Lia Williams clamps her hands between her knees to keep them from shaking. Her kohl-rimmed eyes dart around the room.
The Korean Community Centre on Auckland's North Shore is packed. Registration has only been open for an hour, but so far more than 200 New Zealanders aged between 10 and 24 have signed up for their chance to be a Korean pop star.
"I've been a singer since I was six, and I always wanted to make it a career," says 20-year-old Williams, an Asian Studies student at Victoria University. "I love Korean pop music, and I want to move over and live there anyway. Just the hard work they put in and the sheer talent they have is amazing."
Today's auditions are courtesy of JYP Entertainment, one of South Korea's biggest entertainment agencies. It is scouting for K-Pop trainees, with successful applicants winning a contract to its academy in Seoul. All ethnicities are encouraged, and there are kids here of Asian, Pacific, and European descent (like Williams).
Hopefuls are called by their numbers, six at a time. They file upstairs to perform a two-minute song, dance, or rap, most choosing to cover tunes made famous by K-Pop groups like Girls Generation, Big Bang and 2NE1. The space is tiny – just a few metres square. Three judges make the call.
Whispers go around the room: if you're really bad, they'll cut you off before the allotted time; if you're really good, they might tell you so. Sixteen-year-old Macleans College student Vincent Lei has already been given the nod to come back tomorrow after a successful hip-hop routine to a song by K-Pop boyband iKON. The judges told him to keep it quiet, but he's so excited he's telling everyone, including this reporter.
In the middle of the room, a teenager unselfconsciously runs through dance moves. Instant coffee and lollies are handed out. Nate Mealor, 18, sits with his dad, who is working on his laptop. Dad and son have travelled from Melbourne for the audition. "I wasn't sure if they were going to come to Australia, so I thought I'd come over and give it a go," Nate says. Another hip-hop dancer, he will perform to 'Thunder' by South Korean-Chinese boyband Exo.
Why does he want to be chosen? "Fame, plain and simple. Fame. It would be pretty cool going around the world singing songs all day. I wouldn't audition for X Factor or anything like that because I don't like it. But when it comes to K-Pop, I just like the culture."
K-Pop: A few years ago, the majority of New Zealanders hadn't even heard of it. But then came goofy South Korean singer Psy, and 'Gangnam Style'. His catchy, offbeat song was an international success and, to-date, the most viewed video on YouTube, with more than two billion hits.
While Psy was an unlikely star – most K-Pop singers are pretty, groomed, expertly choreographed specimens – he awakened an interest in K-Pop that has contributed to a Korean cultural wave that has spread worldwide.
New Zealand is no exception. This is the second time in three years JYP entertainment has held auditions here, scouting local stars as part of a strategy to raise the profile of K-Pop down under. A New Zealand K-Pop fan group on Facebook has more than 5000 likes, and Auckland University's K-Pop Planet fan club had 160 members at last count.
"Last time we came to New Zealand we were quite amazed and surprised there was so much interest, and this time there's even more," says JYP Entertainment casting manager Jane Kim. "At the first audition the majority were Asian, but this has diversified so we're getting kids from all different cultures and backgrounds. It shows that K-Pop is becoming more recognised in New Zealand, like the rest of the world."
Watching a K-Pop video is akin to falling into a tub of candy floss. The groups, which have up to 12 members, are made up of good-looking, picture-perfect boys and girls (though never both genders together). Everyone wears full makeup, dances in unison, and the videos generally feature highly emotive, over-acted storylines. Clothes are bright or pastel, with only the obvious 'bad' boys or girls donning black. The music itself is heavily manufactured, saccharine pop, which typically includes at least a few English words, catchy electronic hooks and a lot of auto-tune.
Auckland University group K-Pop Planet started two years ago. Its 160 members meet and play games based on Korean variety TV shows, organise K-Pop nights at local bars, and swap intel about their favourite bands. In July, 30 of them will travel to Australia to see Girls' Generation, a nine-member girl group that is one of K Pop's biggest global selling acts.
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뉴질랜드에서 제작한 한국인 시트콤
