TRANS] 111031 Cultural Director Jang Jin Sang Is “Anticipating JYJ’s Role In Spreading K-pop Throughout Europe”   Posted on November 6, 2011

“The K-pop craze continues to burn brighter in Spain. We want to thank JYJ for spearheading the effort to spread K-pop here.“

Cultural Director Jang Jin Sang, who began his job in Madrid, Spain in June, expressed his thoughts about the current condition of the K-pop craze that has swept over Spain.

Cultural Director Jang Jin Sang met with reporters at the POBLE ESPANYOL on the 29th and said, “When JYJ decided to hold a concert in Spain, they still hadn’t decided if they would hold the concert in Madrid or Barcelona. But they ended up choosing Barcelona because it was decided that if it was done here, people from Southern France would also be able to attend the concert as well as the citizens of Spain,” and “Though the influence of the K-pop craze and Hallyu Wave are still quite small in Europe, we believe the K-pop craze and interest in Korean culture will continue to grow in Spain.”

The reason why Director Jang made this statement is because Spain was the European country with the highest participation rate at the K-pop Cover Dance Competition that was held in Madrid, Spain on the 15th of September.

Director Jang said, “More than 50 Spanish teams participated in the competition. More and more people in Spain are beginning to like K-pop. Though B2ST came and performed a couple of songs as the judges for the competition, JYJ will be holding an official concert,” and “We’d like to see many more Korean singers come to Spain to perform like JYJ.”

He added, “We debated quite a lot on whether the culture center should sponsor the concert because it could be classified as a private concert,” and “But because this is the first time a Korean singer is holding a solo concert in Spain, we provided JYJ with 10,000 Euros (15 million Won) and that money was used to rent out the concert venue. The rest of the costs for setting up the stage and the additional facilities was paid for by JYJ’s agency C-JeS Entertainment.“

Director Jang explained that the tickets for the concert cost 100 Euros for SVIP, 70 Euros for VIP, and 50 Euros for regular seats, which doesn’t differ much from the ticket prices Spanish singers charge for their performances.

He also stated, “It’s been 69 years since Spain and Korea established diplomatic relations but a Korean culture center has been created in Spain much earlier than expected,” and “We don’t have culture centers in Italy or Switzerland yet. Taking this into consideration, we can make the conclusion that the Spanish have a great interest in Korea.”

Director Jang had a positive outlook for K-pop’s future influence in Europe.

He stated, “Europe has high standards for art and music, so it won’t be easy for Korea to compete in the European markets. However, K-pop continues to evolve and grow, and I believe the rate at which K-pop fans grow will increase as well,” and “I heard that many people are coming to JYJ’s concert because they talked about it on Facebook and decided to come together. Therefore, we plan on opening an official page for the culture center and share information about K-pop, and provide at least one or two K-pop related events every year.”

Meanwhile, Director Jang stated that Korean dramas do not have much of an influence in Spain.

He explained, “I heard that till 2007, overseas broadcasting companies could air Korean dramas for free. But 2008 came with copyright issues and because it was decided that these shows couldn’t be aired for free, it hasn’t been easy to watch Korean dramas overseas, especially in Europe. It’s because Korea’s influence in Spain is still quite small and because it’s not easy to air those dramas due to the prices. Though there are people who would like to air dramas here with the rights already secured, it costs almost 10 million Won to dub one episode, so I’ve heard that discussions continue with broadcasting companies due to the expenses.”

Source: [TV Report]

Translated & Shared by: dongbangdata.net

Momma’s Source: dongbangdata.net

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