From Fumi-san 's posting in JOB

I would like to share an excerpt from Fumi-san's posting in JOB, dated 2006-06-06

Originally in Japanese
Translated by flowerbossa

Today, I would like to give my views on why the Korean media is keeping quiet on the success of "April Snow" in France. There are of course journalists who support YJ, and I think they will write something related to this.

To give you an idea on the situation , here is an example. Last year, the Korean media used the phrase “a star representing northeast Asia” to describe a certain actor. Frankly, I laughed at this. What do they mean by “northeast Asia”? (Perhaps North Korea and the northeastern part of China?) I think they wanted to come up with a phrase that had Asia in it - like “representing so-and-so Asia”, but they couldn't use “east” in that phrase. If they said, “a star representing east Asia” or “a star representing Asia”, that would no doubt mean Yong Joon in Korea.

With another actor, they started to describe him as “a man transcending Asia, and a star that represents Korea in the west”.

In other words,

The star of Asia is Bae Yong Joon
Mr. A is the star of northeast Asia
Mr. B is the most popular Korean star in the U.S.
Mr. C is the most popular Korean star in Europe

This is the type of thing we see often. When you look at how “April Snow” is doing well in France, you would think people would write articles mentioning, “Bae Yong Joon, a star also popular in Europe”, but this would be “dokshiki (独食)”, something Koreans loathe.

Dokshiki literally means “to devour everything alone”, in other words, reign supreme. The male Korean society especially dislikes this dokshiki. In a company, too, when a single man gives a high performance, people will say “don’t dokshiki” and look at him with a cautious eye. They will try not to create such a person in the first place.

In Korea, it was reported that “Winter Sonata” was also well received in the States, and if he turned out to be successful in Europe, too, this would inevitably give the impression that Yong Joon is monopolizing the market. They would also probably want to deny his popularity in the U.S. and Europe.