MEET THE
B
SASAENGS
eing adored by hundreds of thousands
of fans in Korea and more recently
Western countries is one of the most
lucrative aspects which drive young
Korean’s into the pop industry. However, within
K-pop there is an underlying sub-culture which
has gained publicity as obscene stories have
emerged of fans and their excessive love for
their idols. Their name? The Sasaengs.
"I know they are ripping
me off, but how else can
I keep up with my idols?”
‘Sasaeng’ is derived from the Korean word
“Sasaenghwal” which means privacy, ironically,
as these crazed individuals seem to have no
understanding of this concept when it comes
to the K-pop stars of today.
These extreme groupies are as young as 13
and range up to an average age of 22. They
live their lives around the stars and their
actions, often ruining their education, draining bank accounts and risking lives to get the
idols’ attention. They commuticate with each
other via the Korean version of Whatsapp
‘Kakao Talk’ to find out the stars latest locations and often sleep for just a few hours a
night in internet cafes, where they wake up
and begin the chase again the next day.
Reported obsessive behaviours have included;
installing trackers on the stars cars and
cameras in their hotel rooms, breaking into
their homes and kissing them while asleep to
writing letters to the boy band stars in
menstrual blood and even poisoning their rival
boy band members with liquid adhesive.
13
200 km/ h, run red lights and make
continuous illegal U-turns to keep on the tail
of the fans idols.
‘In January 2011, K-pop idols ‘Super Junior’
were involved in a
seven-car collision as they were
leaving Changi Airport for their hotel.
Media reports said that the collision had
allegedly been caused by 8
Sasaeng fans who were dangerously
tailgaiting the idols minivan’ (Soh, 2012).
This 24/7 addiction to knowing every
detail about the stars takes over the
Sasaeng fans lives, they often lose full time
jobs and therefore in extreme cases resort
to prostituting themselves in order to fund
their stalking. Leading such a desperate lifestyle one would presume money was
restricted for the Sasaeng fans, however
they shell out thousands of dollars to pay
for new services that have been created to
make profit on the rise in popularity of
stalking the K-pop stars.
Such services include illegal taxis. These
vehicles are hired by Sasaeng fans for
sometimes up to five hundred Korean
dollars for nine hours of pursuing the idols
and their management around South Korea.
JYJ’s Yoochoon sneaks around a car park to avoid
Sasaeng’s, not knowing they are taping him
Luckily, non of the group were hurt in the
crash but this begs the question;
as K-pop grows ever more popular how far
will the Sasaeng fans go if they continue to
fail in gaining their idols attention? Does the
need to seek out their attention override a
human life?
If a Sasaeng fan is for some reason unable
to stalk their idol temporarily, there are
services available, similar to a ‘Big Brother’
format that can stalk their idols for them. For
a set fee, such companies will follow the
K-pop stars and report any news and
whereabouts directly to the Sasaeng fan.
The fans are rewarded in a
positive way by the idols that will usually
post an ‘Aegyo’ photograph, a photo of
themselves showing ‘cute waves, smiles and
winks’.
Sasaengs caught on camera lying in the road to
prevent their idols leaving their studio
“I know they are ripping me off, but how else
can I keep up with my idols? I can’t drive in
Korea, and public transport is out of the
question – these taxis know where all the
management companies,
favourite eateries, and hangouts of the stars
are” (Emily, 2013). She also reported these
taxis drive in excess of
B2st’s YoSeob rewarding fans with a typical “aegyo”
pose
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