Aren't you guys honestly sick and tired of these foreigners who claim to be K-drama or K-pop fans?
Aren't you guys honestly sick and tired of these foreigners who claim to be K-drama or K-pop fans?
They see a single line of a sensationalized internet article with zero sources and go, "Oh my god, Koreans are absolute trash!" Meanwhile, their profile pictures are K-pop idols, and all they ever talk about is Korea, Korea, Korea, Korea... They are utterly obsessed with Korea, yet they bash the country just because they’re embarrassed to be called "Korea worshippers." It’s so hypocritical.
Do they think Korean people and Korean society are just some K-drama set and we’re all actors? They barge into the Instagram or TikTok accounts of ordinary Korean citizens and spam cringey drama memes. When an ordinary couple posts about giving birth, they inevitably bring up the birth rate. They even secretly film regular citizens commuting in the dead of winter and comment, "Oh my god, everyone's clothes are so boring. I guess Koreans have no individuality."
Take the recent Hong Myung-bo/KFA (Korea Football Association) controversy. They jumped on it without understanding a single bit of context as to why the public is criticizing the KFA, claiming people are "bullying" Myung-bo. They say things like, "Oh my god, how can Koreans be so cruel? 😭" or "Korea is the world's largest psychiatric ward."
If they hate it that much, I tell them to stop consuming Korean culture and mind their own business. Then they grumble, "Koreans are so racist!" and declare a boycott—only to put another Korean drama on the Netflix Top 10 a few weeks later.
There is nothing more arrogant and presumptuous than a foreigner trying to "correct" another country's culture to guide them in the "right direction." Yet, when it comes to Korea and East Asia, all sorts of people lecture us, saying, "Go get a tan," "Stop using parasols," "Don't wear sunscreen," and "Love your dark skin." East Asia, including Korea, has developed aesthetic standards that favor fair skin for thousands of years, and protecting one's skin is a personal choice. Why on earth do we have to change our standards to fit foreign values? Isn't this the definition of Western-centric cultural interference? Why is it that the moment the target is Korea or East Asia, this kind of attitude gets packaged as "righteous correction"?
Even on this subreddit, foreigners pretend to ask innocent questions ("Ask Koreans") just to bait us, essentially saying, "Alright, Koreans. Give me the answer I want to hear. Show me your self-hatred." And because they consume K-pop, dramas, and webtoons, their biases only run deeper.
And look at the gyopos (overseas Koreans). When they were treated like second-class citizens in white-dominated societies, they denied their Korean roots. Now, they’re freeloading on the soft power built up by native Koreans, yet they take the lead on TikTok as anti-Korea mouthpieces, desperately trying to be recognized as one of the "good Koreans" in their own societies.
Gukppong (hyper-nationalists) argue that it’s all good as long as Korea gets exposure. But the total revenue of K-pop gets utterly gapped not just by Dungeon & Fighter, but even by MapleStory (aka Ssalsung-Story). The vast majority of Koreans don't experience any "trickle-down effect" from the cultural industry; we are happiest when the semiconductor cycle hits its peak. What is the point of being the breeding ground for mentally ill foreigners who consume Korean culture while simultaneously hating Korea?
I couldn't care less about K-pop. I don't even know all the names of the BTS members. I don't really watch K-dramas either because there aren't many targeted toward male audiences—the last thing I watched was Becoming a Legendary Kitchen Soldier (Webtoon/Web novel). Yet, simply because my nationality is Korean, I have to deal with these people in real life and on Instagram, and it’s exhausting.
Did Japanese people have to endure this for decades? There’s a saying that Korea's social phenomena follow what Japan went through 10 years ago. Just like how Japanese Twitter users today drop tens of thousands of likes on tweets bashing Vietnamese, Indonesian, or Muslim immigrants, Korea will likely see a massive surge in xenophobia and nationalism in 10 years. And the driving force behind that will be these control-freak foreigners who try to cancel a real, existing nation of 50 million people.