Netizens are showing various reactions to the announcement of participant lineup for the JTBC survival program “R U NEXT?”
Previously, on June 16th, the full participants’ list for survival program “R U NEXT?”, which is jointly produced by JTBC and Belift Lab, the joint venture of HYBE and CJ ENM, was unveiled.
In particular, the revealed list includes the appearances of 22 trainees under Belift Lab, who will compete to become members of a new girl group. However, it draws attention that among the 22 candidates, there is not a single candidate who has Chinese nationality.
In particular, out of the 22 candidates, 11 of them are of Korean nationals, while the remaining 11 foreign nationals consist of 7 Japanese nationals, 2 Thai nationals, and 2 individuals with dual Korean-American citizenship.
Previously, it was known that HYBE did not select trainees with Chinese nationality.
Upon hearing this news, various netizens expressed support for HYBE, and compared the company to SM Entertainment, which is known for having the “China Dream”.
Below are some comments from netizens:
- This is the right decision
- SM, which supports the “China Dream”, is losing.
- HYBE is indeed a company representing Korean entertainment
- They’re avoiding the risk of having Chinese members in the final lineup
- These days, Chinese idols are disappearing. When you look at foreign national idols, almost all of them are Japanese
- K-pop no longer cares about having Chinese members
- HYBE has always been anti-China, right?
- We don’t know when the Chinese member will make political posts on Weibo, so there’s no need to choose a Chinese member”, and more.
On the same day, the official SNS and Weverse also released a pre-release video of the first episode of “R U NEXT?”
In the released video, the participants appeared one by one and expressed their unique sentiments, saying, “It’s a dream that brings happiness even with just imagination”, “It’s the thing I most want to do, so I really want to achieve it”, “It’s the beginning of my dream”, “I will treat it as my last chance and work hard“, and so on.
They also revealed their determination, saying, “I will fight to do my best even in the worst situations”, “I want to show the stage quickly. I believe in myself”, “I want to be known for my skills”, “My goal is to be first place”, and expressed their aspirations for the survival show.
On the other hand, “R U NEXT?” will be simultaneously broadcasted on JTBC and Abema in Japan at 8:50 PM (KST) on June 30th.
Source: Wikitree
