After I knew all these I felt more helpless than I've never did

Almost reached out to contact the one person that I shoudn't but I stopped myself in time

So now this is a recollection of the things I've gathered, and many of the common queries.

This is relatively incomplete though, esp on the action taken part, since I'm sort of very blinded where I am idk - china blocked a lot of sites so I can't assess information on what international fans and all are reacting and doing.

Read on and I'll tell you. But there's more to this whole chaos than you see. This whole is YG's plan and we can't let them succeed. It's about fan culture, about companies, about politics even. This is not just a fight for Cassiopeia and Shinhwa Changjo. This is going to potentially affect all the fandoms out there, especially those under SM.

Read on, and share this out after you're done to spread the word! Thank you.

 

How it started: 

The whole mess started when YG debuted a new boy group IKON and they first used Shinhwa's orange colour. This was only a little test, for soon the majority was found to be in Dongbangshinki's pearl red. From then on it had been a mess. Cassiopeia all over the world are beyond outraged. (This is a different case from 2014 Winner's purple-ish blue clashed with SUJU's sapphire blue since Winner's official merchandise had a distinct design of W and the colour is not that similar; Right now IKON's merchandise is of the ordinary design and the colour is identical, so don't bring that in. It stirred some anger in ELF, but nothing compared to this case)

*Oh yeah, they apparently changed their jaoanese debut date to December 26. For those who don't know, that was DBSK's debut date back in 2003. NOW YOU TELL ME IT WASN'T INTENTIONAL.

 

What's being done:

Till now, as far as I know, korean fans had protested to both SM and YG, and both had not made an official statement in response (in fact, there is no response from either companies).  Japanese fans had protested to AVEX, who responded with the promise that they'll change a colour for IKON's japan activites. At the very least, that was success for us, that in Japan, only TVXQ and JYJ uses pearl red.

On the side of chinese cassies, there was a plan to gather funds between 2015.12.30 22:00 and 2016.01.15, to be used to purchase advertisement boards in korean subway stations to promote our cause. The awesome news is, we've gathered about four times our target (580500yuan, which translates to over ten million won) in two days such that the platform was closed on Jan 1st 24:00 (it crashed multiple times prior due to the huge number of fans tranfering in money). All the paper work is currently being done. Chinese fans have also trended more than 30 topics on weibo so far, and we've successfully attracted the attention of various online news sites, here! (The banner: 为红海燥起来, something like "Get moving for the red ocean")

Korean fans have started to trend topics on naver (korea's google). They've also raised funds to put up this in 50 cafes in Seoul for this week. The words read: "The only you in this world; The brightest light in this world; My star! -from cavely" (cavely was what changmin referred to us in his letter from the army on 2015.12.03, ca stands for cassiopeia, vely for lovely; it basically means lovely cassiopeia lmao).

(I'm not very sure on this part if it's on china's weibo or international twitter, do tell me if you know!) As of Jan 5th, Cassiopeias have trended 22 topics, and YG has started to take them down (to clean us IKON's name -.-). Each topic will cost YG an approximate $370k, so that's a total of 148.4 million won for YG to remove all the talk. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED BLEEDING, YG.

And this is not just the fight of Cassiopeia and Shinhwa Changjo, many other fandoms have showed their warm support to which we are very grateful towards. A few days ago, FT Island Hongki also voiced an apology for using red in his recent concert and he said that red belongs to DBSK. Our deepest gratitude for him speaking up for us!!!

 

That are some of the limited facts I know (please tell me the others you know so I can update this!). Now I move on to the main chunk: YG's plot, and all the things it involves.

 

 

Firstly, many would ask: What's the big fuse? Isn't it just a colour? There are only that many colours but an astonishing amount of artists out there. It's bound to overlap.

Firstly, this isn't just a dispute over colours. The colour of the fanclub or merchandise (which makes up the colour of the 'ocean'/'sea' we create during events and concerts) in the fan culture of kpop. It is used to distinguish fans during events such as cheering on the performances (at Inkigayo, Music bank, Dream concert, MAMA etc) where multiple groups are present. If anything, the colour is everything that represents the group.

The biggest unspoken rule in kpop is that no one is to use the 4 colours of hallyu oceans (namely HOT's white, Shinhwa's orange, DBSK's pearl red, SUJU's sapphire blue). This is out of respect for the 4 widely acknowledged kings - legends, even - of hallyu, the 4 bands that made significant contributions to the influence that kpop has now. They were the fore-runners, the seniors, the leaders of thye 1st and 2nd generation kpop. They stand to represent all hallyu started out with. This is beyond colours, this is everything about identity, history, culture and respect. So don't tell me that this is a trivial issue because this is not. The 4 coeans of hallyu started with balloons and upgraded to light sticks, they are magnificant sights and few could recreate. No one deserves to use pearl red, no one has the right to use pearl red, except for the initial 5 members of DBSK. What YG had done is an act of utter disrespect to what hallyu stands to represent.

(This practice of respecting the 4 initial colours is similarly observed in NBA, where the shirt/number of players who made significant contributions are locked up and not passed down to subsequent players. This is an act of honouring and respecting the seniors.)

Also, in what ways are colours limited? The 4 colours are all basic colours, it's not that hard to work around them by altering the shade or tone. So that's in no way an excuse. Also, clashing with any other group will be just a minor dispute, but using poearl red (or any other of the 4 colours) is a down right declaration of war against the whole culture of kpop's fan base.

 

Why won't the DBSK members come out to say something? Shinhwa did, and after that YG didn't use orange anymore right?

Well it's obvious that YG picked the timing on purpose. Both Yunho and Changmin, the only official members of DBSK are in the army. And in korea, military service is taken very seriously and men are expected to fulfil that role as a citizen of Korea Republic regardless of what other identity he carries. So if yunho or changmin come out to say something like Eric and Dongwan of Shinhwa did, this is a potential chance for YG to exaggerate matters and put them in a bad light to netizens and the general korean public. 

Amongst the initial 5 members of DBSK, all except for Junsu are in the army (blame their lack of an age difference, really, 4 born in 1986). And Junsu is in no position to speak without igniting netizen's bashing and even conflicts within the fandom itself, which is something that we cannot afford at this point. Moreover, his relationship with Hani is recently exposed (idk YG may be behind this too) so he's pretty busy with that right now already. Junsu did the right thing by remaining silent. All of them shouldn't speak up in this situation.

Also, YG didn't stop using orange just because Shinhwa spoke up. Rather, it's because Shinhwa was never really their target to begin with, it was DBSK all along (on a famous annoyamous korean site, someone who claims to be a staff of YG said red was decided to be the colour for IKON dating as far back as 2014 - the person also stressed that YG had anticipated the current chaos, and they won't stop because of that). Messing with Shinhwa was only like a trial of some sorts. The real thing starts with SM's best seller DBSK. I'll explain more on this later on.

 

So why is YG doing this? What's his purpose?

YG wants to shuffle positions in this industry, and he's been wanting to do this since too long ago. In this industry, SM YG and JYP are siad to be the 3 biggest companies, but anyone can tell that SM dominates the market. For starters, the 4 hallyu oceans that I've talked about earlier were all artists that are (or once under) SM (for the case of Shinhwa, they were brought to fame undr SM as well before leaving). SNSD is (was?) the nation's girl group. SHINee developed well and stable. EXO rocketed to great heights thanks to all the support SM gave them. Red Velvet is also pretty strong (as testified by changmin, very popular in the army). These artists helped to hold SM's position as the definite number 1 in the business. YG have big bang and 2ne1, but that's far from enough to tip off the balance. Winner that's debuted in 2014 wasn't that outstanding either.

But YG isn't willing to remain second. He wants to be on top. So he's challenging the position of DBSK, one of SM's most prided artist, some of the most recognised hallyu stars. What better way to signify the coming of a new era?

 

If so, why is YG only acting now?

Because he now has suffcient back-up. This is where things get political. As we all know, kpop is a mjor contributor to Korea's economy, influence and soft power. It's almost like an identity of the nation. All big companies secretly supports a political party. For years, the one SM supports was in office, but tables have flipped. YG now has the support of the party in office, and this gives him the capacity to manipulate what media spreads and produces, especially big newspapers and online sites. He's been waiting for this for very long, all these years were probably not wasted - I'm very certain he has an army of writers and netizens under him to support whatever talk and view he wishes to push for. Thus, he is prepared for the fight.

And also because he's losing out even more to SM. 2NE1 is risky now due to the scandals, WInner is no where near a threat, Big Bang is still going strong but one group alone cannot stand against SM. YG is getting anxious at the current state, especially considering that the next election is rolling round 2017, so he has to act soon.

 

Why Dong Bang Shin Ki?

YG wants to shuffle positions and overtake SM, thus obviously he'll choose an artist under SM to start with. Since IKON is a boy band, girl groups are thus the first to cross out. HOT disbanded more than a decade ago, thus it's not going to stir up enough chaos. Shinhwa may be active till now. but they have left SM and started their own company years back, thus they can only be used as a trial.

SUJU is of too large a scame (member wise), such that while about half the members are doing military service, there's still enough members out there to go against their plans. Moreover, it is the oldest, most expertienced members that are out there, free to speak up; and all of them have wide connections in the business and beyond, owing to their decade of activity and rich history of MC, DJ etc (and if all fails there's Siwon, whose family is quite influential, and he's bound to know important people beyond the kpop industry); and frankly speaking, SUJU have members like kim heechul and kangin, who are not afriad of saying s out there. Too much of a trouble to be tackled. Too much uncertainty involved.

EXO seems like a good choice, being such a big thing now - but frankly they don't match up half as much. The many lawsuits and scandals also weakened the base. In comparison, they shy of experience and real influence, their position is not all that high to make real impact and shake the foundations if touched.

I'd say SHINee is actually the second in consideration for YG. They've developed steadily and did well all these years. But similarly, their position is not one that can shake the foundations of hallyu yet. Moreover, the members of SHINee are not yet near the age of going into the army, and there's a wide between the members so it's sure that there won't be a situation whereby all members are doing military service. YG cannot wait anymore. The next lection is in 2017, and he can't be fully sure that his supporting party will contnue winning. He needs to take over SM quick.

So that leaves DBSK. Yunho is at the age to enter the army, and it's pointless for Changmin to stay outside and solo for 2 years before they swap, so there both are unable to speak up for themselves. DBSK is well known to be polite and respectful, they are not the greatest at socialising (and do not venture into a wide range of fields apart from music), such that even with 12 years worth of activeness, their connections are unable to be compared to SUJU. They don't have fancy backgrounds either (changmin's family is of professors, yunho's family used to be influential but lost position during the Asia economic crisis). And DBSK has a full 12 years worth of history, the kings and representative of the 2nd generation of kpop, deeply respected and looked up to in the industry. And DBSK stands as one of the 4 core groups of hallyu, they represent the foundation of what kpop is today. Moreover, DBSK has enough material for YG to use against them, specifically the JYJ lawsuit (and true that JYJ still uses pearl red till this day). As a 12-year group, DBSK lacks the crazy, wild, teenage fan girls to waste their life arguing online in favour of their oppa, and I suppose YG is betting that they will get sick and tired of this and just withdraw all together. Finally, we all know that DBSK refused to renew the contract with SM, so they'll probably leave SM soon after finishing military service. This is one less reason for SM to defend their once greatest artist.

Thus, from every aspect, DBSK is the best choice.

 

Why isn't SM doing anything?

Well one reason is already stated above (and is the most commonly cited that Sm doesn't value DBSK enough), given that DBSK won't stay for long, and they're currently unable to generate profits during military service, SM doesn't see enough profitability in fighting for them. Secondly, SM lost politically, so they can't act recklessly.

Obviously SM knows what YG's up to - even we do, so nope SM's silence is not because they see little worth in action, for SM's everything is at stake once this step is successful. My guess is that it's due to various restrictions and difficultis they're facing that we don't know of. Perhaps YG had a deal with other large companies. Perhaps YG, over the years, had removed SM's people amongst media platforms and weakened their power to manipulate talks. We can only hope that SM is only appearing to be silent, but is actually activiely fighting elsewhere we cannot see.

 

What the hell is IKON, then?

As their name suggests, they were meant to be an icon, an icon of the new era where YG dominates. IKON carries the ambition and great wishes of YG for the future. YG has been paving the way for IKON ever since 2013. Win: Who is next brought IKON acknowledgement and publicity - this was what they lacked as compared to WINNER then. My guess is that the winner was decided from the very beginning (because really who leaves it for audience to decide?) - isn't is obvious who would win? Winner trained for a longer period, they were better known by the audience due to their debut on Kpop Star stages. And while team B (IKON) lost, they gained sympathy, familiarity, experience, and they are young enough (compared to winner) to make up for the disparity in ability. The programme is YG's plan to stress IKON into working harder, and paves their future path - Once they debuted they're already a topic of discussion, people are curious, media starts comparing: can the ex-losers overtake the winner?

But this isn't enough. YG wants to overtake SM, not just push IKON to fame using his own artists. Thus cue the clashing colours. He's successful in enraging Cassiopeia. All this rage creates topics of discussion. This is literally free publicity for IKON. All these was expected and planned for. When all ends, he'll step in to clean up IKON's name.

 

Then do we have a chance of winning?

As a realist I must say it's very low. All these years YG spent preparing, he knew the chaos this would create, but he still went on ahead with it. This shows that he's pretty confident that he can handle this. We are merely a fan base, and our opponent is one of the largest companies out there, backed by the korean government.

 

What can we do, then? Do we have any strenghts? Any dos and don'ts?

Be prepared to fight for the pearl red ocean that is ours and ours only, that's what we do. YG may be confident, but I'm pretty sure he'd under-estimated the power of Cassiopeia. Most of us are already working, we are financially more able (thus more able to fund projects), and are more experienced and calm. We have our ways, with 12 years of consolidation, and our connections. We have a wide fan base across the world that stuck through thick and thin. We are witnesses and participants of the many miracles that DBSK created: the rise of Tohoshinki in the new market of Japan, the strong return with Mirotic in 2008 in Korea, the rising after the lawsuit... We've pulled through more s than this. With combined power, maybe we could actually go against YG.

By right we are ahead (I mean 此事我们本就占着理先 - it is justified that we fight back), so let's act wisely and maturely to not let YG have anything to make an issue out of our actions. Do not be reckless in action or language. We must uphold our image as the righteous. We must share, promote and advertise our cause, to get the koreans on our side, get the world that's watching on our side. We must make this mess bigger than what YG is capable of controlling and cleaning up.

We can contact and get the support from other fan base, particularly korean ELFs - they are more familiar with a lot of s, how things work, the legal procedures to go through etc (since suju went through no less , and also since SM doesn't promote suju at all we have our way over the years). Other fan bases, especially the SM ones, would eventually join in, because DBSK is only the first, andthey'll ultimately be affected had YG succeed with the first step.

This battle will be long and tough. (Quite like the JYJ law... but we won in the end, didn't we?) 

Remember this, my fellow Cassies: The fact that we stand tall today is by itself a miracle. Do not doubt ourselves. Do not give up. Do not feel dejected and helpless, for in the face of such evil plot, we cannot afford weakness. Our faith is no less than YG's! Remember that we're all the boys have. 

Our boys are unable to take this fight, so this time, it's our turn, Cassiopeia. It's our turn to protect them, what they treasure, what we stand for. 

So even if we are aware that we're probably all a piece in YG's game, we cannot back off! This is a fight that we cannot afford to lose!

 

 

I believe, that 2 yeras later,

we can welcome them home with the same pearl red ocean.

 

 

RED IS TVXQ

because no one but DBSK deserves to use this colour.

 

 

 

 

 

燃烧吧，我的红海!

Let us let YG on flames.