K-pop Group Blackpink Under Fire for Mishandling Panda Cub

Blackpink is a female K-pop group consisting of four members, Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa.  Blackpink was filmed cuddling the first baby panda born in South Korea, Fu Bao, for a video clip teaser on November 5 for an upcoming episode of the band’s online reality show, “24/365 with Blackpink.”  

The act resulted in a wave of criticism from Chinese internet users who stated that the group had mishandled and put the baby panda in danger by wearing heavy makeup and touching an adult panda’s snout without wearing gloves, believed to be the baby panda’s mother.   

The China Wildlife Association even got involved with this incident and contacted Everland Zoo, telling them not to allow non-professionals to touch the panda cub. They stated that the zoo “violated the professional requirements for the protection of giant pandas by organizing performance-related personnel to have close contact with giant panda cubs and producing entertainment programs.” 

The treatment of pandas in different countries is a susceptible topic to the Chinese. The animal represents national pride, and China loans these animals to strengthen their diplomatic ties with other countries.  

In 2016, China gave South Korea two pandas as part of China’s “panda diplomacy.” Many Chinese internet users pointed out that Fu Bao is the offspring of these two pandas and that Blackpink was torturing China’s national treasure.  

Blackpink instantaneously deleted the clip from their YouTube channel and publicly announced that their next episode of “24/365 with Blackpink” would be delayed. The band’s agency YG Entertainment spoke on the group’s behalf, saying that all members wore protective gear, and regarded the angry criticism toward the group saying, “in respect of international co-operation practices and recommendations from panda experts who say that non-professionals having close contact with the baby panda can cause misunderstandings, we decided to withhold the release of the related video.” 

“I think it was the right decision. If they upload this clip, then more news and criticizing would come up, and it would get worse,” said freshman Suyeon J.  

Freshman Hannah K. said that if the group members had shown the precautions they took prior to interacting with the pandas in their video clip, they wouldn’t have received so much criticism. 

This has not been the first time the group has been caught under fire and been heavily criticized. For instance, the group had to re-edit one of their music videos in which one of the group members wore a nurse’s costume with high heels, which some criticized was sexualizing the career. In July 2020, the group was also caught in another controversy when they received backlash from Indian fans for including the Hindu god Ganesha in one of their music videos. They quickly got rid of this scene, as well.