The Japanese pop band V6 -- six teenage boys of unimpressive singing ability and appearance -- captured the hearts of Taiwan's youth during their recent visit, thanks to intensive promotion by their record company and the local media. A "handshake party" held as a warm-up to their concert attracted thousands of fans from around the country. The fans set up tents and lined up overnight for the event just to get a look at their idols. Close to 20,000 concert tickets were sold. The fans were so feverish they even shouted "Save us, V6!" The extent of the craze was indeed amazing.
In the face of this overwhelming phenomenon, some moralistic people condemned the extravagance of the younger generation, who would rather give NT$5,000 to scalpers for a concert ticket than spend NT$200 on a book and read quietly.
Others, more nationalistic, blamed an invasion of Japanese culture. They worry about the younger generation turning their back on historical enmity and confusing their enemies for idols. Still others blamed commercial interests for eroding people's sensibility, which, they say, will eventually lead to the stupidity and ignorance of an entire generation.
The epitome of Japan's pop culture, V6 set foot on Taiwan riding on the advantage of other Japanese media exports. Apart from the ways in which capitalist systems operate, however, cultural dominance is probably the major factor that triggered their massive popularity.
In the past few years, Japanese pop culture has been forcefully projected through movies, TV shows, records and commercials. Apart from South Korea, where nationalism is particularly strong, Japan's neighbors can barely resist the influence of its pop culture. Its influence has been so widespread that even the Americans were once chasing after Pikachu, while the cartoon heroine Sailor Moon was popular in some European countries.
To be fair, in an age of border-less information, the exchange of pop cultures is quite natural. But when the exchange becomes one-way and biased so that only the predominant pop culture is transmitted to a disadvantaged culture, then, in the long run, unfair situations involving such things as imbalanced information and biased perspectives, may occur.
The production and transmission of popular culture may be manipulated by multinational capitalist mechanisms, but this does not mean that we must guard against all foreign popular cultures. In fact, the pop cultural phenomena which are initiated by movies and TV stars may sometimes be ridiculous and blind, but we have to admit that they provide the public with a bit of excitement and ease the daily pressure in an industrialized, increasingly indifferent and nerve-racked society.
We might just as well see these idols as a way by which some people grasp the meaning of life. This may not be the best or only way, but dreaming about Japanese stars is much more harmless than taking drugs or committing crimes.
From the perspective of unbalanced cultural exportation, it makes some sense to think that the V6 fans' behavior is somewhat irrational, but worrying that they might create social problems is to overestimate the effects of this phenomenon.
To wave the flag of nationalism may seem justified, but it is also like fighting an unwinnable battle. To condemn young people for worshipping their idols from a moralistic standpoint without considering its meaning in pop culture may simply be narrow-minded. Only from a balanced perspective can we examine the impact of the V6 phenomenon on Taiwan.
Chen Chao-ju is a cultural commentator.
Translated by Wu Pei-shih
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