Saturday, June 25, 2011

Conclusion of 6.25 - Why I started this blog Part II

I guess it's only fitting to conclude the chapter on 6.25 meeting today, exactly 2 years after the meeting was held.

The readers may remember that my very first post on this blog was brief explanation on why I decided to start blogging about TVXQ.
http://truetvxq.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-i-started-this-blog.html

I wrote that I wasn't a die-hard fan of any K-pop artist, and as matter fact, I love rock music, specifically Heavy Metal/Classic Rock. (Metallica!!!) But I do listen to other kind of music, and I love listening to K-Pop and respect the artists' ability to perform complicated dance routines while singing.

Some of you may be wondering why is a person who's not even a fan running this blog, spending so much time and energy? Here's why and how I got into this.

As I said in my first post, I knew something wasn't right when TVXQ broke up with only 3 members filing the lawsuit instead of all 5 which prompted me to check out the contract, and reading the contract was as far as I got regarding the matter. I wasn't really a fan of TVXQ, and I just checked out the contract to see how K-Pop artists' contract was structured out of curiosity. After I read it, I knew the contract was actually pretty good except for a couple clauses as I stated in my entry about the contract, and it was definitely not a "slave" contract and not bad enough to break up the band. I didn't really care too much about the lawsuit since I wasn't a fan. I'm into sports as other men are, and contract disputes over money happen every day. You see athletes with huge contract fighting for more money, so I just assumed it was over money and left it at that.

I think it was around October of 2010. I was surfing YouTube, checking out some music videos, and happened to watch TVXQ's "Mirotic" video. I noticed that there were some comments from users bashing SM for their "slave" contract, but they were using wrong info based on what was spreading around in many fan sites at that time. They were using this info: http://truetvxq.blogspot.com/p/lies.html

I started to comment about the contract trying to correct the mistake, and got into a heated debate with a Junsu's fan. I knew my info was the correct one since I read it from the source, but she could not be convinced and claimed that the contract I read was a fake (really?). I even told her I read it in Korean, but it was no use. She didn't even believe I was a Korean. Then she started throwing other stuff at me which I had no idea about, so I started doing more research into the matter. I have read articles from many English sites and Korean sites, and read both sides of the argument. That was when I realized that many international fans only had access to limited information, twisted and manipulated ones at that.

What I didn't understand was that many of them were claiming they were fans of all 5, but bashing SM at the same time that didn't make sense at all. If you really support Yunho and Changmin, how can you bash a company they chose to stay and work with? It's really a simple logic, and I commented many times about the fallacy of it, but most people just didn't get it and refused to admit it.
 
Anyways, I kept going back to that video, and got into many debates (argument, fight, whatever you want to call it) mostly with the same group of people (JYJ fans), and as I was going through it, I started to gain more knowledge. I had an advantage because of my Korean skills, and I was getting information that they never heard of, and eventually they couldn't argue with me any more and started making personal attacks and put a "Pro-SM" label on me.

That was when I found out about the 6.25 meeting and learned that all these lies and deceit were not accidental, but rather planned and systematically spread. I actively started to defend Yunho and Changmin on various threads (youtube, allkpop, blogs etc.) because I felt it was so unfair and unjust for two young men, who did nothing but the right thing, to be bashed relentlessly by many biased, clueless fans. As I found out more about the two, I began to gain tremendous respect towards them. In my opinion, they've handled the situation exceptionally well despite the emotional toll they must've endured, being framed by their close friends and their career almost ruined.

As I was getting involved in the debates, I was also getting questions from others who wanted to learn more about what I knew. It was getting frustrating because there was only so much I could provide, and there wasn't any international site available that I could direct them to. I found myself saying the same thing repeatedly, just to different people.

So I began to think that my time would be better utilized if I made a blog instead of repeating same info over and over, but I was hesitant to do it because I knew it would take a lot of effort and time considering the vast amount of documents and information that needed to be translated.

It was soon announced that TVXQ would come back with Yunho and Changmin. I thought that their comeback would calm everything down by making the fans to just support their respective band, and eventually two sides will just go separate ways. CJS themselves gave indications every chance they had that they were over with TVXQ and quite happy with their career as JYJ.

Then the tweets started coming and the attacks by the fans.

I realized that there was no end in sight, and here I am, typing this post, running this blog.

So please thank that Junsu's fan, because without her, TrueTVXQ blog wouldn't exist.


Why did they need the 6.25 meeting?

So let's talk about the 6.25 meeting. Why did they hold it in the first place? Why did the 3 and/or their parents felt the need to spread the lies, blaming the breakup on HoMin and SM? Couldn't they just file the lawsuit, start their career as JYJ while running the cosmetics business? Why was it necessary to ruin 2 men's career and the reputation of a company who worked to make TVXQ together?

If you recall, the conclusion article I wrote for the cosmetics business ended with this paragraph:

"Now the final question. Even with the money making potential the cosmetics business presented, TVXQ also had big potential to make more money since they were just starting to get really big in Japan and Asia, so why would CJS risk breaking the group by filing the lawsuit? Was the cosmetics business that big that CJS would give up TVXQ? That would be answered in my future posts."

http://truetvxq.blogspot.com/2011/01/conclusion.html

The answer to the above questions? The 6.25 meeting.

They not only wanted to continue the cosmetics business, but they also weren't willing to give up TVXQ. More accurately, they didn't want to give up TVXQ's earning power. We know that they didn't care about the TVXQ name itself from the way they ran their cosmetics business, throwing TVXQ around everywhere, so it had to be the money.


It is not that hard to see that they'd lose the fans' support if the real cause of them leaving SM was known to the fans, and many fans would've left them. Just read the 6.25 transcript again, and you can clearly see the purpose of the meeting. The topics that were discussed the most in that meeting were Crebeau, HoMin taking SM's bait and changing their mind, bad contract, and the 3's intentions of keeping TVXQ together, and to keep TVXQ, HoMin had to leave SM with them.  The meeting was held to hide the real reason for the breakup, shift the blame on HoMin, and appeal to the fans that they want to keep TVXQ together (reason for their fans preaching AKTF nonsense even now). By painting themselves as victims, they earned the fans' sympathy, making them unite in their support.
How well did it work? Exceptionally well as we all know. The 3 had fans' full support in everything they did. Fans supported them while the 3 accepted MNet's award without the 2 when the date was originally scheduled for a TVXQ concert in China. Tokyo dome? A-Nation? CJS' fan meeting right after cancelling the TVXQ fan meeting? Not even a question. Having dedicated fans who'd do anything to protect their "oppas" at any cost helped too. As most readers know, the effect of 6.25 meeting is still felt even today. There are fans who still believe and spread the lies that were created in that meeting 2 years ago.

As matter of fact, the fans are one of the biggest victims in this. I have read many fan accounts from the fans who initially supported CJS who later found out the truth, and had to go through painful process of healing to get over the shock and disappointment over the artist who they supported with all their heart. I'm sure many readers here can relate to that.

I wouldn't care if they just split for money. It happens to other bands, and they aren't the first and they won't be the last, but holding a secret meeting to frame the members they used to call "brothers"? Unforgivable. And it is still going on even now.

It was a huge blessing for Yunho and Changmin that 6.25 recording became available to the public. The tide started to turn once the file became widely available. The non fans' public opinions was initially supporting the 3, but after listening to the recording, their opinions changed and the support towards Yunho and Changmin started to grow.

Another effect of 6.25 meeting was that it solidified TVXQ's breakup. The 3 didn't need to make any kind of settlement with SM and go back to the company since they had the fans' overwhelming support. Just look at what happened with Kara who were in a very similar situation as TVXQ. The difference was that there was no 6.25 meeting, and the fans did not support the 3 like they did for CJS. Kara's 3 members eventually settled their differences with the company and came back, and they are working together again.

That's exactly what needed to be done with TVXQ to prevent the breakup, and if you recall Forever's post, that's precisely what she was pleading the fans to do, but to no avail.

There are positives that we got out of this whole saga. The fans finally got to see what Yunho and Changmin are capable of on their own, and their hidden talents are in full display for others to see. By going through this adversity, the 2 came back much stronger and with determination, and it shows in their performances. Also, the fans really found out the true colors of each members. I personally do not put too much weight on the image of the entertainers displayed to the public because I am aware that their persona are mostly manufactured by those around them, which I also do not mind. It's not like I'm going to have a personal relationship with those entertainers, so as long as I like what they bring to the table, I'm ok with it and don't really care how their real life is.

But as I got to learn more about Yunho and Changmin, I could see that those two men are genuinely great people, and they have earned tremendous respect from me the way they handled this crisis. That was another reason for me to start this blog.

Am I a fan of TVXQ now? Yes, you can say that. I support Yunho and Changmin as a person. Their music and performances aren't bad either. :)

So that about concludes the chapter on 6.25 meeting. That is the whole reason I support Yunho and Changmin, and the real reason I am making effort to spread the truth.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

There was a 6.23 meeting?

You've all heard about it: The 6.23 meeting. It's the meeting that was supposedly held by people from HoMin's side to spread malicious rumors against CJS. As was the case with Forever, does anyone know exactly what the meeting was about? Is there any proof that the meeting ever happened?
We know exactly what the 6.25 meeting was about because there is a definite proof, the voice recording. We know who were the participants, what was talked about, and what happened afterward. Also, accurate and consistent details of the 6.25 meeting were known among the fans even before the recording was widely spread, but nothing was known about the 6.23 meeting. Even the "World famous but no one ever read until posted on this blog" Forever article posted on June 26th had the details of 6.25 meeting, but the 6.23 meeting? Nothing.

It's been almost 2 years since June 2009, but no one seems to know exactly what that meeting was about. Some say Yunho's father held the meeting, some say it's someone from SM, or others say (gulp!) it was Forever who started spreading the rumors since June 23, 2009. The claims are all over the place and no one seems to know exactly what the meeting was about. Those accusers cannot even agree on the exact date because some claims the meeting was on June 24th.

The readers of this blog who's been following this "saga" should recognize the pattern by now. The inconsistency of those claims leads to the predictable conclusion: ANOTHER FABRICATED LIE.

The reason for making up the 6.23 meeting is obvious: to justify the 6.25 meeting. Ironically, the origin and the most used proof for the 6.23 meeting is from the 6.25 meeting itself. It was Jaejoong's sister who said that "Some parents already had a meeting like this and caused the 3 to be criticized. [6.25 recording File 3 @ 0:53]"

People who trust blindly what's said in the 6.25 meeting use her statement as the proof, and also that is the reason why 6.23 meeting needed to be fabricated since Jaejoong's sister would be lying if the meeting didn't happen.
 
Ok, so let's assume 6.25 meeting was held because of a meeting on June 23rd. According to the dialogues from the 6.25 meeting, CJS's parents were holding the meeting in response to the rumors spread from the meeting some parents already had. Are we to believe that the rumors spread so fast, CJS who at the time weren't even in Korea heard them and got so worried that they called the parents in less than 2 days to hold a meeting in response? According to Jaejoong's sister, the meeting by "some parents" had such an impact that all the blame for the breakup was pointed at the 3, and the 3 were having such a hard time and felt like dying all within a span of less than 2 days [File 3 @ 0:55]. It just doesn't fit.

Also let's not forget that CJS sent the notice to SM on June 24th to void the contract which shows that the move was planned for some time. In this news article (http://star.mt.co.kr/view/stview.php?no=2009073123161889504&outli-nk=2&SVEC) published on July 31, 2009, the CJS law firm Sejong states that they have been in contact with CJS for at least 2 months so they've been getting legal consulting since early June.

I guess it makes perfect sense for some people, but I'd at least give about a week and say that there was a 6.18 meeting or something instead of just 2 days. Also the fact that CJS' parents and SM had an argument in June 6th (stated by CJS and HoMin's parents) and there were whispers of some members visiting Sejong Law Firm, the 6.25 meeting seems to be well planned ahead, not because of some phantom meeting in June 23.

Also don't forget that even if we assume there was a meeting in June 23 from HoMin's side, it still doesn't justify 6.25 meeting that were full of lies and was held to frame HoMin for the breakup with reasons that were proven to be false. The lies about 6.23 meeting was spread to divert the fans' attention from the real issues of the 6.25 meeting.

Anyways, there's absolutely no proof that there was an actual meeting that took place, let alone it was held by HoMin's side personnel. We know 6.25 meeting was held in Kangnam Baptist Church, but there's no information where the 6.23 meeting was held. The only thing that resembles as some proofs are some screencaps of chat sessions and some PM's to claim that there were some Yunho's fans spreading rumors. I don't think any of the international fans actually saw those screencaps, so here they are with the translation.

I got the screencaps from this blog : http://order623.egloos.com This blog supports CJS and that's where international CJS fans got the info as well. It looks like the English article explaining about Forever and the 6.23 got most of the information from that blog and simply translated and re-arranged the articles from that blog.

The following are screencaps from the links referenced in this page: http://order623.egloos.com/3669088


I'll transcribe the texts in Korean then translate the texts right after the transcript.

First, here's the screencap of what they claim to be "Forever-esque" rumors from "Myclub".
 
 


Here are two replies posted on June 23, 2009 that are boxed in blue (they were already boxed by CJS supporters).

그 화장품이 동방신기 이미지를 이용해서 전 아시아적으로 체인점으로 낼려고 그랬소. 그런데...
The cosmetics (company) was going to open up franchises all over Asia using TVXQ's image. But...

동방신기중 세명이 동방 계약을 파기할려고 하오.
Three members within TVXQ is trying to break the contract.

They claim that the above two posts are "Forever-esque" rumors spread by HoMin fans. I guess you can call those rumors, but as we all know now, they were all proven to be true, and besides, Forever's article don't have a single word about the cosmetics business so I don't see how those posts could be considered "Forever-esque".

Now an entry from a blog by a TVXQ fan.


준수 유닛?

동방신기 시아준수, 샤이니 종현, 슈퍼주니어 규현
이미 녹음 작업 끝. 가을 경 활동 예정?

이미 작년 가을부터 돌던 소문이었는데...
준수가 유닛으로 활동을 하게 되면서..
각자 개인활동의 신호탄이 도리 것이라는 얘기.
이제서야 소문이 돌고.. 블로그에 난리구나.

차라리 유닛을 하고 다른 소문들은 사라졌으면 좋겠다.
준수는 유닛을 하고.. 다른 멤버들은 처음 개인활동에 관한 소문에 의한 일들을 하고..
요즘 흉흉하게 도는 소문들은 없던일로 돌아갔으면 좋겠다.

말도 안되게.. 왜 그런 이유로 헤어져야만 한다는 것일까?
다른 이유도 아닌 그 사업으로 인해서 왜 이런 시련을 겪어야 하는 것일까?
그냥 그건 좀 나중에 해도 되잖아.
꼬옥 동방신기, 토호신기로써의 네임밸류의 가치가 극대화 되어 있는 이 시점에..
굳이 왜 그 최고정점에 오른 네임밸류를 버리고 그것을 선택해야만 하는 것일까?
솔직히 이해가 되지 않아.

얘들아 지금은 아니잖아, 지금은....
누가 애들에게 그 사업을 소개해준거야?
그 사람 잡아서 족치고 싶어. 아오... 진짜!!!!


Junsu's unit?

TVXQ's Xiah Junsu, Shinee's Jonghyun and Super Junior's Gyuhyun.
Recording is already completed. Activities planned around fall?

This rumor was floating around since last fall...
Junsu will start unit activities...
which will signal each member's individual activities..
It's spreading now and blogs are getting noisy.

I'd rather prefer (for them) to have unit activities, and other rumors to disappear.
Junsu does unit... other members do individual activities just like the rumors spread before...
and I wish other horrible rumors that's spreading these days would disappear..


It's absurd... why would they part ways for such reason?
Why would they go through this difficulty, not for any other reason, but because of that business?
They could do that later.
This is the time when the value of TVXQ, Tohoshinki's name is at its peak.
Why do they have to abandon the name at the peak and choose that?
To be honest, I don't understand.


Guys.. now is not the time, not now...
Who introduced that business to them?
I want to get'em and beat'em up. Arghgh...Really!!!

Above post seems to show that the fan knew about the breakup being caused by the cosmetics business. The above blogger says that the talk of Junsu's unit activity was spreading since fall of 2008, and also other member's individual activities were planned as well. BTW, can you guess what Junsu's unit activity was going to be? "S.M. The Ballad" anyone? Obviously, Junsu threw it away and managed to derail others' activities at the same time. SMTB was originally planned for fall of 2009 according to that blogger. The above blog also proves that HoMin were not the only ones who had plans of individual activities, and the plans were already known to the fans, so it totally disproves that HoMin stayed in SM because of the lure of individual activities.

Now let's look at other evidences that claim to link Yunho's individual fans with 6.23.

Here's a PM from a Yunho's fan, calling for a chat session with other Yunho's fans.



Hi, I don't know if you know me. I am Paul***, a Yunho's fan who uploads Yunho's material time to time on Soul Dresser. ^^;;; I'm sending the PM urgently to Yunho's fans on Soul Dresser because I have something to tell you. I'm going to open up a chatting session around 10pm. It'll take around 30 minutes to an hour, I wanna know if it's possible for you to join. I'm going to talk about something really important, so I'd like Yunho's fans to participate. Soul Dresser Chatting room at 10PM. Title is 1234, and the password is 0206.

I guess they had a chatting session after the PM was sent to Yunho's fans. Here's a text file of that chatting session. It's not even a screencap but just a text file which can be manipulated easily, but they're using it as an evidence regardless. Here it is anyways.

http://pds16.egloos.com/pds/201004/20/07/624_chat.txt

The session's really long, so I'm just going to summarize it.
The person who requested the meeting (Paul***) says that she (I assume the user is a female) heard from Yuchun's fan that CJS will leave the team around middle of July because of Crebeau, basically for money. One of the participant already knew about some members visiting Sejong Law Firm (one who's defending CJS in this lawsuit), and Paul thinks CJS got assurances from Sejong that they can win the case. She says that CJS will use excessive work and the slave contract for justification. Then they go on to talk about other things related to the news. There's some criticizing/bashing of CJS for leaving the band for the cosmetics and Junsu's parents for getting involved too much, but those kind of responses were to be expected from fans who are talking about CJS breaking up TVXQ for Crebeau. Basically, it's just a typical chatting session among individual fans after hearing shocking news of the breakup, and also most of the things talked about during that session became true as well.

Now here's another evidence they present. It's a screencap of a chatting session between a Yunho's fansite admin and Junsu's fansite admin.


I'll use Y for Yunho's admin, and J for Junsu's.

Here's the translation.

Y: Is it true that TVXQ is breaking up?
J: No
Y: There's saying that Junsu's side is signing with CJ.
J: I think it's just a rumor.
Y: I heard that Junsu's father said it...
J: No...
J: I'll ask (Junsu's father) tomorrow.
Y: Ok.
J: It does look like they're not getting along.
Y: I don't think it's just not getting along. It looks like they're split into 3:2.

That screencap was initially spread by Junsu's fansite admin with the last digit of the date erased to make it appear the conversations took long before the actual date (June 24) to claim Yunho's fansite admin was spreading rumors well ahead, but later was debunked with full screencap showing the actual date by the justifiably upset Yunho's admin.

OK, so I've translated many so called "evidences" presented by 6.23 advocates, but the only thing they show is that the fans were aware of problems with Crebeau, and they heard rumors that TVXQ was going to break up because of the business. I guess you can call those "rumors", but everything happened according to those "rumors" eventually. If you listen to the 6.25 meeting, it's obvious CJS' fans knew about those rumors as well since CJS' parents spent most of the meeting giving excuses about Crebeau so there really isn't any proof that those rumors were started by HoMin's side. It wasn't a secret that CJS were involved in Crebeau. They were already doing business and opening up stores everywhere. The fancam of CJS' participation in Crebeau's business presentation in January was already available. Fans already knew about the members visiting the law firm too, so it probably wasn't really difficult to figure out that something was going on.

So was there a 6.23 meeting? No. There's no voice recording, not even a transcript nor the place it was held. 6.23 meeting was fabricated with few screencaps of fan interactions to justify the 6.25 meeting. It's really unbelievable that some people do not hesitate to accuse HoMin's parents and/or even HoMin themselves for holding some kind of meeting with those so called "evidences" which don't prove anything. It would be understandable if 6.25 meeting was held to just talk about those so called rumors, but the fact is that 3 guardians of CJS held a meeting and actually told LIES to put all the blame for the TVXQ's breakup on HoMin, and directed the participants of the meeting to spread those lies.

P.S. I'd like to apologize to the readers of this blog for taking so long posting updates. As I said in the comments, I've been really busy lately, but I should be able to post more often now. At least TVXQ has been doing really well with their new commercials and Yunho's Kiss and Cry reality show.