Retired Korean Singer Kim Wan-seon Recalls the Difficulties After Announcing Her Retirement

Kim Wan-seon

Singer Kim Wan-seon recalled what happened when he announced his retirement.

On the 2nd, a video titled ‘37-year singer Kim Wan-seon’s way home from work’ was uploaded to the YouTube channel by PDC.

The video shows the YouTube production team meeting Kim Wan-seon in late summer last year. Kim Wan-seon performed his choreography wearing high heels over 10cm and finished filming the music video.

The YouTube production team confided to Kim Wan-seon, “What was it like on the way home from work when you retired at the age of 24? When I watch the video from that time, it still makes me cry.”

Kim Wan-seon debuted with ‘Tonight’ in 1986 at the age of seventeen. She had hits such as ‘The Clown Laughs at Us’ and ‘That Dance in the Rhythm’ and is known as the ‘dancing queen’ of the 1980s and 1990s.

The production team recalled, “I remember the time when I watched the (retirement) broadcast in 1992. I cried because I couldn’t see Kim Wan-seon anymore.”

In response, Kim Wan-seon said, “You were so pure back then. I’m going back to the pure self I was back then,” and “I feel like I’m moving back to being a high school student (YouTube production crew).”

Kim Wan-seon said about his situation at the time of retirement, “I am a little slow to react to everything. My nickname is Fluorescent Light.” “I just didn’t feel it that day. I wasn’t working in Korea anymore. I thought I’d never be able to come back to Korea. I was young at the time, so it wasn’t the right time to change a decision. Especially, I was a very trusting person.” He recalled.

He confessed that his decision to retire in 1992 happened because of his aunt. He added, “I thought I was going to quit because they told me to quit. I thought I couldn’t come to Korea, but it’s been a while since I came.”

The production team asked, “Was it any different from usual when you returned home?” and asked how it felt on the way home from work right after retirement. Kim Wan-seon said, “It didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel like it touched me.”

Kim Wan-seon came to live in Hong Kong after retirement. “I really thought I couldn’t go to Korea anymore. I thought I had to live here and tried to adapt to it. I tried to forget about it, and then I stayed in Hong Kong for two years and then went to Taiwan. There, there was a company that wanted to sign a new contract. But that “In order to sign the contract, I had to continue living with my aunt,” he said.

“When I was in Taiwan, the conflict between my aunt (who was my manager) and I was at its peak. To be honest, at that time, I thought I was going to die. I thought, ‘Why should I live like this? I couldn’t live because I was so tired,’” he confessed that he had a difficult time. “There was no way to solve it. There was no way for my aunt and I to break up. I wondered if I would have to continue to live in misery like this, and then I thought that it would be better to die than to live like that,” he added, expressing regret.

Kim Wan-seon recalled, “My aunt and I were taking a taxi to sign a contract, and the way we were going, it felt like we were being dragged to a slaughterhouse.” “In the car, I said, ‘I don’t want to sign a contract with my aunt.’ It was something I mustered up the courage to say. So, my aunt was also angry. It was a bad time for me at the time. I was so angry that I said, ‘I will turn the car around’ and came to Korea right away. “As soon as I came to Korea, I left right away,” he said, confessing that he lost his relationship with his aunt.

“When we broke up, we didn’t say, ‘Let’s break up,’ but we said, ‘I’m going to go to my mom’s house,’ and came out wearing those clothes. Then, I didn’t go. I was so precious to myself and I missed my freedom so much. My dream was to live freely. “It was okay to sell hotteok on the street, so the only thought I had was to enjoy a free day and then die.”

※If you have concerns that are difficult to talk about, such as depression, or have family members or acquaintances around you who are experiencing such difficulties, contact a 24-hour specialist at the Suicide Prevention Hotline ☎1577-0199 / Hope Line ☎129 / Life Line ☎1588-9191 / Youth Line ☎1388, etc. You can receive consultation.

◎ Sympathetic media Newsis [email protected]