much. But it still sold and took market share from original albums.
December 20, 2009 at 4:09 am
@Akimi
Recently a Korean singer did a remake of David Tao’s song.. I forgot the title, but check out at Urasiansource@youtube
December 20, 2009 at 4:52 am
@cfensi:
I can’t agree with you more, you echo my sentiments perfectly.
Although I thought Khalil’s Timeless was pretty unique since he added a jazzy/soulful flavor to the cover songs, overall I didn’t like it. His renditions of Hong Dou and Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You was the only reason why I bought the album. Jam’s was okay…
@yelei: Really eh? I can’t seem to find it. I think Allkpop should just create a sub-website dedicated to bashing Cpop.
December 20, 2009 at 5:07 am
@akimi
lmao whatever about allkpop
December 20, 2009 at 6:15 am
@ cfensi:
I’m not especially familiar with US journalism aside from reading the occasional article or news piece, but I’ve noted that some of the BBC does have an anti-China bias. It’s slight, but noticeable. A lot of it is in the context of the BBC’s obsession with global warming (“Grr, China, grr!”), as well as the fact that a significant number of (British) Indian reporters have a negative view of China, thanks to the drummed-up India-China rivalry.
On the other hand, James Reynolds, who I consider to be one of the best Western reporters on China, was the BBC’s former Beijing correspondent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/
I’m usually okay with covering songs. Or, at least…I’m not against it, per se. If it weren’t done, then we wouldn’t have Whitney’s “I Will Always Love You,” or Aretha’s “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” or Celine’s “All By Myself” or “The Power of Love,” and a whole bunch of other ‘classic’ songs. But as the American Idol judges always point out, there’s no point in doing a cover of a song unless you do it differently, or you do it better than the original. And that’s the point that musicians should focus on.
Whenever Jane Zhang sings 月亮代表我的心 live…which she does a lot for some reason…she does it all jazzy and R&Bishy, and not like the original. It always sounds terrible and Teresa Teng would be ashamed, but in that three minutes and a half minutes where I wish I were deaf, Jane is making it her own song.
I guess it comes down mostly to singers who cover songs, rearranging and stylising them, and incorporating their own artistry…and then, singers who just jump into the studio with songs their record label gives them, and don’t even know if ‘their’ song is a covered or not.
That being said, I think people who do ‘acoustic’ versions of songs are boring. > _ <
December 20, 2009 at 8:39 am
@yelei
Oh no, Koreans are copying Chinese, whatever happened to originality?! :O
In all seriousness, I thought it was pretty good. I still prefer David’s version because I actually understand the lyrics and I have been listening to it for the past two years or so… Which version do you like better?
December 20, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Koreans remake their fair share of songs, probably equal to Cpop language remakes except they mostly get theirs from Europe, rather than the rest of Asia, because I imagine it’s less offensive to Korean audiences, and their inter Asian country rivalry sensibility.
I actually just realized, another Warner person released a cover album: Jolin Tsai and her love songs album. Her’s was crappy.
Tsk, tsk Warner. I’d prefer their remake album scheme to Universal/SM’s let’s stick a good amount of covers into albums, because it’s more upfront, but still. Who’s the other person in the Warner big 4? I forgot…There’s Jolin, Khlalil, Jam and someone else…I want to know if they did a remakes album too.
@Benji – The difference with Jane doing a cover, like the Teresa Teng cover album, is that it didn’t really sell that well. It sold what a cover album would usually. So that doesn’t bother me. Khalil – I love him – but his cover album beat out all the original albums that came out around the same time – for weeks it was at the top of the charts. That doesn’t encourage creativity and development of the rest of the music industry. He obviously put more of himself into it than say, Jolin, but it’s not the same as an album where people labored to create new songs.
December 23, 2009 at 9:42 am
@cfensi
“Koreans remake their fair share of songs, probably equal to Cpop language remakes except they mostly get theirs from Europe, rather than the rest of Asia”
I agree, but I think more so American than Europe. The American music style is what most of K-pop is modeled after. Since US style is hot right now, IMO the reason why K-pop is so popular in Asia is because it’s an Asian-ization of American music… basically repackaging American music to be more familiar and less foreign to Asian audiences. Just look at Big Bang and G-Dragon’s (can’t stand him) blatant copying.
December 25, 2009 at 1:39 am
Wonder Girls are making a mando album for mainland, why don’t they just promo in Taiwan, which seem to be pretty deep in hanliu. I wanted WG to succeed in the US cause they’re Asian, but if they go to China it might hurt the new girl groups in China. I hope S.H.E is making a comeback around the same time as WG’ mando debut album, to hinder WG’s promo. (sorry jyp love oneday and wg just not at this time maybe in two years)
December 26, 2009 at 9:57 am
It’s really sad that a lot of hardcore k-pop fans are bashing China over something so stupid :l. I looked at the comments of gee parody for an episode of a chinese show maybe happy camp and k-pop fans were overreacting, saying china copies everyone, the girls in it suck, and they should sue the girls… :/ it was just a harmless parody -.-
March 21, 2010 at 9:37 am
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??!!!???!!!!! okaaayyy people….THIS IS TOTAL RACISM!!!! This is like some war between snsd vs. Aiduo girls then Korean music vs. Chinese music then Chinese vs. Koreans. I admit, I am an avid listener of k-pop and I am a member of allkpop and I got disappointed when there were these girls but I didn’t make such a big fuss about it. Then I saw the blog and I didn’t really care until I saw the comments that was really racist. I have much more to say but I have to go to sleep so I’ll just say this to whoever wrote this blog.
I can’t really hate you for what you said because it is your opinion and i respect that. That means you should learn how to respect other people’s point of view too. Don’t call Koreans such bad names or even to Chinese Americans because it is not their fault. People just wanted to listen to music. And the Koreans thought that maybe wetsternized music would make people happy. That ‘s why. Now you just turned this thing sooooo racist I can’t even believe people still actually do that nowadays. Yes I am disappointed but not because I’m a snsd fan or not because I listen to kpop but because this Koreans vs. Chinese is soooo ugly. Look, I read that you never learned about racism before but at the very least, don’t blame people’s ethnicity because that is not their fault to be whatever ethnicity they are. And stop your stereotyping.
March 21, 2010 at 10:03 am
@Loren:
I believe racism is prejudice or discrimination based upon RACE?
People here are not generalizing Koreans as bad, so you should read carefully before you make assumptions. Heck, you can even see SOME Korean fans posting rude comments here and at the video link posted above. We have nothing against Koreans. Learn how to read, seriously.
September 24, 2010 at 5:07 am
WHO CARES ABOUT SNSD? THEY’RE JUST A BUNCH OF PLASTIC FACE AND LEGS!!!!
January 4, 2011 at 5:33 am
SNSD is going to take over the world whether haters like it or not.
And although origins of Korean pop music began modeled after American music, much of it remains unique. I mean, most American music does not have cutesy bubbly sounds. The uniqueness comes from the hybridization of American and Asian sounds. So okay, some artists like the hip hop style more than others, that doesn’t mean all kpop artists do the same music.
Besides, we can’t judge anyone in the music business. At this point, the world is so globalized and connected that there is no originality anymore and if there is, well heck, how would we even know?
August 22, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Relax people, Idol Girls were just wanted publicity even if they tries to copy SNSD or Morning Muse, they will not going to take over them. And as for these people accusing Koreans copying ancient Chinese cultures, please note ancient Korean history is longer than Chinese, and iChing, Confucianism etc.. have reached Korea even before reaching far as Hong Kong. Korea is lot closer to where cradle of Chinese civilization was born than other places in China. There’s estimated about 30% of Koreans are these originated from Hebei, Shangdong, Liaoning long before Chinese reached these regions, so there’s similarity there, so does it means these ancient cultures of Hebei, Shangdong, Liaoning are exclusively belonged to Chinese? No obviously not, Koreans have equally share over these cultures.
February 20, 2012 at 10:25 pm
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