How South Korea's showbiz world takes a toll on celebrities

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The apparent suicide of singer and actress Sulli this week has shone new light on the pressure faced by South Korea's young 'K-pop' stars. Tabloids and gossip television drive a culture of constant scrutiny.

South Korean media has devoted pages of newspapers and hours of lurid television coverage to the apparent suicide of pop star and actress Sulli on Monday, with anonymous posters using online message boards to exchange accusations of blame and repeat unsubstantiated rumors.
Some critics believe a media culture that is quick to build up the next rising star, and is equally fast to knock them down again, bears at least some responsibility for the death of 25-year-old Sulli and a number of other "idols" over the last decade.
"There have been a series of high-profile suicides in the last few years of people who are stars of the pop or television scenes. Their suicides have inevitably each time become topics of interest in and of themselves," said Emanuel Pastreich, director of the Seoul-based Asia Society. "It is almost as if these deaths are 'part of the show' and are reported as such."
Sulli, whose real name was Choi Jin-ri, first appeared as an actress at the age of 10 before making her debut as a K-pop singer with the all-girl group f(x) in 2009.
Throughout her career, Sulli's personal life provided fodder for the tabloids and she suspended all appearances in 2014 after becoming the target of malicious online rumors and allegations.
She later returned to acting and recently appeared on a television program to describe the abuse that she had been subject to from anonymous posters on web sites. That appearance only appears to have worsened the attacks.
Sulli is far from the first South Korean starlet to take their lives as a result of the pressure heaped upon them by the media and the voracious public, a situation that has only worsened with the advent and explosive growth of social media.
Source: https://www.dw.com