Fans show love for Stray Kids’ Hyun Jin as his school violence controversy is brought up again due to “The Glory”
Fans protect Stray Kids’ Hyun Jin after he came under criticism due to the butterfly effect of “The Glory”.
As Netflix’s original series “The Glory” based on school violence became a hit, celebrities who were involved in controversy over school bullying in the past are being mentioned again. In the midst of this, fans of Stray Kids’ Hyun Jin are stepping up to protect their idol.
On January 10th, the hashtag “#Hyun Jin-ah_We love you” entered Twitter Korea’s real-time trending. Under this hashtag, posts mentioning Hyun Jin’s past controversy over school violence due to the butterfly effect of “The Glory” surfaced, so Hyun Jin’s fans took action to cover it up.
Fans show love for Hyun Jin by using the hashtag and writing messages such as, “Hyun Jin, see only pretty things and listen only to pretty things”, “Hyun Jin, I will absolutely protect you”, “Hyun Jin already apologized,” etc.
Among K-pop idol fandoms, real-time trend purification is a common occurrence. When an idol group releases an album or a member celebrates a birthday, they set a specific hashtag and leave cheering messages. They also put up trending hashtags to cover malicious comments. It is their own culture and a way of communication.
However, some point out that trying to make the hashtag trend to cover Hyun Jin’s controversy over school violence can cause another secondary damage. They said, “I didn’t know about Hyun Jin’s school violence, but I found out about it because of the real-time trend”, “It seems that the fandom is making things even more noticeable”, “The fans should just stay still”.
Others left comments such as “Stop blindly defending him” “Can you still do this if the victim is your family?” “Even if he already posted an apology, the fact that he committed the school violence won’t disappear,” and “The victim who was bullied by Hyun Jin may see this.”
In Thailand, a movement to expose school violence is spreading online due to the butterfly effect of “The Glory”. In the process, suspicion arose that Ohm Pawat (23), a famous Thai actor, had bullied an autistic student in middle school. Eventually, he posted a handwritten apology.
“The Glory” tells the story of a victim of school violence who seeks revenge after becoming a teacher. It is receiving favorable reviews for taking the issue of school violence seriously. As of January 3rd, it ranked first in Netflix viewership rankings in 9 countries, including Singapore, Thailand and Qatar.
Previously, Hyun Jin was embroiled in a controversy over school violence in February 2021. At the time, Hyun Jin apologized, saying, “I sincerely apologize to those who were hurt by my wrong words and actions during my school days. Looking back at my actions when I was lacking more than now, I am ashamed and have no excuses.”
As the issue of school violence continued to emerge, Hyun Jin’s agency, JYP Entertainment, announced the suspension of his activities for self-reflection. Hyun Jin made a comeback four months later, in June 2021, by participating in Stray Kids’ digital single.
Source: Wikitree.
