The birthday boy poses for a selca at the dressing room

After having to postpone his birthday party/fan meeting due to the MERS outbreak, Ji Chang Wook was finally able to hold his party on his lunar birthday (which fell on 25 July this year) at the Olympic Park in Seoul. Tickets were snapped up like hot cakes (pun intended) so we weren’t able to attend his party, but judging from fan accounts, it sounded like a blast! The following is a summary of the birthday party based on information gathered from those who attended the event.

The night began with the screening of a birthday video put together using short clips submitted by fans to wish him “Happy Birthday”.  A cake with candles and carrots was brought out and the birthday song was sung for Ji Chang Wook, who was dressed in a red knitted top and pants (as seen in the selca at the top of the post).

He then performed the song “Bye Bye Bye (안녕안녕안녕)” together with Junhyung from 2Bic (the original singer of that song) and his first guest for the night. He then went on to sing Im Se Jun’s “Don’t Go Today (오늘은가지마)”, and his good friend Kangwoo appears on stage as his second guest/emcee. Ha, remember how he kept mentioning fake “guests” during his Hong Kong fan meeting? Looks like he has mended his ways and brought real guests this time, lol.

Both friends had prepared gifts for him — Kang Woo gave him pig trotters from the restaurant that Ji Chang Wook frequents, while Junhyung gave him a signed album from the girl group AOA.

Ji Chang Wook with Kangwoo (middle) and Junhyung (far right) in the waiting room

They then talked about things he wishes to do before turning 30. When he mentioned backpacking, his two friends said they will fund his trip if he wins a game of Dance Dance Revolution (a game commonly found at arcades, where you have to dance by following arrows on a screen and jump on arrows on the floor accordingly), which Ji Chang Wook had not played before. According to a Korean fan, his performance was considered 95% miss, 4.999% good, and perfect hits were only 0.001%. He couldn’t cope and even ended up bending over to use his hands to punch the arrow buttons on the floor! He lost to Junhyung, who was very good at this game.

Nonetheless, Junhyung said he had prepared a travel voucher for him as a gift. Ji Chang Wook asked if it’s “Blue Marble” (a Korean board game similar to Monopoly where you buy land in different countries), and his guess was correct. Ha, you have to try harder if you want to trick a prankster like him.

The three of them went on to play a question-and-answer game with a lie detector. Needless to say, that scared him out of his wits and he made excuses that he wasn’t lying, but worried about the lie detector. Sounds pretty much like how he reacted in the Entertainment Weekly interview aired earlier this year.

Kang Woo spoke about the top three instances when Ji Chang Wook is disgusting/detestable — 3) eating when he claims to be on a diet (Junhyung added that most people will usually say “Just one mouthful!”, but Ji Chang Wook will begin by picking up his chopsticks); 2) acting smug when he wins a game (Ji Chang Wook was asked to demonstrate a smug dance and he ended up doing a weird butt dance); and 1) when he looks handsome no matter what he does (Junhyung added that he looks handsome even when drinking water).

Then, it was Junhyung’s turn to talk about the top three instances when Ji Chang Wook is sexy — 3) when he takes a selca (Ji Chang Wook then went to take a selca using a phone from a member of the audience); 2) when he eats dukboki/Korean rice cakes (the camera then took a close-up shot of his mouth as he ate the pig trotters given by Kang Woo to demonstrate); and 1) when he dances (Ji Chang Wook danced a little and said that this was the only dance he knew. He said he has used this dance too many times these days, so he needs to learn a new dance).

Ji Chang Wook was asked to correct the data on his profile, starting with his height and weight. A ruler was brought out to ascertain if his height is indeed 180cm. Measurement was done barefooted, and turns out he is really 180cm tall. His current weight is 72kg while his shoulder width is 58cm. When asked what did he eat to become like this, he said he ate a lot of rice.

He spoke about his hobbies, which include driving around, soccer, drawing, reading comics and taking selcas. He then drew a picture of Junhyung and even signed his autograph on it.

Ji Chang Wook’s masterpiece drawing of Junhyung

Ji Chang Wook is known to be a shy person but very playful among his close friends, so a question was asked as to what must one do to become close friends with him. He said fans should play the soccer game “Winning Eleven” and then go to the noraebang (karaoke) with him. Because he is shy, it is hard for him to make new friends.

They then had an activity to pick his ideal type. Everyone in the audience had to stand up, and each time he names a criteria for his ideal type, those who do not meet that criteria have to sit down. He first told the male audience members to remain seated. He said his ideal type has to be a woman, and he prefers short hair. He likes black so she has to be dressed in black, have no double eyelids, must be wearing shoes, and must be taller than 163cm. Because many people still remained standing, he went on to say that she must be of the same age as him, in order to reduce the number of candidates. Eventually one girl was selected and she went on stage and took a selca with him. They also danced, and everyone laughed because the fan did it very enthusiastically.

He had three pictures framed up — one picture taken by Manager Chigu when he went to watch the “Ro Gi Su (로기수)” musical, another was an Instagram picture of him practising for his fan meeting, and the final picture showed him wearing sunglasses. The fan who danced with him got to pick a picture (which had his signature), and the remaining two photos were given away to a Korean fan and an overseas fan after a round of scissors-paper-stone.

Ji Chang Wook also brought a nail set as he wanted to do the manicure activity that he did at his overseas fan meeting. Three fans were picked by lucky draw. He chose pink, black and pearl-coloured nail polish for them. He apparently did a very good job at painting their nails.

Using a concept of the friends singing at the noraebang, Ji Chang Wook and his two friends went on to sing some songs. Fans asked him to sing “To The Butterfly”, so he sang part of the song for them. They also went on to sing “Drunken Confession (취중진담)” by Exhibition (전람회), and Sung Shi Kyung’s “Two People (두사람)”.

After singing, the three of them shook hands and banged shoulders to bid goodbye in the “American” way. They did this repeatedly and then left the stage.

Here is the complete list of songs that he performed at the birthday party:

1. “Bye Bye Bye (안녕안녕안녕)” by 2Bic Junhyung 
2. “Don’t Go Today (오늘은가지마)” by Im Se Jun 
3. “Two People (두사람)” by Sung Shi Kyung
4. “Drunken Confession (취중진담)” by Exhibition 
5. “To The Butterfly (나비에게)” by Ji Chang Wook (he only performed part of the song)
6. “Running Across the Sky (하늘을 달리다)” by Lee Juck
7. “Rain” by Lee Juck
8. “Thinking Of You (널 생각해)” by One More Chance
9. “I Love You” by Position
10. “I’ll Protect You (지켜줄게)” by Ji Chang Wook
11. Puyo Puyo (뿌요뿌요) by UP (he only gave a brief performance of the rap)

You can click on the links above to listen to the songs by the original artists. Cameras weren’t allowed at the birthday party, so we have to just make do with these (and some imagination).

Loli guarding the presents for her master

Note: Both of us at The Kitchen were not able to personally attend the birthday party. This post is solely based on detailed fan accounts shared by his Korean fans on DC. Sequence of events may be inaccurate since fan accounts are written based on memory.

EDIT 28 July 2015:  Glorious Entertainment just posted its own photos of the event.  Enjoy!

Credit:
Glorious Entertainment
Jong Hee Lee (staff member) IG
Kangwooooo IG
2Bic official IG
Insight Entertainment Twitter
★오타쿠 and (그녀) from JCW DC