[Blog Post #5 Vocabularies & Discussion Questions]

1. Vocabularies

 •superfan : a fan(person) who shows a great deal of enthusiasm for something, such as a sports team or entertainer

 •sasaeng fan  : a sasaeing fan is widely know to be an excessively obsessed Korean Wave fan. Sasaeing fans are mostly female between the ages of 13-17. They are described as extreme fans who stalk their idols and invade their privacy with questionable methods.

 •386 Generation : the generation of South Koreans born in the 1960s who were very active politically as young adults, and instrumental in the democracy movement of the 1980s.

 •Korean pop idol (K-pop idol) : a trained K-pop artist who is usually tutored and presented by a South Korean talent agency. The stereotypical K-pop is “incredibly young, good-looking, and able to carry a melodramatic note”.

 •fandom : a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. This word is formed of the word fan plus the suffix -dom (as in kingdom).

2. Discussion Questions

 •Have you ever met any superfan in your life? Or have you ever been an superfan of someone? What has been your stereotypes about them?

 •What do you think leads someone to be a superfan of someone, especially entertainers, considering that many superfans are in their teenage or twenties?

 •What can be a good effect of being a superfan?

 •What is your expection of the future of the superfan subculture in Korea? In what way would it be change in the future?

[Blog post #4-3 Interviewd by Lee Seung Woo]

[Blog Post #4-3. Last interview by Seung Woo]

 

'A'(false name) - Interviewd by Lee Seung Woo

 

Our last interviewee is super fan of Japanese virtual idol 'Muse'-featured in animation 'love live'. He is university student, and playing piano and guitar in a school band. For him, muse is real 'muse' who give him a musical inspiration. He is really into the Japanese culture and really good at Japanese, but he is not that good at English. So we meet personally before our main interview and make our interview sheet before interview. Because of this, we prepare lots of contents but it only take 10 minutes for interview. And, in this interview, I want to show you the super fan is not that strange person, but just enjoying some special hobby.

 

■Falling in love with 'muse'

He said that he first saw his star on a game about two years ago. He was highschool students that time, and his friends are really into rhythm game. He met her star in that game. He said, the game was so interesting, and at first hearing, he started to love its music. Then he started to watch animation about 'muse', and listened to their music. And, he recommend one of his stars piece, name 'Snow Halation'. which was released in 2012. For he playing the piano in school band, he loves song with piano accompaniment, and it is the song which caught up his ears. In the intro, sweet piano sound was so beautiful to him, and he said he was really inspired by this song for his composition for school band.

 

■Misunderstood about virtual star's super fan

Before interview, I personally thought that super fans are spending lots of money and time for their stars. I wondered why, so I prepare questions about my stereotype to find out the truth.

First, economic part. He has almost every CD of them including their figures. And he watched 'muse' animation movie about 7 times, and went to the concert several times. He even said that he went to the place where on the animation, But, he thinks it isn't that burden to him. He said that it just like doing other hobbies like traveling or watching movies. And, I confirm his argument by checking my spending for hobbies; it was almost same as his spending by fandom.

Second, routine part. He said there are some difference between his star and normal friend. He love his star cause they're true idol for him. He love the star's priceless effort to become a super star. And, since he is doing composition in school band, it really helpful for him to listen to their 'bright', 'hopeful' music. So, he respect them as artists and hard workers, which are what him want to be. And, answering the question about star's rival, he said that many super fans don't acknowledge rival, and its really bad habit of super fans. He thinks fans have to understand each other. He seems that he is not mentally shaken by his stars in daily life.

In this interview, I know that super fans are not living in a depending life for his stars; both economically and socially. They think they're doing some hobbies, not that different from other hobbies like sports or game.

 

■Hardest time as super fan, and his wishes

After we talk about the fan's normalcy, he said that when people consider him as abnormal people, he feel stressed about it. He thinks that only some anti-social fans are causing the stereotype of super fans, and many like him are doing fandom as hobby. Also, he hates that peoples bias that discriminate hobby by their own view, and thinking that chess or sports is sound hobby and fandom is not sound hobby, because of few extremely abnormal fans. He thinks spending time and money to one's favorite stars as worthy as any other hobbies. and want us to acknowledge super fan as someone who is doing their own hobby. And, he also make an additional remark that he hopes people think him as different person, not wrong person.

 

■Meaning of super fan

He said that being a true super fan of his star, means believing 'hope' and 'dream' inside us. Because his star always sings about hope and dream. He first met them when he was third grade of highschool, which is hard time for most of the korean students. But, in this hard time, their hopeful song cheered him up. Since then, he decides to be a one who makes hopeful songs like his stars and sings for people in hard time. And he thinks this is true meaning of super fan; think star as one's role model.

[Blog Post #4-2. 2nd Interview by An Minsook]

[Blog Post #4-2. 2nd Interview by An Minsook]

Wooin Heo - Interviewed by Minsook

Our second interviewee is Wooing who is a super fan of SHINee (a Korean idol singer group). She is a university student studying Business Administration in SNU. This interview was conducted for 32 minutes and she showed her love to SHINee with full heart.

▣ Falling in love with SHINee

 Heo has been a super fan of SHINee for seven years. She said that she fell in love with SHINee as a super fan when she was in high school. She confessed that she began to like SHINee and supported them as a fan as a outlet of her stress from suppressive educational atmosphere. As a normal Korean high school student, she also had to attend additional tutoring after school and studying time Yaja, having no time to cultivate her own hobby or enjoying her leisure time.

 Heo mentioned that the style of the songs from SHINee is really her style - it’s another main reason why she fell in love with them. Since she is an amateur dancer, SHINee’s excellent and magnificent dancing style rather than their songs has been attractive to her and even made her to start dancing.

▣ Her passion as a super fan & feelings towards rival group

 Heo even has visited faraway city Daegu to just attend a tiny ‘high-five’ meeting with SHINee. In that meeting, they didn’t give their autographs or have small talk with fans, but just slapped high-fives for a second for each fan. That was all. But she made it, because she is a big fan of them. She also spends for about 50,000 won per a month to buy albums or support SHINee as a fan, besides from having joined the official fan club ‘SHINee World’. She says that fan club members join the fan club to make their idol feel proud of the scale and the numbers of their fan.

 Heo said that she actually thinks there’s no rival for SHINee. People often set 2PM as a rival group of SHINee, but she, to be frank, doesn’t consider 2PM as her idol’s rival because each of the groups is focusing on different sector - for SHINee, they have different dancing and music style which can be described as ‘cute’ while 2PM has more masculine style, doing some performances like ripping off their shirts on stage and so on. She put an accent on that SHINee is totally different to be compared with ‘so-called rival’ 2PM.

▣ The hardest time as a super fan

 When there were scandals between SHINee members and other female celebrities, Heo said that those times were the hardest time as a super fan of SHINee. Those times even made her feel to quit as a fan, but she survive. She said that many fans quit being a fan when scandal happens because fans, themselves are the people who support SHINee, buying albums and attend fan meetings. Even Heo understands that that kind of love affair can happen between grown-up idols but she wants them to keep it secret, not making it open to the fans to be disappointed.

▣ Several stereotypes and her answers

• “You are ‘otaku’ about idols - being crazy about them!”

→ “We are doing our everyday stuff. We are not crazy about SHINee 24/7.”

• “You guys are just focusing on idols’ life.”

→ “We also go to school, do work, make money as normal people.” (Only extreme fans like Sasaeng fan do such things - and it’s a crime)

• “You are too old to be a (super) fan of idols.”

→ (She didn’t explained about this stereotype clearly, but implicitly, she seemed like she doesn’t care about the age to be a fan of an idol.)

▣ The biggest changes that brought to your life

 Even though there were hard times like the scandal of Onyu, SHINee always inspires her all the time. Watching their videos instills energy and brings inspiration to her. She mentioned that “SHINee makes me be more passionate, enthusiastic person about who I am and what I am doing.”

[Blog Post #4-1. 1st Interview by Chu Junho]

[Blog Post #4-1. 1st Interview by Chu Junho]

Suji – interviewed by Junho

Our first interviewee is Suji who is a superfan of Xiumin, member of K-Pop megahit idol group EXO. She is a university student majoring in Education. In this 34-minute-interview, she couldn’t help expressing her passion toward EXO, especially Xiumin.

▣ Being a Super fan(of Xiumin, EXO)
 Xiumin was not her favorite among EXO members at first. When she first saw EXO, it was through Youtube video and she liked Kai very much who showed gorgeous dance moves. She repeatedly watched the video for about 50 times at once. After that, when she saw some related videos recommended by Youtube, she finally found Xiumin out. He was so cute and adorable so she just fall in love with him at the first sight. It has been two years from then.
 Xiumin is so professional. He works a lot to satisfy his fans, practices very hard and manages himself very well. For example, he was once quite chubby but lost a lot of weight and keeps that body shape for a long time. He inspired and stimulated her. She also exercise a lot and manage diet.
 She has registered in official fan club but not very active there. She said that these days more fans do their fan activity individually. And her monthly expense for EXO is about 100,000~200,000 KRW, although she never goes to any concert or event which cost a lot. Her monthly expense includes even donation to charity in the name of EXO.

▣ Her passion as a Super fan & feelings towards rival group
 She would do anything that her star requests. She even empathize her star’s feeling more than her friend's feeling. For example, when Xiumin feels lonely, she also gets lonely.
 EXO have a rival group named Big Bang. And she couldn’t have enough time to listen to their songs because she had to stream only EXO’s songs for 24 hours to make their song’s ranking go up and let them win the champion prize. She also made a lot of effort to make their number of Youtube viewers go up. But Big Bang has a lot of international fans so their number of viewers is usually higher than that of EXO’s. She even used proxy server to change her IP to make her click be counted more. She did it all day long for two months so she couldn’t even use her PC. Therefore, though she doesn’t hate Big Bang, she doesn’t want to see EXO and Big Bang at the same time on stage because in that case, both fans must get very exhausted by doing that kind of works.

▣ The hardest time as a Super fan
 When her second favorite member Luhan left the team last year, she was so shocked so she was absent from all classes for two days and couldn't even drink a drop of water for three days. When the news article that tells Luhan will leave the team was released, her close friends cheered her up by sending not only text messages but also some gifticons because they all knew that she was a super fan of EXO and worried about her. Until now, she still has some of Lunan’s photos in her phone. But she doesn’t want him to join EXO again because he broke Xiumin’s heart. Xiumin is her living standard.

▣ Several stereotypes and her clear answers
 There are several stereotypes that people usually put on her and she frequently faces them. So in this interview, she clearly answered them all!

○ Stereotype 1: “You’re wasting money and time on idols.”
● Answer 1: “As others have their own hobby such as watching dramas, going to classical concerts, it’s a part of my cultural life.”

○ Stereotype 2: “They don’t mean anything to your life.”
● Answer 2: “Actually they do! They’re my energy fountain.”

○ Stereotype 3: “Xiumin will not go out with you.”
● Answer 3: “That’s very humiliating for both Xiumin and me. Xiumin cares a lot for his fans so I don’t want people to disparage his passion towards fans. And I don’t want to date with him. It’s quite different from that feeling. I want to keep him in my pocket and raise him!”


○ Stereotype 4: “You’d better devote yourself to your parents rather than the star.”

● Answer 4: “Take care of YOUR parents. It’s none of your business. And I’m quite sure that I do more to my parents than you do to your parents.”

▣ Her wishes…
She don’t want to be characterized just as a Xiumin’s super fan. Being a fan is just a small part of her life. She has many more aspects. Below are her last words about the people who criticize super fans. 

“The fact that they don’t watch TV or listen to idol music or like idols doesn’t mean that they have a higher cultural taste. They’re not anymore classic than us. They’re not superior to idol fans.”

[Blog Post #3 More Research]

Blog Post #3 More Research


1. Miranda Kerr superfan has surgery on eyes and nose to look like her idol

A Korea woman who want to be an international model did plastic surgery several times to look like her idol Miranda Kerr. This article shows how a superfan can do something extreme for her/his idol star.

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2642787/Miranda-Kerr-superfan-surgery-eyes-nose-look-like-idol-says-modelling-career-taken-result.html#ixzz3odtWOA62

2. Biggest Fandoms in K-Pop

This Youtube clip shows the definition and history of K-pop fandom. Also the casts talk about how large the fandoms are, what they do for their stars, how they live their daily lives as a superfan of K-pop. 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0n3OwKkT1Y

3. Fandom Life in Korea

This video is about the fandom culture in Korea. This video was directed and taken by some international exchange students who studied or are now studying in Korea.(from Brunei, Singapore and so on.)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj4UzjIR_WM

4. 7 Things That Make K-Pop Fans Unique

Title of this article says '7 things' but actually this article contains 8 things that make K-pop fans unique. We can see how their activities changed their lives.

• http://www.koreaboo.com/interactive/7-things-that-make-k-pop-fans-unique/

5. KPOP 101: Kpop Idol Fans, How to Become a Kpop Fan

In this video, a girl is talking about kpop idol fans and how to enroll in a kpop idol fan club as well as tips on how to be a good kpop idol fan.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usOLHWDXvGk 

[Blog Post #2 Interview Question]

 

#Suppose that we know the interviewee's star, we may start the interview with star's song

 

0. Opening question

-Hello, Nice to meet you. Have you ever heard of this song? ~

Yeah, it is 00's song. I heard that you are a huge fan of him or her.

 

1. Basic information question about super fan

 

a) How did you fall in love with your star?

 

b) How long have you been the fan of your star?

 

c) Can you recommend one of your star's piece?（music or movie?/)

 

2. Question about stereotype

a) Please tell me about the extreme thing that you did as a superfan.

 

b) How much money do you spend for your star monthly? Like buying some album, or going to concert?

If so, isn't it costing too much for your routine?

 

c) Do you think there are some difference between your star and normal friend?

If so, what is the main difference?

 

d) Does your star have rival? or competitor?

If does, what feeling do you have for that rival?

 

e) Do you work in the fan club?

If so, how long do you usually participate?

 

f) When was the hardest time for you as a super fan?

 

3. Finalizing question

a) What stereotype do you think that others put on you as a super fan?

 

b) What is your family/friend's opinion about your activity as a fan? Why did they have such opinion?

 

c) What image do you wish to be seen by other people?

 

d) What's the meaning of being a fan of your star? And, what was the biggest changes that brought to you so far?

 

*Is there anything more you'd like others to know about you or this subculture?

 

 

[Blog Post #1 Introducing Our Project]

[Blog Post #1 Introducing Our Project]

A. Group Members

Our team is consists of three SNU students who interests in subculture ; especially ‘Super fan of famous stars’. To introduce our members : Choo Joon Ho (Majoring in Geographic Education), An Min Sook (Majoring in Liberal studies), Lee Seung Woo (Majoring in Liberal studies)

B. Project Topic : Super fans of famous stars

Our group is focused on researching super fans, especially of famous stars. In Korean, it is common to find teenagers or young guys/girls who really like certain stars. They are even sometimes frantic about their singers, movie stars, etc,. Some run online fan sites, see off their stars at the airport, and post them on the internet. Still, in real life, their identities are often hidden not being revealed - because of several stereotypes that common people have. Our group decided to research them, interview them to try to understand as they are.

C. Common Stereotypes & Labels about Super fans of Idols

1) Super fans have difficulties in conducting their daily routines (e.g. studying) because of supporting stars.

2) Super fans spend too much money that they sometimes cannot afford, to support stars.

3) Super fans remembers the anniversaries of their stars more than themselves' family birthdays or anniversaries.

4) Super fans get indirect happiness or pleasure though their stars, or they do.

5) Super fans often feel shameful to reveal that they are super fans of som stars.

6) Super fans are actually those people who have lack of affection from deep in the mind and they are craving to feel love by doing activities for stars.

7) Super fans hate the other stars who are competitive or rivals of their stars, without proper reasons.

8) Super fans are keen to know every schedule of their stars' schedule, even though it's private.

9) Super fans' social activities are concentrated on participating in the gathering of the fan club members.

10) Super fans admire their stars abnormally or even worship them.

E. Preliminary Research

1)

http://www.arirang.co.kr/Tv2/TVCommon_NoStaff_Archive.asp?Prog_Code=TVCR0635&MENU_CODE=101877&view_seq=14498 

(33mins ~ 44mins)

: The evolution of fandom. (Exo’s extreme fan and fandom’s characteristics nowadays)

-This video shows the evolution of fandom. Nowadays, many super fans want to be assimilated with Stars. For examples in the video, superfans want to experience same time which their stars had experienced. Moreover, they want to commemorate their stars by doing some social donation. It seems that every superfan is not that negative. But, it is quite sure that superfan’s life is effected by their stars.

2)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasaeng_fan

-It is the Dictionary definition of ‘Sasaeng fan’ : The superfan who is highly obsessed with their stars, almost like stalker.

3)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_wannabe

-This article shows  the emergence of new trend ‘Madonna wannabe’ ; the person who wants to dress like ‘Madonna’.

4)

http://www.koreatimesus.com/extreme-exo-fan-arrested-for-fraud/

-Many superfans lose their life’s balance cause of their stars. They lose lots of money and time to follow their fans. So, they sometimes commit a crime for their survive. In that case, it is confused that do we have to concede that they are the fans of stars? Or just a ‘Stalker’?

F. Our Plan

We are going to find some super fans of stars at least two to interview and we will also find at least one or two who are acquainces of super fans as their family member or friend. In two weeks(the second week of October), our interview must be finished then. In three weeks(the third week of October), we will conduct additional interview if necessary or tidy up informations we get from the previous interview. Then we will have our presentation in our class. We will try to keep objective viewpoint when we carry interviews with super fans. We hope it to be useful and interesting experience for all of our classmates.