Jeon Beom-seon, the vocalist of the band Yangban who drew attention by publicly confessing to being a descendant of pro-Japanese collaborators, candidly expressed his feelings about being compared with actress Ha-young regarding the controversy over Ha-young's great-grandfather's pro-Japanese actions.
On the 26th, Jeon Beom-seon appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SPNS TV's Shoes Off and spoke about his family history and the recent socially emerging controversy related to Ha-young's great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho. Jeon Beom-seon is a musician and writer who is a fifth-generation descendant on his maternal side of Lee In-jik, the author of Korea's first modern novel Hyeol-ui nu; he graduated from the Korea Minjok Leadership Academy, majored in history at Dartmouth College in the United States, and earned a master's degree in history from the University of Oxford.
Recently, Jeon Beom-seon attracted great attention by appearing on Maebulsyo. On that show, Jeon again stated that his ancestor Lee In-jik was the right-hand man and interpreter for Lee Wan-yong. Jeon Beom-seon's maternal grandmother is Lee In-jik's great-granddaughter. Regarding the media and public who compare him and Ha-young, he said frankly, "People are talking about Ha-young socially right now, and I feel a bit uncomfortable and sorry," and added, "They keep saying Ha-young is like this and Jeon Beom-seon is like that. It wasn't because I wanted to be morally superior or anything."
He mentioned that Ha-young's great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho married a Japanese woman and said, "That person had descendants from a child born with a Japanese woman. One-sixteenth of that person is Japanese. It's absurd to call a descendant of a Japanese person a pro-Japanese collaborator," expressing his view. He continued, "That person is a descendant of a mixed-race child born when great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho married a Japanese woman. My grandfather (Lee In-jik) abandoned a Korean woman and took a Japanese woman as a new wife, yet I heard he was poor. I am a descendant of that abandoned Korean household. I don't know what it would have been like if I were also a descendant of a Japanese woman," he said.
Furthermore, Jeon Beom-seon said, "I received none of the benefits from my family background," and expressed the view that Ha-young is being more heavily criticized because she benefited from being from a family of fourth-generation doctors. He also said, "(Ha-young) probably heard at home that her grandfather was a great person. I study history, so I view things objectively, but she might not have been able to do that. (Ha-young) seems to have spoken without being well aware of the social context."
Earlier, Ha-young said on a variety show that she came from "a family of doctors for four generations," and the controversy erupted when her great-grandfather's pro-Japanese actions were confirmed. Her agency initially said in its first statement that it was "baseless," but amid continued exhumation, it reversed its position and said, "We have confirmed that a record actually exists showing that great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho's name appears on the Daijeong Chinmokhoe council member list in 1916."
Ha-young bowed her head in a handwritten apology and said, "Through this process of directly looking up related materials, I learned of my great-grandfather's pro-Japanese actions. I regret having lightly mentioned my family history without properly knowing the painful history Korea suffered during the Japanese colonial period."
[Photo] video capture, OSEN DB
[OSEN]