BTS upsets Chinese with war ‘insult’
South Korean K-pop boyband BTS seems to have stepped in it – internationally, that is.
After winning an award celebrating cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea from the New York-based, nonprofit Korea Society, band leader RM, whose given name is Kim Nam-joon, had this to say.
“We will always remember the history of pain that our two nations shared together and the sacrifices of countless men and women,” he said in tribute, alluding to the Korean War, which pitted U.S. and South Korean forces against those from North Korea and China in the early 1950s.
Trouble is, he didn’t mention the deaths on the other side, and China felt dissed.
A heated social media debate ensued, and international brands, led by Samsung, started erasing BTS references from their Chinese shopping and social media platforms.
“They should not make any money from China,” one angry user said on the Weibo platform, referring to BTS, according to Reuters. “If you want to make money from Chinese fans you have to consider Chinese feelings.”
Social media posts highlighting Samsung’s BTS special edition smartphones and earphones disappeared from the Chinese e-commerce platforms Tmall and JD.com soon after, Reuters reported.
Samsung stripped BTS-related products from its official stores on Chinese e-commerce platforms, the Chinese state-run Global Times reported, “after the band’s remarks on the Korean War angered Chinese netizens, who said the K-pop group’s onesided attitude to the war negates history.”
The remarks also appeared to be designed to “play up” to U.S. audiences, the Global Times added.
The gesture was not lost on Chinese netizens.
“It proves Samsung cares about the Chinese market,” wrote one Sina Weibo user, according to Global Times.
Other companies doing business in China also yanked any references to BTS, including the sports fashion brand Fila and automaker Hyundai, from their official Weibo accounts, Reuters said.
The band did have its defenders, BBC News reported, with some saying that RM did not mention China directly in his speech.
The U.S. lost 36,547 to the 1950-53 war, according to CNN. South Korea saw 217,000 military deaths and a million civilians killed; North Korea lost 406,000 soldiers and 600,000 civilian souls, and China lost 600,000 military members, according to CNN, citing the Encyclopedia Britannica. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the conflict.