By Kim Jae-heun



JYP Entertainment said Tuesday that it will overhaul its export strategy for hallyu (Korean wave) and adopt a new system to stem recurrences of controversies involving its members.



Its move came after Chou Tzuyu, a Taiwanese member of JYP Entertainment's girl band Twice, was embroiled in a controversy for waving a Taiwanese flag on the online show "My Little Television," last November, which triggered anger among Chinese consumers.



"We have several foreign members in our K-pop bands and we plan to make a new system to thoroughly study sensitivity issues, such as political conflicts between countries," said a JYP official in a phone interview with The Korea Times. "It will not only apply to K-pop stars but all staff members in the company." He said the company will institute a more effective system to prevent recurrence of similar disputes.



China sees Taiwan as part of its territory, although Taiwan has ruled itself since a 1949 split from the mainland after a civil war.



The agency quickly released a videotaped apology by the singer, 16, last Friday on the girl group's official YouTube channel along with JYP Entertainment chief Park Jin-young's apology, citing that Tzuyu will not participate in China events for awhile.



However, Chinese video websites boycotted the entertainment company, removing all video clips of Twice and blocking Tzuyu's name on Weibo, Chinese biggest social media provider.



Culture critic Jung Duk-hyun said Korea's cultural opening took place too quickly for that of politics to catch up with, and that research is needed before a similar problem occurs.



"It is of utmost importance to prevent the incidents in the first place, and continuing cultural exchanges will eventually prevent future problems," said Jung. He added that this is the first time that such a political controversy caused by cultural exchange has happened and the company plans to learn a lot from it.



After the row took place, Korea's third-largest telecom company LG Uplus recently pulled its advertisement featuring Tzuyu for Huawei's latest Y6 budget smartphone. The Taiwanese singer was riding on a popularity wave heading toward becoming the next iconic advertisement star, after girl band AOA's Seolhyun who is a model for the nation's largest mobile carrier, SK Telecom.



