the mannequin with nazi uniform incident
on january 31th, 2021, sowon uploaded some photos on instagram and weverse that featured her posing with a mannequin from cafe zino, which is a popular place in south korea and where they filmed a vcr skit for their comeback show.
later fans noticed the mannequin was wearing a nazi uniform, causing a firestorm on the internet. she deleted the photos, but the damage was already done and the company issued an apology the next day. read below.
hello, this is source music.
we offer our deepest apologies for the controversy caused by our artist gfriend's behind-the-scenes video for the comeback show and the pictures uploaded by sowon on social media.
in november of last year, an outsourced production company rented a café in paju to film a video for the new album’s comeback show. in addition to filming for the behind-the-scenes video on the set, our staff also took several photos to post on the artist’s social media accounts.
on the day of filming, the department responsible for checking the set was unaware of the problem with the mannequin’s attire. although internal inspection and discussions were conducted before uploading the behind-the-scenes video (december 12) and photos (january 31), they were posted without awareness of the issue.
we apologize for not checking the filming site for inappropriate props in advance, for not thoroughly inspecting the content during the filming and uploading process, and for not paying closer attention to historical facts and societal issues. we sincerely apologize to everyone who felt uncomfortable due to the aforementioned video and photos.
the problematic portion of the video has been corrected as of now. the artist also was very surprised after becoming aware of the meaning of the content of the photos and deleted them immediately, and she feels deeply responsible and heartbroken over uploading such photos.
we will keep in mind the fact that the content that we produce and share affects many people and will pay even closer attention to social issues in the future.
we sincerely apologize once again to those who were hurt by the video and photos.
< credits to soompi >
cafe zino is located in paju (south korea), famous for appearing in korean dramas like goblin and crash landing on you. sowon was filming there for her group's comeback show in november 2020.
the cafe owner explained himself saying that he has mannequins in uniforms from different countries due his interest and research about military history and didn't intend to glorify national socialism.
clearing up misinformation: < reddit thread > < twitter thread >
< reaction in korean forums >
update: israeli ambassador went to the cafe (video)
note: the hours separating the photos posted online and the apology were enough to cause a big uproar online. many international netizens investigated their past to prove that it wasn't an isolated case and the members of this group are nazi sympathizers. that's why there are so many accusations (varying in seriousness) addressed in this section. you can check the title to get your explanation.
we believe that holding celebrities accountable for their actions that can hurt people and/or be tone deaf are different of accusing them (korean women) of being nazi supporters.
hanlon's razor: "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
she deleted the photo just because the fans were jealous, she doesn't care: she deleted from two different places, this is connected to the first deletion. she took the pictures with the intention to tease the fans. she deleted on instagram quickly as part of the bantering. fans made edits with the pictures on the weverse platform and she replied to some of these posts after the first deletion. she was indeed unaware of the problem until she deleted her post on weverse as well.
sowon lied in the apology about deleting because she realized her mistake: as said previously, she posted on instagram and weverse around the same time and deleted it from both places. instagram was the first. then she talked with fans on the platform weverse for a while until she deleted on weverse too and disappeared until the apology note. the statement was clearly addressing the latter.
the group members were joking around on weverse while twitter was tearing them apart: after sowon deleted the picture, she went offline and no one from gfriend or source music appeared online until the apology note was issued.
sowon didn't apologize: source music officially released a note. it's important to understand that the mistake wasn't only hers. it was a place rented by the company and the staff took the pictures. the mannequin appearing in their content means it passed through many people and it asked for a collective apology, addressing everyone.
the place was a museum that had descriptions about the uniform: the place was a cafe. cafe zino is a popular place where many korean dramas were filmed as well as a part of their comeback show's vcr skit. the owner declared that he collects military uniforms from many countries. people who went there never noticed and/or recognized that specific mannequin until then.
sowon made a salute (or sowon made a salute several times): a screenshot taken from gfriend's 160717 fansign in yongsan was shared showing her raising her hand, the person who posted the screenshot out of context saying it was a salute apologized for their joke. this was the only "proof" shown.
sowon wore a nazi uniform: any news portal will let you know she posed with a mannequin that had a nazi uniform, specifically recognized by the hat. she didn't wear it.
gfriend's yuju did an anti-semitic song: the song in question is an original soundtrack for the korean drama alice (2020) featuring the korean rapper ishxrk called "secret". the rapper's verse mentioned holocaust "my mind’s so blown it’s a holocaust". he explained it was used as a general word, but apologized when the line was brought up in its release anyway. the rapper apologized again after the scandal, since the issue was brought up one more time — he re-recorded the song but encountered difficulty in releasing it again.
sowon majored in history and lived in canada: the open information is that sowon studied acting at sungshin's women university, but she doesn't have a major in history. she didn't use to live abroad either. all gfriend members are south koreans and lived in south korea. however, even then, they still could be able to not recognize a nazi symbol in the hat without malice/intention. many other cafe goers throughout the years and source music's staff didn't recognize it either after all.
the nazi uniform was a prop for their album concept 'walpurgis night', a festival from germany, since the cafe was european-themed: (1) the vcr for their comeback show was filmed in a different room from the mannequin (2) the place was rented for a skit where the members played famous female characters from korean dramas to be used as a vcr in their comeback show, the cafe is known for being a set for dramas. (3) according to the cafe owner, despite the place being european themed, he has uniforms from non european countries as well, his interview article affirms it's because he's a "history buff".
you can watch the vcr here (no appearance) as well as the behind-the-scenes here (where the room with the mannequin appeared for one second, source music acknowledged in the note and edited it out). as you can see, there are some halloween/witch props because walpurgis night was interpreted as a pagan/witch festival.
the fandom had a running joke with hitler: that's not true. if you search for "kitler" on twitter from 2015 to 2019 you will see only non kpop fans talking about the cat meme. it's not an information used in sites/wikis either. it was a joke strictly related to a korean show from 2016 and not popular within the fandom.
the kitler incident
after the pictures caused the controversy, a past vlive resurfaced where sinb saved sowon's contact in her phone as kitler. she doesn't explain the meaning.
however, we can speculate with context clues like the emoji and being a live from 2016: another female idol had the nickname during produce 101 (season 1, 2016), dia's ki huihyeon. it was a popular search word during its airing. so the most reliable interpretation, taking from the produce 101 wiki, could be the combination of the idol name + hitler, to take a jab at the authoritarian leadership of this female idol. it was always used as a bad connotation and not endorsement. here you have the singer lee hyun acknowledging that this was huihyeon's nickname in an interview from 2019.
note: the word existed before the show since there is also an already existent and popular meme of cats that look like the dictator being called this way (kitten + hitler). a site about it was launched in 2006 and the joke was acknowledged on us and uk national television from 2009 to 2011. nonetheless, there is no guarantee of the connection of the cat meme with the popularity of the word/joke in south korea during 2016 with produce 101's airing.
