Forevers will have to wait a while before Everglow promotes as a six-member group again.
On January 2, the KPop girl group Everglow went to an event and met fans. Five Korean members knelt and touched the floor with their foreheads. This is a traditional Korean gesture to express gratitude and greetings. Chinese member Wang Yiren opted to make the Chinese hand gesture, which is a fist and palm salute.
According to Chinese culture, kneeling is no longer seen and considered appropriate. It is seen as a humiliating gesture. In Korea, it remains a way of greeting people and showing courtesy.
Hence, the Chinese member is in a no-win situation. She faces criticism from Korean and other KPop fans for not kneeling to her fans and using traditional Chinese gestures. Chinese netizens, on the other hand, applaud her for standing ground.
While Yiren faced criticism, some people went too far and proceeded with racist attacks. Some netizens demanded that the member go back to her country and earn there if she didn’t want to follow Korean culture in derogatory terms.
Following the incident, Yue Hua Entertainment announced on Twitter that the member would return to China. They stated that Yiren will return to China from mid-January until the end of February due to her academic status. The company said that she’d be taking a break there with her family, whom she hadn’t seen due to COVID-19.
Yiren nor their agency did not comment on the incident.
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