“In truth the phrase ‘Korean Wave’ must disappear. It has such a nationalist tint to it and it’s no different from sticking the Korean flag on your chest and fighting.” JYP warned.
“In the Beijing Olympics even if there are catcalls, if the archers shoot well they win the gold medal, but with music and other cultural products if Chinese people start booing Korea and stop buying you fail.” He cited the Jews as a role model that we should follow.
There are always Jews behind all the world’s industries, but they never state in the world market that the products they made are Israeli (이스라엘 것).”
JYP strenuously emphasized, “In US, Japan, and other markets of more than 100 million you can grow in any area, but in a market of 40 million like Korea it’s hard. There are a lot of Jews among the owners of Hollywood and America’s record company presidents. But we should pay attention to the fact that since they’ve removed the taint of nationalism they have been able to obtain a practical hegemony and sell cultural products in the world market.”
JYP got laughs and applause when he said “We penetrated the American cultural product market, and we were 7th in the Olympics, and I’m pretty sure our race (우리 민족) has some special talent.”
Pop Seoul has the story now, too, and apparently still doesn't believe in citing sources. The Joongang Ilbo has a different spin to the story.
I don't have the time to look much up now, but from what I understand the above sentiments aren't that uncommon. The most extreme example is, of course, the views put forth in a popular history comic book with tinges anti-Semitic enough to warrant condemnation from the US government. If you're interested in reading a little from the book, brought to the attention of English-language readers by a previous Joshing Gnome incarnation, maybe start with chapter eight, titled "One Must Know the Jews to Truly See America."
3 comments:
if only JYP made music that was worth buying.... :p
I first saw this JYP article at Joshing Gnome, under the heading "Love Dem Jews", and HE cites the source.
I don't know what to say -- especially without accidentally making uninformed generalizations about either Koreans or Jews, except that I'll say my old boss used to call Koreans "The Jews of Asia" when he wasn't calling Koreans "The Irish of Asia".
I still don't get the __ of Asia thing.
Yeah, I know the Joshing Gnome cited the source. I meant that you'll hardly ever find Pop Seoul citing sources, even though everything they run is taken from somewhere else.
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