Philippine Beauty Queen Slammed for Bashing Filipinos’ Love of Korean Culture

Imelda Schweighart, a Filipina-German ex-beauty queen, came under fire recently for her remarks regarding Filipinos’ obsession with K-Pop. In a series of Facebook posts, she wrote, “I hate K-Pop. Filipinos are losing their identity trying to be like [Koreans]. [Have a bit of] pride, please?” Continuing on, she said, “[No doubt Filipinos are better at speaking English than Koreans.] [I thought the Chinese were our conquerors? I think we’re getting it wrong. We are always conquered.]” In response to critical comments, she defended her statements: “[we] should have our own identity as a culture and nation than losing ourselves…]” Other celebrities joined in on the conversation, challenging Schweighart, like Filipino reality television star Richard Juan who tweeted, “So our deep-rooted American influence is fine, but when it’s Korean, [it isn’t allowed?] [Why] don’t you celebrate the fact that us ASIANS are finally making a name for ourselves [on] the global stage. … or is it [because] you think white is better? … double standards.” Schweighart continued to receive hateful comments from filipino K-pop fans, and has since deleted her original posts. 

Though the issue at hand seems trivial, it brings up relevant themes of filipino pride and colonial mentality. While the Philippines is mostly known for its history of being colonized by the United States, Spain, and Japan, there seem to be, in the present day, forms of a cultural colonized mentality. In recent years, Korean music and television have dominated Asia. K-Dramas are consistently ranked on ‘Most Popular TV Shows in the Philippines’ lists, and K-Pop bands grace filipino students’ notebooks and backpacks and directly influence their vocabulary and dance choreography. Arguably, Korean culture has formed a sort of cultural hegemony over other nations, especially in the Philippines—and it has been easier to do so here precisely because of our colonial heritage. The colonial mentality classically involves the idolization of the eurocentric and the westernized, and in this situation it is simply substituted through the cultural influence of Korean media, a form of soft power in itself.

Perhaps the strangest thing about this issue is the conversation surrounding language. Schweighart pits the Philippines against Korea in terms of which nation speaks better English—a weird metric, again displaying inherent bias towards westernization as a cultural ideal. Actress Mela Franco Habijan contributed to the discourse, tweeting, “And please let’s stop using: ‘[we are better at English than them.]’ The English language is never a measure of one’s intellect and greatness. [Although they do not speak English well, they have K-Pop, K-Dramas, Samsung, and Parasite.]” Will a nation ever be truly ‘post-colonial’ if it can’t be compared to another country without involving its colonizing nations?