Before reaching stardom, 34-year-old Australian K-pop star DPR Ian — Christian Yu — was in Korea with $300 to his name; without a home and sleeping in bathhouses.
“I didn’t want to tell my mum that I failed … so I stayed,” the global pop star tells The Feed.
His mum gave Christian a two-month ultimatum to make it work — and having uprooted his life at 19 to move to Korea to join the booming breakdance community and to explore his Korean roots — he was determined to do just that.
Christian barely knew the Korean language or culture before he was scouted by chance on the streets and thrust into the world of K-pop; having previously been a dancer and a member of a metal band in the NSW city of Wollongong.
After impressing in the following audition with his dancing ability, he became a K-pop trainee and was then signed as an ‘idol’, an industry term for a pop celebrity in Korea who is signed by an agency and given a tailored public image.
As Christian’s career progressed he left the “gruelling” K-pop idol management system to work independently, amassing millions of monthly Spotify streams as a solo artist. His clip Don’t Go Insane has 42 million views on YouTube at the time of writing.
But the intense industry proved difficult, flaring up Christian’s bipolar disorder and dissociative identity disorder (DID) — a condition that means he can experience a completely different personality, or ‘alter’.
“It’s living with another ‘you’ that you had no idea about … it’s completely separate from who you identify with,” he says.
“Those events were definitely enhanced by my idol days.”
The growing K-pop movement
The $15 billion K-pop industry reached a worldwide audience in 2012 with PSY’s hit Gangnam Style. The song amassed over five billion YouTube views and is thought to have brought the genre into global recognition. And the meteoric rise has continued.
K-pop streams increased by 362 per cent in the global market and 182 percent in the US in 2023 compared to 2018, according to Spotify data.
The genre-blending music incorporates anything from dance, electronic, hip hop, jazz to reggae — and acts such as BLACKPINK, Jimin and Jungkook have all broken one billion Spotify streams.
But despite the glitz, the industry has a notorious reputation for being brutal, which Christian experienced while starting out.
The dark side of the K-pop industry
There has been a series of suicides in the K-pop industry in recent years, which many musicians, fans and media outlets attribute to cyberbullying, unrealistic beauty standards, and industry pressures.
Last year the suspected suicide of K-pop star Moonbin, 25, sent shockwaves through the industry.
In the years Christian was working his way up, the business was shrouded in controversy over tough working standards and so-called slave contracts, where young trainees signed into long contracts were underpaid and overworked.
His then band, C-Clown, was formed in 2012.
“Back in the 2010s, it was at its peak era of slave contracts … it’s just so shady,” he says.
“I thought [the industry] was inhumane. But that’s literally the life that trainees live.
There have since been reforms to prevent the prevalence of slave contracts but Christian’s time dealing with it left marks.
“You don’t know that gruesome and gruelling side of that life [before you commit] because no one really tells you.”
“You just think, okay, the minute I’m an ‘Idol’, it means I’ll be an immediate success … which is not the case,” Christian says.
Christian Yu experienced the K-pop industry “slave contracts” before breaking into global fame. Source: Supplied
Christian’s “trainee days” involved daily 5am starts: “practice, practice, practice”, working late into the evening and doing it over and over again — so much so that he had no time to adjust to a system which he described as “militaristic”.
Running just a minute late to practice meant members would have to kneel on the floor in a corner “in time out”.
Christian Yu started his musical career as a dancer and performing in metal bands in Wollongong. Source: Supplied
How K-pop industry pressures played into DPR Ian’s conditions
Christian lives with DID and bipolar disorder — the latter which, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, affects 2.2 per cent of Australians aged 16 and over — or 568,000 people.
While Christian channelled DID into his art, through “switching” into an alter, “Mito”, who features in much of his music as a representation of darker times, he says he was unprepared for what the life of a mega K-pop star entailed.
DPR Ian’s alter “Mito” features in much of his music. Source: Supplied
“I never really get a choice of when that [DID] takes a turn and you just keep going back and forth from that persona,” he says.
“The first time I showed Mito to the world was a music video … that’s actually me switching — that’s not me acting.”
After leaving C-Clown, Christian took the plunge and became an independent artist — a leap that many former K-pop stars struggle make successfully.
Having experienced the darker sides of the industry, he launched the label “DPR” — ‘Dream Perfect Regime’, the first part of his stage name — in an effort to support other independent artists.
“Getting the backhand of that [the K-pop industry] just did something to me,” he says.
He says for every group that manages to make the training pay off through success, there are many others that don’t.
“You have all these other hidden layers of groups that don’t even make the line — and there’s about a hundred of them or more that you just don’t know about.”
Reflecting on his regimented ‘idol days’, he wants DPR to be different — “I want the quality of life to improve for the people in DPR. It’s as important as it is to the people that we do it for.”
Christian, who is now based in Los Angeles, recently toured Australia as part of a second world tour and is trying to carve a new blueprint for the industry.
“But for me, it’s always about building the team within. So the world within has to be more foundationally strong for this to it to achieve an ever long lasting, I guess, longevity.”
“I think being an idol taught me what I shouldn’t do,” he says.
He says being surrounded by a close-knit community allowed him to express his vulnerable side without fear of judgement.
“I love giving back to the world, but I know how much it takes … that’s why I surround myself with good people … it’s about building the team within,” Christian says.
“You don’t want to show that vulnerability — but you have to.”
Readers seeking crisis support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged up to 25). More information and support with mental health is available at and on 1300 22 4636.
