Julie Tan: What I learned from K-pop

SINGAPORE — Young actress Julie Tan may have turned down the chance to be part of K-pop group SKarf — a decision she said she didn’t regret — but she is back in the K-pop idol life, this time as the host of the Channel U variety show, A Date With K-pop Stars.

Filmed in Seoul, Tan investigates the latest trends and hangs out with Hallyu stars including Rainbow, Teen Top, Moon Hee Joon, Saerom, Clara and ZE:A’s Hwang Kwang Hee. She even roomed with girl group Dal Shabet.

“It was more or less what I had imagined. The K-pop stars are very hard-working,” said the 21-year-old.

What did surprise her during her stay in the Dal Shabet household was how comfortable the girls were around one another. “I expected there to be some bitchiness or catfighting, but I didn’t observe any of that. I mean, naturally, you would think, ‘A bunch of girls staying together, there’s bound to be disagreement’. They said they sometimes disagree but they manage to compromise.”

Life with the Dal Shabet girls also revealed one stark difference between the Korean entertainment industry and Singapore’s: The power the Internet had over the pop stars’ careers and lives.

“There was this event called the Style Icon Awards. I went to walk the red carpet with Subin and Jiyul from Dal Shabet,” Tan recounted. “Subin fell down on the red carpet and the next thing you know, it’s all over the Internet in Korea, with pictures. Subin was very upset and couldn’t get over it. That explains why K-pop stars are very careful about their behaviour and not allowed relationships — the netizens are very strong. It’s very scary. They have no privacy.”

She continued: “In Singapore, we have our own space. There aren’t any paparazzi. Then again, there’s no such thing as paparazzi now because everyone is a paparazzo with social media, as long as someone sees you. So I think the paparazzi will be out of a job very soon.”

Tan said the Korean experience changed her as a person. “Before going to Korea, I was very shy and I didn’t feel confident about myself. I felt like I was a nobody,” she said. “I felt very bad about myself because I was going to meet K-pop stars, and to me, they are awesome and way up there. It stressed me out quite a lot.

“After going to Korea, I realised that they know how to position themselves and how to attract the right attention. In Singapore, when we artistes appear on variety shows, we’ll be very quiet, very humble and not dare to speak much. But in Korea, they know how to talk and portray themselves. I learnt to play along with them.”

Since her return, Tan said people have commented about how she now carries herself (“they said, ‘You are more playful and more willing to speak’ — they noticed a difference”) and that has helped her “quite a bit”. “After all, that’s what the audience wants to see. No one wants to see a bimbo who just acts pretty and smiles. They want to see something different, fun and engaging. That’s something I learnt from (being in Korea). It has opened me up.”

One of the K-pop stars who helped her learn that lesson was Kwang Hee of pop group ZE:A, with whom she had a dinner date — as part of the show. “I knew he was very funny and very open. When I met him, I asked why he wanted to be open about his plastic surgery and he said, ‘There’s nothing to hide’. That response surprised me because I thought it was taboo. He was surprised that I knew about it. He was like, ‘You’re from Singapore and you know about it? Oh, that’s the power of the Internet.’”

It’s not just the Internet — the fans also have a certain amount of power over their idols: Tan confessed to having been unnerved by Kwang Hee’s groupies during the dinner. “The fans are very protective of their idol. They were outside the cafe looking at me and I was stressed out over it. They might just have killed me — or maybe a car could have run over me when I walked out!” she quipped.

But those fans needn’t have worried about Tan trying to steal one of their own. “I still prefer Singapore guys — my boyfriend is local,” Tan said. “I find that Singapore men are more manly. Korean men are too pretty — and prettier than me, so I can’t accept that. If I were really to date a Korean guy, I think I would have very low self-esteem.”

A Date With K-pop Stars is on Fridays, 9pm on MediaCorp TV Channel U.