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ENHYPEN’s Jay apologizes to Korean ENGENEs after making passing remarks on Korean history
ENHYPEN’s Jay took to Weverse to apologize to fans after he received backlash for making certain remarks regarding Korean history.
On January 11th, ENHYPEN’s Jay posted a message on Weverse saying, “Hello, this is ENHYPEN’s Jay. After I went live on Weverse today, I was really surprised by the reaction of the fans. Whatever the reason, we sincerely apologize for making ENGINES feel uncomfortable.” Then he said, “I spoke too carelessly about the important topic of Korean history with only my personal impression. It was not something to talk about with a lack of knowledge. It was an opportunity to realize once again that I still have a lot to learn.”
He also said, “I had no intention of taking our proud history lightly, but it was my fault to think that the words were enough to make you feel that way. I am so sorry. In the future, I will always be careful and study more to become an artist who does not make ENGENEs feel any shame of loving me. I always learn a lot from you.”
The full apology:
“Hello, I'm ENHYPEN's Jay. I was really surprised to see the fans' reactions after I did Weverse Live today. Regardless of the reason, I sincerely apologize for causing inconvenience to ENGENE. I was too careless to talk about the important topic of Korean history with just my personal impression. It wasn't something to talk about with lack of knowledge. It was an opportunity to realize once again that I still have a lot to learn. I didn't mean to take our proud history lightly, but I think they were words that made you feel that way. It's my fault. I'm sorry. I will always be careful and study harder to become an artist that ENGENE won't be ashamed of. I always learn a lot from you.
Thank you.”
The incident:
Jay had a conversation with member Sunghoon on the subject of history in a live broadcast through their platform. To Sunghoon, who recently fell in love with studying Korean history, Jay said, "I prefer world history. To be honest, I learned Korean history to some extent through school studies." In the case of Korean history, he did not bend his argument even when he explained that there was a lot of information because it was recorded one by one. "There's a lot of that, but what can I say? I have to say that if you just study or skim for a few weeks, it ends too quickly. It feels like a short story," Jay said. "Other countries are really endless. I've seen all kinds of countries, and there's no end. Other countries do it all the time, but in Korea, the one before Parhae passed by once, and after the era of the Three Kingdoms, it only lasted a little while before that. When I did it, I got the feeling, 'Why did it end so sooner than I thought?'" he added. Above all, the absurd part is the perception of looking at history. Jay is a dual citizen of the Republic of Korea and the United States, but is known to have spent all of his school days in Korea before his debut, from elementary school to middle school and high school. The excuse that he is ignorant of Korean history does not work, as said by many Korean fans.
The issue with the incident was that Jay made a passing remark about Korean history without thinking it through and also said how the history is small enough to read through. Many Korean netizens elucidated further that their history is so rich and diverse due to the various ups and downs they have experienced that it cannot just be ‘read through’.
About ENHYPEN:
ENHYPEN is a self-proclaimed 'global fan-made group' that has been supported by K-pop fans around the world through Mnet's survival program 'I-Land' even before their debut in 2020, and a team that is in the spotlight as a member of the label BELIFT Lab under HYBE, a large entertainment company leading K-pop.
ENHYPEN’s past issues:
It is not the first time that ENHYPEN has been criticized for careless words and actions. In a group live broadcast in November 2021, leader Jungwon laughed at the fans of the test takers, saying, "If you were coming here to the fan meeting, wouldn't you have done well in the SAT?" The statement to the effect that there is a high possibility that fans who were scheduled to attend the fan meeting did not do well in the exam immediately became an issue, and Jungwon apologized the next day, saying, "I want to apologize for my words as I did not deeply understand the feelings of the test-takers."
ENHYPEN’s achievement:
Previously, ENHYPEN and NCT DREAM won the Best Album Award at the '37th Golden Disc Awards'. While receiving the award, ENHYPEN said, “We have been appearing on the Golden Disk for three consecutive years, and we are grateful to the Golden Disk for giving us such a great award this time. We are eternally grateful to all the producers, including producer Bang Si Hyuk.”
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