The Difference Between Fan Shit Storms and the Truth.

 

The difference between fan shit storms and the truth is that whenever fans start rumors (because everything is the fans’ faults. Everything.) people uncover things they shouldn’t have uncovered. And the truth? The truth is the cold, hard slap back to reality that things are usually never what we expect.

While fans and the media alike were waiting for Hangeng’s reasons for suing the pants off of SME as well terminating his contract, they started to speculate. There were rumors popping all over AllKrap but, as any good KPOP fan should, I avoided it because usually their rumors are complete bullshit, random, and make no goddamn sense. When it was posted on Omona on LiveJournal, again, I didn’t really take notice until I realized where the source came from – the more sane portals of Asian music fandom, AsianFanatics.com. Then that’s when I realized it was something worth reading.

According to the translated article, there was an incident where resident authentically fluent Mandarin Chinaman (the one and only in Super Junior-M) Zhou Mi had… a slip of the tongue? The incident was dubbed ‘Happy Gate’.

What had happened was during some useless and boring award show, there was apparently a tremor that occurred. For you KPOP fangirls too ignorant of the rest of Asia, China, even though it’s one massive country, suffers from a lot of earthquakes because there is something called faults and China, mirroring their population, has many of them. A lot of people tend to die in these earthquakes. This is a bad thing. Remember this.

Anyway, after the award show, where Super Junior-M won some dumb award (probably “Most Foreign Group”), an interviewer asked the Authentic Chinaman how he felt about — you know what? Just read the damn translation below (courtesy of asian fantics.net):

Interviewer: Did you feel the earthquake just now?
Hangeng: Yes, just now when we were preparing to go on stage, the lights kept swaying, but because we were already backstage, they immediately asked us to go on stage (to perform).
Zhou Mi: Actually when the earthquake struck, we were talking and laughing and were really quite happy, because last year when we were doing our activities in China, it was also during an interview like this when we experienced the big earthquake (the Si Chuan earthquake). The sensation [gestures with his hands to indicate shaking] was quite the same, and I was quite happy. [laughs]

Apparently Hangeng tried to save Zhou Mi from making a real super dumb move, but it was too late. Way too late. Already, Zhou Mi’s dry cleaning was coincidentally ruined. His food never got there after he phoned in his order. I don’t think Zhou Mi will be learning any new Ancient Chinese Secrets anytime soon. (Watch Zhou Mi virtually do the impossible – piss off China.)

Fans are led to believe that Hangeng loved Zhou Mi so much, he was willing to give up his career for him just to cover it up. Or at least that’s what SME led fangirls to believe. Naturally, the old armies of Only13 (that’s another article for another day) decided to bash Zhou Mi, which is understandable, considering thousands of people died in the 2008 earthquake. However, while we at Korean Beef love it whenever someone’s career go down in flames because of a legendary Dumb Move, we are also cynics. Why would Hangeng risk his career for someone like Zhou Mi? I’m sure even Hangeng gave the other Chinaman the backhand after what he said. I know I would and I’m not even Chinese.

Either way, it was later theorized by people with brains that it’s possible SME tried to divert attention by gaining international attention (by international, they mean of course China, Taiwan, and Korea) by saying, “Oh, Hangeng’s leaving us.” It backfired because I don’t think we would’ve heard about Happy Gate if it wasn’t for Hangeng’s contract termination. Nice.

However that is not the case as the truth was recently revealed. Don’t be hostile, Zhou Mi fans! It seemed that foreigners either don’t care or don’t understand the power of words (alas, it’s why Korean Beef isn’t as popular as it should be). For now, he is safe from your wrath.

When the court documents got leaked to the media, there are six main points (including the detail on why he states them) to his read and follow up on:

1. The contract has many provisions which are in SM’s favor.When the first contract was signed (January 2003) Hankyung was 18 then (underage) and being a Chinese person, he didn’t know everything about Korean showbiz, so SM gave him a contract with the content that SM itself suggested.Not only that, but also side agreements with SM after then (February 2007 and December 2007) were only from SM, which means that Hankyung didn’t have the chance to suggest provisions in his favor.2. The period of the exclusive contract is 13 years, it is too long.
The first contract he signed stated that it will be ended 10 years after Super Junior’s 1st album, but the second time it was modified it has been extended to 13 years. Super Junior’s 1st album was released in December 2005, so the contract will be ended in December 2018 and Hankyung will be 35 then.

Moreover, if Hankyung does not take part in some activities because of his health or studies, the contract’s period will be extended according to the situation, so it currently is 13 years on paper, but it could be longer in real life. This clause severely violates Hankyung’s civil rights.

3. There is a clause stating that Hankyung will have to pay SM a large sum of money in case of breaking contract clauses or creating damages, thus this prevents Hankyung to cancel the contract itself, or some agreements on it.

If Hankyung wants to move to another company and continue his activities, he will have to pay SM threefold of the money that SM had invested to him and pay twofold for the loss of the remaining time of his contract.

4. The amount between Hankyung’s rights and responsibilities stated in the contract are not the same.

Hankyung has to follow and attend all the schedule that SM gives him, he has to do/follow all SM’s orders/instructions unconditionally, but he doesn’t have a right to request for his contract to be revised.

5. SM has forced Hankyung to do some activities against his will.

During training time, if Hankyung was late, or absent, or didn’t fulfill his duty, he would be fined 10,000 won (= USD 9 currently) for the 1st time, 20,000 won (= USD 17 currently) for the 2nd time, etc. After debut, if he was late or absent from his schedule, he would have to pay for all the damage; if he cuts the contacts with SM for more than 1 day according to the situation, SM can cancel his contract. And if he doesn’t fulfill his duties, according to the situation he could be fined 5,000,000 won (= USD 4,245 currently).

According to the contract, Hankyung doesn’t have any right to decide for his schedule, he has to follow SM’s words and only attend the events/performances that SM’s manager designed for him. Hankyung even had been forced to attend some activities because of SM’s order when he was ill.

6. The profit distribution and copyrights between SM and Hankyung.

During the contract period, all the copyright of albums and song will belong to SM. Even if Hankyung were to write, compose, and/or arrange the songs, they can be used by SM without his permission.

As for the profit, the album has to sell more than 50,000 copies before Hankyung can receive 2% of the profit. The digital sales have to be equal with the net profit before Hankyung can get 10% of the profit. The overseas income has to be equal with the net profit too before Hankyung can get 60% of the profit.

As for overseas activities income, after SM deducts all the promotion activities expenses & fees, the remaining money will be divided among the group members.

Again, doesn’t this sound familiar? Either way, it seems that SM hired Hangeng as not only the token Chinese member but also the token illegal immigrant. Since Koreans hate every Asian except themselves, it’s possible the employees of SME are taking their 100-year grudge on Chinese people on Hangeng by slapping this ridiculous contract on him.

At least, that’s what some people would argue with.

Because of these lawsuits, Super Junior-M discontinued their activities henceforth. It’s only a matter of time before ELF either commit mass suicide or murder if Super Junior in general shut down their activities as well.

Either way, Korean Beef will be on the sidelines, awaiting the next blood, threatening/”romantic”, the next SM lawsuit, or just something lulzy in general.