subdee asked: Sometimes it seems to me like sasaeng fans NEED to exist, to make what the regular fans do (in a controlled way, with the blessings of the promotion machine) seem normal.

It’s definitely all relative, and I’m assuming your definition of “regular fan” includes both people who occasionally watch fancams on YouTube and people who send idols lunch boxes. So yes, for everyone in this range, sasaengs are people we can point to in order to establish where the line is between “normal” and “crazy”.

Because of course, the range of activities that fall under the umbrella of the “regular fan” is huge. Things like airport photos and waiting for idols in hotel lobbies hit that awkward place for me where I’m not sure if, as a fellow fan, I can endorse this behaviour, even though they’re common practice and the fans who do this are generally respectful (with some personal space violation horror stories here and there). I guess that’s more subjective than objective, though, based on one’s personal qualms, and sasaengs are the only fans where most people can agree that there is a line that has been crossed.

I agree that sometimes they seem inevitable, like there always needs to be some percentage of followers of any belief system (fandom being a belief system, in a way) that practices the extreme.

3:35 pm  •  8 May 2012  •  3 notes
#ask #fandom #sasaeng fans #subdee 

Recommended reading: Korean fan (and anti-fan) culture

I recently wrote about international/Internet K-pop fan culture, so the topic of fandom is still on my mind. Here are two recent stories on Korean fan and anti-fan culture:

The Stalking of Daniel Lee (Wired) breaks down the TaJinYo incident that made rapper Tablo of Epik High a recluse for a year, though it concentrates more on clearing Tablo’s name for once and for all than with the psychology behind anti-fan sites (TaJinYo may be all traceable back to a single person’s discontent, but how did it snowball the way that it did?). It will also make you really want to listen to Tablo’s solo album Fever’s End.

‘Sasaeng’ fans: Who and why (Angry K-Pop Fan) unpacks the phenomenon of the sasaeng or stalker fan, and was written in response to recent controversy after a member of JYJ was accused of physically assaulting a woman who may or may not have been a sasaeng. See also Anna of Feminoonas’ response to the JYJ incident shortly after it was revealed.

(I’m working on a big piece of writing right now so I’ve been doing more ingesting than producing, hence the heaps of links and blockquotes I’ve been posting here lately.)

1:03 pm  •  26 April 2012  •  4 notes
#culture #fandom #harrassment #internet #kpop #link #south korea #tablo #sasaeng fans