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Given all the discussion about Arirang, I thought this article was pretty poignant. It's by an army translator also known as Wisha
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260322 BTS 'ARIRANG' Album Photoshoot: Behind the Scenes
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100% with Wisha-the author. As an Asian ARMY – it has always irked me when there certain expectations placed on me on how to be Asian by those that aren’t. BTS didn’t need to prove anything and they never said it would be an album to honor Korean culture, They said it was a product of thrm being Korean and in this moment. Guess it boils down to appreciating an artist’s output as they wanted vs what ppl expected from just the title.
Thanks for sharing, it’s a well written and insightful article. The people saying the comeback is not Korean enough seem to have only looked at the surface and base their opinion on things like the ratio of Korean and English in the album
This was lovely. I keep thinking about how people must not have been reading the lyrics to Aliens when they say there’s nothing Korean about the album, since it’s very obvious there especially. What she says about *them* being the Korean part is also so true. *They* get to decide what makes them who they are. *They’re* Koreans who *also* have roots in hip-hop which is undeniably American music, and Black American at that. They’re still Korean men shaped by their country and it’s been killing me seeing a bunch of mostly white people from countries with a colonizing history trying to tell them how to feel lol. It’s serving Orientalism.
It honestly reminds me a bit of when people randomly tell me I don’t look gay??? Like do you want me to make out with a woman while wearing a rainbow three piece suit??? People don’t have to perform to be “enough” of who they are for anyone.
Not gonna lie, the article made me a bit teary eyed. I don’t want to think about Korean folks everywhere, diaspora or home, who see the discussions by international non Korean people and are punched in the face.
Diaspora Koreans are basically told they are not Korean, because they are also “western”. They are once again and strongly reminded that they will not be enough, that their own identification with their roots is “just an added sample”. They are thrown in one pot with the 6 generation Americans who call themselves Irish while having no connection. Just that the Korean diaspora is not only “fresh” but they are constantly reminded that they are *not really* part of the country they live in. Basically… You’re not Korean enough to be Korean, but also you will not be *western country* ever.
“Home” Koreans are once again facing the fetishizing of their culture. Yes, a bit more covert than that influencer who complained on tiktok that real Korean people do not all look like KDRAMA male and female leads. But it might be an even heavier punch, because it’s sold as “I understand the real Korean culture, I am so sorry for the real Koreans” Blabla.
And of course our guys. Like … It’s worse than the complaining about the “English trilogy” not being “Korean”. Kpoppies and others are literally DENYING the KOREAN MEN their OWN LIVED EXPERIENCE AND THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR FECKING OWN CULTURE AND ROOTS AND PERSONAS.
A Korean opera singer living in Germany, singing Nessun Dorma in Italian, is still Korean (and, if they want to, ADDED German or whatever). A 6th generation US American who moved to Ireland has no business explaining irishness to Irish people OR in fact to others living in Ireland for decades.
I, as an immigrated German, who waits for the fecking Irish citizenship 🙄, am still German, even if I’m by now speaking and writing and listening like 90% of the day in English. My roots are mine. My experience is mine. I’m not wearing lederhosen to a pub and dance a Schuhplattler to prove that I’m German, AND I HAVENT DONE SO IN GERMANY EITHER. I’m not “your” German, I am German.
(And if anybody feels the need to explain to my 68 year old Steampunk cosplaying, swedish metal listening, Star wars fanning, US hard science fiction reading, UK crime shows loving mother, that she needs to be more German or the correct kind of German or the Sound of Music German (I hope and pray you mean the other Germans, not the uniformed ones because nobody and nothing will save you from my mom if you’d ever insinuate. She’d mince you. Alive.).. Good luck with that, she has a mean right hook she loves to deploy on shite people 🥰🥰🥰 and I might get to enjoy the cooking she does afterwards to destress)
What a lovely article. So well articulated.
Excellent writing as always from Wisha. It is nice to read some well reasoned critique from someone who is engaging in good faith. As she says, there are fair questions to ask but the discourse has been pretty mean spirited and unproductive.
As someone in the Asian diaspora I have so many things to say and some definite *fEeLiNgS* on this topic that I usually can’t express without swear words. So I will just say, the 7 Koreans who made the damn album and put their names on it decided that it is Korean enough. Periodt.
I think that the criticism about this album not being Korean enough is just a simplified way to put into words an otherwise lengthy issue, which has nothing to do with gatekeeping what’s Korean and what’s not.
As someone who has followed them since 2015 and had interest in their work cause it was different from whatever the American music industry shoveled down western throats, I don’t really appreciate the Americanised style in Arirang.
While the equation Korean artist = Korean work stands true, it’s also a matter of fact that they sing a ton of mostly nonsensical English lyrics without actually speaking the language, while producing the album in the USA and catering to the western music market.
If this is their authentic experience as Korean artists, I can’t be anything but happy for them and I’m even more happy if Korean supporters like this turn of things.
I can see why someone might sum this up into “the album is not Korean enough”. Please don’t take it at its face value but try to understand what they mean with that.
This is so perfect.
I don’t pretend to stand in their shoes and know what they’re thinking or feeling or how their culture shapes their thoughts and feelings, I’m just here to absorb what they give. That those gifts have exposed me to things that I was previously unaware of, all the better. They’ve brought to me, and brought out in me as a result, things I never knew before. Inside and out.
When I saw how much of Arirang was in English I was like, ooh boy here we go with the comments about them not following their roots. But here’s the thing – they said they wrote a zillion songs and these are the ones they picked. I don’t believe for a minute they wrote and chose these songs for any reason other than they fit the narrative of what they wanted to say at this moment. I’m so proud that they seem to be doing exactly what they want to do.
I have been off social media for 3 years, and have dipped a toe back in the water for this release. I had to the album listened 2-3 times through before I started looking up “takes” and I was genuinely shocked how and why this was part of the discourse. To me, it felt like a genuine return to form, In fact the opposite of “not korean enough”, I found it a pointed commentary along the lines of “yes we are korean and we are going to show you that”. Then I realized that this conversation was going to happen REGARDLESS of what they put on there.
TLDR: I listened to album without any context on this conversation, and the thought it was not korean enough never crossed my mind. I appreciate this authors points.
Great article!!
This is what I wanted to say when people are (rightly though) making claims about the lack of black representation in the animation video of those 7 men in HBCU.. the focus of the whole animation was not about the representation of the black folks, but it was about the korean sentiments of arirang the album.. yes lack of representation hurts.. but it won’t take away the role of black peeps from HBCU and hip hop and everything where black people have been participants of and progenitors of.. the same way no one can take away korean-ness of BTS.. I hope I am understandable..
Thanks for sharing! Well-written and insightful. I really do not understand the hate about this album, especially coming from non-Asians.
I can’t wait to read this. The conversation around BTS/Arirang being “Korean Enough” has been bugging tf outta me. Like what is their metric for being Korean enough? Is the only thing that makes KPop, an umbrella term for a multi-genre industry, Korean enough the language? Why is it that these people don’t see any of the songs/artists in this industry as “seeking Western validation” when they reference Western music genres, but the second the English to Korean lyric ratio reaches a certain point it is? It makes no sense! They want BTS to perform their stereotypical idea Korean-ness for them and it’s sick, especially coming from non-Korean/Asian people.
“But a Korean artist does not have to be limited to using their country’s traditional instruments and speaking in their own language to be a Korean artist, just as much as I do not have to eat certain foods and wear certain clothes on a certain day of the year to be Korean.”
not the point of the article but i think i really needed to hear this for myself (specifically the last half)