Like all scandals, there have been countless opinions made about the issue at hand, whether they be from fellow celebrities or just the public in general. But one thing is certainly clear: people are NOT happy with the recent activities of Burning Sun, Seungri, Jung Joon-young, Roy Kim, and the other celebrities who have been involved with media firestorm that is Burning Sun Gate.
The YouTube channel, KOREA NOW, took to the streets of South Korea in order to try and get some interviews from the public about what they thought of the issue with Burning Sun and the celebrities involved with the chatroom scandal. It is immediately clear that a lot of people on the streets at least have some rudimentary knowledge on the issue since everyone is immediately able to tell what scandal they are talking about, which should be a given with how big the scandal is compared to others in recent years.
There are certainly many differing opinions on the fact about whether or not people sort of expected such a thing to arise. It was certainly disheartening to hear that people weren’t truly shocked about a scandal occuring. But that much is obvious. Celebrities are people in the public eye, so anything that happens to them is amplified by their status. People in the video and in the public are, by now, desensitized to seeing their favorite singers and actors in the spotlight over something they did, whether it be an affair or a case of drunk driving.
Choi Jong-hoon was even specifically mentioned for such a case years back about drinking and driving. And not just him. Another celebrity who has been involved with an issue of drunk driving was another member of Big Bang, the one known as Daesung. With such incidents occurring fairly frequently, it is no wonder that the Korean public is used to hearing the words “celebrities” and “scandals” put together so often. In most cases, people ignore such things.
However, where it really starts to fly off the handles is when the subject matter of illegal prostitution, rape, and drug usage comes into the picture. South Korea as a society abhor the subjects mentioned. They have outlawed prostitution, and have heavy laws regarding drugs. Thus, when this aspect of the case come to light, it soon became apparent that many of the public found this to be “too much” even in regards to the celebrities they know live lives apart from the average person.
Another common aspect that seems to be shared amongst the people interviewed in this particular instance is that they believe the highly public nature of this scandal is a cover-up to something much larger and much more serious than what is being reported. I cannot say for certain what would lead people to believe that other than the fact of just how forthcoming the people involved seem to be compared to other scandals.
Just like in the video done by KOREA NOW, the people interviewed in the video done by Asian Boss appear to be equally as informed about the situation at hand than just mere rudimentary knowledge of the fact. They know about who Seungri is: “The Korean Gatsby.” They know about the details of the scandal. And they know about who else was involved and the various developments of the case such as Seungri’s retirement.
And to me, it seems like their feelings on the subject matter are very much in line with others. They are of the opinion that there was no other course of action for Seungri other than retirement from the entertainment industry. He was a member of one of the most influential and popular boy bands in Korea and internationally, even after 13 years since their debut, and he was someone the younger generations looked up to. To be such a public figure and to be a part of something so heinous really was a let down and disappointment to many.
And it should also be of note that common concepts are shown through here as was in the previous video. There are mentions of something bigger being covered up by this scandal, but the public don’t know what. Again, I personally cannot comment on such an idea, but for something as obscure as the idea of a bigger cover-up being mentioned in two different videos about public opinion, there is surely some reason as to why people would think such a thing.
Even other celebrities are taking a stand in their own positions about the scandal. One notable example to this is Taeyeon, the leader of the female equivalent to Big Bang, SNSD (also known as Girls’ Generation).
SNSD and Big Bang have shared a space in South Korea’s culture for a long time now. Both bands debuted some 10 years ago and both have been considered to be the top bands of their respective genres: i.e. girl band and boy band. So it should come as no surprise that one close to Seungri, at least in terms of profession and regard in the public eye, should come forth about the recent scandal.
Now, I confess that while there is nothing explicitly said in this video to suggest Taeyeon is commenting on the recent news about Seungri and the others involved with Burning Sun, it has been noted by many Korean citizens that her mention of “I’m just going to do all that I want to do. …within legal boundaries.” and the little caption of “unintentional reflection period,” could be nothing but an allusion to the recent scandal involving her fellow K-Pop star.
Many have taken to praising Taeyeon for her decision to be a more wholesome celebrity than others, but beyond the comments of the public and other celebrities, the recent scandal has given rise to something unintentional. And that something unintentional is the rising wave of a feminism movement in South Korea, in light of this scandal.
This scandal, involving rich and influential men abusing their power, harming women, and almost getting away with it, brings together an array of divisive social issues in South Korea right now. Over the past year, South Korean women have picked up the torch of the #MeToo movement, starting a sustained protest movement to spark conversations about sexual abuse and the fight for women’s rights.
The campaign began on January 2018, when prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun appeared on a JTBC news show to talk about her experiences with harassment and assault by a superior. Since then, many women have come forward with accusations against high-profile men, including film directors, actors, and politicians. South Korean students have taken up the cause as well, exposing incidents they experience at school and making #SchoolMeToo the social issue most talked about in South Korea in 2018. The second-most discussed was feminism, and the third was molka, an abbreviated word both for spy cameras that are hidden in places such as public bathrooms and for the explicit videos later posted on porn sites. And unfortunately, this is not an uncommon trend in South Korea.
South Korea has long since had a struggle with how women are treated, not just in the K-Pop industry, but as a nation. In fact, it is so prevalent of an issue that when the Institute for the Future of State hired Tapacross, a professional research company, to use big data to analyze the main social issues in Korea, conflicts between men and women came out on top.
Tapacross analyzed big data consisting of 120 million references on online platforms from mass media and social network platforms for a period of 18 months from July 2017 to December 2018, after President Moon Jae-in entered office. In the top 10 issues identified by Tapacross, six were related to relations between the sexes or gender equality. The Me Too movement came second on the list followed by singer Koo Ha-ra’s problems with a boyfriend at No. 4 and a bar fight between women and men near Isu Station at No. 5.
With such a large scandal taking place in the spotlight regarding these positions, involving men of such high-profile, I can honestly expect that this time, the fight for women’s rights in South Korea will take a much deeper hold than in past years, both due to how serious allegations seem when faced with, ironically enough, “star power,” but also because the public is now more aware than ever about the issues that are underlying their society today.
Sources:
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-15/sex-scandal-engulfs-k-pop-tarnishing-industry-s-image
- http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/05/251_269045.html
- http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3063091
- https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/201911061403097588
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/21/k-pops-sexual-assault-scandal-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/k-pop-sex-scandals-highlight-hidden-sex-crimes-south-korea-1197052
The Burning Sun Scandal 
You mentioned that the people interviewed in this particular instance is that they believe the highly public nature of this scandal is a cover-up to something much larger and much more serious than what is being reported. As time went by, I remembered there are more scandals coming after the first one. I also think this scandal was huge at that time. As I mentioned, Lee knew that scandal and allowed that happen. He not only allowed, also wanted to expand this as his “business”.
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I cannot say with confidence on what the larger issue that is being covered-up may be. After all, I have not ever lived in Korea and don’t have much political or societal knowledge outside of what I do know in relation to this scandal. However, I think if there is a cover-up, the larger issue may very well have to do with corruption and illegal acts that are far more despicable than what has been reported on. And also, as time goes on, I find it disheartening to hear less and less about the scandal. While it is still being reported on and people are still taking issue on it, it seems as though people are losing steam in their crusade against the injustice of this whole situation. This only goes to prove my point that we are, unfortunately, getting accustomed to hearing about horrible acts of depravity in the news.
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I personally feel that there will always be unintentional side effects that won’t be initially seen. Having a society that is outwardly against use of drugs and prostitution could be a reason why there might be a large illegal network linked to so many high ranking people.
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That might very well be the case. There are always going to be networks of an underground nature to get around the entities known a the rules and laws. However, while that is true, for such an incident as this scandal to occur with so many celebrities means that there is a lax set of standards for them to follow. Celebrities are people who are in the public eye, people the younger generations will look up to as an example for them to follow. So they should hold themselves to a higher standard to be that good example. And for such a large cast of celebrities to be involved is both horrifying and an indicator that something is wrong with the Korean entertainment industry.
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I believe that these celebrities involved in such nightclubs got what they had coming for them- karma. These people have bad personal histories, covered up news articles, and are completely abusing their power and influence as a celebrity.
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That is the common consensus within the population of Korea. Some of the older people are a tad more sympathetic since, for all intents and purposes, the men and celebrities involved in this scandal have worked very hard to get where they are. They just lacked the proper moral and ethical guidance, which some of the older people attribute to the parents of the accused. However, the younger people of Korea, in addition to the older population, still say that the men involved have to be punished to the fullest extent of the law because there can be no other result. It is especially true for the women demographic in Korea, for obvious reasons.
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Hopefully in exposing the tangled and gnarly roots of this and similar hard truths about such activities will help to advance the public discourse in South Korea so that they can work through the issues they have with mistreating women. It’s unfortunate that the news cycle is 24/7 nowadays and we have such short attention spans, but these sorts of scandals inform the opinions on future issues and hopefully something productive can come of it in the way of serious consideration about these inequalities that lend themselves to this sort of shady underbelly.
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That is my idea of the only light to be brought about in the face of this scandal. It has become extremely apparent that in the wake of such large scandals such as this where atrocities and other malpractices are revealed, we have become largely desensitized to a degree. And with so many scandals being revealed, I feel that it is an unfortunate result of a lack of ethics and morals being instilled in the coming generations of people.
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