K-pop girl band pulls video after backlash in China over baby panda

YG Entertainment

10/11/2020 06:24

By Sangmi Cha
    SEOUL, Nov 10 (Reuters) - A reality TV episode showing K-pop
girl band BLACKPINK holding a newly born panda was pulled after
accusations in China that the group mishandled a national
treasure, the latest row between South Korea's entertainment
stars and audiences in its large neighbour.
    Last month, South Korean boyband BTS was heavily criticised
in China after its leader made remarks about the Korean War, and
some BTS-related products were removed from Chinese websites.
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    Fu Bao, the first panda to be born in South Korea was
introduced to the public last week. Fu Bao's parents arrived in
2016 from China's Sichuan province, the home of giant pandas, as
part of China's "panda diplomacy".  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2HQ1MQ
    BLACKPINK included footage of the band members holding the
baby panda in a teaser clip aired on YouTube earlier this month.
    Some Chinese local media and online commentators denounced
the girl group for touching Fu Bao with bare hands and while
wearing too much make-up, saying it threatened the health of the
young cub. The comments set off a storm on Weibo, China's
version of Twitter.
    As of Tuesday, there were millions of views and 55,000 posts
on hashtag "Blackpink touched panda cub wrongly" on Weibo.
    The full episode was to have been broadcast on Nov 7 and has
been postponed, according to the group's music label, YG
Entertainment, although it defended the production.
    "When BLACKPINK met the baby panda, all members wore hygiene
gloves, masks and protective clothing ... hands and shoes were
disinfected at every transition," the agency said in a
statement.    
    Hashtags "BLACKPINK" and "Panda" were trending on South
Korean Twitter as well over the weekend. Some South Korean
social media users pushed back at the Chinese criticism, urging
South Korea to "return the pandas" or arguing that "pandas are
not ours and it is too expensive to raise them anyway".

 (Reporting by Sangmi Cha, additional reporting by Beijing
bureau and Soohyun Mah in Seoul; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
 ((Sangmi.Cha@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5646; Reuters
Messaging: sangmi.cha.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))