How K-pop stars like BTS’ Jungkook, NCT, and Seventeen’s Woozi have suffered from sasaeng fans – when does adulation turn into stalking?
A recent incident in New York with Iz*One’s Jang Won-young has again raised concerns obsessive fans are going too far to film and photograph their K-pop idols’ every move
Behind many beautiful, wallpaper-worthy photos of Korea’s pop and screen idols are dedicated fansites. The fans that run these sites track their star’s every move and are on hand to get pics of them arriving at and leaving concert venues, airports, award nights, even private social engagements.
An established part of K-pop culture, these fans lug expensive professional cameras around, even tripods and lights too, waiting for their quarry to show.
Most fansites are happy to simply share their photos on Twitter or in other social media channels with watermarks of their own logos, but others may sell their own photos through merchandise such as photobooks or photocards.
In many cases, idols appreciate fansites for the free promotion they get. Often the number of fansites is an indication of the popularity of an idol.
Recently though, some fansites have been exhibiting sasaeng, or obsessive behaviour – for instance when a site dedicated to Iz*One’s Jang Won-young’s, Stay Delight (@staydelight0831), posted close-up photos of the idol in New York on Twitter. It sparked a heated debate as to the photographer’s intentions, mainly because of the close proximity at which the photos were taken. Were they from innocent interest, or did they stray into stalking?
It is often unclear whether such fansites typically start out with good intentions then transition into sasaeng behaviour, or if sasaeng fans pose as fansites to get close to their idols. Either way, with fansites having such huge power, the publicity they bring can destroy reputations just as much as building them up, not to mention the emotional toll that an invasion of privacy can bring. Here are some past incidents when fansites became sasaengs.