From a Fan to a Stalker: The Spectrum of Fan Attitudes in Korean Culture Industry

Authors

  • Marta Lewandowska Independent Researcher

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/LL.4.2022.006

Keywords

fan, fandom, idol, Korea, grassroots practices, parasocial relationship, Gilles Deleuze

Abstract

The article characterizes three fannish attitudes among South Korean audience of popular culture – the True Fan, the Ani-Fan and the Saseang (Obsessive Fan) by discussing fan activities and practices. The author puts particular emphasis on the Korean music industry, and its top-down way of structuring and manipulating the fan-object of affection as well as intra-fandom relationships through enforcing models of behavior and interaction with idols among fans. The category of parasocial relationship is key to this analysis as central to Korean pop culture industry; other concepts discussed include bottom-up and top-down practices and Deleuze’s rhizomatic concept of culture, especially fitting for a discussion concerning the fan niche system found in South Korea as well as the interactions between the fandom and the pop culture industry.

References

Cho, H., Chung, S. (2017). Parasocial relationship via reality TV and socialmedia: Tts implications for celebrity endorsement. Psychology and Marketing, 4(34), 481–495. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21001

Coppa, F. (2006). A brief history of media fandom. In K. Busse, K. Hellekson (eds.), Fan fiction and fan communities in the age of the Internet (p. 41–59). McFarland.

Godzic, W. (2001). Rozumieć telewizję. Rabit.

Gray, J. (2003). New audiences, new textualilies: Antifans and non-fans. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 1(6), 64–81.

Horton, D., Whol, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction. Observation on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry, 3(19), 15–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049

Jenkins, H. (1992). Textual poachers: Television fans and participatory culture. Routledge.

Kobus, A. (2018). Fandom. Fanowskie modele odbioru. Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK.

Koreaboo (2018, October 11). 13 extremely disturbing stories of sasaengs that went too far. Koreaboo. https://www.koreaboo.com/lists/13-disturbing-stories-sasaeng-fans-went-far-1/

Koreaboo (2019, May 19). EXO’s Kai exposed two sasaengs following him on Instagram live. Koreaboo. https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/exos-kai-exposes-two-sasaengs-following-instagram-live/

Korea Scouter TV (2019). Ex sasaeng fan tells you why she started and how it ended [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdErFN_rplU

Lee, J. (2019). BTS art revolutnion. BTS meets Deleuze (transl. S. Kim, M. Chae, C. Jiye Won, S. Lee). Parrhesia.

Hi thirty (2012, August 27). Comments about reply 1997 and sasaeng fans. Hi thirty. https://noiha92. wordpress.com/2012/08/27/quote-reply-1997-and-sasaeng-fans/

Scott, S. (2011). Revenge of the fanboy: Convergence culture and the politics of incorporation. University of Southern California Press.

Scott, S. (2019). Fake geek girls: Fandom, gender and the convergence culture industry. New York University Press.

Siuda, P. (2008). Wpływ Internetu na rozwój fandomów, czyli o tym, jak elektroniczna sieć rozwija i popularyzuje społeczności fanów. W: M. Sokołowski (red.), Media i społeczeństwo. Nowe strategie komunikacyjne (s. 239–256). Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek.

Soh, E. (2012, August 2). ‘Sasaeng stalkers’ (Part 1): K-pop fans turn to blood, poison for attention. Yahoo! https://sg.style.yahoo.com/blogs/singapore-showbiz/sasaeng-groupies-gone-wild-part-1-k-fans/

Stanfill, M. (2019). Exploiting fandom: How the media industry seeks to manipulate fans. University of Iowa Press.

Literatura Ludowa. Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture

Downloads

Published

2022-12-30

How to Cite

1.
LEWANDOWSKA, Marta. From a Fan to a Stalker: The Spectrum of Fan Attitudes in Korean Culture Industry. Literatura Ludowa. Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture. Online. 30 December 2022. Vol. 66, no. 4, pp. 91-104. [Accessed 8 January 2025]. DOI 10.12775/LL.4.2022.006.

Issue

Vol. 66 No. 4 (2022)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

1. The authors give the publisher (Polish Ethnological Society) non-exclusive license to use the work in the following fields:

a) recording of a Work / subject of a related copyright;

b) reproduction (multiplication) Work / subject of a related copyright in print and digital technique (ebook, audiobook);

c) marketing of units of reproduced Work / subject of a related copyright;

d) introduction of Work / object of related copyright to computer memory;

e) dissemination of the work in an electronic version in the formula of open access under the Creative Commons license (CC BY - ND 3.0).

2. The authors give the publisher the license free of charge.

3. The use of the work by publisher in the above mentioned aspects is not limited in time, quantitatively nor territorially.

Stats

Number of views and downloads: 832
Number of citations: 0