Aesthetic. I first approach this word not only from K-pop fan pictures on Twitter on comparing idols to food, but also from this semester's lectures and readings. But in this post, I'm not gonna talk about art itself. Instead, I'm gonna share my view on how K-pop has caused me to embrace my Asian self as well as acknowledge that Asians are now taking over the world and we need a lot more to make Asian culture noticeable.
Back when I was a kid, all I wanted was to master in English. Not anything else. Just the English language, including writing. I hated learning Chinese and Malay more than anything, because to me those languages didn't sound as beautiful as English. I was also into Japanese anime back then, and I was picky with those that interested me. Even with Malay dubs, I would still watch them because they looked interesting such as Hatsumai Boy Kanipan, Petite Princess Yucie, Super Doll Licca, Mahou Shonjo Lyrical Nanoha (these are underrated ones) and last but not least, Cardcaptor Sakura which was my absolute favourite. I watched Cantonese dramas too but that was a long time ago and the Malay subs somehow helped me with understanding the plots.
But most of all, I hated the fact that I was Chinese. And not just Malaysian Chinese, but Chinese in general. I wished that I could be white. There was one story from American Chinese author, Doretta Lau called "Little Miss International Goodwill" and the protagonist's wish of being white instead of yellow reminded me so much of my dream back when I was her 8-years-old self. I wanted to have blonde hair, blue eyes, speak English smoothly like a waterfall, and outspoken.
So now that I've been living in Canada for five years, my Mandarin and Malay have became so rusty that I find it a little hard to converse with my relatives and friends who are more comfortable with speaking Mandarin and Malay. Honestly, I feel a little guilty about it but I know that being separated away from my home country for this long turns me into who I am. A foreigner. More like an alien. XD
My dream of learning Japanese came true when I'd finally got myself in a real Basic Japanese course back in Douglas College two years ago. I was really enthusiastic in getting all of the grammar and vocab right as well as learning about Japanese culture. All those years, I thought that Japan was my dream destination to go to...until Korea came in. Once I stumbled upon Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry" music video after years of occasional listening to it and not knowing the group itself, I was immediately attracted to the members and everything they do. And after a few weeks of familiarizing myself with Super Junior, I fell head over heels in love with them. Like seriously. XD I can't blame them for being too hot, adorable, and talented at the same time.
Now that I've been their fan for more than a year, I realized that Korean entertainment has made me appreciate Asian culture. Korean stars are not just Korean. There's literally like a gigantic mix of them. From locals to Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Filipino, even German, French, African and a lot more! (Watch Abnormal Summit, a Korean reality where people from all over the world speaks fluent Korean and talks about world issues and stuff!) And Korean star immigrants put their whole heart in learning Korean. They've made the K-pop world phenomenal. With K-pop fans' ability to communicate in other languages for international fans to understand their purposes and feelings, that's just a whole new Guinness World Record. It's cool to see that K-pop stars don't have to be Korean only. Super Junior is the world's first K-pop group to have members from overseas. Hangeng and Zhoumi from China. And also Henry Lau from Canada. And then this becomes a trend in the K-pop star formation, which is adding foreigners and training them to become a part of the Korean community. Even though Hollywood music is still big now, I think the K-pop industry is going to catch up in the future. I'm just saying. Just look at it. K-pop songs have made it to the iTunes charts, American awards like Teen Choice Awards when Super Junior became the first Korean artist group who have won back in 2015, and even Billboard! K-pop has even reached out to Hollywood celebrities like Jimmy Fallon and heck yeah the Obamas (psst...Girls Generation! Not a fan of them but still they've appeared on American television!).And don't forget Jackie Chan who visits Super Junior on set and Mike Jagger who praises on Super Junior's song "Walkin"! And since K-pop spreads all over YouTube like wildfire, more new fans will be born.
Earlier this year, I created a second Instagram account, a Vyrl account (Instagram-like app for K-pop fans), and a Twitter account dedicated to Super Junior and ELF (Super Junior fans-Everlasting Friends). And along the way, I'm involved in a whole new community. Now I've just reached 4000+ followers on Instagram, 400+ followers on Twitter, and close to 300 followers on Vyrl. I'm overjoyed to have made so many, and literally so many new friends across the globe who share the same heart-pounding and ecstatic feeling about Super Junior. As I scroll my phone for updates, post on social media every day, and squeal internally with other fans through comments and retweets, I grow to love Korean culture (surprisingly a little more than Japanese culture. Maybe it's because K-pop recent and bigger for me to be so intrigued about) and I've made a pledge to myself that I want to travel to Korea and Japan as soon as I finish my studies at Capilano University. I've got to get out of here. I guess this is what I'm gonna do. I can't just ditch my interest in both cultures. I wanna explore and experience in Korea and Japan.
Asians are now stepping up their game by showing off their skills and confidence outside of their origins. One thing that I'm super proud this year is the appearance of Asian Americans as the lead roles on television. Fresh Off The Boat and Dr. Ken are now dominating Asian entertainment history (bye bye second lead roles). And now there's "Kim's Convenience" which is Canada's first ever Asian lead drama/comedy series! I just love that Asian actors now sharing their culture on screen. Even though I see negative reviews and ratings of these shows (tsk...racism...), I'm happy to see that these shows are still ongoing.
I once think that K-pop stars are like slaves. They have to go through a long period of training. And then they'll go for debut after a year or so (or even two years or more). I remember seeing short clips or reading bios of Super Junior going through some intense, tough training. They went through thick and thin, shedding blood, sweat, and tears just to become the perfect, professional Super Junior we admire and idolize today. And then as years fly by, new K-pop groups come in and steal the spotlight from old ones. But from what I see, Super Junior is still slaying the K-pop world because of their loyal fans (shout out to all ELF! ELF unite! Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!), their 10 years (oh wait it's 11 years now) of achievement, and their down-to-earth personalities that warm hearts of other idols and TV audience.
So what I'm saying is, people in this world should appreciate what K-pop artists have done for us. They've gone through so much just to do what they love, to deliver new and exciting music for us, to represent Korea, and to enlighten our lives with a little charm (#aegyo or #killersmile) just to make our days brighter.
Learning Japanese and loving K-pop carve into a whole new me. Sometimes, I'm surprised that I've become a Korean culture enthusiast. All those time I thought I would stick to Japanese culture and English language more than anything else. But now...things change. I've learnt Japanese and now my goal is to learn Korean. Which reminds me...I need to get started before I graduate. XD I've got to get help from my younger sister who have taken Korean classes as well as online sources...or maybe I can take a Korean course? Not sure if that's gonna work because I wanna finish my Bachelor of Arts program before summer 2018. Hmm...I don't know...hopefully I can find a way to learn Korean.
The popularity of Asian culture is just beyond my expectations right now. Asian language classes are available everywhere in North America (and I guess South America, Europe, and Australia) which is pretty cool because I've seen non-Asian people who are Asian language/culture enthusiasts. Back in Japanese class, half of the class was white and black people, which was pretty interesting to see. Asian entertainment has influenced all sorts of people to be curious about the language. That's what I meant by aesthetic of Asian culture. Learning the Asian culture shapes a person's view about the world (and technically life) in a whole new way.
P.S. Sorry that I haven't post on my blog in a while! Not gonna lie...I don't like the courses I take this semester because there's just too many lectures that I have to try to stay awake to jot down as many notes as I can despite the fact that the lecturer speaks too fast or too long sentences that I can't even break them down into points. Even with the powerpoint slides uploaded in the student site, I still can't get all of the extra details/ explanation of the definition. But I'm surviving. XD See you in the next post! (Oh! And I'm still working on the pre-draft for Modern Prince sequel! Stay tuned for updates!)
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