While South Korean protesters have long employed songs, dances and chants, customized light sticks popular with K-pop fans have emerged as an effective new tool for demonstrators calling for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Tens of thousands of protesters have braved near sub-zero temperatures and gathered outside the National Assembly in the capital of Seoul since Yoon’s failed martial law attempt last week.
“Impeach, impeach. Impeach Yoon Suk-yeol,” protesters chanted to the beat of K-pop group aespa’s latest techno track Whiplash.
Photo: Reuters
Videos of synchronized chanting and light stick movements in unison at the protests have gone viral on social media along with flags carrying messages and memes from mainly younger demonstrators.
“Give us geeks the freedom to only worry about geek things,” one meme flag carried on a flagpole at Saturday’s protest read, capturing the mood among young people amid deepening political turmoil.
One of the advantages of the light sticks is how sturdy they are, said Kim Do-heon, a Seoul-based music critic.
Photo: AP
“It also shines very bright and comes in a size that is easy to carry around.”
South Koreans are playing the long game, said Shin Jae-yun who came out to protest against Yoon with a light stick for K-pop boy band TREASURE, because protests are a “very painful act” yet there is no guarantee things will improve right away.
“To endure such pain, you have to have something to enjoy in it so that people can stay hopeful for a long time even when it drags on,” Shin said.
Playlists of popular K-pop protest songs are also being shared on X. Kim Byung-joo, a lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party, jumped on the trend on Monday and posted a playlist on the platform: “Impeach Yoon Suk-yeol, ringleader of treason!...from folk songs to K-pop.”
South Korea has a rich history of protest since democracy took root in the 1980s after a series of military interventions. Demonstrations over worker rights, threats from neighboring North Korea and perceived government failings have sometimes turned violent in the past.
Lee Seul-gi, a 36-year-old woman who is a fan of K-pop boyband ATEEZ, said the impeachment protests this time around have become more accessible.
“Previous rallies might have been a bit violent and scary. But the light sticks and K-pop have lowered the barrier,” Lee said.
CANDLE UPGRADE
Until 2016, candles were prominent at many protests and played a central role in the rallies that led to the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye.
Park was ousted over a graft scandal and was later jailed over the scandal that exposed webs of corruption between political leaders and the country’s conglomerates.
“So many people were holding candles, putting paper cups over them and carrying them out so they wouldn’t go out. But now the age of the light sticks is here, not candles,” music critic Kim said.
Stephanie Choi, a researcher at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said the light sticks still reflect the “power of solidarity while maintaining the original meaning of non-violence.”
While men and women from all age groups are gathering and calling on parliament to impeach Yoon, young women are outnumbering their male peers at the protests.
Yoon vowed to abolish the gender equality ministry before taking office and was an unpopular candidate with women voters in their 20s in the 2022 presidential election.
He won office in 2022 by the slimmest margin in South Korean history but his party suffered a landslide defeat in parliamentary elections earlier this year.
The K-pop industry is notoriously apolitical and so are the lyrics of many K-pop songs playing at the impeachment protests. In South Korea, celebrities expressing political opinions are often frowned upon.
But experts say fans are conscious of K-pop’s power and the underlying messages of female empowerment it carries.
“K-pop is a female-dominant space...and their feminist demands have shaped K-pop’s aesthetics and performances today,” Choi said.
Kim Da-in, a 19-year-old fan of virtual idol group Plave, said the impeachment protests are uniting all K-pop fandoms.
“Here, I feel that we are citizens of South Korea first before we are idol fans.”
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
China’s military launched a record number of warplane incursions around Taiwan last year as it builds its ability to launch full-scale invasion, something a former chief of Taiwan’s armed forces said Beijing could be capable of within a decade. Analysts said China’s relentless harassment had taken a toll on Taiwan’s resources, but had failed to convince them to capitulate, largely because the threat of invasion was still an empty one, for now. Xi Jinping’s (習近平) determination to annex Taiwan under what the president terms “reunification” is no secret. He has publicly and stridently promised to bring it under Communist party (CCP) control,
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
RSS