With all the Shinhwa hype going on, I hope no-one forgets that Thursday is Soompi's 10th Anniversary too! I know I almost did, but the Shinhwa 10th jogged my memory. hehe

I've not been on Soompi since it began, I think back to 1998 and K-pop and even C-pop wasn't even a greedy gleam in my eye, in fact I don't really think i even knew much about Korea at all, something that amazes me these days seeing as how much a part of my life its become.10 years ago, I was still a Goth-chick spending my Thursdays and most of the weekend at the Rock club called 'The Cathouse' in Glasgow, where I was working/studying at the time. I was into vampire movies and books, and the internet... i am not even sure i was connected! Not even a hotmail! The more I look back though, even beyond 10 years ago, its hard to pinpoint exactly the time i got into Asian culture.

In The Beginning

I sometimes joke that I was destined to get into all this, as my first crush i recall having was 'Number 1 son' in the black and white Charlie Chan movies they were re-running on TV when I was a kid. My family wasn't one for having Asian food, my mother being from Switzerland we always had a more mediteranean diet with pastas. Rice with peas and pork cutlets was probbaly the closest haha! I remember being fascinated by the Bruce Lee movie 'Enter the Dragon', and when i was eight I got a book out of the library on Mandarin because i had a random urge to learn it to impress my dentist who was Chinese.

By 1998 i had actually tried Chinese food (and liked it), watched Mr Vampire 2, and wasn't interested in watching 'Hard Boiled' because an ex of mine had been massively into it. I didn't know anyone Asian at all and lived oblivious of all the wonderful things Korea had to offer. It wasn't until I headed back down south again and someone had lent me some Chow Yun-Fat films that the interest in Asia began to rise to the surface. I moved back to Bruce Lee Movies, started learning Mandarin and got heavily into HK cinema.

It was then I heard the actors also sang - something that gets mocked at in the west, but curiosity got the better of me and i bought Nic Tse CD and discovered that i really liked it! After tha it was Jordan Chan, and it was whilst on an international forum for this actor/singer that i first encountered K-pop when someone uploaded Se7en's 'passion' MV and Taebin's 'Reason I close my eyes'. I think I was more smitten with Taebin than se7en at the time, but i did love the energy that the song had and happily ordered se7en vol 1 and 2, taebin's, rain vol 3 and wheesung vol 3 (this was back in the day when Yesasia insisted on a $50 limit for free delivery). It wasn't until 3 weeks later i bought Shinhwa best of + MV and Brand New Special Edition.

Soompi Days

I was already lurking on Soompi lo-res version, reading fan fics and snatching the occasional file. My history with soompi and Shinhw a re tightly woven it seems, though it took me a while to link the CDs I had bought with the pojangmacha tent game, the Crazy MV, and the Minwoo guy that seemed to show up in so many stories - the one I remember most i think was '100 day contract' though I only have a vague recollection of an argument in a bubble tea shop and rival gangs.

I joined in November 2004 while working on 'Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy', That my work had me sat in a room by myself with high speed broadband and a view of the door has always been a perplexing decision to me, but one i was happy to abuse for a while or until they got wise hehe. I don't even remember the reason why i joined, but I do remember deciding to 'take the plunge' and see if I could swim.

Times have changed since then, the download section is gone, the radio ended and the great crash of Oct 2005 mercifully wiped a few older fics of mine off the board. I have been through 3 user names starting with ke_ai_xioajie, jiejunwoo and then this one which I will stick with. Soompi evolves and changes and the current format is one I hope will stay. As always its a lively place, global and just as argumentative. At the heart of it all lies a love of Kpop and Korean culture and I hope there will be another 10 years to come.