A cheerful tune by one of the profitable Okay-pop lady teams has emerged as a protest anthem for 1000’s of South Koreans rallying for President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment.
“There’s a rough road ahead of us,” sang the demonstrators in unison, gathered every day exterior parliament since final week after Yoon briefly imposed martial legislation, solely to reverse the choice after dealing with strain from lawmakers.
As an impeachment vote for the embattled president looms, protesters chant mocking rhymes and sing Okay-pop of their every day demonstrations, with one tune serving as a clarion name for his elimination — Girls’ Generation’s “Into the New World”.
“With the unknowable future and obstacles, I won’t change and I can’t give up,” protesters sing, dancing to the upbeat tune with hopeful lyrics.
“We will (do it) together no matter how long it takes in my new world.”
This will not be the primary time the Girls’ Generation’s bop has made an look in politics — the only launched in 2007 first acquired harnessed 9 years later throughout pupil demonstrations at Ewha Womans University.
What began as a campus protest on South Korea’s prime girls’s college in 2016 intensified as a result of faculty’s hyperlink to former president Park Geun-hye’s corruption scandal, finally resulting in Park’s dramatic impeachment the next 12 months.
Viral footage confirmed Ewha college students singing “Into the New World” and linking arms whereas engaged in a standoff with the police.
The tune’s “grassroots power made (it) an emblem for the various protests since then,” Jiyeon Kang, a Korean research professor at University of Iowa, advised AFP.
It “encapsulates… the courage to stand against perceived injustice even when the odds of success are slim, and the comfort of finding a supportive community,” she mentioned.
Used as an activism device, “Into the New World” is incessantly featured in South Korea’s annual queer parade and likewise blared throughout a rally supporting the pro-democracy motion in Hong Kong.
Girls’ Generation, whose youngest member was 16 after they debuted in 2007, stays one of the profitable Okay-pop teams of all time.
Member Yuri mentioned in a 2017 interview she had cried whereas watching the video of their tune sung through the college protests.
“It was a moment when I felt a great sense of pride as a singer,” Yuri mentioned.
For protester Han You-jin, the tune is a well-known one as she was only a 12 months outdated when it debuted.
“Singing this song, which I’ve known my whole life, alongside so many other people from different age groups has been special,” the 18-year-old advised AFP after she sang it with 1000’s exterior parliament.
This reception is a far cry from how the tune was obtained in 2016 by some commentators calling it inappropriate for protests, mentioned Ewha University alumna Kim Ye-ji, who recalled it as a manner for college kids to “raise their voices”.
“I have seen the world change first-hand a few years ago,” she advised AFP, remembering her mates being eliminated by authorities and “a sense of violence” epitomising her protest days, earlier than it resulted in a presidential impeachment.
“I believe we will navigate well through this as well.”
© 2024 AFP