K-Pop Girl Group TWICE Performed In Taiwan After 10 Years, An Emotional Homecoming For Member Tzuyu
Thousands of fans gathered to welcome Tzuyu home after a decade since the 2016 incident.
K-Pop girl group TWICE performed in Taiwan for the first time, nearly ten years after a political controversy pushed the group out of both the Taiwan and China markets.
The group, which debuted in 2015 and marked its 10th anniversary in 2025, had never held a concert in Taiwan despite having a Taiwanese member, Tzuyu.
The absence largely traces back to a 2016 incident, when Tzuyu held a Taiwan flag during a Korean TV appearance.
A pro-China Taiwanese singer then accused her of being a “Taiwanese separatist,” and the clip quickly sparked widespread criticism in China.
The backlash led to boycotts of Tzuyu, TWICE and their agency, pressuring her agency to release an apology video in which she said she was “Chinese.”
The video was published just one day before Taiwan’s 2016 presidential election, which ended with voters replacing the pro-China ruling party with a pro-independence one.
Following the controversy, TWICE’s agency paused promotions in both China and Taiwan. The same year, China also began tightening restrictions on K-pop.
For years, TWICE avoided both markets, and Taiwan never appeared on any of their major tour schedules.
This year marked a major shift, as TWICE’s 6th world tour finally included Taiwan, and tickets were sold out within seconds.
Thousands of fans gathered to welcome Tzuyu home for her first official group activities in Taiwan since the 2016 controversy.
"I knew this path would be hard, but I didn’t expect that besides being hard, it would also require so much perseverance," Tzuyu said during the concert. "I didn’t want any regrets, and I didn’t want to look back wishing I had tried more, so I've come this far."
She went on to thank her fans and her members, saying their support had carried her to this moment.
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