Leaving Gao Xiaosong's office, the six girls returned to the practice room, sat in a circle, fell into silence, they have not fully come to their senses, and when they are all sober, they did not cheer and celebrate, but hugged each other and cried bitterly, ordinary people may feel very puzzled when they see them like this, but as long as they understand the hardships they have made step by step from becoming trainees to today, it is not difficult to understand.

Ordinary people just look at the glittering young idols on the stage and are deeply obsessed, but how many people know the weight of sweat behind this light and the bitterness of persisting in practicing for many years?

As the saying goes: three minutes on stage, ten years off the stage.

This broad and profound Chinese sentence precisely reflects the hard work of Han Xing before and after his debut.

In South Korea, there is an artist who has debuted in every 200 people, and in the Korean entertainment industry where the competition is so fierce, how many hurdles do you have to go through all the way before you can realize your dream debut, appear on the stage, and become a high-profile existence.

From an ordinary person to the glamorous star under the lights, the first hurdle is to become a trainee candidate.

Drafts are almost the most common way to become a trainee, and in South Korea, it can be said that there are drafts everywhere, and the most famous selection method is the weekend draft, and some large and small agencies have drafts for the general public every weekend.

In addition, there are TV auditions, as well as auditions for overseas audiences.

As the first person to expedition to the Korean entertainment industry, Han Geng, the overseas talent of the entertainment company was selected.

The scouts of those brokerage companies will generally find future stars in two types of places: one is to dig up young people with training potential and good looks at the scene of large-scale art competitions, and the other is to catch a guy who is so beautiful that everyone is angry on the street, and then stage a business card drama, and then go to the company to participate in an interview through the recommendation of the talent scout.

As for self-recommendation, submit your resume or demo to the brokerage company, the chance of becoming a trainee through this way is very low, unless you are really talented, most of them can only develop into insiders.

Through various drafts, they can finally be selected by the brokerage company, and after all, there are only a few trainees, and most of the teenagers and girls who fail to be selected will choose to change companies to continue to participate in the draft until they are selected as trainees.

No matter which way the trainees are selected, they must go through the interview process of the primary selection and re-selection, and in the interview activities, they need to show their singing, dancing and other strengths, and the most important thing is to be able to be found by the interviewer to be malleable, in order to pass the primary selection.

The company also has strict requirements for the psychological quality and character of artists, and asks questions about them during the screening process to find out whether they have hard-working character and pure and flawless mind.

The selection of ordinary "trainees" in South Korea has reached the intensity of 800 selections of 1, and after layers of selection and interviews, they finally came to the next level, which is also the most cruel trainee stage.

Those agencies generally select 12 to 16-year-old teenagers as trainees of the company, and most artists are signed by the agency for training in primary or secondary school, and the training cycle is generally two to three years, and some even seven to eight years.

The company will first sign a contract with the trainees, and then begin to train, not to mention the most basic dance and singing, but also manners, etiquette, artist quality, psychological courses, followed by language, artistic ability, acting skills and other slightly advanced courses, and even include lyrics, composition, musical instruments and so on.

Those trainees who are still in school, basically go to the company's practice room as soon as they get out of school, practice in the dark and then go home to eat and sleep, or secretly hide and don't go home, and there are many people who practice all night.

This is only close to home, those who are far away, arrive at the company early every Saturday and Sunday, and then go back to school, full-time trainees are basically soaked in the company, because there is no transportation subsidy, so many people can only walk to the dance studio every day to go to class.

Dormitory is also available for trainees who are unable to stay in Seoul or for trainees who are preparing for their debut.

For foreign trainees, there will also be a monthly living allowance, which will be fine-tuned according to the price level in South Korea, which is probably the level of starvation, of course, this money will have to be repaid in the future.

There are also some inhumane rules during the trainee: no leave, no mobile phones, no casual home, no love!

You can sleep five hours a day, but basically trainees don't sleep that much at all, probably only about three hours, teenage children are growing up, and everyone knows the importance of sleep.

In addition, in the early days of joining the company, Korean trainees have to undergo similar militarized training, such as long-distance running, skipping rope, and singing while doing sit-ups, which are all very normal, so Korean artists are trained to bounce on the stage and maintain the stability of their singing skills.

Even some entertainment companies in order to check whether the trainees are working hard, the teacher will prepare a small bucket for each person, and after practicing every day, everyone is required to wring out their clothes, and the sweat must be filled with half a bucket to pass the test.

If it's just hard training, it's nothing, some trainees even have to suffer both physical and mental torture, and the teacher in charge of training corporal punishment of trainees is really common, but the trainees won't resist at all, and apologize while being beaten.

In addition to the overloaded training, the trainees also starved every day in order to maintain their physical shape, and regularly underwent "lens tests" to determine whether they needed plastic surgery before their debut.

This period is largely isolated, like a scientific experiment that has been placed in a transparent vessel by Frankenstein, and is constantly being channeled into a variety of energy sources.

In addition, becoming a trainee does not mean that everything is fine, in the trainee stage also have to be regularly assessed, many brokerage companies will conduct two evaluations a month, a regular evaluation once a quarter, fail to keep up with the progress, after growing up and mature, the physical appearance is out of shape, or the trainees who are not suitable for the company's education method will be brutally eliminated, that is to say, the trainees will face the crisis at any time.

The number of trainees is definitely huge compared to the number of places that can finally debut, so the competition is bound to be fierce, and only after this layer of hardship can you get a debut opportunity, but if you want to become an idol who is popular at home and abroad, you still need to make unremitting efforts after your debut.

Moreover, it is not said that you can become famous after your debut, there are so many artists in South Korea, and there may only be one out of a hundred who can really become popular.

For these six girls, although it seems that they are still far away from becoming popular, being able to cross the boundary of trainees and make a successful debut is enough for many people to envy and envy.

After crying, Park In-jung was the first to hold back her tears and said, "Okay, don't cry, we should be happy, we have worked hard for so long, and now it finally pays off, shouldn't we be happy if it's so difficult!?"

Han Enjing nodded and agreed: "Yes! We should be happy!"

But having said that, the tears were uncontrollable at all, and among the six girls, she was the one who waited the longest for today.

"I still can't believe it's all true!" Park Hyo-min cried tired and lay down on the floor, "Injeongoni, did you just read the contract we signed?"

Park Injing was stunned, and immediately understood what Park Hyo-min meant, although she had never debuted, when she was in the company, she had also seen the so-called artist contract, which was completely a slave contract, but even so, I don't know how many people broke their heads and wanted to get that contract.

In comparison, the contract they just signed made her feel a little uneasy, because it was too generous.

In fact, in South Korea, even if it is a famous artist, it does not mean that there is a financial resource, with the urine of Korean entertainment companies, ordinary people want to join the entertainment company for training, they have to sign a contract, and the content of the contract is that some of the costs of training will be accumulated and deducted from various performances after becoming famous.

This is also why Korean stars are not financially rich, after the debut of some trainees, some brokerage companies will sign an "unequal" contract with them, according to insiders, this contract is generally at least 10 years.

After debuting, the artist needs to repay a huge amount of money to the company, and after the repayment is over, he can sign a revenue sharing agreement with the company, and the distribution of income is generally more than 70% of the company.

In the same situation in Hollywood, big-name brokerage companies will charge 10%, no more than 40%, and for newcomers, the company will take 40%.

What's even more extreme is that some celebrities who become famous just take the salary of an entertainment company, which is equivalent to tens of thousands of yuan a month. And the remuneration from performances, concerts, and commercials all belong to the entertainment company, of course, there is a share of the sale of albums, and the sale of an album can be distributed to the artist, maybe there is a dime.

Someone once saw the backstage where Korean artists rested, it was a mess, and the ground was full of packaging bags of various foods they had eaten, it is said that these people often can't eat anything good, and at the same time they have to face strong physical performances, which is definitely not for weight loss, the real situation is that the living conditions of Korean artists are so difficult.

A member of a well-known group only had his own car a few years after his debut, which is almost impossible among Hong Kong and Taiwan artists, and even Chinese mainland artists, but this car is still bought by himself.

Korean brokerage companies basically have quite high commissions, and most of them appear in the form of combinations, so the money distributed to them is very small, and a lot of this money is used to invest in performances, so there is little left for them to dispose of.

Well, maybe there will be someone who does not bow to fate, becomes famous, and does not know the contract!

No problem, if you cancel the contract, the premise is that you can afford the compensation for the termination, the training fee, and miscellaneous, and you must also promise not to participate in any kind of performance for two years after the termination of the contract.

Well, even if the contract is terminated successfully, South Korean entertainment companies are not like China, they are all jackals, tigers and leopards, once a star is disobedient, they will be blocked on the spot, and TV, movies, and radio will not see this star.

This is the Korean entertainment industry, behind the obvious scenery, there are a handful of bitter tears, not to mention that Korean female stars will be called to be escorts.

In short, behind the infinite scenery of Korean artists, there are many desolations and misery that ordinary people can't imagine, those artists who call for wind and rain on the stage and in front of the camera, in the eyes of some senior executives of brokerage companies, are just money-making machines, and they don't even have the most basic human dignity.

For example, the youngest member of a famous group once wore a mask on stage during a performance, and later an insider revealed that he was beaten by the senior management of the record company the day before the performance, and his face was no longer visible, but he also had to go on stage in this way, and another member of the same group went on stage in a very large concert, because he had been beaten to a fracture by the company's senior management the day before, but it was impossible to cancel the performance, so he could only take a closed injection, and their concert was not like one a day for ordinary artists, but two a day。

These things are very common in the Korean entertainment industry, artists must be prepared to accept punishment from time to time, artists must be "obedient" if they want to be popular, if they do not comply, the company will implement a ban order.

Therefore, Korean artists live very cautiously, work very hard, and endure the "oppression" of the company.

This is also why, the fundamental reason for the constant disputes between artists and agencies in South Korea is completely because of excessive oppression.

After four years in the company, they have seen and heard so much, and the company, the environment they are in now can be described as heaven.

As soon as she entered the company, she had a spacious dormitory, and the company also gave her a large amount of pocket money every month, which was fully able to cope with her food, clothing, housing and transportation in Seoul.

When they usually practice, the company has always been strict with the teacher's corporal punishment and insults them, so to speak, compared to the trainees of other companies, they are completely flowers blooming in the greenhouse.

Thinking about the contract just now, in South Korea, I am afraid that many well-known artists are difficult to get, not only the share ratio is very generous, but the same is true for other treatments, and they are simply treated as top artists.

"Therefore, we should know how to be more grateful, and we must work harder to repay President Song and President Song, and not live up to their expectations!"

Among the six girls, Park In-jung has the strongest sense of belonging to the company, and she is even ready to sign a lifetime contract with the company at any time.

"Yes, we must work harder, otherwise we will all be sorry for the company to give us such a generous treatment!" Park Hyo-min also said loudly.

I have to say that the treatment given to them by the company is indeed worthy of their repayment.

After the excitement gradually calmed down, their topic began to turn to the debut link, just in the president's office, Gao Xiaosong had clearly told them that they would use a variety show to warm up before their debut, and the filming location was also placed in China.

"What the hell is it like in China?"

Park Ji-yeon asked curiously, don't look at South Korea and China as close neighbors, the two countries have been in frequent exchanges in recent years, but South Korean young people's understanding of China is not much better than that of the United States on the other side of the world.

Especially at Park Ji-yeon's age, what she hears is often how backward China is, how poor it is, and such things as Chinese people don't brush their teeth, and Chinese can't even eat enough.

If you want to talk about the impression of China, the most vocal one is Park Renjing, who spent more than three months in Yanjing when she was filming "Struggle".

"I haven't been anywhere else, but Yenching is no different from Seoul, and at night, Yenching is very lively, and things over there are very cheap. ”

"Where's the food!?" Park Ji-yeon is most concerned about this.

Han Eunjing, who was sitting next to her, heard this, and patted her head angrily: "Hey, Park Ji-yeon! We are going to work, not travel!"

Ignoring Park Ji-yeon's aggrieved eyes, Han Eunjing then asked, "Ernie! Just now, the president just showed you the plan of the show, what kind of show are we going to shoot!?"

Park Hyo-min also asked, "Is it like the predecessors of Girls' Generation!?"

The limited variety show "Girls Go to School" recorded before the debut of Girls' Generation made them envious for a long time.

Park Renjing thought about it, but Gao Xiaosong didn't let her keep it secret, and even said: "Of course it's different, the program setting we want to record is much more complicated!"

Park Ji-yeon said anxiously: "Ernie!

"What's the hurry!?" Park In-jung organized his thoughts and continued, "The general premise of the show is for us to go to the Chinese countryside and live there for a period of time!"

When Park Ji-yeon heard this, she hurriedly said, "Doesn't that mean that it's going to take a long time!?

This is also what others are most concerned about, although they have previously envisioned that after their debut, they will also carry out overseas activities like those popular groups, but South Korea is their foundation.

Park In-jeong said, "Did you just listen to the president!? Didn't the president say it? Our debut stage is set for Christmas this year! We must be filming a variety show while preparing to make our debut! I really don't understand what you're worried about!?"

Hearing Park In-jeong say this, everyone was down-to-earth, and they talked about it one by one, and Park Ji-yeon also yelled that she wanted to go back to the dormitory quickly and check the information on the Internet on the Chinese side.

After discussing for a long time, Han Enjing suddenly remembered something, looked at Park Renjing and asked, "Renjing Oni! When are we going to China to record the show!?"

Park In-jeong recalled it carefully and said, "Uh~~~~~~~~ it seems to say ~~~~~~~November 15th, uh! tomorrow!"