A sentence of one of the components referring to the Korean War did not appeal to Chinese social media users. With some of their advertisements gone from major e-commerce sites, the fans split
The BTS is again trending topic worldwide, but this time not about records views of their videos. In fact, part of their Chinese fanbase was unleashed by the statement of a member of the band, RM, during the award ceremony of an event that celebrates US-South Korea relations: “We will always remember the painful history that our two nations have shared, and the sacrifices of all men and women ».
We are therefore talking about the Korean War, fought on the peninsula from 1950 to 1953, and which began with the invasion of South Korea, allied with the United States, by the North Korean army, supported by Beijing.
Therefore, RM’s words were not liked by the users of Chinese social networks, and in addition to the comments on the web, finances would also lose. Advertisements the band made for brands like Samsung, Fila and Hyunday – all three South Koreans – would disappear from Chinese websites and social media.
“They must not make money with China”, write users on Weibo, a very popular platform. According to the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper, “citizens have declared that the band’s unilateral attitude towards the Korean war hurts their feelings and denies the story.”
And on Twitter, many fans say they are worried about the repercussions it could have on the sales of the band’s next record, BE , due out on November 20.
Meanwhile, their video clip Dynamite , released about a month ago, is already at 477 million on YouTube:
