正文
经济学人下载:性、毒品和偷拍:前Bigbang成员胜利丑闻事件
Asia
亚洲
K-pop
韩国流行音乐
Sex, drugs and spy-cams
性、毒品和偷拍
A spreading scandal engulfs South Korea’s music industry
一场不断蔓延的丑闻吞没了韩国的音乐行业
All that’s left of the “Burning Sun” nightclub in Seoul are the faint outlines of the letters that used to spell its name, which have been hastily removed from above the former entrance. The club was run by Lee Seung-hyun, better known as Seungri, a member of Bigbang, a K-pop group. It was closed last month after police began investigating Seungri and his business associates for offences involving drugs, tax evasion and the provision of sexual services to potential investors (prostitution is illegal in South Korea). Though Seungri denies the allegations, he nevertheless made a grovelling public apology. Some called Mr Lee “Seungsby” (after the Great Gatsby, a high-living fictional antihero); the analogy has become even more apt since things all started to unravel spectacularly for Mr Lee. His music label has terminated his contract.
首尔“炙热的太阳”夜总会以前入口处的名字已被匆匆摘除,现在只剩下模糊的名字字母轮廓。该夜总会由韩国流行乐队Bigbang的成员李胜贤经营。上月,警察调查胜利及其商业伙伴因吸毒、逃税及向潜在投资者提供性服务之后,该夜总会就关闭了(卖淫在韩国是非法的)。胜利虽然否认了这些指控,但还是低声下气地公开道歉了。有些人称李先生为“胜茨比”(由《了不起的盖茨比》命名,盖茨比是一个生活奢靡的虚构的非传统英雄);自从胜利开始大失所成,这种类比就更贴切了。同时也和唱片公司解约了。
K-pop offers fans a polished and sanitised version of sex and glamour. Recording contracts often ban stars from having girlfriends or boyfriends to ensure that fans can project their desires onto them unimpeded. This makes the revelations that have emerged about the industry since Mr Lee’s downfall all the more damaging.
粉丝们看到的韩国流行音乐是性和诱惑力经过润色和净化的版本。录制合同通常禁止明星拥有男女朋友,以确保粉丝们可以不受阻碍地将欲望投射到他们身上。这使得自李明博下台以来有关该行业的爆料更具破坏性。
The part of the scandal that has sparked the most outrage is the revelation that male K-pop stars and their associates apparently used group chats to exchange pornographic videos of women who had been filmed without their consent, along with lewd banter. Jung Joon-young, a singer, songwriter and former television host, has been arrested on charges of filming and distributing illegal spy-cam footage. In a video a friend shared with him, a woman appears unconscious. In extracts of web chats published by a Korean broadcaster, the men joke about drugging and raping women. They also seem to implicate the police in their schemes, alluding to a senior officer who “has our back”.
这起丑闻中最令人愤怒的部分是,有爆料称,韩国男性流行歌手及其同伙公然聊天群中传播非法偷拍女性的不雅视频,还开低俗的玩笑。歌手、词曲作家、前电视主持人郑俊英因拍摄和传播非法偷拍视频而被捕。在一个朋友和他分享的视频中,一名女子似乎失去了知觉。在一个韩国广播员发布的聊天截图中,这名男性拿下药和强奸女性开玩笑。他们似乎还将警方牵连到其阴谋中,暗指一位高管是“他们的后台”。
Spy-cams are common in South Korea, where pornography is banned and internet porn is harder to access than elsewhere. Protests against them form the basis of an energetic women’s movement that began last year and has garnered fresh attention after two men were arrested for installing illegal spy-cams in motel rooms across the country, filming some 1,600 guests without their knowledge. For feminists, the latest K-pop scandal is yet another sign of pervasive misogyny. Jin Sun-mee, the minister for gender equality and family, called on men last week to “please stop” objectifying women, adding that: “Women are humans with souls.”
偷拍在韩国很常见,韩国禁止色情,比其他国家更难在网上找到色情网站。去年开始的一场声势浩大的女性运动就基于对偷拍的反抗,运动发生在两名男子因在全国各地的汽车旅馆房间安装非法偷拍设备而被捕后,这两名男子在当事人不知情的情况下拍摄了约1600名旅客的视频。对女权主义者来说,最新的韩国流行音乐丑闻是普遍存在的厌女症的又一迹象。上周,性别平等和家庭部长金顺美呼吁男性“请停止”物化女性,并补充说:“女性是有灵魂的人类。”
Fans are disappointed and angered by the revelation that their favourite stars may be truly awful people. “I hate myself for liking him so much,” one woman says of Seungri. YG Entertainment, his former label, has seen its valuation plunge since the scandal broke. Whatever else the investigation reveals, it has already shown that, in the K-pop business at least, not all publicity is good publicity.
粉丝们感到失望和愤怒,因为他们发现他们最喜欢的明星可能是真正糟糕的人。“我讨厌自己这么喜欢他,”一名女性如此评价胜利。前东家韩国YG娱乐有限公司自胜利丑闻爆发以来,估值大幅下跌。不管调查还揭示了什么,它已经表明,至少在韩国流行音乐界,并非所有的宣传都是好宣传。