Asia: BTS Under A Cloud? Crime-Fighting Jacky Cheung

Photo courtesy of PMKBNC Press – BTS
BTS performs for a packed house at Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 25-26.

BTS Under A Cloud?

A week after top K-pop boy band BTS was dropped at the last minute by a Japanese TV music show because of a controversial piece of clothing one of the members wore in 2017, the group continued to be bombarded with bad press regarding their sartorial choices.

The brouhaha started on Nov. 8, when TV Asahi Corp., one of Japan’s key commercial broadcasters, announced that a hotly anticipated appearance by BTS on its live Friday night music showcase, “Music Station,” was being cancelled. The problem was the discovery of photos from last year showing BTS member Jimin wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt commemorating Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule on August 15, the day Japan surrendered to allied forces. The T-shirt design also included a photo of the mushroom cloud rising above the Japanese city of Nagasaki after Americans had dropped an atomic bomb on the city on August 9, 1945. Many believe the atomic bombings of Nakasaki and Hiroshima ended the Asia-Pacific portion of World War II. About 70,000 civilians died in the Nagasaki bombing alone. According to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, In its statement TV Asahi said it had asked “the band’s agency about the member’s intention in wearing the shirt.”

The statement, which also included an apology “to viewers who were looking forward to the appearance,” was unusual. Normally, when Japanese TV stations cancel appearances by artists for any reason the public explanation is very vague. In this case, mentioning the reason seemed inevitable because the controversy over the shirt had already spread on the internet, sparking negative responses from Japanese people.

The reaction to the controversy in South Korea was different. BTS’s management, Big Hit Entertainment, released a statement simply saying that BTS’s scheduled appearance has been “postponed” and also contained an apology to fans, but mentioned nothing about the reason or the shirt. Some Korean fan sites explained the controversy over the shirt and also pointed out recent news items that have contributed to deteriorating diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan, which may have contributed to the controversy.

Following the announcement, Japanese media outlets reported that at least two other Japanese TV stations, public broadcaster NHK and Fuji TV, cancelled appearances by BTS as part of their end-of-year programming, a major blow to Big Hit since BTS was about to launch a huge Japanese language promotional blitz for their new album and a string of concerts. Complicating matters is a side controversy that blew up in September, when Korean fans of BTS lashed out at Big Hit for agreeing to a collaboration with Japanese producer Yasushi Akimoto, who many Koreans accuse of being an anti-Korean Japanese nationalist.

Then, a human rights group, The Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles, joined the fray when it denounced BTS not only for the shirt, but also promotional materials that appeared in 2015 of the band wearing Nazi-style regalia. The Center demanded that “the management of the group, not only the front performers…publicly apologize.”

The apology eventually came on Nov. 13. In a statement, Big Hit vowed to reach out to atomic bomb survivors, both Japanese and Korean, “in order to explain and apologize for the hurt caused by these issues. We’d like to clarify that all Big Hit staff and artists, including BTS, do not regard war of atomic bombs lightly.” It went on say that the people involved in the matter “did not do appropriate research” and for that “we sincerely apologize.” The statement also said that BTS “does not regard Nazis lightly nor any other group that promotes ideals or totalitarianism or extremism.” In the end, the agency took full responsibility for “the above issues.”

In the meantime, the group’s fans doubled down on their defense of BTS, denigrating anyone who took issue with their image, including the Weisenthal Center, which they claimed was playing into the hands of Japanese right-wingers. One Japanese media outlet reported that both TV Asahi and the Wiesanthal Center were alerted to the BTS situations by right-wing agitators, one of whom the Wiesanthal Center had previously denounced for alleged anti-semitic remarks.

Predictably, there were protestors chanting anti-BTS slogans outside of Tokyo Dome for the group’s sold-out concert on Nov. 13, but they weren’t very large in number.

Speaking of BTS, according to Korea Biz Wire, the group has set a record for black market prices for tickets of a very particular kind. In October, the seven-member group was awarded a cultural medal by the South Korean government in recognition of their “role in propelling the worldwide popularity of Korean pop culture, as well as the Korean language.” In 2018, BTS embarked on sold-out tours of North America and Europe, topped the American album charts twice and addressed the United Nations.

The tickets for the awards ceremony were distributed free-of-charge, and yet somehow ended up on online second-hand ticket sites with price tags as high as 1.5 million won ($1,341). This despite the fact that the group did not perform at the ceremony and was never scheduled to perform.

Korea Biz Wire says that BTS also holds the record for black market ticket prices for events where there is a performance. In August, tickets for their Seoul concerts were going for as much as 3.2 million won ($2,825).

AP Photo – Jacky Cheung
Jacky Cheung, Putra Indoor Stadium, Bukit Jalil, Malaysia, Dec. 8, 2011

Crime-Fighting Jacky Cheung

Jacky Cheung, the “God of Song” in Chinese-language territories, has acquired another moniker. He is now known as the “Crime-fighting Heavenly King” after several dozen fugitives were arrested at his concert the weekend of Nov. 3 in Haikou, China.

Cheung’s massive, sold-out tour, which started several months ago, had already drawn attention for attracting more than its share of criminal suspects wanted by the police in the various localities where Cheung was playing. It seemed they liked Cheung’s music as much as the average Chinese person, but because of facial recognition technology installed at the venues, as well as larger contingents of local police for purposes of crowd control, these fugitives were recognized and arrested on the spot.

In Haikou, the haul of bad guys was a whopping 31. The main reason for the large number is that with every successive stop on the tour, more local police officers have been mobilized in the expectation that suspects will come out of hiding to see and hear their hero. According to Today Online, Haikou police sent 6,600 persons to patrol the concert. Twenty of those arrested were scalpers, four were accused of selling fake IDs, and the rest were theft suspects.