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SHINee star's suicide highlights dark side of the K-pop dream

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Jung Ha-Won, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/12/21/122117_shinee2.jpg"/><figcaption>Choi Min-ho, a member of top South Korean boy band SHINee, holds a portrait of their team lead singer Kim Jong-hyun during the funeral at a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, December 21, 2017. <em>REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>SEOUL -- Known for its ultra-competitive, pressure-cooker society, South Korea has one of the world&#x27;s highest suicide rates. And this week the even higher stresses in the country&#x27;s lucrative showbiz industry took their toll on a K-pop superstar.</p><p>Kim Jong-Hyun, a 27-year-old lead singer of the hugely popular boy band SHINee, took his own life in a Seoul hotel room on Monday, with his death sending shockwaves through fans around the world.</p><p>Five-member SHINee were at the forefront of the &quot;Korean Wave&quot; that has seen South Korean pop culture sweep Asia by storm in the past decade and lap at shores even further afield.</p><p>The band has found fame and fortune with multiple chart-topping albums and sold-out concerts at home and abroad since their debut in 2008.</p><p>But a grittier reality lies beneath the glitz and glamour of the K-pop scene -- cutthroat competition, a lack of privacy, online bullying and relentless public pressure to maintain a wholesome image at all times and at any cost.</p><p>Many stars like Kim are picked up by agencies at a young age, usually in their early or mid teens, their lives then taken over by gruelling singing and dancing training, with the ever-present risk of falling foul of a cut-throat screening process.</p><p>Holidays are rare and privacy an unaffordable luxury as many live with other band mates in dorm-like apartments provided by their agents, who dictate everything from music styles and diet regimen to mobile phone use -- and normally impose dating bans.</p><p>Many struggle with a constant lack of sleep and privacy.</p><p>Kim Se-Jeong, a popular K-pop singer, confessed of once sleeping a total of one hour for four days. &quot;I had to perform on stage, appear in TV shows and shoot ad commercials all at the same time,&quot; she told a television interviewer earlier this year.</p><p>Kang Daniel, of the popular boy band Wanna One, admitted that his biggest wish was &quot;having just one day of rest.&quot;</p><p>&quot;For months ahead of my debut, I usually woke up four or five in the morning... practised until two or three in the morning the following day,&quot; Kang said in a television interview aired in August.</p><p>He was &quot;grateful&quot; to get a chance at fame, he added, but the gruelling schedule eventually affected his health and the 21-year-old cancelled all public appearances earlier this month.</p><div><strong>Smiley happy face</strong></div><p>Many K-pop stars face tremendous pressure to look and behave perfectly in an industry powered by so-called &quot;fandoms&quot; -- groups of well-organized admirers who spend enormous amounts of time and money to help their favored stars climb up the charts and attack their perceived rivals.</p><p>In return, the stars are expected to tread carefully in an industry where today&#x27;s most-fervent fans can be tomorrow&#x27;s most vicious critics if their idols fail to meet their expectations -- or &quot;betray&quot; them.</p><p>Drug use or drunken driving are seen as career-breakers, while behavior that causes a &quot;stir&quot; -- anything from a social media gaffe to a failure to smile ceaselessly at public appearances -- could be criticized for years.</p><p>Many are constantly chased by paparazzi and camera-touting fans who share or sell every single detail and images of the stars&#x27; daily lives online for public scrutiny.</p><p>&quot;These &#x27;idols&#x27; virtually live in a fishbowl and are pressed to put on a smiley, happy face while behaving nicely 24/7,&quot; said cultural commentator Kim Seong-Soo, adding the strain could &quot;cripple them emotionally.&quot;</p><p>Such challenges are common among celebrities around the world, he told AFP, but are amplified in the hyper-wired South Korea, which has some of the world&#x27;s fastest internet speeds and highest smartphone usage, and a society where pressure to conform is high.</p><p>Taboos about mental illness dissuade many from seeking medical help, including public figures, he added.</p><div><strong>Winner takes all</strong></div><p>Kim&#x27;s death is unusual for a K-pop musician at the height of his popularity, but is the latest in a long list of showbiz suicides.</p><p>In 2010, Park Yong-Ha, a top actor who had huge followings at home and in Japan and China, hanged himself, and former actor Kim Sung-Min, whose career was ruined by a jail term for drug abuse, did the same last year.</p><p>In the most shocking series of suicides, actress Choi Jin-Sil - a household name - hanged herself in 2008, her actions blamed on online bullying.</p><p>Her brother, also an actor, killed himself two years later, and her ex-husband, former baseball star Cho Sung-Min, followed suit in 2013.</p><p>Actress Park Jin-Hee interviewed hundreds of actors and actresses for her master&#x27;s thesis in 2009 and said that 40 percent had considered suicide at least once due to a lack of privacy, online bullying or unstable incomes.</p><p>But celebrity suicides are only a microcosm of South Korea&#x27;s wider social problems, including cutthroat competition in areas from education to workplaces and a lack of safety nets, said commentator Kim, calling depression an &quot;inevitable outcome&quot; of living under such strain.</p><p>&quot;Our country has an extreme form of winner-take-all system where those who fail can hardly make a comeback, or even survive.&quot;</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><em>Editor&#x27;s note:</em></div><div><em>A group in the Philippines is dedicated to addressing those who have suicidal tendencies.</em></div><div><em>The crisis hotlines of the Natasha Goulbourn Foundation aim to make these individuals feel that someone is ready to listen to them.</em></div><div><em>These are their hotline numbers:</em></div><div><strong>Information and Crisis Intervention Center</strong></div><p>(02) 804-HOPE (4673)<br/>0917-558-HOPE (4673) or (632) 211-4550<br/>0917-852-HOPE (4673) or (632) 964-6876<br/>0917-842-HOPE (4673) or (632) 964-4084</p><div><strong>In Touch Crisis Lines:</strong></div><p>0917-572-HOPE or (632) 211-1305<br/>(02) 893-7606 (24/7)<br/>(02) 893-7603 (Mon-Fri, 9 am-5 pm)<br/>Globe (63917) 800.1123 or (632) 506.7314<br/>Sun (63922) 893.8944 or (632) 346.8776</p>

<p>South Korea has one of the world's highest suicide rates. And this week the even higher stresses in the country's lucrative showbiz industry took their toll on a K-pop superstar.</p>

South Korea has one of the world's highest suicide rates. And this week the even higher stresses in the country's lucrative showbiz industry took their toll on a K-pop superstar.

SHINee star's suicide highlights dark side of the K-pop dream

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SHINee star's suicide highlights dark side of the K-pop dream

Jung Ha-Won,

Agence France-Presse

Published Dec 21, 2017 12:37 PM PHT

Read More:

K-pop

SHINee

Kim Jong-Hyun

suicide

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