Kim Dongwan, a member of the popular Korean group Shinhwa has set up his solo Japanese fanclub. Before his fanmeeting on 11 Dec held in Shinagawa, Asahi Shimbun had the chance to conduct an interview with him.
**Firstly, tell us more about the setting up of your Japanese fanclub.
We've always had the Shinhwa fanclub in Japan, and it is very reassuring to have the other members around. Now that I'm alone, honestly I do feel a little unsettled.
**When did you think about setting it up?
I'll be enlisting into the army next year, and I thought about setting it up when I'm back. But I decided to do it earlier anyway.
**Firstly, tell us more about the setting up of your Japanese fanclub.
We've always had the Shinhwa fanclub in Japan, and it is very reassuring to have the other members around. Now that I'm alone, honestly I do feel a little unsettled.
**When did you think about setting it up?
I'll be enlisting into the army next year, and I thought about setting it up when I'm back. But I decided to do it earlier anyway.
**What kind of fanclub do you hope to have?
I hope to have a fanclub where I can breathe naturally (*feel at ease) with the fans, and I'd like to hold many concerts too. I hope to show the Japanese fans a stage specially prepared for them, not just what I've shown the fans in Korea.
**What's the most important thing about this fanmeeting?
Everything's important, I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep last night.
**Even while you're serving military duty, will you still send out messages to everyone via the fanclub?
Of course. I hope to be able to show everyone my photos, my diary entries and my experiences regularly.
**Dongwan-san has also written in his blog today, isn't it?
It's my way of communicating to the fans.
**Communication is just as important as singing and acting.
Exactly. I feel that staying true to myself is very important, and I can communicate my intentions through my feelings.
**"True feelings" and "doing things that I want to do" must be your mottos in life.
Yes, actually being in this industry, there are things that you hate to do. But I still feel that one should focus on doing what he wants to do.
**To the fans, they are really happy to see your blog entries.
Yes, I know that.
**Did you write the Japanese blog entry on Shinhwa's Japanese site by yourself?
No I used a translation software. I was hoping to relay messages to the Japanese fans while I'm here.
**This time during your stay in Japan, I read that you wanted to eat beef rice in Nagoya.
I had breakfast with the obasans in the hotel I stayed in, and it was really good. I had sashimi too.
**Everyone knows that you often use Japanese. Are you interested in the language?
I'm very interested in Japan, especially Japanese musicians. Like in Ochanomizu (a place in Japan, near Tokyo's Chiyoda area), there are many young people who gather at the place where they sell musical instruments, it's really interesting. In Korea, it's usually the older folks who hang around the musical instruments market. I sometimes wonder if the Japanese are able to understand and appreciate the idea of music better.
**How do you feel now that Shinhwa's concerts in Japan are over?
"We've finally completed it", that's how I felt. It's been a long time since the 6 of us gathered on stage to perform in front of so many people, it's great! During our 2nd encore, the crew had all started to pack up and only the fans were left.
**Shinhwa will be celebrating their 10th anniversary soon.
The members all feel the same way as me, we all want to protect the group. We've thought about how things will go from here, because after all the members will be serving military duty soon.
**You have been very busy with your solo activities for this whole year.
It's been really tough, but I'm really glad. Getting number 1 on Inkigayo was the happiest thing for me.
**Tell us more about your upcoming 2nd album.
It will be released in January. And I hope to have more of a 'band' feel in the 2nd album.
**What would you like to say to the fans who can't attend the fanmeeting today?
I'll work very hard to prepare for the next performance, so please wait for me.
When we thanked him for giving us some time before his performance, he said "Don't mention it" in Japanese. And because we heard that he really likes ramen, we gave him a very popular brand of ramen as a present, and he said, "Ah~Shirataki ramen. I've seen this in Korean news before." We were really surprised at the things that he knew.
Source: Asahi Shimbun
Chi trans: 堡堡@shinhwachina
Eng trans: midnightgirl13@shinhwabiz + Shinhwa Philippines
