South Korea's Scary Fame Game
The country's superhot "K-celebs" are flaming out fast.
When South Korean supermodel Daul Kim, 20, killed herself in her ritzy Paris apartment in November, fashion insiders assumed she was a victim of the jet-setting pressure of the job – the loneliness, competition, and frenetic travel that come with global catwalk fame. But Kim’s blog revealed that the cause of her death was rooted in her beginnings back in South Korea, where a celebrity suicide spree has taken the lives on 10 young stars in just over a year.
South Korea’s entertainment industry is renowned for its ability to manufacture new sensations overnight. From hunky boy bands to female film stars, “K-celebs,” as they’re known, are the hottest property in Asia. But invariably, they’re also the property of all-powerful management agencies, which force them to sign so-called slave contracts, tying them to punishing schedules and curtailing their personal freedom. Thrust into the limelight, many homegrown stars are ill-prepared for the pressures of fame.
Kim talked in her blog of feeling “mad depressed and overworked” when she became a model in her late teens in Seoul. Although she’d started a new life in Paris last year, the black moods she’d suffered in Seoul followed her to Europe. In addition to Kim, three South Korean actresses, three actors, one model, and two musicians have taken their own lives since 2008.
Actress Ja-yeon Jang, 26, popular soap star, killed herself last April and left behind a seven-page letter blasting the nation’s “evil and corrupt” entertainment industry. She said that on top of being told what to eat, what to wear, and where to socialize, she was forced to provide sexual favors to her agent’s business associates.
The Korea Times reports that many K-celeb contracts include clauses allowing agencies to keep up to 90 percent of stars’ earning and forbidding them to retire, causing some stars to feel that suicide is the only way out. The price of fame, indeed.
Kim talked in her blog of feeling “mad depressed and overworked” when she became a model in her late teens in Seoul. Although she’d started a new life in Paris last year, the black moods she’d suffered in Seoul followed her to Europe. In addition to Kim, three South Korean actresses, three actors, one model, and two musicians have taken their own lives since 2008.
Actress Ja-yeon Jang, 26, popular soap star, killed herself last April and left behind a seven-page letter blasting the nation’s “evil and corrupt” entertainment industry. She said that on top of being told what to eat, what to wear, and where to socialize, she was forced to provide sexual favors to her agent’s business associates.
The Korea Times reports that many K-celeb contracts include clauses allowing agencies to keep up to 90 percent of stars’ earning and forbidding them to retire, causing some stars to feel that suicide is the only way out. The price of fame, indeed.
source:asianfanatics.net
Seriously, Kpop agencies need to loosen up big time. What's with the slavery?
If these accusations were really true, I'd be shattered If I suddenly see my favorite Kpop stars in cremated remains.
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