Chaeyoung posts and deletes pic of her wearing an outfit with a swastika ; releases apology

[AstroBaby]

2 hours ago, freeluxx said:

i think her apology would have come across better if she simply said she wasn't sensitive enough to what that symbol stands for than to say she didn't know what the symbol means. girl it's 2023, documentaries on youtube are free.

I think the fact that both apologies specify 'tilted swastika' means that they're trying to imply she thought it was the buddhist swastika which is not tilted and still displayed in buddhist temples across Asia including SK. It's a big stretch of an explanation bc why would Chae think a british punk shirt had a buddhist symbol on it? I think she just assumed that since it was from a popular band whatever was on it couldn't be that offensive. Basically 'everyone else is doing it/no one around me said anything' mentality which is dumb.

1 hour ago, rananicolee said:

The shirt is very rare and hard to find so I think she likes the punk aesthetics.

Apparently it's rare on the english internet but easier to find knockoff versions in Asia, fans are guessing she got hers for like $20 bucks on a Japanese punk site that she's bought other clothes from. Not that it makes it better that she wore it but seems like she's less of a die-hard Sid fan than she would be if she bought it for whatever insane price it's at on ebay.

[AstroBaby]

14 minutes ago, rananicolee said:

That shirt shouldn’t even be sold 

Yeah but it's sadly not out of the ordinary for Japan/other Asian countries to not care about Nazi symbols

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_chic#Asia

https://qz.com/928440/asias-disturbing-embrace-of-nazi-chic-is-prompting-a-nonprofit-to-teach-holocaust-history

https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/27/asia/taiwan-nazi-school-asia/index.html

Edited March 21 by AstroBaby

[AstroBaby]

44 minutes ago, nana_moon said:

the thing is this defense is really working because i see so many fans saying it's Eurocentric/Western-centric to believe Asian people would see a Nazi Swastika and know it for what it is. it's such an Orientalist way of talking like we all live in fucking caves and not in countries with 5G internet and education systems etc that Koreans wouldn't get an education AND that she would be dumb enough to believe that a punk shirt from a punk website had a Buddhist symbol on it. i agree that she just thought it wasn't a big deal which speaks more to her being dumb than being evil. which is still not a great look.

yeah I don't believe that's the actual explanation just the one JYP decided to go with bc it sounds better than just saying their artist is dumb or edgy just for the sake of it.

[AstroBaby]

43 minutes ago, evermore said:

Let‘s be for real. With all Korea has gone through during second world war you really believe they didn‘t cover Hitler, one of Japans biggest allies, in history class? 
 

As a german this is pretty hard to believe and forgive.

There's a difference between general knowledge of events and knowledge of symbols though tbf, like the majority of Americans know that Japan was involved in ww2 but most probably wouldn't recognize the rising sun flag and it's use in the west only started to get called out in the past 5 years or so. I'm sure you could still find some generic 'Asian inspired' design that uses the symbol in various shops and restaurants. The nazi statue that Sowon posed with was on display in a very popular 'European style' cafe in Korea that was featured in Goblin. If the imagery was seen identically in Korea as it is in the U.S or Europe it would have never been displayed in the first place.  Just as that shirt wouldn't have been sold in Asia. 

I don't think Chaeyoung or Sowon are off the hook because of that since they have an international audience and again I don't buy the buddhist explanation. But there is a difference in how much emphasis is put on the western side of the war and the symbols, just as less emphasis is put on the eastern side here. If knowledge was the same then Sowon and Chaeyoung would have just straight up been revealing themselves as alt-righters by posting what they did, the same way they would be if they wore a rising sun which I doubt was the intention. Chaeyoung also started training in sixth grade so...

Spoiler

Also speaking of lack of awareness of Nazi symbols remember when everyone was wearing Boy London in 2013-14....

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/boy-london-fashion-brand-rejects-concern-over-nazi-logo-1.52822