Many people in Taiwan were angered in the run-up to the presidential elections when singer Chou Tzu-Yu was forced to apologise for waving a Taiwanese national flag on a TV programme in South Korea. “One of the principles is drawing a sharp line between culture and politics”.
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“Park said there was no political intention at the beginning of the controversy, but he changed his stance over the issue as the controversy grew bigger and chose to sacrifice Tzuyu”.
Last year, U.S. singer-songwriter Katy Perry caused a stir in both Taiwan and China when she appeared on stage draped in a Taiwanese flag at a concert in Taipei, while donning a glittering gold dress adorned with sunflowers – the symbol of anti-China student protests in Taiwan in 2014.
A Seoul-based civic group, the Centre for Multi-Cultural Korea, said it would file a request this week with South Korea’s human rights agency to investigate whether JYP Entertainment coerced Chou.
Taiwan media said her Korean management company, JYP Entertainment, had rejected claims that the apology was made to appease Beijing, though some reports said it had expressed regret about the flag. The Center for Multicultural Korea said Monday that it will sue Park and JYP Entertainment for racial discrimination and violation of human rights.
“As a Chinese person my improper words and behaviour during my activities overseas hurt my company and the feelings of netizens across the strait”, Chou added.
The center said in a statement that a “16-year-old girl waving the national flag of her own country is very natural, but Park Jin-young forced her to make an apology under pressure from Chinese netizens”.
The Taiwanese native has been embroiled in a heated row after she held up the flag of the Republic of China in an online-exclusive portion of “My Little Television”, an MBC variety show, in November. If the decision was not made by Tzuyu, the center said it would take the case to the Prosecutor’s Office.
An analyst who wanted to remain anonymous said, “Political relations highly affect the performances and sales of K-pop singers”.
And such diplomatic relations affect other groups, too.
The media spotlight, however, was all on the K-pop star, with leading candidates in the vote demanding answers from China and South Korea on the matter.
A statement from the office of current President Ma Ying-jeou said he had asked officials to “clarify the roles of the Korean and Chinese sides in this incident and demand they seriously face it”. BBC reported Tuesday that the agency’s website is now inaccessible after it was reportedly hacked by the Anonymous Taiwan Saturday.
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Nationalist sentiments dominate Communist Party-controlled social media in China, where online postings Saturday dismissed Tzuyu’s apology as insincere.
