Nawww, you speak like it's the whole cake. It's only the icing.Of course it'd be wrong to see Yu Na's popularity in South Korea solely through a lens of a Japanese rivalry. Of course she'd still be damn popular even if her longtime rival is from some other country instead. But that's purely academic and speculative. The fact is, her rivalry with Mao, who happens to be Japanese, absolutely fuels Yu Na's media coverage, fandom activity and is an intrinsic part of her narrative.
The U.S. has so many big celebrities and history so things are just differen. We're use to having such celebrity here all the time. I guess when it's so rare I can understand the level of excitement and fascination for Yu na in Korea.
The U.S. has so many big celebrities and history so things are just differen. We're use to having such celebrity here all the time. I guess when it's so rare I can understand the level of excitement and fascination for Yu na in Korea.
Fans respond with ...
A claymation video! Err .. a fan, at least.
Yuna Kim Clay-mation Video (Free Skate: Gershwin's Piano Concierto in F)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhMybdcNYwo
Interesting stuff.
I do think that the media has downplayed the rivalry between the two. I had to explain to several casual viewers how far back the Mao's and Yuna's rivalry goes back. They have bee competing against each other since they were like 13. I don't think we've seen anything like it. (Maybe Mirai and Caroline, but....even that's not close.)
Uh there is no rivalry. Yuna already is the Olympic champion. It will take four years for Mao to catch up with that, if that's even possible. The only people who really like to stoke up all the rivalry talk is the disillusioned Mao bots.
Yes, Mao has been less of threat since she won Worlds in 2008, but that doesn't mean there isn't a rivalry.
No, I think all the rivalry talk is silenced, unless she matches Yuna's current record as an Olympic gold medalist. And her chance will not come for another 4 years.Maybe that's why Mao seemed so upset at the Olympic medal podium and she seems to be drawing so much attention to Sochi in 2014 during her interviews. Even before Yuna won Olympic gold, people were discounting Mao as a serious rival because of the problems she's been having for 2 seasons. And I think the nail in the coffin has come with Yuna winning the title of Olympic champion.
Insane, obsessive and stupid. It's almost like they felt inferior until producing a Yu Na Kim.
A Korean college professor, mr Song-DooHeon, who doesn’t know the Russian language, commented badly some overall situations of the figure skating in Russia after Vancouver Olympic and made a fool of himself based on the Google translator only - http://blog.daum.net/sadprince57/425. Is there any other country in the world, where it can be the theme for the college professor to comment badly upon in that way, i.e. by Google translator only ?
A lot of it has to do with the celebrity culture there, which is also very similar in Japan. In Korea, celebrities are often lofted into very high positions politically as well... for example, Korean popstar BoA (best example I can give, because she was indisputably the most famous celebrity in Korea at a young age as well) served as cultural ambassador to the US at 15. Her fame in Korea became so astronomical, that she couldn't even live in the country and was unable to see her family for years at a time. Yu-Na is in a similar situation now... she has been put into the Korean spotlight, and they will expect a lot out of her. Unfortunately, it also doesn't take a whole lot for public opinion to change. When BoA announced she would release an album in the US instead of Korea one year, she lost all of her Korean endorsements except one, despite the fact that it seemed like people used to worship the ground she walked on. Hopefully, Yu-Na never finds herself in that position... if she had failed to medal, Korea's general opinion might have been along the lines of "she has been having too many photo shoot or press conferences to be taken seriously." The popularity Yu-Na has in Korea now is a very big burden; everything she does on or iff the ice will be disected and examined. Right now, she truly is their golden girl (and well deserved) and hopefully it stays that way.
Here is another article for you: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/11/sports/la-sp-olympics-kim11-2010feb11 "Kim Yu-na has South Korea's full attention" from the Los Angeles Times