fandom
Who Is to Blame for the Ills of South Korea's Musical Industry?
At a quarter to ten on a Friday evening, the glass door of a theater in Hyehwa, Seoul, opened, letting out a group of young women. Instead of leaving, they slowly queued just beyond the stone path that led up to the building. They were fans of Mama, Don’t
What It's Like to Love "B-list" K-pop Idols
On Oct. 19, 150 people, mostly young women, stood in the cold early autumn air since 6 a.m. for two hours to be ushered inside a building in the far western corner of Seoul. They waited so they could watch the same song-and-dance sequence performed three times by a
Pro-Japanese Roots Haunt South Korean Actor Kang Dong-won
Popular South Korean actor Kang Dong-won is under fire for an ancestor he has never met, about whom he talked about in passing in an interview ten years ago. In a 2007 interview with Chosun Ilbo, Kang boasted that his maternal great-grandfather, Lee Jong-man, had been a
Planting Rainforests and Donating Rice: The Fascinating World of K-pop Fandom
For approximately $35,000, you can plant 27,500 trees to help preserve the Brazilian rainforest. But this isn’t just the work of environmentalists — it’s also the work of K-pop fans. It’s a legendary story in K-pop fandom. 2012 marked the 20th debut anniversary of Seo Taiji