As a Korean American, I heard news from Taiwan that Taiwanese entertainers have been publicly criticizing Korean actor (Bae Yong-joon), actress and singer Rain in the public media. When I was growing up in Korea we had a lot of Chinese movie stars, as well as our own stars such as Wang Wie (王羽), Bruce Lee (李小龍), Jackie Chan (成龍), Chow Yun-fat (周潤發), Alan Tam (譚詠麟) and many others. We never denounce them. Instead, Koreans say we have a lot of things to learn from Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese movie stars. For about 35 years we have tried to catch up with the Chinese and Taiwanese and Hong Kong entertainment industry and their quality movies. Now we are hearing from you that your entertainers are denouncing Korean stars. This is unacceptable. Many of your entertainers have made a lot of money in Korea through the years by doing commercials and we still love to watch Chinese movies.
When you are making money in Korea, that's okay but when Korean movie stars are making money in your country, that's not okay? That doesn't make sense to me. I believe we have to learn from each other. That's how we can survive in this small world, whether we like it or not.
James Lee
Korea
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