Chapter 50 Self-Defeating
On August 8, 2016, two major events happened in the Asian entertainment industry.
The first thing is that China has finally released the exact news of the Korean restriction order, which comprehensively restricts Korean artists from performing in China, stops new investment in Korean cultural industry companies, prohibits the signing of new Korean TV dramas, and restricts variety show cooperation projects.
Although the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs clearly denied the existence of this ban when asked by reporters, South Korea's cultural industry has indeed entered winter in China.
Various Korean celebrities' endorsements and announcements in China have been cancelled. Korean movies, TV series, and variety shows were all removed from the shelves overnight. Many Korean celebrity fan clubs on Weibo remained silent and at a loss.
Regardless of whether this ban is true or false, it is an undisputed fact that China’s Hallyu has been hit hard.
Korean stars and idols who once frequently made entertainment headlines disappeared in an instant. Domestic stars finally turned around and started singing. Many second- and third-rate stars also had the opportunity to appear on the front page of the entertainment section.
No one dares to go against the country at this sensitive moment. Before there was no news, no one would ask about anything you said. Now that the situation is obviously wrong, you still want to jump out. That is a typical old man who hangs himself - because he is too long-lived!
In any case, Korean celebrities and idol groups have absolutely no way of survival in China. There is no possibility of negotiation at all. They can only watch this big fat piece drift away.
But they are not the worst offenders. Even worse are the members of the idol group from China.
Their ability to join the group in the first place was largely due to the company's senior management's plan to enter the Chinese idol market.
In China, the attention received by an all-Korean group and a group with several Chinese people is completely different. With the attention, and the consumption power of Chinese female fans in Asia, real money will come rolling in by then. ?
In fact, in the first few years, these companies did make a lot of money in China, and those jealous companies also began to vigorously develop and discover Chinese trainees, hoping to get a share of this huge market.
This has formed a circular industry. Boys and girls from China with dreams of becoming stars go to South Korea to sign contracts with companies and undergo professional idol training. After forming a group, the company sends them to China to earn money from fans.
After giving away talents and money, who would be able to tolerate being ridiculed that the domestic entertainment ecology is backward? Coupled with the deployment of a certain system, whether it is to maintain hard power or soft power, the issuance of the Korean restriction order is very necessary.
The emergence of the Korean restriction order also caused these Chinese stars who developed in South Korea to lose most of their value.
In fact, they didn't do anything wrong. In order to get a better platform, there is nothing wrong with going to South Korea to become idols. However, in front of the state machine, the power of individuals is pitifully small.
Francis Fukuyama once wrote in his book: "Every speck of dust of the times is like a mountain when it falls on an individual."
However, no matter how difficult the times are, it is not that there is no hope at all. As the saying goes, as long as the thinking is correct, there are always more slippery slopes than difficulties. When there are policies in place, countermeasures are quickly developed below.
At noon on August 8, when the entire Internet was discussing the possible impact of the Korean restriction order, a large number of Chinese artists in South Korea posted on Weibo to announce their withdrawal from the group and to return to China with a pure heart to develop.
These Chinese artists are basically all boys, and their fan base in China is extremely large. Some have as many as 50 to 60 million, some as few as 10 to 20 million. They are considered the essence of Chinese idols in recent years, the so-called fresh meat.
No one knows how many people here are like Wen Xia, who quit the group when their contracts expired, or whether they simply broke the contract and quit the group.
But the important thing is that they have returned to China and signed a contract with China's economic company, and their future work focus will definitely be on China.
This will definitely have a huge impact on China's existing entertainment environment, but on the other hand, it will also bring huge opportunities.
Netizens may not know what traffic means before, but after 14 years, this word has become something that all celebrities are chasing. Having traffic means popularity, attention, endorsements, and resources, and these are what most celebrities are chasing. Necessities for survival in the entertainment industry.
In fact, it can be seen from today's Weibo that the number of views on the topic about the Korean restriction order exceeded 300 million in half a day, and the number of discussions went straight to the 100,000 mark, firmly ranking at the top of the list of Weibo topics.
As soon as the news of these male idols returning to China came out, the number of readings of the topic rushed to the second place in less than an hour, and it was very likely to catch up.
Now eight out of ten hot searches on Weibo are related to it, and almost everyone is discussing these things.
The second major event that happened today seemed a bit insignificant under such circumstances.
"Quan Shui's new album "Rite of Passage" will be released soon!"
What a thin description, without any explosive points. On a big day like today where many top celebrities appear, this hot search is as annoying as an ugly duckling among a group of white swans.
If it had stayed at the bottom of the trending search and quietly not grabbed the spotlight, maybe no one would have said anything. However, after Sony Records China Branch spent a lot of money, this trending search has been steadily increasing in full view of the public. Climbing up, it finally reached the top five hot searches.
Now everyone has seen this "ugly duckling" who is unwilling to be mediocre, but his sudden appearance immediately attracted the crowd's ridicule, in the true sense of the word:
"An 18th-tier celebrity with less than one million followers on Weibo can release an album and rank fourth in the trending search. How much money does this cost?"
“I don’t know if I can make back the money I spent on Hot Search by selling albums? (Chigua)”
"Well, spring water, I'm a regular on the popular search. I don't know how many times I've been on it this month."
"It's a pity that if it doesn't become popular, it won't become popular. No matter how many times it is uploaded, it will still be an 18th-tier one. It can't be compared with my idol at all."
"The marketing was too much and it lost popularity. It used to have a good image, but now I think it's really ugly."
"She is trending more frequently abroad than in China. It is said that she is very popular on YouTube."
"Do you believe this bullshit? I don't believe it anyway."
"'Faded' and 'Lemon' are her songs, they are very popular on Douyin!"
“I won’t say too much about Douyin songs, everyone knows about them.”
"I've heard the song, and it's really good, but if you're talented, you can't be in such a hurry to waste money. Just now, you've released a new album. I wrote ten songs in fifteen days, faster than a hen laying eggs!"
"Don't say that, everyone, this is a very talented singer..."
"Stop being so protective. If you are really talented, you need to rely on trending searches to promote yourself? The smell of wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley!"
"That's right, don't think that you can pretend to be an international singer just by writing a Japanese song. Now that the country is strong, it has long stopped admiring foreigners!"
……………………
The sporadic fans' speeches were also drowned out by the overwhelming sarcasm. The promotion of Luo Quan's new album in China seemed to have encountered Waterloo just after it started.