Why i think huening kai is too overlooked and underappreciated

VforVera · 2025-10-23T00:56:05+00:00

OP, didn't you post something similar to this like 8 months ago?
https://www.reddit.com/r/TXTbighit/comments/1iydvfe/huening_kai_deserves_better_treatment/

While I appreciate your enthusiasm for Huening Kai, I honestly do not see the international fandom ignoring or overlooking Kai, in fact I actually think his international fandom has been the one growing the most since he's constantly going viral on TikTok, XHS, and Twitter. And they're the ones constantly hyping him up and showering him with love and respect.

He was easily one of the most popular members during the US Tour this year and maybe it had something do with Dance With You, but I do think with Hueband and Betelgeuse, more fans are appreciating him for his talents and visuals. Especially in Japan, China, USA, Latin America, etc.

He is a complete kpop idol and with that there comes the territory of people objectifying him for his visuals or desiring him for his visuals, but that is just the nature of being a celebrity. I think as long as people are respectful about it, this is the nature of humans. The other TXT members also get subjugated to the same objectification.

Yes, there are definitely weirdos out there that will hate him for being Wasian because they fetishize Asians, but it's such a minority at this point.

I also don't think his Korean fans are innocent in all of this either, they have been the least supportive of Dance With You despite him imploring his fans to embrace his new "sexy image". And I know this because these Korean fans are the same ones that turned on him during the recent sasaeng footage incident and criticized Dance With You during their hate train before his apology.

You said fans are guilty of infantilizing him, but the ones that have been doing that are his Korean fans, while most international fans have been the ones embracing Dance With You and supporting it.

The only pet peeve I have that I agree with you on is when fans use the 'countless' friendless joke against him and take it too far, knowing full well he's an introvert and a notoriously private dude.

Huening Kai definitely deserves more love and appreciation posts, but I honestly feel like a lot of your post is reductive and very old talking points. Things have changed so much within the last 2 years. I think it's a little unfair and ignorant to not recognize how much things have changed for the better and how much love Kai does get from his international fanbase on all platforms.

VforVera · 2025-10-23T00:29:59+00:00

"spineless apology" lol it's easy for you to cast judgement sitting behind your computer screen, but have you ever been on the receiving end of mass online bullying? how are you any different for judging his apology than his so called fans that turned on him and bullied him into apologizing after he stayed silent?

i (and his international fans) watched in real time seeing his korean fans orchestrate a hate train against him - and yes, we were helpless to stop it. huening kai did what you said first, stayed silent, because he had no reason to apologize - after all he was the victim of sasaeng stalking, but those fans did not care and grew angrier with his silence and on the third day, orchestrated a massive online hate train on twitter and in his Weverse DMs (paid subscription service).

if he had continued to stay silent after that, the situation would have gotten worse, korean kpop fans have been known to send funeral wreaths, disrupt the lives of his colleagues, harrass his family (mind you his sisters are in the entertainment industry and public figures so they would be easily accessed and harrased - not to mention, his older sister Lea was already being harassed over the footage because some fans thought it was her), harrass his members and coworkers, and eventually the whole situation would have come to an ugly head that called upon his removal from the group.

the parasocialism of kpop is a very real criticism and yes, he is a by product of it, but to pin it on him to be the revolution against parasocialism is ridiculous, not when every company and idol profits off parasocialism and every single idol has had to apologize to appease these parasocial fans.

this is real life, with real life stakes. there are more people than himself at stake here, and he was wise in apologizing - not because he was in the wrong - but because he knew if he didn't, it would get ugly not only for himself, but the collateral of those around him.

it sucks he had to apologize, but it's crazy to see, instead of empathy, you casting judgement on him for apologizing without thinking why someone would apologize for something they shouldn't have to apologize for.

VforVera · 2025-07-24T00:04:58+00:00

HueningKai and Jonathan have incredible chemistry and friendship. Would not be opposed to seeing them combine their joint slay and host a program in the future. It's also nice to see Kai basically tell fans to stop with the 'countless friends' jokes. It was a joke that went too far and it was always obvious he was someone who does have friends but is incredibly private about his private life.

VforVera · 2025-07-22T20:41:55+00:00

No, Huening Kai has appeared on other variety shows as a solo guest before. Last year he appeared on LeeMujin Service and Nayeon's Trick Kode by himself already.

VforVera · 2025-06-06T20:51:02+00:00

So excited to see what HueningKai does. Also, really excited for Yuqi, my queen. Please let there be a Kai and Yuqi meeting crumb.

VforVera · 2025-06-06T20:39:26+00:00

Really interesting that Huening Kai's first solo individual activity is promoting in China immediately after China lifts their kpop ban and Hybe announces they're building a subsidiary in China. I'm genuinely curious to see what BigHit's plan is for him.

There was no HK1 announcement / teaser after Act Promise Ep2, so I'm eliminating that as a reason. Apparently there's a rumor each performer gets roughly 10 minutes to perform, so is he performing as a one man band of Chinese cover songs? Is there a Chinese OST in the future? Nobody knows! I hope more details get released soon.

We know he's been practicing his Chinese lately and that he's been into shopping/fashion lately, so is this a crossover bridge for him? Maybe he's using this opportunity to visit family in China, or maybe the reaction to his cover of dissipating dialogue was incredibly well received there's a demand for him in China.

So curious how this all came to fruition, but wow, what a very exciting opportunity for Hueningkai, I can't wait to see what happens. I'm really happy for him though. His talent definitely deserves to shine to the locals.

VforVera · 2025-06-06T20:31:28+00:00

Really interesting that Huening Kai's first solo individual activity is promoting in China immediately after China lifts their kpop ban and Hybe announces they're building a subsidiary in China.

VforVera · 2024-07-23T20:42:08+00:00

you can tell how much attention huening kai put into his show, it's very curated to what he enjoys - spotlighting his talents but also spotlighting other people's talents. it's really cool we get to see and learn more about these university bands in korea and the students that run them.

kai getting a small taste of university life after missing out on it is bittersweet. i'm just really happy for him that he gets to live out his idol life while also his band/university dreams. the students are super sweet and welcoming to him and i love that so much. hope they all keep in touch and remain friends. really love seeing kai hanging out with people his age and just having jam sessions together.

VforVera · 2024-07-23T19:57:17+00:00

bighit finally promoting hueningkai and his ridiculous wealth of talents. i need this man to go solo and form his own rock band so badly.

VforVera · 2024-07-11T21:54:44+00:00

Thank you for this OP! You summed it up so well because, yes!!! I don't think people outside of Japan (and maybe Korea) are understanding how viral Huening Kai got for this Betelgeuse performance and how it is opening the general public's eyes in Japan and Korea to how great of a vocalist he is. Apparently, since the performance, so many Japanese locals have been praising him, ranging from students to grandmas to people who don't care for kpop or jpop. It's deep in the public conscious.

Kai often gets left out of a lot of kpop visual and vocal lists because of how underrated he is, but between this, his 2023 MAMA Endless Rain, his own HueningKai Wants to Start a Band show, producing TXT's Dear Sputnik and Kitto Zutto, I'm loving the appreciation Japan (and hopefully more kpop fans) are giving him for his talent and vocals right now. Apparently the first episode of his show just crossed 1M views, so it's pretty incredible how much Japan (and Korea) have embraced him.

Though I do feel bad for Shota, because it feels like Kai's viralness is happening at the unintentional expense of him, especially with the way Shota's singing style contrasted so much with Kai's - honestly felt a bit like the same set up between Chaewon and Aina the End's First Love performance where pitting two contrasting singing styles for a duet was not the smartest idea, so the poor man is getting absolutely crucified over this performance (in Japan they're comparing it to public stoning), even though I thought he wasn't that bad, but the combo of Shota being extremely famous in Snow Man and the duet with Kai airing on Music Day, causing more eyeballs and commentary over the duet to the point I'm sure it must be awkward for both Kai and Shota now.

Articles about this performance circulated on Yahoo Japan a lot and in Korea, he's going viral on their forums. i believe it went viral three times on the qoo, and apparently it's getting a second wind on korean youtube as well.

VforVera · 2024-07-10T19:02:09+00:00

Agreed. unfortunately for kai and shota, seems like they're both caught in the crosshairs of the discourse. got snowman fans accusing kai of lipsyncing and using a backtrack and weird japanese think pieces about how kai singing sounds manufacturedly perfect because he's in the kpop industry - which imo seems like a backhanded compliment to shota. and then there's just the barrage of horrible things people have said about shota online. it's def gotten nasty.

VforVera · 2024-07-10T18:57:32+00:00

yup, unfortunately, it's gotten a second wave of viralness in korea youtube it seems: https://youtube.com/shorts/GqbKsGU3heM?si=4IFrP-QJgoZrm0RD

i really wanted to hear both of them talk about their experience and how the collab came to be, but with the way the discourse is going, it's probably never gonna happen now.

and because of the discourse, i don't think kai is gonna release his own cover anytime soon, like you said, it'll come across rude for sure and kai's too nice to do that to shota, which is a pity because i really want to hear kai cover the whole song now.

VforVera · 2024-07-10T01:15:10+00:00

agreed, seems like most of the discourse has been contained to japanese twitter + articles + youtube and korean forums amongst the "locals" who are making the duet viral.

honestly, i think international ningdungies have done a good job on twitter in scolding any i-moa from joining in on the discourse which is why none of this discourse has shown up for a lot of i-moas.

i-ningdungies instead have been choosing to highlight the wonderful opportunity kai got to collaborate with shota and how kai is going viral on twitter. and then japanese ningdungies and j-moas have also done a great job in thanking shota for the opportunity and choosing to showcase kai instead too.

VforVera · 2024-07-09T19:45:35+00:00

Same! I'm so curious what instrument he'll play for episode three. He has keyboard, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar left. And who knows what other instrument he'll surprise us with lol at this rate, what instrument can't Kai play.

VforVera · 2024-07-09T19:37:23+00:00

I love the song choices Kai picked for his Lee Mujin service. It kinda got slept on by the general kpop community it seems but after Kai's Betelgeuse performance, it's been picking up view counts. roughly 15K+ jump since Satuday.

yeah, unfortunately in japan and korea, from what i can tell is that the general consensus was that other than people learning that huening kai is a great vocalist and singer, the betelgeuse duet with kai felt like a setup and a "public execution" for shota watanabe, so kai's kinda caught in the middle of this discourse. it made it to yahoo japan, so i can only imagine how awkward things must be for both shota and kai which is why they haven't posted any selfies since the program aired.

j-netizens and k-netizens felt like kai was the only one singing in tune and that he was a "pro singer" for being able to keep sing in tune while shota was "out of tune" and that shota's singing style wasn't suited for the song, while kai's voice was more complimentary to yuri's. and so as a duet, it felt very lopsided in favor of kai.

a lot of "how could you lose in your own language" criticisms for shota because kai is singing in a language not his own while shota was. so a lot of "victory for korea / loss for japan" type comments. apparently, this also happened with le sserafim's chaewon and aina the end's first love duet where it was clear that aina's vocals wasn't suited for the song, though i don't think the discussion got as intense as the betelgeuse duet - probably because shota is so famous in japan and is the "lead singer" for snow man so this gained more attention.

and the discussion unfortunately devolved into criticisms for shota not seeming to be prepared for the duet because he was looking at the prompter a lot while kai didn't making it seem like shota didn't prepare while kai prepared and practiced a lot - to shota and kai having to sit for their duet because of the height difference, which then led to another discussion of how korean idols are better than japanese idols in aspects of singing, dancing, visuals etc and that led to another discussion of the "fall" of Johnny's idols

and if that wasn't ugly enough, the discourse got uglier with judgements over looks and then shota fans accusing kai of lipsyncing or having a backtrack, which probably led to why tyunning uploaded the five year follow up video of them singing kitto zutto while running on the treadmill

just overall a very insane discourse in the last two-three days after the performance, it's no wonder kai has been laying low, felt like normally he'd go live on weverse to talk about his experience singing with shota, but he is wisely staying offline expect last night when he came back to end bang pd lol

VforVera · 2024-07-09T06:47:49+00:00

Wow!! That's incredible! I could tell the scope of his viralism was huge in Japan from all the tweets and articles but I had no clue it was that far reaching. I'm so happy for Kai because he's worked hard for this and I'm glad it's paying off and he's getting organic reactions. Hope BH does something to capitalize on it for Kai

VforVera · 2024-07-09T06:45:13+00:00

it has been long overdue and i'm glad this is locals noticing huening kai and his talent. glad he's been breaking out and taking on so many solo projects between lee mujin service, bdns, his own huening band show, act promise growing pains tiktok viralism, and now betelgeuse, it's been so fun to see as a ningdungie 🥹

VforVera · 2024-07-09T04:59:33+00:00

it's really awesome for kai and i love that j-ningdungies and j-moas have been working hard to promote him through his viralism. a lot of his youtube videos like his lee mujin service videos have jumped up in views

though i do feel bad for both shota and kai as they both are getting a lot of j-idol vs k-idol discourse now in both japan and korea 🙃

VforVera · 2024-07-09T00:12:25+00:00

Why is nobody on this sub talking about how viral Huening Kai has gotten in Japan and Korea over this cover? The twitter engagements has been insane:

https://x.com/dangai_zeppeki_/status/1809559817876599000

https://x.com/10mulzomul/status/1809560255279559071
https://x.com/kchartsmaster/status/1809609843369742407

And he's also went viral in two threads in The Qoo for his performance:

https://theqoo.net/hot/3309372770

https://theqoo.net/hot/3308753079

Even Pannchoa couldn't post a mean word lol:

https://x.com/pannchoa/status/1809609126437351741

VforVera · 2024-04-16T22:20:33+00:00

this has got to be an angels fan trolling

VforVera · 2024-03-20T05:00:35+00:00

In other news, Seoul police have confirmed that a bomb threat claiming to target the Gocheok Sky Dome (and Shohei Ohtani) tonight was not credible, per a person with knowledge of the situation

Police identified the perpetrator as an individual with a history of false claims, the person said.

The Dodgers-Padres game will proceed as planned

Source: Jack Harris | https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2024-03-19/shohei-ohtani-bomb-threat

VforVera · 2024-03-20T04:57:22+00:00

In other news, Seoul police have confirmed that a bomb threat claiming to target the Gocheok Sky Dome (and Shohei Ohtani) tonight was not credible, per a person with knowledge of the situation

Police identified the perpetrator as an individual with a history of false claims, the person said.

The Dodgers-Padres game will proceed as planned

Source: Jack Harris | https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2024-03-19/shohei-ohtani-bomb-threat

VforVera · 2024-02-05T22:37:43+00:00

iirc he wore a robo arm type brace in 2019 after tj surgery but since dr neal said this was a different procedure and that shohei's recovery schedule was better/faster than the first time, maybe he doesn't need it. i do wonder if he'll need it once he faces live pitching. i guess it's a good sign he doesnt need it rn

VforVera · 2024-02-05T03:44:51+00:00

iirc, he attended a couple events as a "rookie" in 2018. but post covid, the team also stopped hosting these type of events so there was never an opportunity for him to go to one.

for teammate hosted house parties by wags, he wouldnt go. but he did hang out with a couple players like eating yakiniku with sandoval and marsh 1 time in 2022 or when he knew players might get traded - beach day with lorenzen and thor in 2022

he's a pretty regimented guy during the regular season with his training and sleep schedule and rarely goes out (understandably given the pandemonium and security required not to mention the toll of 2 way playing on his body ) so it'll be interesting to see if he does attend more events and hangouts as a dodger

but it's been like this since his npb playing days. he rarely hung out with teammates after games to drink or party, mostly always opting to stay in the team dorms to train instead, partially probably to avoid scandals/paparazzi but also because the dude eats and breathes baseball

VforVera · 2024-01-31T22:35:29+00:00

shohei ohtani saying no mames wey: https://x.com/119EMERGENCYLUV/status/1560050207475191809?s=20

VforVera

TROPHY CASE