One of the largest entertainment agencies in South Korea, SM Entertainment was immediately flooded with protests from fans after allegedly demeaning its artist, WayV's WinWin. The new WayV merchandise released by SM Entertainment resulted in strong protests from fans who realized something was wrong.
The awkwardness of the diorama merchandise from one of the scenes in WayV's 'Kick Back' MV clearly showed all boy group members standing in a cool style, except for WinWin who was the only member who knelt down.
While kneeling is a very important gesture in Chinese culture because they rarely kneel except for kneeling before gods, ancestors, or when they are desperate, such as begging for mercy when threatened, etc. After seeing this irregularity, many WinWin fans immediately protested against SM Entertainment for releasing the item.
The awkwardness of the diorama merchandise from one of the scenes in WayV's 'Kick Back' MV clearly showed all boy group members standing in a cool style, except for WinWin who was the only member who knelt down.
While kneeling is a very important gesture in Chinese culture because they rarely kneel except for kneeling before gods, ancestors, or when they are desperate, such as begging for mercy when threatened, etc. After seeing this irregularity, many WinWin fans immediately protested against SM Entertainment for releasing the item.
Many fans asked the agency to respect the culture of their idols more, and not a few of the fans demanded an apology from WinWin by flooding the email with a template format that had been prepared by fans.
SM ya’ll better kneel to dong sicheng as an apology cause we won’t take anything lesser than that for this disrespect 🥴 winwin deserves better !¡#SM_Respect_Winwin#SMStopTheDisrespect@SMTOWNGLOBAL pic.twitter.com/ysWd1swnkc
— 𝓀𝓌𝒾𝓃𝑔𓍼𓍯 (@aintkring) April 19, 2021
❗️Statement from WINWINBAR
— Little Flower 🌼 (@DongsichengVN) April 19, 2021
❗️Please help send sn email to the company mailbox:
1️⃣protect@smtown.com
2️⃣labelv@qq.com
Using the following template: https://t.co/LKpb2lqwOR#SM_Respect_Winwin#SMStopTheDisrespect pic.twitter.com/m5JUNIkfbD
SM who became aware of the issue quickly removed the product from their online shop as requested. However, until now there has been no official statement from SM Entertainment regarding this issue. (www.onkpop.com)
