“I don’t know Jay and I have no connection to the rest of 2PM but as a human being, why can’t you all just understand that what the boys need right now is space, time, and silent support?”
How do you support someone “silently”? Support is verbal or through actions. If nothing is said or done, you cannot possibly show support. Hottests and other supporters have done both: they’ve supported verbally through petitions, physically through postits and their boycott. They didn’t even start a riot or disrespect other people when they went to boycott at JYPE. They cleaned up after themselves and left early.

This event will remain a blemish on the face of JYPE and 2PM, and yeah, it will be hard for Jay to return to JYPE. I would never return to JYPE if I was in his position. These petitions and boycotts probably won’t bring Jay back. But it could bring about a change. It could bring about awareness and, as classroom cliche as it sounds, bring about intelligent discussion.

Like you said, we don’t know how the situation went down unless we’ve got connections. We don’t know how the members feel about it. “What if they don’t want the support/actions?” is what you’re asking. But what if they, the rest of 2PM, want fans to boycott? I really remained on the borderline for a while, debating with myself whether or not to support or criticize the many Hottests who are boycotting, but I realized that I couldn’t stay there.

I might not know how they feel, but I know how I feel. I might not know how the situation went down, but I know the facts. It went from Myspace comments to anger to apology to Seattle, with little support from JYPE. And people are boycotting JYPE, not the members. Returning CDs and merchandise, whose profits go mainly to JYPE and NOT 2PM, is reasonable. Maybe attending events that do not have Jay means that they’re supporting JYPE’s (or lack of) actions and decisions. Before any change can happen—good or bad—someone or something needs to be challenged, and that’s what these people are doing.

I understand the reason why you wrote this editorial, but you generalize too much by assuming that everyone who supports Jay only does so because they are hardcore fans whose only thought is to bring him back and make 2PM complete. It’s hard to not make this a big issue. I feel its setting a standard for anything that could happen like this (the Korean vs not-so-Korean-from-Korea tension) in the future, especially with the rise of international members in popular groups within the industry. That’s why I can’t let it go and pretend that everything is ok.

Note: I can’t say I’m a Hottest, because I don’t follow 2PM or their activities. I just know their names and have gotten to know them through their music. Sorry my comment ended up as an essay.

lets say we’re talking about biscuits. there is an increase in price but yet the quality is deproving, we boycott & stop buying it. there’s nothing wrong in that as the company is asking for it by giving shit to customers. BUT, we’re not talking about biscuits here, or any other consumer goods for that matter. we’re talking about 7 young men, with feelings & emotions.

did the Hottest care about the remaining 6 when they decided to boycott?? did the Hottest consider how much more miserable Jay will feel knowing his absence will cause his brothers more trouble?? did the Hottest show respect & support to the remaining 6, LIKE HOW REAL FANS SHOULD??

the intention of the Hottest are good. but one cannot help but feel whether it’s a tad overboard because it’s not just between the company & consumer now. other people are caught in between, & for all we know, the remaining 6 are feeling alot worse than all of us combined together, so they really don’t deserve to be treated this way while the so-called ‘fans’ are busy demanding for what they want & throwing tantrums just because they ain’t getting it.

i’d say, let 2pm continue to do their thing, so that one day when Jay comes back, he won’t have to pick up the pieces of a broken group left behind due to the lack of support by their own “fans”.

First of all, the entertainment industry is the entertainment industry. All in all they function about the same because an industry is constituted by business and businesses, no matter the country, are all about capital. Ergo, cultural differences aside, the entertainment industry collectively can function as a whole because really, it’s all the same; there are just different people. These different people are bound to employ different methods to achieve the results they want and therein lies source of confusion for many people who seem to think that being Korean gives one an innate sense of the Korean entertainment industry (which is totally wrong). Being Korean – a native Korean – give you an innate sense of how the entertainment industry interacts with the public. That is all. The intricacies of the industry itself will remain a secret no matter how long you live in Korea unless you become a PART of the entertainment industry.

Secondly, cultural nuances are not that difficult to understand though it is quite possible to “get” a culture without being able to fathom why exactly things are the way they are. Its like saying “Okay, that’s really weird, but I get it.”

Don’t confuse countrymen with a form of industry. Most people, regardless of ethinicity or country, do not understand the subtleties of the entertainment industry.

If you blindly idolize celebrities, chances are you don’t understand the entertainment industry. If you are suspicious of the entertainment industry (and you should be) and can only see celebrities either as people or cash signs, you do not understand the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry is unique in that it manufactures people as products rather than items (this is true moreso in Korea than virtually anywhere else).

Whenever you deal with people, things get messy – that’s just the nature of people. Entertainment can be – scratch that – IS a really personal line of work no matter where you play a role because you are always dealing with people who have to invest themselves entirely to their work, to the point that being a celebrity is WHO they are, not what they are. How do you divide business and pleasure? Sometimes you can’t. A lot of times you can’t.

I use words like “subtleties” and “intricacies” in application to entertainment because none of us, no matter how logical, intelligent or wise we are, will be unable to really understand the entertainment industry the way it is behind closed doors unless you immerse yourself in it. There’s a reason why there are a lot of secrets (because the people you’re dealing with are technically always working; they are always people in costume because that’s really what celebrities are) and just because you’re suspicious of them doesn’t mean you actually know anything, it just means you’re suspicious.

If you’re a normal person, there’s one aspect of the entertainment industry that you will always understand. And that’s the interaction between the entertainment industry and the average, everyday Joe Schmo people that follow it. You can analyze the cause and effect relationship between the two and you can formulate opinions on how it works. Does that mean you understand the entertainment industry itself? Nope. Don’t confuse those two understandings because the implications are waaaaaay different than you would initially think.

These Korean people boycotting have been fans (of 2PM or other singers) for years and it seems like being a fan of celebrities is a big part of their childhood/teenage years. I would think that they basically know WAY BETTER how Korean entertainments work/react than people who are outside Korea.

But it all comes down to cultural difference again.
As we have clearly witnessed, Korean netizens became furious enough to make Jay leave in 4 days. Almost in the same manner, 2PM fans started the boycott in almost 4(?) days, formed a united fan group in the hopes of bringing Jaebum back.

Yes, for a lot of non-Koreans this whole thing (Korean netizens’ or fans’ actions) is inexplicable. That’s ok because this just comes from cultural difference. Koreans are fast paced, they get angry fast, get over it fast, and want things almost instantly. That’s just how things work (or so it is seen) in Korea.

So I want to just tell people who think “boycott is a ridiculous idea” to take a chill pill yourself and just wait till what is going to happen.

2pm fans are not doing this to cause any violence or trouble, they are doing this out of sincere and pure love and longing. JYPE cannot be stupid enough to not understand why there were 1500 fans boycotting in silence. So let’s just wait and see what happens but just don’t jump into conclusions that you know better than the fans because I think they (Korean fans) know better

People are so critical, yet all that criticism ends up being misguided. Why are we relying on rumors rather than actually seeking the truth? If these “anonymous” sources have ANY credibility, why am I only seeing news of their existence in ONLINE BLOGS and not in any newspapers or television sources? With news this big, you would think if any of these anonymous sources felt so guilty or moved by Jaebeom’s cause, they would take the initiative to go a step further than posting on just about every Korean entertainment geared blog.

And people actually wonder why some find Korean fans crazy.