2PM’s Jaebeom Park: Idol and Exiled

So this is the situation: a boy from Seattle — Jay Park, AKA Jaebeom — passes an audition by one of the most respected Korean labels to train and eventually become an idol in a Korean boy band called 2pm. Things are tough for the guy over the years, having to learn and live in Korea as a high school freshman. He retreats to his MySpace to rant — like many of us do — about his thoughts and frustrations living in Korea, eventually writing “Korea is gay.” Four years later he debuts in a now very popular idol group called 2PM.

With a rise in popularity, also comes harsh criticism and resourceful, yet misguided anti-fans and netizens who dig up his MySpace blog and translate it. The phrase ‘Korea is gay’ is taken out of the body of his post and gets translated literally. A huge uproar occurs with netizens crying for his blood and in a matter of four days was eventually exiled back to his modest humble family in Seattle.

Overseas Asians
I’ll admit that I’ve never actually lived in another country, but I do understand you have to adapt to the culture of your surroundings. This takes time, a lot of time, especially if you’re a person who is very stubborn like a 16 year old teenage boy. Likewise, I don’t blame newcomers because they lack understanding, are unfamiliar with certain practices or have a tough time using broken English to communicate. I remember getting into an argument with my sister who only speaks English with a little French and Italian, believes people should learn English when they come to North America. I retorted, “Let’s see you go to China and how quickly you can pick up the language there.”

Lost In Translation and the Lazy Korean media
In the four days following his self-exile, the complete, correctly translated post emerged online. Part of the issue was the knee-jerk reaction of the Korean media not double checking facts. I honestly don’t have much respect for most Korean media. At best, it’s entertaining and shallow, at worst it’s a lynch mob always siding with bias and agenda-driven netizens. It makes me believe that the “tips” sent in are taken at face value and never get the proper investigation it requires. Gossip is fine, if delivered in an appropriate manner with a certain level of journalistic integrity. However if a media outlet feels a celeb uploading photos to their CYWorld — think MySpace in Korea — is newsworthy, I believe otherwise. They are no better than gossip blogs created by bias fans. Above all, I blame the media and its small town minded carelessness for not doing their jobs properly from the start.

Celebs and fans show their support for Jaebeom
While some of it is misguided, it comforts me that his fellow colleagues actually have demonstrated in more than one way that they both understand and support him. Many have retreated to their CYWorlds writing beautiful poems and blogs about life as an idol, while others release official statements to the public decrying that society gives too much power to faceless netizens hiding behind userIDs. Fans launched post-it campaigns in both Korea and NYC begging for his return. Korean-American Pops In Seoul host Isak, aka Ida Simmons, twittered “7=1~”, a tagline use to represent that the 7 members of 2PM = 1 group. At this point, the only thing that can save his career are the fans and his supporters.

I’m not even going to try to comprehend the complexities of the situation as several of the people responsible are now sorry. When a boy is 16 years old, going to school and training to be a pop star in a foreign country away from his family, he has to retreat back to something familiar to be able to fully express and articulate his feelings. Even though they say you should always be careful about what you say in the present because the past comes back to haunt, this is ridiculous.