South Korea How did a fake clothing scandal become such a big issue?
She was canceled for wearing fake designer clothes. Doing so may not be considered bad in the West but it ended Song Jias career in-his own country. But the scandal was not just a celebrity cancellation story but also an economic upheaval of South Korean youth.
Ever since she appeared on the Netflix dating show Single Inferno shes been in public eye.
Song Jia is a young influencer. When she came to the screen, the camera would zoom in & the music would slow down.
She soon became known as a fashionable girl. And she was popular with the boys.
On the show he was invited to date the most and to walk alone. The show has seemed a bit unfocused in recent episodes with many players waiting for their return in the sun.
In the final three of the shows five men stood on the beach fighting for them. She was a breakout star.
But it was already popular in South Korea before the social media star show. But after his Netflix debut his followers grew. 3.7 million followers on Instagram and about 2 million on YouTube.
The first week of January 2022 was the height of his fame. But their downfall came soon after.
Internet users began to criticize him. They accused him of wearing fake designer clothes. He used the example of a pink Chanel sweater which was a bit of the wrong color.
People then started considering his other clothes and in a few days he had to answer many allegations.
He confessed to wearing fake clothes but said he did not know they were fake & bought them only because he liked them.
But his explanation did not dampen public anger.
People started investigating his background and started checking his old YouTube videos. They started pointing out things that were suspicious. She also questioned whether she owned the apartment in which she lived.
And then there were some Chinese videos in which she said she was learning Chinese and she called the Korean dish-kamchi pao kaye which means vegetable pickle in Chinese.
Fans accused her of trying to please the Chinese market and some even called her a traitor.
Other Korean shows in which he participated, he began to remove Song Jia from the show. Celebrity friends started deleting their photos with them.
A week after his first apology he shared another video in which he said he was deeply sorry for what he had done & called himself a pathetic.
She took everything off her social media account and became known as a national disgrace.
But the rest of the world found this reaction of the people very serious. How a fake clothing scandal became such a big issue.
Production of gold spoon
People on the internet made many accusations against Jia and also said that she was defaming the brand of hardworking designers.
But the biggest offense was actually that she was fake and that she pretended to be something she wasnot says C Wing editor of Korean Expose magazine. was the issue that kept coming up.
While non Korean fans saw him only as a luxury influencer, Koreans thought he presented himself as something else. Many local followers thought it was Jim Sujio or the golden spoon
Derived from the English proverb "born with a silver spoon in the mouth", the "gold spoon" belongs to one percent of high-income South Korean households. It is often used for children of wealthy families.
The term spoon of dirt represents the other end of the spectrum.
Thats what made her attractive not that she was a hard working influencer or that she was successful on her own and making a lot of money says Sean Wing. People said they were following him because they thought he was a golden spoon.
Technically he never claimed to be a golden spoon. In a July 2021 interview, she denied the label but acknowledged that she grew up in a wealthy family.
But as an influencer, she created a profile based on luxurious beauty. People assumed she was a rich girl & he did not correct her.
People think they've been deceived said Michelle Koe, an associate professor of women's affairs at National University of Singapore.
Observers say the reaction against Jia is rooted in the basic class tensions in modern South Korean society.
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