A must-read: hellokpop's Ceefu addresses the "recent criticism of kpop"

Two international media bloggers recently published their views on the kpop phenomenon; but most importantly, on how and why they believe that the wave is, well, not up-to-par as a truly global force. 

Read this invalidation of Hallyu as a “global domination” force by CNN Go’s Esther Oh, and this post about its “soft power” by Neil Manticore-Griffin from the Chicago-based In These Times. 

Then read hellokpop blogger Ceefu criticize their critique of kpop (same link as post title). 

Ceefu refutes the legitimacy of the articles’ main points by bringing up how they failed to take into account “the heart of kpop”, which is its massive fanbases, both international and Korean. The two writers also get called out for illustrating a very narrow knowledge of kpop — Oh for not acknowledging other acts besides Se7en and BoA, and Manticore-Griffin for basically not backing up his claims with any sort of proof that he actually took the time to engage himself in the trend. Ceefu labels his “scathing indictment of Hallyu” as nothing but “opinions [based] on generalizations instead of first-hand knowledge.” 

In addition, Ceefu notes,

” […] my criticism is about the writing and not about the people who write. This is not personal. I’m sure Oh and Manticore-Griffin are perfectly lovely people, but they are people who have written about Kpop, of which they know little.  Okay, so a couple of articles contained some smack talk about Kpop. What’s the big deal? The big deal is that in introducing Kpop to broader readers, they both either leave out or dismiss fans, the heart of Kpop. I’m not talking about people on the fringe who are just one step away from a restraining order. I’m talking about regular people who like their Kpop.”

Millions of points go to Ceefu for speaking up on behalf of the rest of us international fans when it comes to defending against the dismissal of the kpop craze as something with a lot of international appeal. Because if it really was a global flop-and-drop, how else would you explain BIGBANG’s comeback album in the US top 10 iTunes albums chart (and just below Rihanna at that)? What about the massive sell-out of tickets for SM Town Paris? (A record of 15 minutes… holy heesus.) 

Ceefu has basically covered everything that came to mind while reading Oh’s and MG (Manticore-Griffin)’s posts, but there are some comments I’d like to add.

(click on the link to see more… I placed my review in a separate post to keep this post from hogging up space on your dash.)