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Translation from a blog by a China reporter who attended the Hallyu Festival
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Title: Lee Jun Ki's Hallyu Festival Autograph Session, Signing with Love in the Rain
Link: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_509ee6a60100b29d.html#cmt_731198
Writer: 郑黎黎 (Zheng Lili)
On October 25th, Lee Jun Ki, the Honorary Ambassador of 2008 Seoul Hallyu Festival, has conducted an
Autograph Session at Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul. The Autograph Session was only decided on 22nd hence a
temporary tent was set up specially for this event.
It was raining that day, and only stop around 3 or 4pm. The event is supposed to start at 5pm but fans wearing
raincoat has started to wait at the complex way before the event started, even heard that there are fans who
came to wait since last night, goodness me.. such cold weather. Jun Ki appeared in the autograph session tent
around 15 minutes before the event started, this is something very unusual since most Korean stars are well
known for being late in attending events.
During the autograph session, Jun Ki has been communicating with fans using Mandarin or Japanese, and
always heard him reminding his fans to go home early to prevent catching cold (because it is very cold and raining heavily on that day). When he saw some of the fans he recognised, he will also chat and joke a bit. And will always say thank you with a smile when he received gifts from his fans. It started to rain heavily again during the autograph session, but fans still waited outside the tent queuing up in the rain waiting for their turn for the autograph. Jun Ki keeps on checking on the fans waiting outside and asked his manager whether the fans waiting have raincoats on, and the manager has also went outside the tent to check how many fans still waiting for the autograph throughout the whole autograph session.
Soon, due to the heavy rain, the simple tent which was setup temporary for the autograph session has started to leak and rain keeps on flowing in from the back. Suddenly, I've noticed that one of the staff rain out of tent wearing rain coat, we all thought that they are going to end the autograph session earlier, but later we realised that Jun Ki has asked the staff to buy some cartons from nearby convenient shop, he wanted to put the gifts from fans into the carton to prevent it being dampen by the rain. Myself and the reporters are all very impressed with Jun Ki's thoughtfulness.
Time moves on and it keeps on raining, the tent has started to leak at all places, there were puddles of
water everywhere, the one-hour autograph session keep going on under such situation. The Organiser came to
inform that the autograph session has ended and asked the fans to stop queuing, they have even started to
close up the tent with cloths. At that time, I really pitied those fans waiting outside the tent, waited for so
long in the rain and yet cannot get the autograph from Jun Ki. Then, Jun Ki said something to his manager and
in an instant, the cloth was removed. You see, Jun Ki and his manager know that there are still a lot of fans
waiting in the rain for the autograph, so they insisted with the organiser to extend the autograph session. And
at the same time, they also arrange with the security guards to bring in as much fan as possible to wait in the tent instead of standing in the rain. But there are too many fans and the simple tent is soon filled up with fans, myself and the rest of the reporters and staff all tried our best to work out more room for the fans to come in. The autumn thunderous rain keeps pouring, myself and the rest who get to stay in the tent and does not get wet can still feel the coldness and can't help shivering, but Jun Ki persisted with his autograph session and communicate with the fans while his autographed. For those foreign fans who has complicated name to sign, he will keep on asking and re-confirm again to ensure that he has written down the fan's name correctly. For some fan, he even needs to autograph again and again just to get it right. His persistence and sincerity is
really touching because he could just scribble anything and I am sure the fans wouldn't mind a bit, but he didn't
do so and has tried his best to write it correctly.
The autograph session only ended when Jun Ki has autographed for all the fans, by the time, the autograph session has already extended for another 40 minutes. Since Jun Ki is the Honorary Ambassador of the Hallyu Festival, he needs to be there to launch the Hallyu Festival Celebration Concert, the organiser keeps on chasing Jun Ki to go in and prepare for the opening ceremony. By that time, it is less than 20 minutes before the actual ceremony begins, but Jun Ki still managed to have a brief interview with the reporters (coming from places around the world) who has been waiting in the leaking tent before he rushed for to the launching ceremony.
Personal note from writer:
Under such bad weather condition, I have seen Jun Ki reaching the place earlier until he extended the autograph session for another 40 minutes, in almost 2 hours time, autographing non-stop for his fans who waited in the rain.
Throughout the autograph session, keeps on asking his manager to check on his waiting fans to ensure
they are ok, and later when he was on stage launching the Hallyu Festival Celebration Concert, he still think
about his fans and once again asked them to remember to take medicine when reached home to ensure they
do not caught cold.
These are something which I seldom get to see throughout my times in Korean entertainment line. Instead,
stars being late, never on time, leaving the event early before it ended, or even cancelling the event without
any apparent reason, are something which are commonly seen. What are they trying to proof? Are you trying to
proof that your fans loved you so much that no matter how long they will still wait for you? But I would like to
point out one thing, those stars and managers who does not have respect for the fans or the media, will sooner
or later be abandon by them, and the examples are really abundance to proof that I am right.
Therefore, I would really like to say "Thank you" to Jun Ki, thanks for taking the time to leave a blessing
message to "So Entertainment"* even in such a rush. I recalled that I was also being interviewed by the Korea
media during the autograph session, and when I was asked about the question of "Why Jun Ki has so many fans
in China?", my answer to them was "You should understand the reason why now, when you have seen how he
has treasured his fans during the autograph session, right?"
*Original company name for the writer is written in Mandarin only called "那么娱乐", the English name is a direct translation and does not represent the actual company name in English if there is any.
All rights reserved to the original writer. Always refer to the original version if there is any conflict of information.
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PS1: It was quite a long article and I tried my best to translate it to as accurate as possible... Do bear with me if there is any error... Orz
PS2: She has also posted at her blog some of the autograph session photo taken by herself and it was quite nice too.. ^^ |
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Post time 8-10-2008 11:00 AM
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