Author: An Qing (Research Fellow, Ward Institute)
Affected by the THAAD incident, since the South Korean boy group BIGBANG came to China in 2015 to hold a tour in 11 cities, the Korean singer's special performances in China have been interrupted and have not been held for 9 years.
You must know that as the main pioneer of the Korean Wave, South Korea attaches great importance to K-POP (Korean pop music) foreign exchanges and performances, especially China, which was once regarded as one of the three major markets of K-pop together with the United States and Japan, and in recent years, it has paid special attention to reopening the Chinese market in a vain attempt to restore the highlight moment in the Chinese market.
Give a little sweetness, and the "Korean Wave" rejoices
Since the beginning of this year, the South Korean industry and public opinion circles have been pleasantly surprised to find that the "Korean restriction order" that has been kept secret in China is showing signs of relaxation. For example, Tencent Music Entertainment's senior management recently visited South Korea and contacted major Korean brokerage companies, so the Korean music industry believes that I am accelerating the cancellation of the "Korean restriction order" and is full of expectations for re-entering the Chinese mainland market.
In particular, the South Korean soprano Cao Xiumei, known as "Asia's No. 1 flowery soprano", appeared at the "May Music Festival" of the National Center for the Performing Arts of China in early May, and the Korean media emphasized that Cao Xiumei felt "extremely happy" to perform in China again after 8 years.
More importantly, Say Sue Me, a band group with a high reputation in the Korean music scene, was recently allowed to hold a performance in Beijing, causing a sensation in South Korean public opinion, emphasizing that it is very rare for Korean singers to open special performances in Beijing, believing that this move marks the "Korean restriction order" is about to be fully lifted, and the once popular "Korean Wave" will once again sweep Chinese mainland.
A small move, the "Korean Wave" is tense again
However, the "Hallyu" industry's euphoria has not lasted for a few days, and now it is nervous again. South Korea's authoritative media "JoongAng Ilbo" quoted Choi so-mi, the lead singer of the group Say Sue Me, as saying on June 28 that the Beijing performance schedule has been canceled, and she was once full of expectations, but now she is disappointed. Choi also revealed that Say Sue Me had applied to perform in several cities in China, and only the Beijing event was permitted, but now even the Beijing show has been canceled, which is "very disappointing".
The JoongAng Ilbo published an editorial titled "K-POP Still Shut Out," claiming that some Korean films had landed in the Chinese market, that musicians such as Cho so-mi had been allowed to perform in Beijing and Shanghai, and that only "Korean pop singers had been shut out." In response, "there is less chance that works with ambiguous nationalities, such as anime and games, will be restricted, but Korean K-pop, which is easy to fascinate Chinese youth, seems to be being subject to stricter restrictions."
We still hope that China's goodwill needs to be effectively reciprocated
The Korean entertainment industry comforted itself by saying that my restrictions on K-POP may be lifted soon, emphasizing that "only the resumption of K-pop performances in China will be a clear signal that the 'Korean restriction order' will be lifted."
Since Yoon Suk-yeol took office, his policy has taken a comprehensive rightward shift, following the United States in taking a tough stance on China. In order to resume people-to-people exchanges between China and the ROK, the Chinese side has taken many goodwill measures to gradually resume exchanges and cooperation in the Korean entertainment industry in China.
Although it is a matter of the entertainment industry for the singer group to perform in China, it is inevitably affected by the geopolitical landscape and bilateral relations. After the Chinese Prime Minister's visit to the ROK for the first time in many years, we also fully hope that the ROK ruling authorities can see the goodwill shown by the Chinese side and take beneficial measures in carrying out bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields such as people-to-people and cultural exchanges, so as to eliminate barriers, expand the scope of cooperation, and deepen the connotation of cooperation as soon as possible, so as to benefit the people of the two countries.