Singer-actress IU stars in Netflix filmSinger-actress Lee Ji-eun, better known by her stage name IU, poses for photos at a press event for her original Netflix movie “Persona” in Seoul on March 27, 2019. The short film will feature IU in four different stories, each by a different director. (Yonhap)
South Korean singer IU attends a publicity event in Seoul on Sept. 20, 2018, to promote the wireless noise-canceling WH-1000XM3 headphones manufactured by Japan’s Sony Corp. (Yonhap)
Maybe in Korean the lyrics sound worse than what it sounds in English because after reading this article I don’t see what the big deal is:
A Brazilian novel first published more than 40 years ago has unexpectedly become a highly sought-after read, after the Korean pop star IU was accused of sexualising the story of its five-year-old protagonist in one of her songs.
José Mauro de Vasconcelos’s My Sweet Orange Tree, first published in Portuguese in 1968 and in English in 1970, is set in Rio de Janeiro and follows the life of the boy Zeze, as he gets up to mischief and is mistreated. “Everyone beats him. If you look softhearted he will tell you it’s revolting the way they beat on a little kid. Can you believe him when he says he’s only six? No! The boy is a liar. He is five years old,” runs the copy on the first UK edition.
My Sweet Orange Tree has been out of print in English for years, but Abebooks.com has reported that the novel became its most searched-for title late last week after controversy enveloped IU’s pop song Zeze, which is based on the story. The bookseller’s Richard Davies said that My Sweet Orange Tree was “a much-loved book in South Korea and often studied in schools”.
According to the Korea Times, the book’s Korean publisher has issued a statement saying that: “We regret the way the five-year-old character is portrayed as a sexual object.”
The paper quotes lines from IU’s song which run: “Zeze, come on up the tree quick and kiss the leaves, don’t be naughty and don’t hurt the tree, come up the tree and get the youngest leaf … you are innocent but shrewd, transparent but dirty and there is no way of knowing what’s living inside.” [The Guardian]
You can read the rest at the link, but IU has since apologized for the lyrics, but says she had no intention of sexualizing Zeze.
A bill to restrict people who are 24 years old or younger from appearing in ads for alcoholic beverages passed the National Assembly’s committee on health and welfare on Thursday.
If it gets approved in the plenary session of the National Assembly, singer IU, who was born in 1993, will have to stop ads she’s been doing for a soju brand.
The committee said the bill proposed by ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Elisa in July 2012 to ban young athletes and other celebrities from appearing in liquor ads was partially modified and passed.
The bill was proposed when figure skating star Kim Yu-na modeled for a brewery in 2012. Many argued that someone such as Kim who is idolized by young people can encourage teenagers to drink alcohol. [Chosun Ilbo]
