On 27th May, Ji Chang Wook took a short break from filming “Whirlwind Girl 2” to fly to Beijing for the opening launch of Korean eye wear brand Gentle Monster.
At the store in Sanlitun, an area known for its hip nightlife and shopping, Ji Chang Wook took to the red carpet along with other Chinese stars such as actor Johnny Huang Jing Yu. Unlike such events held in South Korea, the number of pictures released by the press is close to nothing 😦
He did give a short interview to reporters at the scene though.
Click on CC for English subtitles.
In this second video, though the Chinese subtitles don’t seem to show it, he appears rather flabbergasted by the reporters, who thought it would be a good idea to ask him why Chinese actress Ni Ni failed to show up at the event.
Source: Tudou, V.qq.com, 我们的街拍时刻 weibo, 巨大的饶子 weibo, Getty Images
Ji Chang Wook's Kitchen 
Thanks for this post JCWKitchen.
Really curious as to what kind of journalist asked that silly question which “flabbergasted” our JCW. But I thought JCW handled it rather well on the whole. I find JCW’s really good with tackling questions from journalists now. He’s matured so much over the last year!
And I’m really really disappointed with the lack of pics for this red carpet event. ☹️
I’m curious, we western fans have been taught that “oppa” is used by females when addressing an older male (although slightly older female fans have been known to humorously use it too (i.e., Rain jokingly calling out to the audience in response to shouts of “OPPA!”, questioning “am I really older than you?”)
But is the Chinese announcer really calling JCW “oppa” or is that the subtitler? I tried to listen closely to see if the announcer said “oppa” but he’s speaking too quickly for me to distinguish the syllables if he did.
If he is saying “oppa”, have the Chinese misappropriated the use of the word?
I’m just curious. No judgement ’cause there’s a whole lot of Korean boys that I call “oppa” in my head although some of them would call me “halmoni”. *sighs* *dang, I just zinged myself and it ain’t funny when I think about it*
Good question, because I thought I heard one of the male chinese actors in Whirlwind girl 2 call him oppa too.
I think the way the announcer is using Oppa is ok, because he’s not directly personally addressing him, but using it as a title/nickname by which he’s known to his fans (mainly female). Ha!ha! Some korean entertainers you just want to call oppa for some reason, even though they are younger.
I’m not sure but as far as i know, they use oppa to someone they know or close to only [older male]. But if you just met and do not know each other really well, using oppa is just awkward. I’m not sure though,
You are right about the correct usage of the word “oppa” in Korea. It is used by a younger woman to address an older guy (older brother/boyfriend/close male friend) whom she is close to.
Due to the popularity of Korean entertainment in China, the Chinese media and Chinese netizens use a mish-mash of Chinese and commonly-used Korea words such as Oppa (which they write as ou ba “偶吧”), unnie (ou ni “欧尼”), and chingu (qin gu “亲故”). Unfortunately, they seem to use the term “oppa” for any Korean guy, even reporters address actors as oppa when conducting interviews. I personally find this rather impolite and unprofessional though. Reporters in Korea still address stars respectfully by name (e.g. Changwook sshi), since “oppa” is usually used among close friends.
I’ve heard JCW’s Taiwanese fans screaming out “Oppa-San”! I’m no linguist but isn’t that a mish-mash of Korean and Japanese? Or is “Oppa-San” a real Korean word? But like you guys said..the word “Oppa” has been used so frequently to address Korean entertainers that its proper usage has been forgotten. Pity..
I also felt it weird when the chineese announcer as saying oppa… its not only in the subtitles.. the announcer was definitely saying it… weird