What I've Learnt From NCT

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NCT is a South Korean boy group formed by SM Entertainment. Their name stands for the Hallyu localization project Neo Culture Technology, a term coined by SM Entertainment to describe the group's concept of having an unlimited number of members divided into multiple sub-units based in various cities worldwide (like AKB48?). There's NCT 127, NCT U, NCT DREAM & there's also a NCT 2018 project for this particular year.

Yes, I've copied that from Wikipedia. Because, apart from Wikipedia, who else can describe what NCT is?
I mean, it took almost half of a Weekly Idol episode to NCT themselves explain who they are. I'm not wasting your 20 minutes for that. (Plus, you can just watch it here)

Am I stanning?
That's not the question for today. From the title, I'm not gonna talk on how great they are and how you should stan them. NCTzens are already doing that.

I just want to share what I've learnt from them. Specifically, from how they identify themselves, and the whole NCT system. And I believe what I've learnt can shed light on how we ourselves, identify ourselves, how we view others & connect with people.
(I'm gonna refer to this episode of Weekly Idol a lot)

What I've learnt is: we identify with multiple, intertwined, dynamic, and even changing identities.

Take a look. NCT U, NCT 127 & NCT DREAM is different. But they're all NCT. There also members promoting under 2 groups, so they identify with both group.

For example, if you ask Mark, are you NCT? The answer is yes.
Are you NCT 127? The answer is yes.
Are you NCT U? The answer is yes.
Are you NCT DREAM? The answer is yes.

And, even, there's an additional answer for this. He won't be in NCT DREAM next year (because NCT DREAM is for teenagers (up to 20 years old)). So, starting next year, he will not identify himself as NCT DREAM anymore. But still, he is in NCT DREAM now, and in he future, despite not being there, his presence & absence will have effect on NCT DREAM.

What will happen to all current NCT DREAM members if all of them turn 20 (apart from fighting on the rooftop, of course)? We don't know. They might be together in a brand new unit. Or not, they might be just join existing unit. Or maybe new sub-units will form. Who knows?

Sounds complicated?
Well, what about you? What about us?

Despite us not being in any KPOP group, we can surely say that we have multiple, intertwined, dynamic & changing identities. You are a friend to someone, a teacher to someone, a son to someone, a student to someone, a life-changing figure to someone, a stranger to someone. I can go on.

Apart from that, you might not associate yourself for things that you strongly identify with in the past. For example, if you are working now, obviously you are not identifying yourself as a school student anymore. But you was a school student, and being in & out from the school affect you and the school, whether you realize it or not.

Okay, now you're working, what will happen to you in the future? You might be identifying yourself strongly tomorrow with the things that you dislike today. Or not, you can get to continue doing what you like. But can you figure it now, really?

My point is, again, we identify with multiple, intertwined, dynamic, & changing identities. So, if we can recognize that there are multiple identities people associate themselves with, it gives us opportunity to understand labels more.

In today's era, there's this movement of trying to remove labels from humans & see humans as just humans. Of course, I get the nature of it, which is to eliminate discrimination. But labels are not there to start discrimination to begin with. Labels are just for classification. Discrimination can be eliminated not by eliminating labels, but by seeing labels as just labels.

In other words, it's not wrong to label (or not label) yourself with identities that you want (or not). It's not wrong to work (or not work) for that identities. What is wrong is when you see labels as a type of rigid classification, with bad (or in certain things, even good) stereotypes attaching to them.

For example, all 3 teams in NCT fought for their teams in the competition in Weekly Idol. Does that make them despise the other teams? Of course not. Especially when there are people associating themselves with more than 1 team. And regarding that, those people don't pick sides in the competition. Instead, they did their very best for every competition for every team.

Like, did you see Mark slacking or picking sides? Not at all, right? Even after Haechan winning the cover dance, he gave the point to 127 instead of DREAM who had already gained 1 point, to 'make things interesting'. Which means, to make all of the teams work more & harder.

What's funny to me was, in the magic-hand competition, when Winwin (NCT U & 127) suspected that 127 will be losing, he went to celebrate U. But when U also lost, he naturally went back celebrating with 127. This just show how free a human can in identifying themselves, both in the survival & personal growth term.

There's another example for this. Take a look at this video. It's asking a simple question: what happen when we stop putting people in boxes? The boxes in the first place are not to blame. It is us who tend to see those outside of the box in a way that we should not see them. I highly recommend you to watch it, i's much more easier to understand. But since it's such a viral video, I bet you've seen it too.

So, moving on...

There's another movement that I've heard trying to get rid of stereotypes, because (you guessed it) they easily lead to discrimination. But again, stereotypes to me are just another labels. They're labels in the labels. Stereotype does exist for a reason.

But, as an individual, I can choose what to associate myself with. And as someone who looks at other people, I should not expect stereotypes on people, whether they're good or bad. It's okay for me to guess, but never to confirm it just within my head without actually talking & getting to know the people. Because the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete (by Chimamanda Adichie).

For example, you might associate U with coolness, 127 with wildness, and DREAM with freshness. But does all members of the team fit into that? And another question, do they always have to fit into that? Take a look of the difference between DREAM's Chewing Gum & Go. Take a look of the difference between 127's Cherry Bomb & TOUCH.
The answer to those questions is, they don't and they don't have to. And we as the audience, their style does not necessarily need to match with what we expect.

Here's the summary:
- We identify with multiple, intertwined, dynamic & changing identities
- Labels are just for classification. So just see labels as labels
- Stereotypes are never to be confirmed as a generalization. Every individual is different.

I guess.. that's it?
And thanks NCT...? I guess?

p/s: writing this while listening to Regular. Which one do you like better; English or Korean version?