On November 16 (KST), a topic titled “No Koreans win a slot in this face-to-face fansign” was published on the Korean forum Instiz, garnering significant attention.
According to this topic, the Yes24 fansign of ENHYPEN recently revealed its list of 50 winners, but it was discovered that all of these 50 people are foreigners, with no Koreans securing a slot.
While face-to-face fansigns of K-pop generally decide its winners through raffles, most retailers often include a mix of Koreans and international winners, often to appease Korean fans, who play a major role in K-pop groups’ success.
However, it seems that this was abolished in the case of ENHYPEN’s fansign, leading to heavy backlash from Korean fans of the group, who accuse ENHYPEN’s agency of pandering to foreign fans, especially those from China.
Some have shown concerns, not only in the company’s poor decision, but also in the fact that the foreign winners may not be able to fully communicate with ENHYPEN members at the event.
Below are some comments from netizens:
- Even though there are many overseas fans, please select a certain percentage of Korean fans as well…
- No matter how many foreign fans a group have, it’s a Korean fansign event, so there should be a quota for Korean fans
- Aren’t they Korean singers? They are basically saying that Korean fans don’t matter with this movie
- Even though there are a lot of Chinese fans, it just doesn’t make sense that no Koreans won for a fansign in Korea
- It can’t be help, the group is popular overseas but not in Korea
- At this rate, the Korean fans will truly ditch the group next time
- If the company hates Korea so much, why are they promoting in Korea? If they hate Koreans so much, why did you debut them in Korea?
- No Koreans in a face-to-face fansign… What if nobody responds when the group is talking in Korean…