By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Aigerim Sadykova from Kazakhstan
Photos = Aigerim Sadykova

The Korean music industry has been becoming a thing nowadays, spreading throughout the world and gaining recognition from the famous U.S. music chart Billboard thanks to the pop group BTS. Korean entertainment agencies have come up with new concepts for their artists and for the debuts of their new groups. We can say that the Korean pop music industry has turned into a large industry that can reasonably be chosen as the main topic for quizes and knowledge battles.

For these reason, my beloved friends Aidana Kabulbekova and Aizhan Kabulbekova and I, with a help of the Korean Cultural Center in Kazakhstan (KCC), arranged a K-pop quiz for Astana's Korean pop fans and for everyone interested in the growing popularity of Korean pop music, soap operas and movies in East Asia and elsewhere.

As soon as we suggested this to the KCC that we could work on the project, the KCC agreed to provide not only the venue, but also the necessary equipment and gifts for the winners. The KCC also gave great support for the idea during the three-week preparation period.

The exciting part of the contest day, May 26, was waiting for the participants and trying not to worry. How many people will show up? Would they enjoy the questions? Fortunately, about 100 people participated in the event, marking the first K-pop quiz in Astana's history! :-)



For the quiz, my friends and I prepared 144 questions, dividing them into 12 categories, and put them all in order. Each category had a specific year when a song, album, or video were released, or a group’s debut, and each consisted of 12 questions with subtopics. Speaking about subtopics, they were all like, “Guess the name of the artist by the poster," or, "Answer a riddle about Korean music awards," "Guess the singer by an instrumental or dance performance cover by a fan" or, finally, "Guess a song’s name after hearing only a five-second clip." We didn't forget to include K-pop groups from 2000s that contributed to the development of the K-pop world we know today.

The participants randomly chose a category and wrote their responses on the answer forms. All 25 teams played in six categories covering 2018, 2015, 2006-2008, 2009-2010 and 2000-2005, and then there was one secret category. In the secret category, all the questions were related to SM Entertainment’s pop sensation Shinee. Shinee celebrated the 10th anniversary of its debut on May 25, the day before our quiz, so it was a great chance to celebrate together with the group.

Also, the KCC arranged a little lottery and offered some great prizes.

The hardest thing was to count the scores, as there were 25 teams with four people in each team, and not much time to check 150 answer forms. The scores of the game showed that Astana’s K-pop fans have difficulty guessing the songs of the groups H.O.T, Fin K.L and other artists from the 2000s. They prefer to listen to boy groups, like Big Bang, EXO, BTS or GOT7, rather than girl groups. However, they know all the popular songs, read all the K-pop news, and watch a lot of Korean TV shows.

The first-place team received tote bags, the second-place team notebooks, and the third-place team bookmarks with beautiful traditional Korean elements from the KCC. Each winning team got some K-pop stickers, too.



There were some comments from the participants, too, at the website we set up for the quiz.

“Thank you for such a well-organized quiz! I liked everything. I would like to have more songs from boy bands. Everything was fine. I'm waiting for the next quiz that will be even better,” wrote Rose Moldakhmetova.

“The quiz was successful and fun. This contest showed me that my knowledge of K-pop should be widened. I express my gratitude to the organizers for such a cheerful cruise,” said Zarina Tokanova.

I've always been a participant, eyewitness and reporter, but this time I tried myself as an organizer. It was a wonderful experience to gather people with the same interest and different ages, to come up with questions about K-pop artists and their activities throughout the decades, as well as to work with the KCC in Kazakhstan.

This was just the start of the K-pop quiz in Astana, and we're going to try to arrange one next year, too.

The KKC filmed a short video of the event and prepared a report about the first K-pop quiz ever held in Astana.



wisdom117@korea.kr

* This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.