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Posted by CM1 pt Saturday, November 20, 2010

ask allkpop #3: In which we address one word - "Anti-Korean"

Hello, we're back again with another edition of the�'ask allkpop' mailbag feature! �The response continues to be positive, so please keep sending stuff in! For the previous editions, you ladies and gents can check out the links below: ask allkpop #1 ask allkpop #2 In this third edition, we focused on the questions that really hit too close to home. It wasn't pleasant receiving them, and it certainly was no walk through the park in answering them, but these are important issues that we feel we must address. So sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the ride. --- The questions presented below are not word-for-word as they appeared in the e-mails, mainly because they have been edited for spelling, grammar, and for brevity's sake, but the general tone of the questions have been maintained. So without further ado, onto the questions! --- "What do you guys think of this article?" Asked by: soleol Answered by: CM & asphodel

allkpop has been making news in Korea for a while now, but the new agreement to�broadcast Mnet's "2010 MAMA" has put even more of a spotlight on the site, and that isn't always a good thing. We get a lot of hate mail, and most of it is predictable, lame, and repetitive. We usually brush it off, because frankly speaking, it's not notable enough for us to pay attention to. However, when an official Korean newspaper writes the equivalent of a hit piece on our dear site, and especially when that hit piece is full of inaccuracies and poor arguments, we feel that an elongated rebuttal is needed in order to defend ourselves and clarify the reality of the situation to our readers. Anyway, as some of you have likely heard by now, a Dong-a Daily News writer by the name of�Jang Kwan Seok wrote an article about allkpop that was quite critical and dropped a ton of outrageous accusations. To summarize, he says: 1) allkpop is a "gateway" that foreigners use to take interest in the Hallyu wave, but the site makes foreigners think badly of Korea. 2) Korean netizens believe that allkpop spreads rumors and lies about sex scandals and plastic surgery; they refer specifically to a celebrity exposing herself on cam and teens being sold for sexual favors. 3) allkpop only writes negative or critical articles about Korean celebrities. 4) allkpop uses the Japanese names of Korean artists constantly. There is an inference here that alleges we do this to promote Japanese culture while slyly undermining Korean culture. Now since the Dong-a Daily News writer took so much time to write out his article, let's address these issues point-by-point, shall we? --- 1) In the article, Jang Kwan Seok cites the experience of one college student ("Bae Ki Hwan") and his English friend ("James Wilson"). From that exchange, he attempts to extrapolate the experience of a single individual ("James Wilson") to that of every foreign reader. In the short story that Bae Ki Hwan tells Jang Kwan Seok, no mention of allkpop is made by James Wilson, but the connection is inferred to the reader of the article nevertheless, as the next paragraph goes on to state that allkpop is the "gateway" that introduces foreigners to the Hallyu phenomenon. It's a rather�sly�subliminal tactic used by the writer to get his opinion across while still attempting to keep a shred of professionalism, but I believe intelligent readers can easily discern what was being attempted. Basically, it's a poor leap in logic by the writer, and an obvious manipulation in an attempt to invoke an emotional reaction. The two statements have no direct correlation to one another, but by including the two�separate�points side by side, he attempts to link them anyway, and he represents the scenario as if allkpop is the reason "James Wilson" has some negative perceptions about Korean celebrities (despite the fact that he does like them), when in fact our site is never mentioned by him. -- 2) At this point, the irony begins, because the writer is accusing allkpop of unnecessarily stirring the pot with rumors, but what the writer leaves out is how the articles he mentions came from Korean news sources themselves. Since all we did in those scenarios is take stories that were already published by the Korean media, he is essentially saying that allkpop is at fault for simply translating what Korean news is reporting. If that sounds ridiculous, it's because it is. A large reason we have sources cited at the bottom of every post now is because people can see that we're not just making up stories, but are actually drawing them from supposedly respectable Korean news sites or papers. �Therefore, for him to insult what we post on our site is to directly insult the job that his peers are doing, not only the rest of the Korean media, but at his own paper as well. What the writer of this article chooses to omit, and what critical Korean netizens seemingly fail to understand is, if these�controversial�stories are getting out to�international�audiences through allkpop, it's because they were first published in Korea by Korean journalists. We, the staff members of allkpop, can't believe that the writer is able to claim that allkpop is an anti-Korean site when we're simply translating what's already put out there by Korea. Unless he's arguing that Korean journalists, Korean media, and Korean netizens are unpatriotic to Korea, don't blame allkpop. --- As far as the specific examples go, the links to the story about the celebrity allegedly exposing herself on camera are�here and�here. Both have Korean sources at the bottom. The links to the story about the company allegedly selling their artists for sex are�here,�here, and�here. The first two links are sourced to Korean media outlets, but the last one isn't. The only reason why the last one isn't sourced to the Korean media is because we decided to investigate further and attempt to get a full clarification from one of the alleged victims herself. Eventually, we were able to get her to talk about it and clear her name. So in this case, not only did allkpop simply report on what the Korean news had already deemed newsworthy, but we actually went the extra mile to try and get a better story and exonerate the girl from the accusations.

3) Nobody here is denying that there were critical articles in past years when this site operated as more of an attempt at humor than a serious news/gossip blog endeavor; but those were simply opinionated articles in an attempt to get a laugh, and hardly the malicious attacks that certain people make them out to be. Additionally, much of this happened before a majority of the current staff came aboard, and well before the change in direction for the site, so digging it up now is completely unrelated and irrelevant to most of us at allkpop. As far as critical opinions in general, yes, we will have them, and we will continue to have them. We reserve the right to have opinions of our own, just like Korean papers do, just like netizens do, and just like every other person, blog, paper, and publication in the world does. You don't always have to agree with our opinion, but to turn a simple critical opinion of a Korean artist or celebrity, and then make it sound like allkpop is an organization whose sole purpose is to misinform the unknowing masses is ridiculous and absurd. Again, it's a hypocritical attitude of the most gigantic proportions. Any negative opinion we have of a Korean celebrity is painted as anti-Korean or anti-Hallyu, but when Korean media or Korean netizens are critical of a Korean celebrity, they say it's just analysis or an opinion. Why the double standard? --- 4) Lastly, the author bemoans our usage of "SNSD"/"Girls' Generation"/"Shoujo Jidai" and goes to SM Entertainment with the false notion that we constantly use 'Shoujo Jidai' over 'SNSD' and 'Girls' Generation'. Basically, he's inferring that we refuse to call them by their Korean names and choose to propagate their Japanese image instead. SM Entertainment then stated that they will investigate why we do this. Of course, the problem is that we don't actually do what he accuses, and as such, we welcome with open arms any investigation from SM Entertainment about how we promote SNSD. In fact, we encourage it,�because�then they will see that this writer is simply making things up, and hopefully they will no longer take inquires from him again. On allkpop, the tag "Shoujo Jidai" has been used a grand total of six times, and every single time that tag has been used, it has been in reference to their ongoing Japanese promotions, hence the use of their Japanese name. Now if their accusation is correct, you would assume that the tag "Shoujo Jidai" would be used much more frequently than the "SNSD" tag, their Korean name, because they are�saying�we want to promote their Japanese name instead. The problem for the writer, of course, is that the "SNSD" tag (their Korean name) has been used on allkpop 1362 times, which is exactly 1356 more than the "Shoujo Jidai" tag, thus proving whatever point the author was trying to make about how we refer to SNSD as 'Shoujo Jidai" completely and utterly pointless. By the way, most international fans refer to them as SNSD or GG because typing out their full Korean name or their full English name is simply too much work. �There's no giant conspiracy behind it all, it �just has to do with making�convenient�acronyms. The other complaint is about how we allegedly use "Tohoshinki" to describe "DBSK"/"TVXQ"/"Tohoshinki"�more than "DBSK" or "TVXQ". As you probably have already guessed, the problem is that we don't use "Tohoshinki" frequently at all. In fact, since the start of 2010, which was as far as I was willing to waste my time on this experiment, we have used "Tohoshinki" to describe the group exactly one time in our titles. That one time we did use their Japanese name was to express their succcess in Japan on the Oricon Charts, as seen�here. A great majority of the time, TVXQ is the title used to describe the group, along with DBSK, probably because TVXQ is what international fans seem most familiar with. Type "DBSK" into Google and look at what it leads you to, a Wikipedia article calling the group "TVXQ". Case closed on that accusation as well.

To make matters worse, he takes his case to Shin Seung Il of the Hallyu Strategy Team, and provokes the following response from him: "The popularity of Hallyu will quickly die out if they continue to present distorted information and promote a negative image of Korea. It's important to create new things, but it's more important to properly inform what is already present." I agree, if distorted information is put out there, it could promote a negative image of Korea. I agree, it's important to properly inform one's audience with whatever content is present. Unfortunately for�Jang Kwan Seok (and the many others who feel the same way he does), if they have a problem with what we put up on our site, then they have a problem with what the Korean media and Korean netizens are doing themselves, because what we do is translate news that Korean writers publish. Just looking at the title of the Dong-a Daily News article, "'allkpop.com' holds 1 million users, spreads plastic surgery, sexual favors suspicions without any filters", makes this more of a relevant issue to us because it's an attempted shot against allkpop (which ends ironically with him shooting himself in the foot instead). In the end, if there is a problem, as Jang Kwan Seok proclaims, then instead of blaming allkpop, he is far more likely to find the problem in the mirror than searching for problems overseas. �After all, if all of his articles are as poorly researched, written, and reasoned as this one was, then he's the embodiment of the problem he's trying to pin on us.
--- If you want to let the writer know how you feel about his article, feel free to e-mail Jang Kwan Seok at jks@donga.com! --- So that our Korean readers can read our reply, we have translated our response into Korean for them. There's nothing new here, so if you already read the stuff above, you can just scroll down. "? ??? ?? ??? ??????" ???: solel ???: CM & asphodel ????? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ???, ??? ??? 2010 MAMA ???? ?????? ????? ? ?? ??? ??????. ? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ????, ??? ??? ??? ????? ??????. ??? ??? ??? ???????. ??? ?? ???, ??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?????. ????? ??? ??? ????? ?? ??? 11?19?? ?????. ??? ????? ????, ?? ??? ??? ?????. ??? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ???? ???. ??? ?????, ??? ?????: 1. ????? ?????? ??? ????. ???, ??? ?? ?? ??? ????. 2. ??? ????? ????? ?? ???? ????, ? ?? ??? ???? ????? ???. 3. ????? ??? ?? ?? ??? ??. 4. ????? ?? ???? ??? ??? ??. ?? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ??? ????. ????? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ???? ?????, ??? ??? ?????? --- 1. ??? ? ??? ???? ??? ????? ?? James Wilson?? ?????. ??? ???? ?? ????? ???? ??? ????? ???. ??? ??? ????, ???? ? ??? ??????? ??? ???? ????. ?? ??? ??? ????? ??? ????? ??? ???, ???? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ??? ?????. ?? ??? ??? ???? ?? ????. ??? ??? ??? ???? ????, ???? ??? ??? ??? ?????? ???? ??? ????. ?? ????, ???? ? ??? ????? ???? ????, ???? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ????. --- 2. ? ??? ?? ????? ??? ????. ??? ?? ????? ???? ??? ???? ????? ?? ????, ??? ??? ??? ????? ?? ??? ?? ???????. ?? ???? ?? ???? ????? ?????. ? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?????, ?? ??? ????? ?? ??? ???? ???????, ??? ?? ????? ?, ??? ?? ????. ??? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???? ?? ????? ??????. ??? ????? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ???, ????? ?? ??????.
??? ????? ? ??? ??? ??? ?? ????? ??? ???? ?? ???? ?? ???? ???. ?? ??? ???? ??? ???? ????? ??? ?? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?????.
?? ????? ????? ?? ?? ????? ??? ??? ????. ?? ???? ?? ?? ?? ???? ????? ???, ??? ??? ????? ?? ?? ????? ?????. --- ???? ?? ???, ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??, ?? ? ?? ? ???, ? ??? ? ?? ??? ??????. 10? ?? ?? ???? ? ?? ??? ??, ??, ?? ? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??????. ???? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ?????, ?? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?????. ?? ??? ?? ???? ? ?? ?? ??? ??? ????, ???? ??? ??????. --- 3. ??? ?? ??? ???? ??? ???? ?? ??????. ??? ??? ??? ??, ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ????????. ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????, ??? ??? ????. ??? ????? ??? ????? ??? ???, ??? ???? ?? ???? ? ??, ??? ?? ??? ???? ????. ? ?? ??? ??, ??? ???? ??, ? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ????? ?????? ????. ? ??? ????? ?? ????. ?? ? ??? ???? ??? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ?? ??? ???????. ???? ????. ??? ?? ???? ???? ???? ?? ???, ?? ??? ??, ?? ???? ?? ???? ???? ?? ????? ?? ??? ?? ????. --- 4. ????? ??? ??? ??? ????? ??? ??? ?? "?? ???"?? ????? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?????. ? ??? ??? ????? "?? ???"? ??? ???? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????. SM??????? ? ???? ??? ???? ???, ? ???? ??? "??? ????, ???? ??? ??? ???"??? ??????. ? ?? ????? "?? ???"? ???? ???. ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? "??"? ??????. SM?? ?? ??? ??? ?? ????. ??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??????. ??????? ?????? "?? ???"?? ??? ??? ?? ? 6??????. ?? ? ?? ????? ?? ??? ?? ?????. ?? ??, "????"?? ??? ? 1,362? ?????? ????, "?? ???"?? ?? ?? 1,366? ? ?????. ??? ??? ?? ????? ???? "?? ???" ??? ??? ??? ???? ????? ???? ??????. ?????, ????? ?? ??? "SNSD (????)"?? ????. ????? ?? ?? Girl's Generation? ????? ?? ???? ?? ????. ??? ???? ? ?? ??? ?? ??? ????. ? ?? ??? ????? ??? ?? "Tohoshinki"? ? ??? ??, ???? ?? ????, ??? "Tohoshinki"?? ??? ??????. ?????? ? 1? ????, ????? ?? ??? ?? ???????. ??? "TVXQ"? ? ?? ?? ???, "TVXQ"?? ??? ?? ???? ? ??? ?????. ??? "DBSK"? Google? ???? ?? ?? ??? "TVXQ"???. --- ? ??? ? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ????? ??? ?????. "??? ??? ??? ?? ???? ???? ????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ? ?. ??? ?? ??? ?? ?????, ?? ??? ??? ????? ?? ????." ?, ??? ?? ???. ??? ??? ???? ??? ?? ???? ???? ????. ?, ?? ??? ??? ????? ?? ????. ?????. ? ?? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ?? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ???. ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?????, ?? ??? ????? ?? ??? ??? ?????. ????? ??? ??? ??? ?? ????, ????? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?????. ? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ? ????? ????. ??? ??? ?? ?? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??? ? ??? ? ????? ??? ????? ??, ?? ? ??? ???? ?????. --- "Why are you guys against Korea?" Asked by: Pete Answered by: johnnydorama Well if that was truly the case, I'd have to protest against myself, as well as badmouth my family and my friends. In short, I'd have to be full of so much self-loathing at being a Korean that I'd curse my existence every day. Fortunately for me (or sadly, for some of you), that's not the case. Seriously though, let me wind things back a little and explain. Growing up, I was first introduced to K-pop during my middle school years, and by high school, I was a fan boy. �I would go to the Korean grocery store every week to rent 'Gayo Top 10' videos, which had a 2-week delay from the original broadcast in Korea (remember this was 1997, with broadband pretty much non-existent, and no Youtube). I would spend all of my money from my part-time job, as well as from my allowance, on K-pop albums. �To this day, I now possess approximately 450 K-pop albums - that should speak volumes on how much I love Korea and Korean music. (This next part, I debated about throwing in here, but decided that since I'm defending myself and this site, I'm going to pull out all the stops.) Back in 1999, one of my dreams was to be a singer in Korea. I would spend hours upon hours at a Noraebang - in fact, I was working part-time at a Noraebang just so I could practice singing after work in order to fulfill my dream.�Unfortunately, this dream never happened. So, what's the next logical step? �Well, I first completed my education and got a full time job. �Finally, when I had enough free time, I revisited my passion for K-pop and decided to start up allkpop.com, with the dream of spreading K-pop globally and providing a solid resource for fans. Getting that out of the way, let me explain about the mentality behind my posts. Growing up in the States, I've become accustomed to Hollywood celebrity gossip (TMZ, Perez Hilton, The Superficial). When I launched allkpop.com, it was a part hobby and part serious venture, but with an American twist - which of course included sarcasm, humor, conjecture, and all that jazz. Everything I posted on the site was to be taken light-heartedly, but as the site grew, more and more avid K-pop fans didn't share or understand my humor. In fact, it got to the point where I would literally receive thousands of hate e-mails every month. That was when I decided to change the direction of allkpop.com - not because I couldn't take the hate, but because we've become so massive and influential that I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. So, we aimed for a more professional approach, by removing as much controversial opinion as possible, but still leaving a bit of personality behind each post so that way we didn't end up turning into robots, or worse yet, your ordinary run-of the-mill K-pop site. Well, it seemed to have been working out fairly well, but now we're running into these issues again. �The funny thing is, we're receiving hate mail not because we inserted an opinion or anything of that nature, but because we post controversial and sometimes negative news. Consequently, people are accusing us of being 'anti-Korean.' [caption id="attachment_166067" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="allkpop, our bark isn't worse than our bite. In lieu of Johnny's picture, we decided to put up his dogs (our mascots)."][/caption] Well as we've explained above, this negative news is coming directly from the Korean media and we are just translating it. �But even that is cause for controversy lately, because many believe we should mask any, or rather, ALL negative news. �But is that what you really want us to do? I, for one, definitely do not want to do that, and why? Because hiding controversial articles just to avoid the backlash and fury, that would be true bias. And unprofessional, to boot. If we didn't report on those issues, we'd probably have people saying, "Oh, you guys are biased and just trying to promote the Hallyu wave by saying only positive things," or whatever other nonsense excuse. At the end of the day, we're pinned against the wall, and whatever we do, we'll always upset someone. Therefore, we do not want to mask or hide anything, and we want to deliver both the good and the bad. Our readers then have the opportunity to weigh the facts and arguments before deciding or stating their opinion. Besides, don't you all want to make your own judgments? �I would think that's what everybody would want, instead of us force-feeding and brainwashing you into thinking that everything about K-pop is all sugary-sweet. I guess that was a long explanation, but in summary, we are not 'anti-Korean' at all. In fact, we all love Korea, which is why we are working for this site in the first place. --- "Why not have articles on non-mainstream artists? �They all get positive feedback, so i'm sure people would like to see more of these." Asked by: Seorp Answered by: asphodel & CM Actually, two of our writers, VITALSIGN and VITALWARNING (who are both Korean by the way, despite�accusations�otherwise), will contribute an editorial on indie and underrated artists, called "Unhyped Talent". �We're really excited about this project, since Korean music isn't just about idol groups. In any case, they've released one already, which you can check out by clicking the link above. --- "I just thought I'd stop by and say thank you for your wonderful efforts in regards to keeping us K-pop fans up to date with the latest K-pop news. �I appreciate every single detail and effort you guys put into the website. �Whether the article is to express your opinions or to state a few facts, thank you. Thank you so much! Much love! <3" Asked by: kpoopface Answered by: CM Thanks, mom! �Hahaha. In all seriousness though, thank you. �People like you help balance out all the haters and antis. --- "What if you're stuck in an elevator with your favorite Korean celebrity and he/she suddenly farted out loud? �What would you do?" Asked by: Kirstie Answered by: CM & asphodel CM says: These are our readers. �Love you guys. Anyway, I would imagine Lee Min Jung's flatulence�sounds like a glorious symphony, and smells like a mixture of roses and vanilla, so I would just sit back, take a deep�whiff�of the wonderful fragrance, and listen to the music pouring out of her rear. asphodel says: Seriously, CM? �Might as well try to distill it and sell it as some exotic perfume: "ROMANTIC AIRS by Lee Min Jung : an exclusive collection". Anyway, knowing PSY, he'd probably just give me the thumbs up and then we'd rock out in a sponatenous dance of "Right Now", utilizing his continuous farts for beats. CM says: You have issues. :o --- "Why are you so awesome?" Asked by: CM Answered by: CM Clarification: Again, there is a user on allkpop with the name, "CM :o", and he asks questions to me (CM) almost weekly. "Who is the best looking allkpop staff member? �Egotistical statements are fine, as long as they speak the truth." Asked by: Queenie Answered by: CM & asphodel CM says: Me. asphodel says: LOL. Check yourself, son. CM says: I did check myself, hence my answer. :-P asphodel says: ...I hate you sometimes. --- We're loving this project, and we're looking forward to answering more of your questions, so please keep sending them in! The place where you should send your questions, concerns, and compliments is // .

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