[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.”
▣ 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.”
Thanks for interviewing the superfans and sharing with us the wonderful stories. I wanted to comment on all three of your group's interviews so I'm leaving a comment on the last one. The interviews had something in common that interested me and had the chance to reflect on myself. Before reading the interview, I think I had a hidden bias about them. I just thought their fan activities were sort of useless and waste of money. But I realized for other people, being a fan was just a hobby and I couldn't realize this before. On my own, I was judging other people's hobbies about which are good which are bad. From reading the interviews, I felt that I have no right to judge such a thing and I should respect other people. This interview helped me think of superfans in another view.
ReplyDeleteWow. Sure everyone has a right to his or her opinion, but sometimes you can't help but come across instances where there is so little room for empathy. This is one such a case for me. I can't find a single positive aspect in immersing oneself so strongly into a person - so far detatched from reality both locally and emotionally. In my opinion, k pop artists are cultural 'commodities' strategically 'produced' and marketed for 'consumption'. I strongly disagree with the interviewee's statement that her attachment to her 'idol' and activities thereof are no different to any other hobby or interest. Feeling respect towards a person is natural and idolising them for their respectable traits is not something to blame; but I believe it is important to remember the fact that these so called 'idols' are individuals specifically rendered purely for the purpose of attracting such emotions. Enjoying the 'commodity' is different to letting it adversely affect your life. It would be unfair to generalise the entire culture of fandom as obsessive, but in such cases as this interviewee I believe fandom can be unhealthy and grounded upon mislead beliefs.
ReplyDeleteWow. Sure everyone has a right to his or her opinion, but sometimes you can't help but come across instances where there is so little room for empathy. This is one such a case for me. I can't find a single positive aspect in immersing oneself so strongly into a person - so far detatched from reality both locally and emotionally. In my opinion, k pop artists are cultural 'commodities' strategically 'produced' and marketed for 'consumption'. I strongly disagree with the interviewee's statement that her attachment to her 'idol' and activities thereof are no different to any other hobby or interest. Feeling respect towards a person is natural and idolising them for their respectable traits is not something to blame; but I believe it is important to remember the fact that these so called 'idols' are individuals specifically rendered purely for the purpose of attracting such emotions. Enjoying the 'commodity' is different to letting it adversely affect your life. It would be unfair to generalise the entire culture of fandom as obsessive, but in such cases as this interviewee I believe fandom can be unhealthy and grounded upon mislead beliefs.
ReplyDeleteAs I have mentioned in another post, I was once a super fan of a certain K-pop idol group myself, so I relate to the interviewee in so many ways. When I was obsessed with them I too, spent all my allowance on buying their albums and commodities.
ReplyDeleteHowever, unlike what the interviewee said, I don’t think that my activities as a super fan was anything like a cultural activity. Being a super fan has nothing to do with your brain, but more with your heart(sounds lame, I know). Although they might have been a special type of product made by the entertainment industry according to JongHyun, the way I consumed that product was nothing like me going to the movies or to art exhibitions. I did not voluntarily chose to consume them, rather I was in love with the product itself so I had to consume it. (Maybe I was more of a super fan than this interviewee)
I'm Hye Jin!:-)
DeleteThank you for your interesting interview! I could change my thought about ‘superfans’. Frankly speaking, I thought the fandom as a distorted ‘love’ for him or her. I thought fans really like or love their stars sincerely and I thought that was the reason why many fans leave when there were scandals to their stars. After I saw the interview, I could accept fandom as just a hobby. I was surprised the interviewee said, “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!” Of course, I don’d know what that ‘feeling’ is, but I could embrace it as a hobby because I had a lot of hobbies, spent a lot of money for buying equipments, and even respected experts who are noted in that field. I think fandom is similar in yearning as another interviewee said.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your interview. It was very shocking interview for me. Actually i'm not a fan of any idol group, so i could not agree with her feeling very much. I could feel her feeling or passion toward EXO even though i didn't interview her. I don't really agree with spending too much time or effort on idol group but i do respect her passion toward EXO...
ReplyDeleteSo interesting to me. Because I have no friend who is fanatic, I can't imagine how he/she thinks or behaves when some special situations happen to his/her stars and furthermore regarding stars as himself/herself. As it is shown in this interview, many superfans seem to feel better as they are thought to be more closer to their stars. Though some people criticize them just because fans are living in a fantasy or wasting their life and time, I don't agree with this opinion. Rather, I partly agree with Suji's. Against such questions, she toughly answered as 'mind your own business'. Yes. It's correct. They don't invade us. They don't attack people. Unless they do, we shouldn't care about them. Maybe it's different about 'Sasaeng Fan', though.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your vivid interview. You deliver it very vivdly I think. I belive she is very senstive to her idols. And EXO affects her life very much. I also have some stars I like, but I don't feel the same feelings toward them like her. However, It seems not strange. It's just her own preference and a way to love her idols. In some sense, I envy her because, she finds real fountaion of energy in her lives.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how other people think, if stars have positive effects on her, That's all. No one has right to blame someone's hooby as long as it do not harm ohters.