There will be blood : the darker side of K-pop fandom

In recent years "Hallyu", that is "the Korean Wave", has been sweeping across the globe. In this essay, the term will serve almost exclusively as the synonym to "Korean music". As every music genre, it has its own fandom, albeit divided in two: domestic and international. The basics of fan culture are virtually simila everywhere, be it Europe, South America or China. South Korea, however, generated country’s own fan culture that, in its extremist behavior, is far beyond any other fandom. The possessiveness of fans, their oppressive attitude towards idols, and the demanding nature of fan circles can all be derived from the deeply rooted idea in S. Korea that a public person has no personal life. Fans, especially female fans, treat their idols as their possessions, belonging to them and them only, and real life relationships of idols are either discouraged or hidden. Whenever caught in the lie, idols need to apologize for having someone other than fans. This leads to creating inter-band pairs being the main pillar of existence for many female fans. South Korea has the problem of accepting homosexuality and the only area where it is fully embraced, is fanfiction writing and "pairing". Fans prefer their idols to have romantic relationship between group members more than with some outside girl who is not them. This behavior, although uncomfortable is not the worst - this area belongs to "sasaeng", the extreme, violent and completely out of control group of stalkers. They are more than just that, they can enter idols’ houses, steal their possessions, take photos, leave bloody letters and chase after idols’ cars. On top of that - they are completely out of the ways of lawful punishment. Korean "sasaeng" is the epitome of the fan culture’s worst nightmare that broke free.