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IU Zezé Lyric Video Reaction (INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT!!) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-11-12 08:00:03
Imported:
2022-03

Content

Before diving into performances, or articles of condemnation, Torsie takes a look at just what's so dang controversial about Zezé... and she LIKES IT! (duh)

Files

IU Zezé Lyric Video Reaction (INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT!!)

Before diving into performances, or articles of condemnation, Torsie takes a look at just what's so dang controversial about Zezé... and she LIKES IT! (duh)

Comments

ABC

watched your new iu video on youtube earlier, I messaged you a link of what you were talking about in that video :) also another perspective on zeze that ive read online recently https://www.reddit.com/r/kpopthoughts/comments/pro56h/iu_zeze_the_real_meaning_of_the_song/

Jaymee Red

I think you need to check where the controversy started and why it happened so here's a short intro to that, I copy-pasted from the guardian: A Brazilian novel first published more than 40 years ago has unexpectedly become a highly sought-after read, after the Korean pop star IU was accused of sexualising the story of its five-year-old protagonist in one of her songs. José Mauro de Vasconcelos’s My Sweet Orange Tree, first published in Portuguese in 1968 and in English in 1970, is set in Rio de Janeiro and follows the life of the boy Zeze, as he gets up to mischief and is mistreated. “Everyone beats him. If you look softhearted he will tell you it’s revolting the way they beat on a little kid. Can you believe him when he says he’s only six? No! The boy is a liar. He is five years old,” runs the copy on the first UK edition. My Sweet Orange Tree has been out of print in English for years, but Abebooks.com has reported that the novel became its most searched-for title late last week after controversy enveloped IU’s pop song Zeze, which is based on the story. The bookseller’s Richard Davies said that My Sweet Orange Tree was “a much-loved book in South Korea and often studied in schools”. According to the Korea Times, the book’s Korean publisher has issued a statement saying that: “We regret the way the five-year-old character is portrayed as a sexual object.” The paper quotes lines from IU’s song which run: “Zeze, come on up the tree quick and kiss the leaves, don’t be naughty and don’t hurt the tree, come up the tree and get the youngest leaf … you are innocent but shrewd, transparent but dirty and there is no way of knowing what’s living inside.” IU has since issued an apology, translated by the K-pop Herald, in which she describes My Sweet Orange Tree as a “treasured book”, and says: “I swear I did not write the lyrics to sexualise a five-year-old child. The Zeze in my song is a third-party fictional creation taken from the motif in the original novel.” She goes on to apologise, writing: “However, after listening to the opinions of those who have listened to the song, I came to realise that its contents could have given offence and even caused some to grieve. I am wholly responsible for my immature handling of things as a lyricist.” In my opinion, its sad that IU had to apologize that people interpreted her song to be sexualizing a child when she clearly wasn't. I mean it's not her fault you have a dirty disturbing mind! There's soooo many way you can interpret this song, some said Zeze is IU and the song lowkey call out the industry for sexualizing her when she was young and starting the industry. Others said in the song Zeze and the tree were having a conversation (like what you said it's kinda like a conversation between 2 entity). Also isn't this what art and music is supposed to be? Open for interpretation? Anyway, I'm just glad people eventually shut up about it as many comes to IU's defense. This song clearly is not for everyone specially those who can't appreciate the brilliance behind IU's song writing. I guess we'll wait for podcast about this song too? lol I recommend reading more about this controversy and other people's interpretation before you do ;) Introducing IU to your nieces will be a really smart move! She has sooo many encouraging songs and not just the songs but also just her words of kindness and generosity, IU as a whole person is beyond me tbh. IU once said to her fans "Don't fight among yourselves or bully one another. We're all on the same side. Let's get along well with one another. we're just slightly different in our inclinations, but our feelings are the same". She's just too precious!

Jaymee Red

There's also sooo many things to learn about this song even just one scroll through the comment section of the performance video in 1theK. One commenter said this: Consider how self-referential the whole Chatshire album is (taking back identity, coming of age, empowerment through self-deprecation/reflection), Zeze appears to be an allegorical approach to her feelings and moods at that point in her career. IU has a history of acknowledging social stigmas through her work. Tackling sensitive topics such as yellow journalism/media, discriminatory public personas, SNS haters/bullies, depression, suicide, love, loss, sleeping disorders etc... This whole album revolves around a heightened fantasy world liken to 'It is a mad mad world' in Alice in wonderland. Where Alice is both the victim and the heroine is forced to take on an introspective journey through the looking glass, examining various perspectives/creatures to fulfill personal growth and self-actualization.

JiAnn

https://youtu.be/Gk9SswkVzgc in case you're interested to see love poem concert...

Beatrice

The issue people have with this song has nothing to do with what you've discussed in this video unfortunately. I also think this song has nothing to do with most of what you’re so beautifully spoken about in this video either. (Though I do agree with the taking away of one’s innocence section). Zeze, whom IU titles this song and refers to in the lyrics, is the main character from a book called "My Sweet Orange Tree". In the book, Zeze is a 5 year old boy abused by his family. His only friend is an orange tree in his backyard whose name is Minguinho. The criticism of this song lied in the fact that the lyrics very much appear to be sexualizing an abused, 5 year old boy and people were incredibly upset by this and I can understand why. How could one not think the lyrics were sexualizing a child when you know the character and story that the lyrics are based on? IU later came out and apologized, saying this: “I swear I did not write the lyrics sexualizing a five-year-boy. The Zeze you sense in the lyrics is just a third party that emphasizes the motif of the novel. However, I came to know that a lot of people heard my song and were offended and scarred by my lyrics. This is my fault as an amateur song writer.” At one point, however, before the song was gaining widespread controversy, she explained this about the song: “When looking at his character, he is a very hypocritical character. Because of that, I found him charming and sexy". In my opinion, even if her (at the time) amateur writing skills made her come off the wrong way about the character, then why did she herself call a 5-year old character sexy???? As much as I love IU, that was very very strange and weird. Of course, things can always be mistranslated but it’s certainly something to keep in mind when discussing the controversy around this song.

Jaymee Red
>>71676373

Yeah it was poorly mistranslated. What she actually said was NOT she finds the character Zeze sexy, but the idea of 'duality' of the personality/persona sexy.

mool

The concept of the album “Chat-shire” was to reflect IU’s current status through different fictional characters, each representing a song. The title track “Twenty-three” exposes IU’s confusion which she experienced at that age through the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. “Red Queen” shows the unreasoned hate that anyone (including IU) can receive obviously through the character Red Queen. “Glasses” talks about IU’s determination on how she wanted to live her life through the novel “Ivan the fool” by Leo Tolstoy. As such, each song in Chat-Shire has a character that symbolises how IU genuinely felt like back in those times. ZeZe was influenced by the novel My Sweet Orange Tree. ZeZe is the main character, who is a 5 year old boy. He experiences family abuse so he always goes and talks to the tree as if they were best friends together. ZeZe surely is a character of very contradicting traits. Although he does mischievous and almost nasty tricks, such as throwing a pair of stockings that is shaped like a snake to scare people on the streets, we can’t help but to love him. He experiences so much pain at home and he is a young child after all. No matter what he does, we always feel sympathy and love towards him. IU displays the charm of this personality, which can seem naughty but never detestable. She also portrays her own self through this character. When she was 17 years old, she gained immense popularity under the nickname of “Nation’s Little Sister”. This fit her well when she was a minor but as time passed, she began to express her concerns about her innocent and pure image because she started to mature as a person into an adult. She said for multiple times how much she wants to show more of a mature side through her music but people were quite hesitant to accept that change. I believe IU put herself into the position of ZeZe to criticise the expectation the Korean public had towards IU. She was 23 years old (internationally 22), yet, people were still expecting a child-like cute concept and rejected to see the natural changes in her. They were disappointed by the fact that IU had other sides to her well-known pure image. I totally agree that the lyrics of ZeZe can be a source of a dispute. However, I honestly cannot accept the fact that IU was hated that much for something that she didn’t even say and something she did not mean at all. People were so eager to express hatred as they believed IU’s aim was to sexualise a child. What kind of nonsense is that when she absolutely adores the character and emphasised that “I am not talking about the young ZeZe here”. Well, it’s been 6 years since this happened. The rumour has been confirmed as a rumour. IU has become a completely mature artist, who knows exactly how to address her opinions effectively through her music. It was very exciting to see her develop into a more experienced musician and I felt proud when I saw her finding the comfort in her life as time passed by. I really hope to see an album like Chat-Shire again from her though. It really requires a lot of bravery for a famous Korean idol to write such piercing messages like the ones in Chat-Shire.

tors1e
>>71669026

Whooooooaaaaa that's so different from what I expected the controversy to be! I was about to start reading all the articles so I knew what was going on before watching the performance/talking more on the podcast - but I wanted to see the lyrics for myself without being swayed by others' opinions, and see how I interpreted it. Hmmm... fascinating. Thank you for sharing the article -- I'm going to go read even more. I'm not sure how many times I can say, "this changes everything" in regards to IU, but this changes everything!

tors1e
>>71669558

Yes, certainly going into hearing/reading this cold (I purposely didn't read about the controversy first, because I wanted to form my own opinion) I assumed this was allegorical as well -- and I'm not sure my opinion has changed now that I know what the actual controversy is... I'm going to read some more and we'll see what happens after we watch there performance. HOW INTERESTING IS THIS?! OMG, IU, you use 100% of your brain.

tors1e

This is so interesting. Just off the top of my memory, I can see how one can do an unadulterated reading of Zeze as a song, and equally how one can connect the lyrics to IU (or all/most public figures) and the contradicting duality they're expected to maintain of being both desirable and pure. The controversy seems to being centred around a very shallow understanding of the song, and an even more limited understanding of IU, not to mention blatantly ignoring the context of the album. I'm glad people got over it - it seems fricking insane to me that anyone would believe sexualising that character was her aim.

Beatrice
>>71704846

I don't think it's right to dismiss the concerns that people had about the song either though. Like one could very easily read it as a sexualization of the character, especially seeing as you also originally read the song as talking about sexuality. People being concerned was certainly not far fetched at all even if it ended up not being her actual intentions. She herself said that her weaknesses as a song writer at that point in her career led to her accidentally portraying something inappropriate and that caused concern. But it's good that everything did get cleared up and that people and IU were able to move on from it

Anonymous

If Iu didn’t write zeze she would not be the 23 year old IU. An true artist always creates works to portray her conern regarding social issues to evoke the discussion and introspection. That’s always found within iu’s music which is also the first sign of releasing her depression and self doubt period per her talking after “my mister” and she almost made a statement throughout her lilac album especially my sea/beside. In order to evoke the introspection of this common sexuality and femal autonomy in some relatively rigid femal behavior societies ( no offense, )she carefully choosed the story book and metaphor but understandable enough to inspire the ‘controversy “. She is so clever and honest to face the legitimacy topic bravely with her beautiful voice and melody. God bless her, she is a soloist. WOW!