Some related experience on stereotype about people dancing to K-Pop from me
My friend Chloe, a native of Nanjing, China, is a undergraduate student of Psychology at UCL. Because of the epidemic, she has taken online classes for one year and gap for another year in China. In August, she asked me if she could dance with me when she returned to London. At the same time, she also asked me who can dance very well in London, because she didn’t know anything about the current dance environment in London. I sent her the Instagram homepage of some dancers I know. These dancers are from Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, China, South Korea and other places.
However, when Chloe returned to London, she was still dancing with Chinese people. Until she joined UCL Kpop Society, she had the opportunity to dance with foreigners.
At the end of October, I participated in London Comic con. On the day of my performance, there was a Random Play Dance. As a RPD queen in London (Local dancers gave me the name), I would certainly not be absent. At the same time, I invited Chloe, because she was the person I knew in China’s Random Play Dance. I invited her to join me in the Random Play Dance held by foreigners. She came, but after she finished dancing, she said, “Those white people are too aggressive. I’m afraid, and I’m afraid that you guys will fight.”
【”The dance fight”(actually it is just a random play dance): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbLQDXXc_zU&t=1049s】
17:44, everyone can see the boy and I were standing in front of the camera.
But actually it was even worse in last Comic Con in May. This is the video and just turn to 13:33.
When I shared this second to my friends who did not go to this event, they are like “Oh shit! He is staring at you.”
Other friends and I have also discussed the aggressive people I met on random play dance and mentioned them in tutorial. In the end, he took the initiative to follow my instagram which changed my mind a little bit. Maybe he does not have bad ideas on me? Maybe he is nice when not dancing?
However, although he and many people follow each other, everyone’s impression of him is too aggressive.
Short interview with K-Pop dancer friends from Korea and Thailand
Today, my friends came to my home to practice dancing. I had an interview with Sunny and Chan from UJJN dance crew.
But first of all, I gave an example, which is also my own personal experience. I actually have stereotype towards Indians, because I have never reached out to Indians before I came to the UK. Even in my undergraduate course, a Chinese university and a British university jointly run a school, I only contacted British and Korean foreigners. My impression of Indians comes entirely from literary works. As well as my Indian teacher in my sophomore year, his Indian accent makes me think that all Indians have the same accent. But my Indian friend Nehal is not. Although he grew up in India, he speaks fluent American English; Neither is his girlfriend Gunjen. She grew up in Macao and can even speak Cantonese that Cantonese can understand (Xueqing/Xeni once came to take part in our shooting, and she understood Gunjen’s Cantonese when she was a college student in Shenzhen).
Sunny said, “I have a friend from Africa. Everyone thinks she can dance African dance, but that girl is very uncomfortable with African dance. That girl can dance hip hop very well.”
Chan said: “In fact, many people think that white people can’t dance, but white people can actually dance very well.”
[Some dialogues are omitted here, because I mentioned the person mentioned in the tutorial, and then everyone said I was right, but I can’t release this part of the video for this interview, because it will cause disputes]
At the end of the interview, I told them my research questions and mentioned how K-Pop encourages Chinese and foreigners to communicate more.
Sunny said, “Yes, I have the same feeling. I think Chinese people only hang out with Chinese people. So when I see you dancing K-Pop with some people who are not Chinese, I think it’s amazing. I never thought it would happen. Even Comedian and Krew are places where only Chinese people are.” （OK I think that’s why they like me）
I said, “I think one of the reasons is that we use different social media. So I posted a post about local dance groups on Chinese social media a few days ago, and someone commented on me, ‘Oh, Sunny is in UJJN.’ I think maybe they don’t need Instagram to do some research to find someone to dance with. “
“There are many Chinese who don’t even have Instagram,” Chan said
I said, “Yes, that’s why Krew did a two-week social media promotion to promote their Random Play Dance.”
Therefore, it further proves that I should upload the content of local dance groups in London on Chinese social media, so as to encourage Chinese people to communicate with these foreigners more.
【A simple talk about this part with my friends: https://youtu.be/dUHRVrdM4VM】
Promotion on Chinese Social Media
Based on the above, Azule dance crew in London will hold two random play dances, one dance workshop and one performance in V&A museum Hallyu exhibition this Friday. I asked them if they allow me to help them promote in China’s social media, exchange is to have an interview with me.
After I posted this promotion, several Chinese students replied at the bottom of my post that they would like to participate. I sent a private letter to one of them and asked if I could interview her after the event.
My suggested questions are:
1. Do you have instagram? If I didn’t send this post, wouldn’t you know there was a random dance activity?
2. If foreigners invite you to dance with them in the future, will you want to dance with them?
3. Do you think K-Pop will influence you and encourage you to dance with foreigners?
However, as my interview skills are not very good, I am sure I will change my questions on the day…..