Notes from Aphrael:
The account below is from this guy who has stayed in Korea for 3 years as per his account. It is his personal account which I have translated, and we bear no liability for whether his account contains facts or not; it is up to the reader to judge.
Just to add, I believe this author’s account because (i) he is not a fan of JKS and (ii) several incidents that the author describes, I have read it from other people’s accounts and all the facts match.
This translation is dedicated to everyone who wants to know the history behind the Korean backlash on JKS a few years back.
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Author: jks挚爱cri on Weibo
I stayed in Korea for 3 years from 2006 to 2009, the goddess I admired fell in love with him in 2006, hence I hated him since 2006 because he occupied the heart of my goddess!! *cry*….
But because of this, I started to pay attention to him. At that time I was in Korea, and he was criticized by all the Koreans, so later when I saw his tremendous success, I was very surprised. Although I don’t like him, although I hate him, I still have to admit that he is a tall, rich and handsome star worthy of admiration and to learn from.
His character is representative of most men of his generation or the character that most men admire (despite that many men don’t like him). Here I have to clarify, every man (tall, rich, handsome or not) has his self-esteem and dignity, and his dream. Don’t deny it, so long as you are a man, you are like every man who has their dream of being a hero. We can endure poverty, laugh at ourselves for being short, ugly and poor, see our goddesses being snatched away, we can do without our shame, but we all have our dignity and dream – we value it even more, because this is all that we have (a little literary, but the truth in our heart). But he – his dignity and dream were trampled on and laughed at by all Koreans.
Next I’m going to describe his experiences, this experience is what every man should respect. Because I have lived in Korea for 3 years, what I describe next is what I have seen personally.
In 2006, almost all the Korean women were attracted to him through one drama. That year, he was only 18 years old.
This drama had a star-studded cast, and he was not the lead character. But he, a child only 18 years old, snatched the limelight from the other stars. Possessing the face of an innocent child, he acted the role of an obedient and kind son of a rich man. That night on which his character died in the drama, this kind of comment appeared on the internet: “Korean women are all crying.” (I have not watched this drama, but this kind of comment did appear on the internet the night his character died.)
I have lived in Korea for 3 years, and actually, Korea is more traditional than China sometimes. No matter whether it is the ancient Joseon or the Korea today, certain traditions could not be changed.
Korean tradition is, children must be obedient, listen to adults and be sensible. Because of the character he acted in and his appearance and age, he became an obedient child in the eyes of Korean women, he became their darling pet. All the Korean people started to praise him; they saw him as an obedient child, praised him for his obedience, his innocent smile, his handsome looks, his youth, his acting and his professionalism, his sincerity towards people etc. The Koreans generously gave him a nickname “Perfect Man” (completely precious man). The Koreans thought well of his future and hoped that he continue to be an obedient actor.
Correct, the Koreans almost correctly guessed everything. His smile was innocent, looks handsome, age young, professional and very sincere towards people. But the Koreans guessed the most important thing wrongly. He is not an obedient child.
He is not an obedient child, he’s even a little bit naughty. But I think that he is very similar to us. He flaunts, is self confident, has pride higher than the sky, frank, forthright, he dares to do what he says, he’s not afraid of anything.
Have we ever been like him before, thinking that we are very good? Correct, but we are not stars.
And he is a star, and what’s more, an obedient child in the eyes of the Koreans
But he forgot.
He described his own dreams proudly, he had lots and lots of dreams. He said before that he wanted to become a car-racer, he said that he wanted to become a dancer.
The Koreans found out to their surprise that he was not obedient at all, to the extent of being unrestrained. Because he’s a star, his character was magnified and exaggerated by the entertainment business.
In Korea where humility and modesty are tradition, an artiste’s flaunting characteristic is fatal. We all know many Korean stars, they are very serious and modest; even comedians only dare to act funny and absolutely do not dare to flaunt. This is a tradition in Korean entertainment business.
However, his character is completely at odds in the Korean entertainment business.
The entire Korean entertainment business began to attack him, criticise him, laugh at him, but I feel that they might be afraid of him.
In the past till now, there is no artiste in Korea like him. He says what he wants to, flaunts himself and even overly self confident. His character is like a big rock thrown into the traditionally peaceful Korean entertainment business. He was like something new that had barged into the entertainment circle, and people are always afraid of new things/people.
Unstated rules don’t work on him. His bold flaunting gave a big headache to the Korean entertainment business which was everywhere full of unstated rules. Korean companies did not dare to apply their unstated rules to him, they even did not dare to let him know about the unstated rules, because the Korean media was afraid of him.
Because they were afraid, they attacked.
He wrote that his dream was to become a famous racer, he wanted to set up a car company. The media criticised him for shirking his main occupation and being childish.
He wrote that when he became 40 years old, he wanted to have earned enough money to buy a large-scale entertainment company. The media laughed at him for being impractical and having a fool’s dream.
He wrote that he wanted to lie in warm sunshine, and would be good to listen to the accompaniment of Andre Gagnon’s piano recital. The media shot sarcasm at him pretending to be literary and classic.
He liked to upload pictures of him wearing his new clothes. He liked to point up his thumb and say confidently with an innocent smile: “I am great.”
The media hated his flaunting.
Etc etc.
The peak of such developments happened when he wrote, “If I have the chance to go to Paris, a bottle of wine in one hand and newspapers in the other, I would shout ‘New York Herald Tribune’ on Avenue des Champs-Élysées.”
The criticism from Korean media and netizens reached a peak, they laughed at him for always writing some abstract words and laughed at him for his boastful exaggeration. The Koreans nicknamed him “ho-sei” (虚势). Whatever he did was ho-sei, be it entering Hanyang University, acting or even charity work.
Ho-sei, ho-sei, the Koreans forgot his real name, and only said that he was a ho-sei youth. At that time, everywhere in Korea, the media, magazines and internet were all criticizing him. This criticism lasted for a whole 3 years. (Maybe today some Chinese fans think that I am exaggerating, but I want to say, absolutely not. Maybe I did not even describe the full extent)
I don’t know how he endured these 3 years. During these 3 years, his dignity and dreams were cruelly trampled on and laughed at.
He has also learned how to bow his head and keep his eyes low, how to speak modestly, but deep in his bones, he still emits a strong and tough attitude “What have I done wrong?”
He has fans who understand him and support him, but under the continuous attacks of the traditional Korean entertainment business and large-scale Korean media, these few supporters crumbled instantly. There were friends who advised him, why don’t you put down your character and let yourself have a better life.
Put down his character? How do you expect him to put down? His character is originally like that!
Because of his ho-sei (虚势) title, he had undergone lots of other suffering, I shall not describe in detail here, we should be able to understand what it was like. (Sometimes we cannot even tolerate others saying one negative criticism about us, what more to say that he endured 3 years)
After 3 years of attack by the Korean media, he exploded. He did not know why he was wrong, he is a flaunting youth who loved to dream, is this wrong? He hit a table with much force and broke his finger.
At that time, he felt very very wronged, so he decided to leave, to leave his home country that he loved deeply but which had hurt him so badly. He left in determination to further his development in other countries, He continued to study in Korea, but worked very hard in other countries, and commuted between Korea and other countries. The Korean media continued to jibe at him and wanted to see what success he could gain.
He set up his own company, he participated personally in planning and stage design, he practiced dancing till late at night and learned foreign language. Bringing a team of good friends cum colleagues, he walked out of Korea, and threw himself into work.
At that time, I was in Korea and I witnessed these developments. My colleagues and I were feeling puzzled, why can’t many people accept true words and like to hear untrue words? When other people say insincere flattering, they’ll think it’s good, but when people say the truth or talk about their dreams, they would think the person is indulging in wild fantasy? Everyone has their own dream, don’t tell me if they say it out, it is called ho-sei (虚势)?
But what is worth rejoicing is that he succeeded.
2009, at 21 years old, he shot to fame in Japan, Korea and China because of one drama, but this is only his beginning.
2011, his first single topped the Oricon chart, thus becoming Japan’s first foreign singer to get the champion spot upon his debut.
2011, he was adored by thousands and thousands of people in Singapore and Malaysia
2011, his concert in Thailand sold out
2011, he brought his concert to Tokyo Dome and enjoyed the highest honour of an artiste
2011, his concert in Shanghai was extremely popular
2012, at 24 years old, he bought a 6-storey building to carry out his brand business and became a Hallyu star with the most property assets.
2012, at 24 years old, he is carrying out his 3rd Asia Tour.
2012, he went to Paris in France and took this picture: He stood at Avenue des Champs-Élysées with one bottle of wine in one hand and New York Herald Tribune in the other. After the picture was released, it caused a sensation in Korea. Because of these words, he was once laughed at by everyone for being ho-sei (虚势), but now, he has easily accomplished this. I still remember, at the end of his first concert, he held a celebratory feast at his own company, he held a wineglass, stood on a chair and screamed crazily before raising his head and shouting to his colleagues: “Friends, next time, I will bring you to see the Tokyo Dome.”
He is still bold and forthright, still flaunting, still self-confident…. All these years, he has not changed. He brings the four different identities of a singer, actor, dancer and DJ at the peak of his success and returns to the centre of the Hallyu wave, shattering the title of ho-sei (虚势) into pieces.
The Korean media is surprised at his unprecedented success. The magazines and newspapers which had once criticized everything about him started to worry. Yet towards the past, he smiles it off.
Many of his fans now don’t understand his past very well, because he does not mention it. When other people occasionally raise this topic, he smiles and says, “That is people’s misunderstanding of me in the past.”
Today, his character remains the same, and nobody dares to call him ho-sei (虚势), people respect his capability because the old dreams that he had spoken of are, to him, now too small.
From his past and from his character, I have really learned a lot from him, and today his character has become his benchmark. I only want to say this: even if your dream is being trampled on the ground, we still need to persevere and smile happily.
He is Jang Keun Suk.
[END]
Credit: aphrael77
Source: Jang Keun Suk Forever
