Foreign-born entertainers seek major changes in local industry

The representation of foreign-born personalities in Korean media has been a mixed bag for the last three decades.

As the country began seeing the number of foreign residents grow by leaps and bounds since the late 1980s — with the number eventually surpassing 2.14 million as of last January, according to Korea Immigration Service — broadcasters took note of the change and attempted to reflect it in their programming in varying formats.

Until the mid-2000s, the role of non-Koreans onscreen was mostly limited to a novelty personality whose given task was to embody the Western fascination with different aspects of Korean culture — which had yet to see its popularity explode to today’s international level.

“They would be treated more as a means to satisfy the local viewers’ nationalistic need for validation,”

said Ilya Belyakov, a naturalized Korean citizen from Russia, a TV personality and a translator. Or they became the butt of “harmless” jokes for their thick, often exaggerated accents when speaking Korean.

Many point to JTBC’s hit talk show, “Abnormal Summit,” which began

airing in 2014, as the turning point in the industry. The show invited a panel of multinational speakers who are fluent in Korean to discuss wide-ranging subject matters from global politics and economics to cultural differences using their knowledge and experience living in Korea.

A new trend in broadcasting ensued, where a select number of non-Korean entertainers began to land roles alongside their Korean counterparts as cast members with individual characters and specialties that go beyond their reductive identity as “foreigners.”

“That’s not to say that xenophobia or various forms of discrimination have evaporated and the challenge of cross-cultural communication has dissolved into rainbows and unicorns,” Tyler Rasch, American TV personality, consultant and author who starred in “Abnormal Summit,” told The Korea Times.

“But, when it comes to perception, things have certainly changed (in Korea). The range of perception has increased. The willingness to listen to other perspectives has expanded as well.”

Rasch and Julian Quintart, another star of “Abnormal Summit,” are two foreign-born personalities who have succeeded in making their own mark in the entertainment industry here. Both have become familiar faces in the country with their years of media appearances, lectures and partaking in environmental activism.

And this year, the two have come together with a goal to bring yet another change to the country’s entertainment scene — by co-founding Wave Entertainment, the first management company established by non-Koreans.

All nine artists currently represented in the company’s roster, including the two founders and Belyakov, have different nationalities and countries of origin from all corners of the globe.

When it comes to the relationship between a management company and its artists, the Korean entertainment industry has been structured largely around the idea of “trust,” according to Rasch.

While the element of trust can be a nice addition, it’s not a concept that ultimately belongs in contractual relationships, the American entertainer noted.

“For many artists and entertainers in the Korean industry — not all, but many — it is nearly impossible for them to obtain clear records of leads, deals, contracts and finances,” he said. “Why? Because the relationships were based on trust and records were not properly made or kept.”

One recent case in point involved popular singer-actor Lee Seung-gi. He made headlines at the end of last year after being mired in a payment dispute with his agency, Hook Entertainment, which had failed to ever disclose the millions of dollars’ worth of revenue made from the digital streams of Lee’s songs since his debut in 2004.

Such an act of negligence has been made possible for years because of how a number of management companies operate in Korea, Belgian-born Quintart, who has been in the industry since 2005 as a model, DJ and media personality, explained.

“There’s a lot of opacity of how the work happens. And artists often don’t get to see the full picture,” he said.

Typically, managers are contacted by clients about potential gigs involving their artists and go on to filter the requests. But more often than not, the entertainers themselves are kept in the dark throughout the entire negotiation process. As a result, the personalities are simply notified of what they must do without being given a chance to review the list of incoming deals, contracts or even payment records.

“What has usually been happening up to now is that the manager thinks it’s good, so it’s good. And basically, you have to do it,” Quintart said. “I think a lot of the stuff in the industry comes from good intentions. They want to protect the artist. But when you’re too much protected, then you end up not having enough control and that’s super stressful.”

While both Korean and non-Korean artists have been subject to such widespread practices, what can make it worse for some foreign-born personalities are the language barriers and the consequent inability to grasp the cultural nuances and navigate the lack of structure, Belyakov said.

The three have witnessed plenty of incidents where entertainers fell victim to the system. Some, after appearing in a TV program on the same day for the same fee, realized they were all paid differently depending on their management companies’ decision to take a bigger percentage of earnings and notify the artists of the fabricated amount. Others unknowingly became stuck in a controversial business deal that would go against their brand image, lifestyle and personal belief.

Wave Entertainment aims to address the industry’s chronic issues by bringing transparency to the table as its central mission statement. To achieve this, they had to adopt an array of customized online tools and forms that the artists and managers can all share and update in real time.

“With our company, what’s happening is that as soon as a request comes (through our automated system and forms), the artist directly gets a notification with the full records of what the request is about,” Quintart said.

It is only after the artist reviews the details regarding the deal — the requested types of media appearances and their contents, fees, etc. — that the manager enters the conversation with the client for further stages of negotiation.

“We also have analysis tools. You can see in real time how much you made each month and cross-check how much of that was made through lectures, TV,” he said. “So it helps you also see how the industry is looking at you and what you should work a bit more on.”

It’s about giving artists the ability to see the full picture and make a decision that works for themselves, the two founders noted.

While Wave Entertainment is open to both Korean and non-Korean artists, the nine entertainers currently represented by the company all hail from outside of Korea and have significant global experience.

When asked why this seemed to be the case, Rasch said the company’s modus operandi that seeks to provide an alternative to the dominant practices still in place in Korea’s entertainment industry fits the international profile of the artists who are looking to try things in a different way in order to stand out within Korea’s competitive market.

“I think there is a high tendency for people who originated from outside of Korea and are working here to constantly be looking for alternatives — because you’re competing in a market, where you’re an extreme minority,” he said. “So how are you going to strategically continue your career? What can you do a little bit differently… to find your own spot?”