SOUTH KOREA: CYBER SINGER " DIKI" IS FIRST JAPANESE POP STAR TO BECOME A HIT IN SOUTH KOREA AFTER GOVERNMENT LIFTS BAN ON JAPANESE FILMS AND POP MUSIC

Record ID: 388265

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: CYBER SINGER " DIKI" IS FIRST JAPANESE POP STAR TO BECOME A HIT IN SOUTH KOREA AFTER GOVERNMENT LIFTS BAN ON JAPANESE FILMS AND POP MUSIC
  • Date: 24th April 1999
  • Summary: PEOPLE LISTENING TO MUSIC AT BOOTHS INSIDE RECORD SHOP
  • Embargoed: 9th May 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAQIXP85Y3VYI1PANQXZMN38WV
  • Story Text: She's not real, but she's made pop history.Diki is a 'cyber singer' and is the first Japanese 'pop star' to make it back into South Korea after the Seoul government partially lifted a ban on Japanese movies and pop culture imposed last year.
    Diki is every celebrity agent's dream come true.She doesn't sleep, eat or take breaks.She'll never utter a word of complaint even if she's booked for a dozen appointments a day.Diki, short for Digital Kids, is a virtual star.She exists only in cyberspace.
    But she is destined to go down in music history as the first Japanese singer to release an album in South Korea.
    Last October, South Korea partially lifted a ban on Japanese movies and pop culture.The ban had been imposed more than a half-century ago after the end of World War II and Japanese imperialism in the Korean peninsula.
    But many South Koreans still harbour bitter feelings about Japan's colonial rule, in which their language was outlawed and their culture stifled.So it is slightly ironic that the woman who is leading the new Japanese cultural invasion is merely virtual.
    Diki's album was recorded by an unidentified local vocalist in her teens, who spent years abroad in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States, said chief manager Kim Young-mook of Indecom, a local production company that launched the Diki project.
    A Japanese girl who speaks Korean with a cute Japanese accent will be her real-life persona at interviews and with the public.
    According to the makers of Diki's record "Between", the album title has two meanings.One is Diki's attempt to crumble what has been an impenetrable wall between the Japanese and Korean cultures.
    Kim said Indecom hoped Diki would become a symbol of cultural exchange, "like a cultural ambassador in real life", as well as rake in some hefty profits.
    The other meaning behind "Between" is that Diki travels between the real and virtual worlds.
    "Her earliest and most faithful fans are 'netizens' in their teens and early twenties, but I think Diki is most loved by middle and high school students since they are the ones who have been keeping up with her activities and music," said Kim.
    Her album has only been in the market since March 26, and Diki's hit song "Albatross" is already getting plenty of nation-wide air time on radio and music television shows.
    He declined to identify the mystery singer, saying "it would ruin Diki's image if the real person came to life".
    Date Kyoko's (Diki's Japanese name) look and biography were designed by Japan's Hori Pro Inc in 1996, when the company launched Date Kyoko as the world's first cyber singer.
    Diki stands a petite 164 cm (5 ft 4 in), with short, fashionable brown hair and large amber eyes under perfectly trimmed eyebrows.Born on October 26, 1979, Diki is the eldest daughter of a sushi chef living in a small town in rural Japan.
    Like most teenagers, Diki has a sweet tooth.She likes guys with long hair and an earring and loves to wear coloured contact lenses.She was the star of her middle-school football team, hates raw eggs and doodles cartoon figures in her notebook.
    At Diki's website (www.diki.co.kr), e-mails from hundreds of fans are displayed.One fan wrote, "Yesterday, I saw your poster in a record shop and was so attracted by it that I bought your CD."
    Indecom's Kim said the company was confident Diki would be a huge success.More than 15,000 people have already visited her website while almost 200 teens have signed on as permanent members of Diki's fan club, just one week after the first batch of "Between" CDs went on sale in Seoul.
    Diki is also a hopeful for Japanese music companies who are trying to enter the Korean market.
    Song Meyung-won who is heading the five-day Japan Culture EXPO '99 in Seoul says this is an ideal time for the Japanese music industry to enter the Korean market.
    Over 50 firms are exhibiting their business at the event.
    "Now that the Korean government has partially lifted a ban on Japanese culture, there are a lot of Japanese firms looking into entering the Korean music market," he said.
    Indecom's Kim says he hopes Diki will not only be a success in Korea but he hopes to export the songs Diki "recorded" into a translated Japanese version.
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