Netizens rally to save Eugene Park’s life
Okay, this is as sad as a story in Kpop gets. It took me awhile to try to get my mind around the monstrosity of the crimes that have reportedly been committed against Eugene Park. For those of you who don’t know who the Julliard trained electronic violinist Eugene Park is, it may be because you haven’t seen much of him recently in the public eye… he is rumored to have been brutally tortured mentally and physically, robbed of everything he owned, threatened and blackmailed, and kept in confinement except when forced to perform by none other than his management company throughout the past few years.
Eugene Park was first brought into the spotlight in Korea in 1998 from which on he became a national music treasure. Somewhere along the way, he met a management agency who not only preyed on his congenital mental instabilities but also the fact that he is an US born foreigner in Korea to fully exploit him to the point that the poor man’s once genius violin playing has massively suffered (according to experts) but even worse, he is reported to have become physically and mentally-dangerously frail and sick.
In the past couple days during which Eugene Park’s story has come to light, netizens have started a massive campaign titled, “Please help Eugene Park”. Their goals include publicly getting the musician’s horrifying story out, having justice served to his abusers, and getting back to Mr. Park the reported $500,000 US dollars that his agency stolen from him.
For more details on this story, please refer to rjkoehler and koreanbeacon. If anyone knows of a way for us non-korean citizens to aid in this campaign please let us know… this is a human rights issue if there ever was one.
O_O
ARE YOU SERIOUS!? no kidding; this is a human rights issue! i agree with you; if anyone knows a way that non-corean citizens can help; please tell us! i cant believe his management company…
And so K-Showbiz has fallen to new lows. Wow. Seeing those videos comparing his 1998 and 2008 performances, I shivered. I’m a classical violinist, so all the Korean violinists I know are mostly classical (Esther Kim, Sarah Chang, Kyung Wha Chung, Kim Chee Yun, etc.) I had no idea of Eugene Park’s existence until now. But his name does ring a bell. Must be some Julliard article I read. But his downfall is just sad. Too sad. What the heck did they do to him?! They deserve to be death-sentenced or imprisoned for life! Seriously. I hope there’s some way we can help. That has got to stop and they need to find some way to save his talent and genius.
seriously… Somebody, please help him! If I could, I would too.
This is extremely saddening..
I am highly disturbed by this. How are these people not in prison?! Or having a death sentence on them?!?!
WTF IS UP WITH THIS?!
I’m sorry, it’s just…there’s so much negativity about going into the K-pop showbiz but to realize it can get this bad…and nothing having been done…
I read the articles and know it’s not as easy as it sounds, but it just really disturbs and saddens me to see that this sort of situation can happen to anybody, not matter how kind or talented they are.
I’ll definately be putting the story out as much as possible. I don’t know how I’ll do it besides posting it on my blog and whatnot, but this is something that should be known and not ignored and forgotten.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
He feels so dead in the second performance. I’m only an amateur violinist but I can feel that… it’s not elementary mistakes he’s making… his left hand is a little sluggish, true… but the true emotions, his right hand, so lifeless and… T-T
Somebody need to clean the industry. How come they ruined a genius like this.
He looks so dead in the second performance. He can’t even keep the tempo with Bora.
O.M.G. the “managers” are a bunch of low lives =(
a**holes like them are the worst, really…
i hope they’ll get what they deserve and eugene park will get his spark back, pronto
tortured for over 10 years! This is absolutely sickening. the police bribed too? what the FUCK is up with korea?
at this point in time, all we can do is spread the controversy.
he looked like he was having so much fun in that 1998 performance!! and then i watched this recent one and i was like o_0 WTF HAVE THEY DONE TO HIM??
wtf! this is horrible, how can a human being do that to another? thank you for letting us know. Poor guy, his life was destroyed by a greedy agency.
sick! those people should be behind bars.
what i don’t understand is, why is it obvious to all theses people that he needs help, but the people who actually have the power to do something aren’t??????
really, it shouldn’t be this way, i don’t live in korea, but i know the police should do something about this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yeah, I hope we can help too. And I’m glad this is a good project from the netizens. hehe.
omg, this is so sad. but now that this has come to light, why aren’t the police busting down his management’s door and freeing him?! at least, why isn’t this being officially investigated?
I wonder what caused this to suddenly come to light?
If people know what’s going on and that his management is really doing what this article claims, then action should be taking place against them right now!
Were they even a legit management agency? I mean, they have serious talent on their hands… why would they destroy it and prevent him from becoming really popular? Performing rarely, and only at small venues? I feel bad that Eugene Park had to land in their incompetent and inhumane hands :(
It’s too weird to make sense of. I hope something gets done, and not just talk, but real action.
omg. human beings are so scary sometimes. i’m always shocked when i hear things like this.
Really sad…
But as the writer mentioned,
“he is rumored to have been…”
I’m sure until theres actual evidence and documents that the police can use, it may take a while.
Realistically, it may seem unfair, but not everything can be solved in a minute.
omg.. that’s horrible!
oh my god….
The problem is that the Korean police are trying to close the case at least downplay this horrible case…Every night, people’s resentful comments on major media web pages are being deleted. I saw definitely 6000 comments yesterday but this morning the news article was moved to an almost invisible part and had just 180 comments.
People are suspecting there is a mafia group and some major media group involved in this. This is a case more complicated that it looks.
The ‘current’ management company is trying to ‘explain’ this abuse issue on behalf of Eugene but the funny thing is the CEO of that company used to be a director of Eugene’s former company, which means they are still the same but with a different name. (Their phone number is the same).
He entered the Julliard pre-school at the age of 8 on full scholarship…Koreans abandoned this given-from-god treasure…and made him into a slave….This is really sad….
When will corrupt record companies like this learn that they need to NURTURE their artists and their talents and not senselessly bully, torture and literally rob them of their spirit and money if they are to CONTINUE making great music?
However, this isn’t just a case of record company vs. artist, it’s also an issue of human rights; as many have previously stated. Unfortunately the korean media, (mafia), and the police are the main obstacles to why this story isn’t widely published in the first place. It’s a gross injustice to the law and of ethics in general.
Even if this case turns out to be a tragic suppression of the TRUTH, I hope that at least the public can make an impact that will free Eugene Park from his horrible record company, and punish them for what they deserve.
this is so sad, i cried reading this. i really hope he gets the help and justice he deserves
Stories like this make me so upset, the things the managers did..are so inhuman and disgusting. They should be thrown in jail for the rest of the lives. I really hope that the netizens will be successful in getting this story out and helping him, despite attempts by the management company or police to cover it up.. I really hope eugene park will be able to recover and that the company is punished for what they did to him :(
Hey remember that poor girl from Boys Before Flowers? The criminals that fled the country are now being prosecuted!! Lets keep on this issue and get the bastards that hurt Eugene Park in jail!!
i HATE that this doesn’t surprise me in the least bit b/c it’s k-showbiz. it’s a wonder though that he didn’t do the “typical” action by committing suicide, thank GOD, at least for that…
wtf… now this made me cry, you can only go so low. i love eugene and i hope that his agency get what’s coming to them, a shit load of karma. i’m glad that netizens are trying to do something about this situation, and i really wish there was some way i could help him, seriously i want to take some action…..
i know that its a little late but still here’s the petition
please everyone show your support http://www.thepetitionsite.com/24/please-save-eugene-park
IM AM IN SHOCK, I AM AN OLD FRIEND AND EX-GIRFRIEND OF GEEN…FOR REAL, MY NAME IS HELLEN AND IM FROM BRAZIL, WE MET AT CAFE WHA?! IN THE VILLAGE LONG TIME AGO, WHEN HE WAS STILL AT SCHOOL. THE OTHER DAY I WAS GOING THRU MY CDS AND FOUND ONE OF HES AND I WAS LISTENING AND REMEMBERING ALL OUR PHONE CALLS AND HIM SINGING 2 ME OVER THE PHONE, ASKING ME WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT THAT PETICULAR SONG. I LOST TOUCH W HIM AND I THOUGHT HE WAS DOING WELL IN KOREA., BUT I ALWAYS FELT AFRAID FOR HIM BECAUSE HE WAS A VERY DEPRESSED PERSON. HES A VERY GOOD FRIEND OF MINE SINCE BEFORE HE WAS FAMOUS SO IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND HAVE ANY INFO HOW HES DOING ON THIS DAYS PLS CONTACT ME AT elietemcbroom@hotmail.com……PLS DO NOT CONTACT ME TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT HES PERSONAL LIFE. PEACE
IM AM IN SHOCK, I AM AN OLD FRIEND AND EX-GIRFRIEND OF GEEN…FOR REAL, MY NAME IS HELLEN AND IM FROM BRAZIL, WE MET AT CAFE WHA?! IN THE VILLAGE LONG TIME AGO, WHEN HE WAS STILL AT SCHOOL. THE OTHER DAY I WAS GOING THRU MY CDS AND FOUND ONE OF HES AND I WAS LISTENING AND REMEMBERING ALL OUR PHONE CALLS AND HIM SINGING 2 ME OVER THE PHONE, ASKING ME WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT THAT PETICULAR SONG. I LOST TOUCH W HIM AND I THOUGHT HE WAS DOING WELL IN KOREA., BUT I ALWAYS FELT AFRAID FOR HIM BECAUSE HE WAS SUFFERING OF DEPRESSION BECAUSE ALL THE PRESSURE HE WAS CARRYING. HES A VERY GOOD FRIEND OF MINE SINCE BEFORE HE WAS FAMOUS SO IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND HAVE ANY INFO HOW HES DOING ON THIS DAYS PLS CONTACT ME AT elietemcbroom@hotmail.com……PLS DO NOT CONTACT ME TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT HES PERSONAL LIFE. PEACE
awww. how are we supposed to help him tho?