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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/VigilMuck on 2025-10-21 20:05:21+00:00.
Author’s Note: This write-up was a difficult one to write since there isn’t much info on the drama in English (aside from online comments). I am far from fluent in Chinese or Korean so I often relied on less than reliable automatic translations. Therefore, I couldn’t make as complete or accurate of a writeup as possible. Feel free to let me know of any details I may have glossed over. Also the main drama happened 20 years ago, so many online sources on that have likely disappeared.
Introduction
One thing that is common in music is covers. A cover is defined on Wikipedia as a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Sometimes they aren’t that different from the original, but other times they can be really different. Heck they can even be in a different language from the original. And yes, there are times when the cover becomes more popular (and/or critically acclaimed) than the original.
But where exactly does the line between “covering” and “plagiarism” lie? Well one singer based in Taiwan got many fans of Asian pop music asking that question in the mid 2000s.
Free Style(프리스타일) - Y (Please Tell Me Why)
Note: Information on the group Free Style is hard to find in English so I had to use Google Translate and my limited knowledge of Korean for my research. Also, I asked a few people on r/kpophelp for information about them.
The story of the drama starts in South Korea, which is the home country of the hip-hop group Free Style (프리스타일) (yes that is the group’s actual name). Free Style debuted in 1999 and consists of brothers Mino (real name Choi Min-ho; not the SHINee member) and DJ Zio (real name: Choi Ji-ho) as well as a female singer named Lazy.
In the first few years of their career, the group struggled with a lack of success and after 2 albums, Lazy left the group in order to study abroad. In 2004, the duo released their third album called “Free Style +3”. While “The World of Men (남자들의 세계)” was originally planned to be the title track, the duo would finally have their big breakthrough with a different song on the album.
That breakthrough hit was “Y (Please Tell Me Why)”. The song features a female singer named Jung Hee-kyung and talks about regrets over a breakup. Unlike most of the duo’s songs, the song is mostly sung rather than rapped. Jung sang the chorus, which interestingly enough was entirely in English, and the bridge. Zio handled much of the male vocals while Mino handled the instrumentals and offered some background vocals. Lyrics were handled by both Free Style members.
Both the Free Style members and Jung Hee-kyung all initially did not like making that song. Free Style did not like doing love songs since there was a bit of a stigma against that in the Korean hip hop scene and Zio found singing to be embarrassing. Jung even refused to be credited for her part at the time of release.
While it was originally intended to be a B-side, “Y” was widely used as background music on CyWorld (roughly the Korean equivalent of MySpace). This quickly exposed the song to many young Koreans and the song eventually became a major hit in South Korea. According to Allkpop, it swept mobile charts, BGM charts, landed on SBS’s “Inkigayo“, and was Korea’s favorite ringtone in 2005.
In addition to its native Korea, the song would catch attention in other countries in Asia. This is thanks in part to it being featured in a free-to-play rhythm game called Audition Online. Free Style themselves also made a Japanese version of the song featuring Japanese singer Serina. Countless remakes were also made of the song, one of which would be the main source of the drama.
Wilber Pan - Bu De Bu Ai (不得不愛)
For the next part of the story, we go to Taiwan. The main character there is a Taiwanese-American singer/rapper named Wilber Pan (aka Will Pan). While Pan was born in 1980 in the U.S. state of West Virginia, he moved to Taiwan at the age of 7 and much of his musical career is based there. Pan went to international school while living in Taiwan and then went back to the USA to attend university at California State Polytechnic University Pomona. As a result, he is fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese. Side note: Will Pan might be the first Asian person from West Virginia I have ever heard of.
While at Cal Poly Pomona, Pan was discovered by the record label BMG and then went back to Taiwan to pursue a musical career there. Around that time, he also took part in singing contest “BCC Star” while interning at the Broadcasting Corporation of China. There he performed “Can’t Wait” by Steve Seungjun Yoo and Yuki Hsu in the finals. However, this would be far from the only time Will Pan would perform a Korean song.
In 2005, Wilber Pan would release the song “Bu De Bu Ai (不得不愛)”. The song was a Mandarin Chinese remake of “Y (Please Tell Me Why)” by Free Style and featured a female singer from Mainland China named Zhang Xianzi. Famed Hong Kong lyricist Albert Leung (aka Lin Xi) wrote the Chinese lyrics with Wilber Pan himself. Like Jung Hee-kyung, Xianzi sang the song’s chorus and the bridge. But unlike the original, the bridge is shared by both singers and the chorus is mostly in Chinese. Another major difference is that the Chinese version is about falling in love instead of falling out of love.
The Chinese version of the song became really popular not only in Taiwan but also in China. It also found decent success in other places in Asia and even among the Asian diaspora in Western countries. Those familiar with early YouTube might also recognize the Chinese version because the BackDorm Boys lip-synced to it in a video. Despite its popularity, Wilber Pan’s version would also face backlash (particularly from South Korea).
“Wilber Pan plagiarized a Korean song”
If you know how nationalistic Korean netizens can get, then you’d know how this story will pan out (pun intended). Uploads of the song on YouTube were met with comments from K-netizens that were often negative. Those comments ranged anywhere from reminding people of the song’s Korean origins to accusations that Wilber Pan plagiarized Free Style (or failed to pay them). A few of the comments even went as far as to insult Taiwan/China. There were also fights over whose versions of the song is better too. Just look at the comment sections of any upload of “Bu De Bu Ai” and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The comment section under this upload has received some particularly nasty comments. Side note: When reading those comment, I can’t help but think of this clip.
Free Style themselves did not like the fact that Wilber Pan “copied” their song and claimed that he did not pay them. They even went as far as to sue Pan for 10 billion KRW (~ 7 million USD). But from what I can tell, that went nowhere for reasons I’ll get into later.
As for how people in Taiwan (and by extension China) reacted, the vast majority were simply unaware of the song’s Korean origins or did not care enough to be outraged. Many have even mistakenly thought that “Bu De Bu Ai” was the original and were shocked to learn that it was originally a Korean song. This misconception was pretty common among international fans too. At one point, even YouTube shared that misconception as its copyright system mistakenly flagged “Y” as belonging to Wilber Pan. This is a major fandom-enraging misconception for fans of the original and K-netizens.
Disclosure: I myself heard the Chinese version first and I did not know of the song’s Korean origins for a while. When I first heard “Y” by Free Style, my first thought was “since when did “Bu De Bu Ai” have a Korean version?”. I then quickly learned that the Korean version was actually the original.
It should be noted that Wilber Pan did not claim that the song was originally his and that the Free Style members got writing credits for “Bu De Bu Ai”. However, this is far from the first time Pan “copied” a Korean song as he had done that several times before. Most notably, his other song “Adoration To Happiness (快乐崇拜)” was originally “Come On” by the Korean group Turtles. But Wilber Pan is far from the only artist who “copied” a Korean song.
Remakes of a Korean song is something several other Chinese-language artists have also done in the past. Notable examples include “Ai Ni” by Cyndi Wang (Papaya - Listen to my word) and [“Mei Fei Se Wu”]…
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