NewJeans and Microfascism in Korea (1)
Part 1 - Background
Original post: https://m.blog.naver.com/dnldlsehtk/223880340940
I believe South Korea has a highly developed society. In my experience, the level of civic consciousness is, on average, higher than in other countries. There is much to improve, but there is also much to admire.
Yet the more advanced a society is, the more uncivilised and vicious its underside could be.
A recurring theme when I describe Korean society is this: It is where people have been sprinting forward without rest - skipping meals, sleeping in snatches - to the point everyone is exhausted.
The burden placed on individuals is immense, while the rewards are minimal. As a result, many have become numb to lashing out at others with anger and violence.
When the subject is someone younger than myself - kids just about to step into adult life - it is terrifying to watch.
This post is about what I found terrifying and how it took place.
Being Cornered Until They Had No Choice But To Fight
I am not a dedicated fan of NewJeans, or a Tokki. The motive behind extravagant spending and repeated streaming of albums in K-POP fandoms eludes me. I listen to most well-known K-POP songs, without much preference. (If I had to say, I would call myself a fan of NMIXX.)
That is why, when Min Hee-Jin (민희진, or MHJ in short) was audited by HYBE and held the press conference, I was more interested in Min than NewJeans. There was something off when the media was full of nonsense such as allegations of ‘breach of trust’, being consulted by a shaman on matters of running ADOR, or conspiring a takeover with the PIF, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
Hence, after MHJ completely flipped the situation in two hours at the conference, I found myself siding with her as I was genuinely impressed, thinking:
“She is right. There would be no progress if art is consumed by money. Someone needs to speak up like that, no matter how powerful corporations are.”
From a very personal perspective, she has done nothing wrong (at least based on what is known so far). Claims such as MHJ ignoring a sexual harassment victim and abusing her verbally are unfounded. (Obviously, if they turn out to be true, she holds culpability in those.)
Looking back, it appears that strange narratives began circulating online from then, like “this country is driven by emotional outbursts” or “MHJ is ungrateful for stabbing HYBE in the back, after all the investments”.
Some came from figures like Kim Eo-Jun (김어준) and Park Si-Dong (박시동), two prominent pundits associated with the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPP). Considering how they were outraged at Yoon Seok-Yeol (the former president who attempted the self-coup last year and was impeached afterwards) for his involvement as the Prosecutor General during the Cho Kuk (조국) scandal back in 2019, this seemed self-contradictory.
Most commentators on the other side of the spectrum, in favour of the conservative People’s Power Party (PPP), are motivated by profit and access to power; I was not surprised to find them blaming MHJ. Yet when DPP-affiliated voices echoed such narratives, it was out of my expectation.
Yoon and Bang Si-Hyeok (the Chairman of HYBE) are no different, in that they both manipulated the media to open the court of public opinion and destroy reputations of Cho Kuk and MHJ, making the public believe those allegations were true, even before the investigations were finished. Their actions are essentially identical : punishing their targets before any wrongdoings were proven, because if they did anything wrong, legal or ethical, does not matter; destroying them does.
Kim Eo-Jun and Park Si-Dong, however, applied a double standard, making arguments like “the contract between MHJ and BSH is not unfair: it is not a ‘slave contract’.” or “MHJ made excessive demands to change the contract, which might have angered BSH.” Such were digressions from the main issue: “Can the audit and followed media play by HYBE be justified?”
I assert that no one should be victims of media-led witch hunts, even before the trial begins and the full picture of events is revealed. Unfortunately too many seem to be content with that, or even worse, join in and believe it is the right thing. Witnessing this frustrated me; I could not interpret how the Korean society functions.
Still, up to that point, it was a struggle between ‘grown-ups’. MHJ and BSH could both speak for themselves and handle the consequences, which is not unbearable to watch.
When an idol group whose oldest members were born in 2004 - barely turning 21 this year - fell prey to the media, they crossed the line. NewJeans was cornered into such circumstances, slowly and gradually.
Speaking Up Without Hiding
HYBE launched a public audit against MHJ, the CEO and the executive producer of their own label, one month before NewJeans’ comeback. After the media spectacle and a short legal battle, MHJ was falsely accused and stripped of her position.
Dolphiners, a media team in charge of music videos for NewJeans, was pressured to take down their videos due to copyright threats. Their medical records and trainee-era videos were released without consent putting them to public shame. The worst of all deeds was having vile figures like Lee Jin-Ho manipulate public opinions.
As the conflict dragged on, employees who NewJeans worked with began to leave one by one, and ADOR’s board was replaced with people appointed by HYBE.
HYBE offered no clear plan to cover the roles vacated by MHJ and her team and NewJeans was faced at crossroads : Would they wait ‘naively’ for a comeback that might never come, trusting HYBE? Or would they take the risk of breaking free and starting over ‘recklessly’?
In the entertainment industry, it is well-known that idols who fall out of favour of with their agencies are shelved, almost always.
NewJeans chose a reckless escape over being a naive prisoner.
Whether HYBE and BSH intended it or not, they deserve blame for the outcome.
Until the Youtube live broadcast above, NewJeans was but a third party in the whole situation; if they had remained silent, they might have suffered, but would have avoided being targeted themselves.
Some self-proclaimed fans attacked LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT, or branded their story as a crusade against oppression by HYBE, often with the bizarre ‘Dahn World’ conspiracy theory. These were unpleasant to witness yet separate from MHJ and NewJeans themselves, and therefore they were not to be held accountable for such issues.
NewJeans, however, chose to fight. Rather than being quietly shelved they risked everything to escape the prison they were in. Two and a half month after the live streaming they declared the termination of their exclusive contract.
In hindsight, it was hardly a strategically wise decision, but they had no choice.
Once they entered the battlefield the arrows came fast. People started to make strange comparisons with FIFTY FIFTY (another K-POP group which decided to terminated their exclusive contract and leave their agency), criticise their attitude at the press conference as ‘arrogant’ and questioned if they could truly succeed without support from HYBE. MHJ was blamed for ‘hiding’ while this was happening.
Still, in the court of public opinion, NewJeans held the upper hand.
The Cost Of Speaking Up
It was on March 21st that the tables turned, when the court granted ADOR’s injunction to ban all activities by NewJeans as NJZ (the name they chose to use while working independently from HYBE and the new ADOR), on every forum except Twitter.
A flood of vicious comments, full of personal attacks and curses, followed. Most of them were unbearable to read.
Some of them, like that they are paying the price for hurting other idols (from LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT fandoms) or they were unwise to go up against HYBE, can at least be understood as rooted in resentment or expression of pity - even though they are factually wrong.
Apart from those, the vitriol is terrifying. It might sound like an overreaction but they made me feel goosebumps :
“They’re not educated and believe everything will go their way without understanding the law.”
“They need to learn how bitter the real world is.”
“If you want out, pay the penalty and work as broke artists.”
“If contracts can be broken on a whim, who in their right mind will invest in idols from now?”
“I want to see them 10 year later on Youtube, crying with regret.”
“They are stupid, that’s why they’re acting like that - crush them now so it never happens again.”
“After pocketing billions of won, how dare they act like victims?”
“You’re nothing without HYBE, did you not know that? You want to break the contract just because someone didn’t greet you guys? Look how narcissistic they are.”
“Other idols are working quietly in worse conditions - why are they making a fuss?”
“You thought throwing a tantrum would make the world listen to you?”
“Because of you, real workers facing discrimination and hardship - even death - are being forgotten.”
(Specifically about Hanni) “We made a Vietnamese girl who can’t even speak Korean successful, and this is how she betrays us by testifying at a National Assembly hearing?”
The scale of such is too enormous to be attributed to comment shills or manipulation from fandoms. Even lawyers are putting up thumbnails saying “You need brains to start a revolution.” on YouTube, spewing poison under the guise of legal insight.
If this is not madness, what is?
After interviews with TIME and the BBC, another smear emerged : that they are promoting anti-Korean sentiment by speaking to international media about what is happening, since the Korean public has turned against them. (Even though the title of the TIME article used the word ‘brazen’ to frame NewJeans on a negative note, it is rather mild compared to weird reactions that followed.)
International K-POP fandoms joined afterwards, misled by HYBE propaganda and lacking context for the series of events.
For that reason, NewJeans and its fanbase remain entirely isolated at the moment.
(Continued in Part 2)