#101. How to find your true love (feat. Would U by Red Velvet, Shamanism 9)

K-Pop is one of my guilty pleasures in life. Yet I can't completely figure it out.

Although I am a straight woman, I listen almost exclusively to the girl groups. I suppose I do this because I feel that the K-Pop girl groups are the embodiment of femininity. Having always been a super-feminine person, listening and watching these girls with perfect faces and perfect body, with beautiful hair, makeup, and costume make me feel envious and happy at the same time.

They are also something that I could never be; I could never have that much courage to step out into the streets of North America wearing so much frills and laces in my clothes (although I secretly love them!), nor could I reasonably put that much care into my appearances and still not be sleep-deprived.

So, I never tell my real-life friends and acquaintances about how much time I actually spend listening to K-Pop (answer: most of the time when I'm listening to music.) But sometimes, you come across something so fantastic that you have to talk about it somewhere!

Red Velvet is one of the most popular K-Pop girl groups today. They are produced by SM Entertainment (the producer of Girls' Generation, f(x), Super Junior, TVXQ!, SHINee, EXO, NCT, etc.) which means they are comprised of the most elite trainees in the Korean entertainment system. Indeed, all five members of Red Velvet are known for being beautiful and talented. Everyone sings, raps, and dances extremely well. Furthermore, they go by two concepts: "red" and "velvet." While the "red" concept is the usual K-Pop stuff -- cheerful, bright dance songs -- the "velvet" concept is aimed at musicality and artistry. And they have found success in both, which is fairly unusual.

Let's stop for a moment to appreciate these beautiful and talented girls.

Anyway, the song that really caught my attention recently is a fairly minor piece for Red Velvet. This song was featured in SM Station, which publishes a song each week by SM artists to allow for experiments. The artists are free to deviate from their usual style and work on whatever they want. Red Velvet occasionally participates in SM Station as well, and the song "Would U" feels neither "red" nor "velvet." It is more stereotypically K-Pop, and a beautiful one at that. Take a moment to watch and listen:

In this video, Irene (there is just one girl in this video!) is surprised by a red yarn while daydreaming, and she follows it to find a boy waiting for her. Through the lyrics, she expresses her hope that this is the love from the fairy tales that she's been dreaming of for a very long time. And there is no doubt in my mind that she found it in this music video.

I say this because of the red yarn. According to a very popular myth in East Asia (Korea, China, and Japan), it is said that every woman has a red string tied to her little finger from birth. When you follow the string, you will find that the other end of the red string is tied to her spouse and one true love.

One famous legend comes from China, where a man meets a 신선 (immortal man-god who is said to know everything about humans) during his travels. The 신선 was carrying a heavy bag and resting under the moonlight. The man was curious about this bag, and asked the 신선 what the bag contained. When he looked inside, he saw heaps of red strings, and the man-god explained that everyone is tied to their future spouse by one of these red strings (which are invisible to the human eyes). When the man asked about his red string, the 신선 pointed out an old one-eyed woman in rags carrying a toddler, and told him that the toddler was his future bride. Enraged, the man ordered  his servant to kill the toddler. The servant, as ordered, found the pair and stabbed the toddler with a knife, then ran away.

Many years later, the man was still not married, although he played a crucial role in a battle which led his country (Tang Dynasty) to victory. His general was very pleased and offered to give his daughter to the man as a reward. The daughter was very beautiful, but had a scar between her eyes. Curious about this scar, he asked the general about it, who responded that when the toddler was out with her nanny, some psychopath (!) tried to stab her and ran away. Her nanny was, of course, one-eyed and very old. It is said that the man finally realized that he could not go against the will of the gods.

There are many variations of this story; some say that the strings are tied to one's ankles, or that the strings are actually red and blue (to signify yin and yang). In fact, in traditional Korean marriages, the strings are featured prominently in various parts of the wedding.

Can you find the red-and-blue strings?

Even in modern-day Korea, some shamans will claim to see these red strings ("붉은 실") tied to people's fingers (and the Koreans are, for the most part, willing to play along or believe). Can you imagine what our world would look like, though, if everyone had a string tied to their fingers? It would look amazingly complicated, as all the strings will be tangled together.

But then, if you think about it, this is how relationships work. Like the mass of tangled strings, we meet many people and then drift away, realizing that we're not right for each other. Sometimes the strings are so tangled up that we don't realize that our true love has been right beside us all along. Then once in a while, the world rights itself, all the strings get untangled, and it is clear as day that the person in front of you is definitely your true love.

While I find the Asian philosophy to be too complicated for the most part, I find the story of the red string of fate to be incredibly romantic. It tells me that if I follow the path of my life as I follow the red string tied to my finger, one day I will eventually arrive at my destination, where my true love awaits.

Of course, this sounds way to fantastical to actually voice out in real life -- just like how I will only ever secretly listen to K-Pop. In that sense, I am glad that Irene of Red Velvet managed to follow her red string of fate and found her true love. Such is the world of K-Pop. That wonderful world of ideals and fantasy.