Many of us are very familiar with the ideals of “senior” and “junior” in our daily activities, aren’t we? Manners have been ingrained in us since we were children. So, we learned to respect each other, especially those who are older than us. We can find this culture of respect in many countries, not least of which being South Korea. There is an important aspect of this culture in which age difference has established the hierarchy or the power equation in any given relationship.
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“In any Korean educational and vocational setting,” there is a specific culture of respect along the same vein known as the Sunbae and Hoobae relationship. This relationship exists in the K-pop circle, among other industries. But an interesting quirk of these social titles is that sunbae and hoobae are not related to age difference! These titles are used for who comes first in terms of experience, such as who attended a school, started working for a company, or even debuted first. A sunbae is the person who naturally has the greater seniority. A hoobae is the opposite. This specific culture of respect comes from Confucian tradition, where someone who is younger must respect their elders. However, the elders must also show a certain degree of respect to those younger than them, as those who are older have a responsibility towards those who come after them. A sunbae shows their respect by mentoring, advising, and taking care of their hoobae.
Does this seem a little confusing? Then, we are in the same boat, but these are the facts. Here is an example: Shooky was born in 1993, and Kookie was born in 1997. Kookie started working for a company in 2011. Shooky entered the same company in 2013. Who’s the sunbae? The answer is Kookie! Why? Like we said before, it has nothing to do with age. Moreover, sunbae and hoobae are used with people who never work with us or haven’t met and talked to us before, such as teachers, or sunbaes and hoobaes (if we do not know them personally).
Another aspect of the current Korean entertainment world which may be confusing is the conflict between seniority as artists and seniority by age. Sunbaes, those who debut first, are always treated with respect by their hoobaes. Artists who are older are also treated with lots of respect by younger artists. However, if there is a group who has a hoobae group consisting of older people, does the younger group have to use the honorific form to address those artists who might be younger than them? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. It might not make much sense to us, but it does happen in that world. However, this hypothetical sunbae group would still use polite honorific languages and bow their head when they greet their elders (by age), even though they debuted first.
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This kind of culture has also been used in Big Hit Entertainment. As we can see in the case of TXT, BTS’ hoobaes who debuted only on March 4, 2019. As sunbaes, the BTS members opened their hands wide to welcome them warmly. They talked to each other about their experiences, life stories, and dreams. Moreover, they respect and support TXT as their big brothers, encouraging them to keep going on without thinking too much about people's thoughts or hate comments. It makes ARMY and MOA amazed and grateful whenever they have moments together. We bet that everyone would want to be BTS’ hoobae if they see how BTS treats their juniors as though they were their little brothers.
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Written by: Tobing
Edited by: Aury
Checked by: Clare
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