Dreading the post-Clockenflap blues next week? Fear not, because the Mnet Asian Music Awards, also known as MAMA are just around the corner.
The celebration of all things K-pop, however, appears to have found itself at the center of a storm on the mainland after a page on its website listed Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau as (gasp) countries.
For the unfamiliar, MAMA is one of the major K-pop music awards held annually by entertainment company CJ E&M, and the event is broadcast in South Korea, China, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Canada, and the US.
K-pop fans from around the world can vote for their favorite music acts by registering online, and nominees this year include PSY, Girls Generation, EXO, Red Velvet, G-DRAGON and others.
The awards were first held in Seoul in 1999, and have also been held in Macau and Singapore in 2010 and 2011, respectively. And for the past five years, with a mysterious lack of outcry, the ceremony has been held in Hong Kong.
This year it will be held in Vietnam, Japan, and our very own Hong Kong from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1, making it the first time the K-pop event will be held in three different places.
But before the celebrations have even kicked off, the organizers have faced criticism by some folks from mainland China — not because they missed out on hosting the event, but because of the characterization of some voters’ place of origin.
A screen grab of a web page from the MAMA website under the heading “state vote” — which lists categories for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan — was picked up by netizens, and was even shared by the Communist Youth League’s Weibo account.
The trending topic prompted mainland netizens to call for a boycott of the award ceremony, saying “MAMA get out of China,” “there is only one China,” and “the territorial integrity of the country must be maintained.”
Of course, if you’ve ever purchased something online, signed up for an app or dabbled in cryptocurrency, then you’ll know that treating Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as at least somewhat separate entities is pretty much the norm. But hey, who are we to get in the way of some silly, misdirected rage?
The news was picked up by South Korean media, who reported that CJ E&M have acknowledged the incident yesterday, and have since removed the page from their website.
This comes amid a year of heightened tensions with the mainland, from the controversial national anthem law to President Xi Jinping’s stern warning that China can thwart any attempt by Taiwan to declare independence.
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