JYP Entertainment, the South Korean management company of Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), also known as Tzuyu, the only Taiwanese member of South Korean girl group TWICE, has seemingly capitulated to Chinese pressure as it quietly on its Web site changed Chou’s birthplace from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei.”
While the Web site continued to show all the original nationalities of other group members in English, such as “Korea” and “Japan,” only Chou’s was written in simplified Chinese characters, listing her birthplace as “Chinese Taipei.”
JYP Entertainment previously changed the slot “nationality” to “birthplace” in Chou’s profile.
The controversy arose after 16-year-old Chou appeared recently on the South Korean variety show My Little Television holding a Republic of China (ROC) flag.
Chou was criticized by Taiwanese singer Huang An (黃安), who is based in China and has gained an online following there partly because of his strong stance against Taiwanese independence.
Huang referred to her as a supporter of Taiwanese independence and urged his fans to stand against “anyone endorsed by Taiwanese independence supporters.”
Since then, social media sites in China have been flooded with hate comments against Chou and TWICE, while other netizens have been defending her, saying she has done nothing wrong.
Cellular carrier LG Uplus, which markets Chinese company Huawei’s Y6 phone in South Korea, has suspended all cooperation with Chou and her management company on Huawei products, the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported, citing a Huawei executive.
On Wednesday, JYP Entertainment issued a statement saying it “deeply regretted” that false rumors were being spread online about the star.
As a “cultural enterprise,” JYP Entertainment said, it has never engaged in any political action or made any political comments regarding China.
However, the company said that it had decided to temporarily cancel all of Chou’s upcoming performances and activities in China until the rumors could be clarified.
In another statement issued on Thursday, JYP Entertainment said that “Tzuyu strongly supports the ‘one China’ principle and respects that principle.”
Taiwan is Tzuyu’s homeland, but being Taiwanese does not necessarily mean she is in favor of Taiwanese independence, it added.
Asked to comment on the issue, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Lin Chu-chia (林祖嘉) called for mutual respect, saying that culture and arts should be separate from politics.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) posted a photograph of the national flag on Thursday on its Facebook page, with the comment: “Support the national flag, support Chou Tzu-yu.”
People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) has also voiced support for Chou, as has Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who yesterday said that it was a citizen’s right to hold the national flag of their nation.
Chou became a member of TWICE last year after winning a South Korean TV talent show, and her popularity has soared since then.
Since the row over her display of the ROC flag, support for her has been growing in Taiwan.
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