Posted by Ming in Shanghai

p.s. Please allow me to say something objectively for Rain here.


1) To those who asked “Who the hell is Rain?”

It’s understandable that you have never heard of Rain, because he may notcatch a lot of western media attention in an era of Americansdominating the entertainment industry even though he is widelyrecognized as the hottest artist in Asia. It is just like we’ve neverheard of Stephen Colbert before because there is no television coveragefor his show over here in China.


2) To those who said “Rain is nobody but a simple entertainer”

First, we have to admit that entertainers play an important role in oursociety and bring us a lot of happiness, joy and harmony, which is oneof the reasons why they have been attracting tremendous mediaattention. Entertainers could also become great people with greatvision and great personalities.

Second, Rain is truly aninspiration to many people besides being an entertainer. Rain did notgrow up in a honey pot as the majority of today’s youngsters did. Hehas gone through lots of hardships in his early years such as hunger(he once didn’t eat for 3 days because of no money for food), losinghis beloved mother (his mom passed away when he was only 17 as thefamily had no money to give her proper medical treatments in time),being rejected over ten times in his auditions (only because he doesnot have a good looking face and double eye lids) so on and so forth.But Rain was never dismayed. On the contrary, he practiced day in andday out and worked even harder for his dreams and his promise to hismom.

His endless effort, endurance and modesty finally paidoff! If you doubted that why there are thousands of people voting forRain as one of the most influential people in their lives, now youshould get a clue. It is not only his music or dancing but moreimportantly his spirit and personality that have inspired so manypeople and set Rain apart from other singers/actors.

3) To those who said “Rain is just a horrible singer/dancer”

I would rather say that Rain is not only a “horrible singer/dancer”, butalso a “magic witch” because it seems to be the only way to justify whyRain has achieved so many significant awards in Asia such as MTV AsiaGrand Slam, secured top honors in all the Asian countries whichbroadcast MTV Asia and become the first Asian artist ever to holdconcerts at the Madison Square Garden in New York within such a shortperiod time since his debut while he is singing/dancing so horribly!

4) To those who said “Rain is just an Asian Omarion”

Although Rain makes similar music in terms of genre as Omarion does, growing upin a totally different cultural background gives Rain a different tasteand style. He’s got some unique and gentle Asian elements in his musicand performance which black or western artists do not possibly possess.As we can see, Rain is striving to build a bridge between the east andthe west, promote effective cultural exchanges and introduce Asian popmusic and culture to more western people.

5) To those whoasked “What has he done for our society and the human race or anythingof use that will help make our lives better?”

I think thebiggest contribution that Rain has made to our society is that he setan example for young people—our future! As a young superstar, he leadsa very healthy life and is very far from scandals and bad behaviors.His growing path has taught young people that they should beself-disciplined, tenacious, persistent, sincere and humble to achievesuccess on the way of pursuing their dreams.

Besides being arole mole, Rain has been doing lots of charity work such as holdingphilanthropic concerts to raise fund for the disabled, donating forAIDS patients, building wells to provide pure water for over 60,000people in Cambodia, buying stationeries and entertaining equipments forpoor children in Korea, donating and visiting orphans in Taiwan,visiting and comforting patients in hospitals, helping clear up the oilspill in TaeAn under very cold temperature, you name it…

6) To those who said “Rain is simply just a pop star. He never influenced the public to take positive action to a cause.”

Youare so wrong! Although Rain kept a low profile while doing charitableand voluntary work, his fans knew everything about what he has done.Thanks to Rain’s influence, his fans have been following in hisfootsteps. His fan club in China launched “Cloud Project” in 2006aiming to raise funds from Rain's fans (known as Cloud) and assistgirls deprived of education from poverty-stricken regions of China toreturn to school. On March 22 2008—World Water Day “Cloud Project”launched another program, donating and helping people who are sufferingdrought in north-western China build water tanks to collect and purifyprecious rain as their drinking water. His fan club in the US sent thedisaster fund to TaeAn for clearing up the oil spill after hearingabout Rain’s voluntary deed in TaeAn early this year. Officials inTaeAn said because of cold weather, the numbers of volunteers weredecreasing every day, but after the news of Rain's good deed, thenumber of volunteers and donations were starting to grow… These arejust a couple of examples of what Rain has done and how he hasinfluenced the public.

7) To those who said “Rain was not qualified for the list because he cancelled numerous concerts in the past year”

Itwas true that a few Rain’s concerts in the US were canceled last yeardue to various reasons. During that time Rain was still a contractsinger within JYP (Rain’s former agency company), he didn’t have anycontrol whatsoever over where to hold the concerts, who to manage theconcerts who to promote the concerts and so on. What he could do was toget himself well prepared in terms of singing and dancing and todeliver the best performance as possible for the audience.

Imagine:when a dedicated young man finally got a chance and was about to showhis works which he spent years of time working on, suddenly themanagement told him “the concert has to be canceled as the stage is notready yet”, do you think it is fair that this young man should take allthe responsibilities and bear all the blame?!

Although it wasnot his fault at all, Rain actively reflected on himself instead ofblaming others and was also able to learn lessons from other’smistakes. In order to have the right to make decisions, Rainestablished his own agency company soon after his contract with JYPended last May. He also opted for the best strategic partner- WMA theworld’s largest talent agency to assist him to develop the US market.In fact, everyone makes mistakes, but we should not be merely focusingon mistakes themselves, we should look at whether this person is ableto learn from those mistakes and able to make progress in the future.Am I right? Apparently, Rain made it!

8 ) To those who suspected that Rain’s topping the list through his fans voting several times

Asia,as the most populated area on the planet, its internet users are nearlytwo times the whole American population according to Internet WorldStats. If you could see how popular Rain is in Asia, you would notdoubt at all that the number of 600,000 or so votes is just a drop inthe ocean. First, Rain fans don’t have to vote several times tooutnumber other candidates’ votes because his fan base is far muchlarger than you could even imagine. Second, even if some of his fanshad voted several times, would it have strongly proved that how devotedthey are to Rain and how much Rain means to them?!

9) To those who considered Rain fans’ votes “frivolous voting”

AlthoughRain’s got a diversified fan base in Asia, a big number of them arestill youngsters. They will be leading and shaping our world maybe 10years from now, more importantly, most of them are from Asia. I thinkno one would deny the fact that Asia is increasingly becoming world’smost significant and influential power in the new century, not only ineconomy but in culture. If you overlook the voice of Asian youngsters,you’ll surely have a risk of being lagged behind.

10) To those who called Rain fans “dumbass” “stupid Asian girls” “idiots” “crazy little kids”

First,if you went to look at who was queuing outside of the box offices forRain’s concerts, you would find out that his fan base ranges fromteenagers, young adults, moms to grand moms.

Second, --Haven’tyou found out that these idiots (as you call them) even know betterabout how to respect other people even if they have opposite opinionsthan those who claim to be intelligent?! --Haven’t you also found outthat they know better about certain common sense - for example oneshould not comment relentlessly on people whom they don’t even knowabout - than those who claim to be cultured?! --Haven’t you even foundout that they know better about basic standards of morality in thehuman society - for example one should not defame or undermine othersin order to reach their own objectives especially by actingfraudulently and disgracefully - than those who claim to bewell-educated and superior?!

We must thank Rain- their idolfor having been such a wonderful role model to them! I was justwondering if more people could be influenced by Rain and his spirit,wouldn’t it be a great thing for the whole world?

We shouldalso thank those people who came up with all the above suspicion andcriticism on Rain and his Clouds for giving the world such a goodchance to learn what influence this young man has created to his fansand to the rest of the world and how well he deserves to be on the topof the list!

In fact, compared with other candidates, Rain isstill very young and he’s still got a lot of things to learn and toimprove himself. But I firmly believe that Rain has the potential fordoing more to the world if the world could give him more chances andmore support! Ladies and gentlemen! Do we have to be so mean anddemanding to such a talented, diligent, upright, gentle and humbleyoung man?!!

Finally to TIME, I think TIME should seriouslygive Rain a big thank for bringing so much viewing volume to yourwebsite and your magazine!

Thanks for taking your time to read my “essay”Wink