The Ignorance About Religion In North East Asia: A Boompala Backlash Study
Well as anyone paying attention in the K-POP sphere knows, Le Seraffim's Boompala has drawn quite some backlash and been dubbed as a song stereotyping Indian culture, etc.
However, this isn just a stupid misinterpretation, but it also actually is part of the larger issue about western fans being ignorant about religion in North East Asia.
As someone who is a casual Taoist (the Chinese religion behind the yin&yang symbol), I am far too familiar with the double standards of people demanding religious respect for the more well-known religions like Christianity whilst not having an issue or even bothering to educate themselves on lesser known religions.
And now you might be asking, what does that have to do with Boompala?
Well, my friend, it is about the fact that Boompala is not a song about Indian culture, but rather Indian religions and their cultural impact, including North East Asian branches because those specific references are flying over people's heads.
People on places like twitter see the heavy inclusion of Indian religions, a few seconds of scenes taking place in a desert and all, coming to the conclusion that the song is stereotyping and offensive to Indians and start tweeing ignorant bullshit.
A minor example I have seen is them yapping about the importance of the lotus in India, when that flower has been a thing across Asia and even Ancient Egypt. It's far from an Indian thing. Clearly, they never heard of things like what a longevity peach is. Hint: It's Chinese.
Then we have major offenders like a specific religious reference regarding the North East of Asia that most westerners don't know is a religion just like Taoism.
It's Zen buddhism, a Japanese branch of buddhism that was actually inspired by Taoism. It wouldn't be too far off to call Zen buddhism the lovechild of budhdhism and Taoism, hence why I know about Zen buddhism and care.
The fact we literally zoom in on Sakura, the Japanese member, during the song specifically saying zen, is no coincidence. it's an actual acknowledgement to the buddhist branch of her country.
As a nearby country, South Korea is far less ignorant about zen huddhism then the West is.I literally know of a K-horror movie (Svaha) where the villainś backstory includes studying zen buddhism during his travel to Japan even though it doesn't directly drop the name 'zen' (at least the subtitles didn't), but it does mention very much talk about how buddhism evolved in Japan. Not to mention that Zen buddhism in turn created Seon, which holds historic weight as a religion in Korea.
So really, does Boompala deserves all the accusations? I don't think so.
Letś come up with a hypothetical alternative to make you see my point: Imagine if the Vatican and pope received pop stars like the British King Charles does. A British girl group gets invited and before going, drops a song about the Church and its various iterations, going from Christianity. catholism to the Church of England with small short scenes taking place in the Vatican here and there.
Could one say they'd be cashing in on the publicity of the event? Yes, just like one could say about HYBE trying to break through into the Indian market and then releasing this. But is it bad to make a song about the Church's influence across Europe? No. Aside from some of the hardcore Church goers, the casual ones and outsiders wouldn't really have an issue with it.
For crying out loud, there would probably be a lot of music critics who could dismiss the meme-able elements as a fun but ambitious song exploring the historical cultural impact and European cultural identity when it comes to religion.
But when a girl group from a region of which the religions aren't as well-known does it like Le Seraffim, the girls get torn to shreds.
I swear you all are just too stuck on the anti-HYBE-meme hatetrain and ignorant of North East Asian religions to see what they are actually doing.
I mean, you are all the same people who were generally positive and were silent when a certain K-POP solo artist released a song called Zen, despite it having nothing to do with Zen Buddhism and is generally just used like a typical Westerner. All whilst there is the fact she should have known better as a Korean.
Can you imagine if that song had been named Buddhism or Islam? It would have been torn to shreds.
But you all let that pass…
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