Deviance and Devotion-Final

!1 Deviance and Devotion: On the Social Subversions of Young Korean Women as Sasaeng Fans Ida Bulölö 10216898 Supervised by Dr. O.K. Sooudi Contemporary Asian Studies Thesis Graduate School of Social Science University of Amsterdam 27.06.2016 !2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank everyone who has guided and aided me in the writing of this thesis. My research would not have been possible without help from many people in Korea and I would like to specifically thank Jiye Oh for helping me with translations and dissecting the research process with me, Chana Lee for all her fan wisdom and general help, Professor Hyun Mee Kim for giving me the opportunity to speak to her and present my research to her class, Jungwon Kim for bringing me to the hidden-away places and her knowledge, Jihyun Jang, Soohee Lee and Jini for their time, research skills and help. I would like to thank Olga Sooudi for her supervision during this process and Tina Harris for her additional comments on my work. I would like to give a shoutout to Veerle Boekestijn for designing the beautiful cover page. I am much indebted to Shai Simpson-Baikie for her great advice. I am grateful for my parents for giving me the opportunity to pursue the things I value. Lastly, I want to thank my partner for his patience and support. I dedicate this thesis to Tante Hemi Oom Roel !3 Table of Contents Index of Idols 4 Graphs of Fan Hierarchy 5 Table of Research Activity 6 Introduction 7 1. Framing Fans and The K-pop Fandom 12 1. On Fandom Theory 12 2. Introducing the Sasaeng Fan 15 3. Producing the Idol 17 2. Encapsulating the Functions of K-pop Fandom 23 2.1 K-pop Fandom as an Ecosystem 24 2.1a The Creator Fans 26 Fan Fiction Writers 27 2.1b The Nanum Fans 29 2.2 Meaning- Making Spaces 30 2.3 Fandom as Social Glue 32 3. The K-Context/ Deconstructing the Sasaeng Fan 35 3.1. Effects of Compressed Modernity 35 3.1a K-pop Marketing 37 3.2. Position of Young Women in a Neo-Confucian Society 39 3.3. The Competitive Society 41 4. An Act of Subversion / Reconstructing the Sasaeng Fan 46 4.1. Spatiality and the Role of Technology 46 4.1a Invasion of the Masculinized Space 48 4.2. Expressions of Female Sexuality 51 4.3. Moral Panic & Legal Repercussions 53 Conclusion 56 Literature 58 !4 Index Favorite Idols of Interviewees Moon Hee Jun Heechul Member of H.O.T, Also member of the first idol group in Super Junior, where South Korea. is became famous Debuted in 1997 for his beautiful, under S.M. feminine Entertainment. His 광 appearance. He (enormous) fan fell for talks about sasaeng ! his humorous and fans on a JTBC smooth talking nature. episode. Shin Hye Seung Sungjong Member of Made his debut with Shinhwa, one of Infinite in 2010, a the rivals of H.O.T. group known for Debuted in 1998 their ‘knife sharp’ but got big after dances. His fan was ! their release the only person I ’T.O.P.’, with a interviewed who is sample of the Swan currently sasaeng Lake fan. Xiah Junsu D.O. Debuted with Part of the biggest DBSK under S.M. idol band at the Entertainment, but moment, EXO. He they broke up after himself claimed that a lawsuit, and he his personality continued with JYJ. changed after DBSK was known incidents with sasaeng ! for their huge fans, most notably sasaeng fan having his underwear following stolen from his home and sold on the Internet. Kim Hyung Joon Member of SS501, who became really big V in Japan. His former sasaeng fan became his One of the most fan after noticing his popular recently ! caring personality. debuted groups, BTS. His fan liked him because he does not seem to adhere to certain male Korean Donghae stereotypes. Part of Super Junior, one of the biggest groups around the 2010’s. ! Nicknamed ‘Fishy’ and very energetic. !5 Both graphs made by author. !6 Table. 1.1. Year of Name of idol Fandom name Entertainme Representation in research debut group nt company • Interview with former 1997 H.O.T. H.O.T. Club S.M. H.O.T. fan (Moon Hee Entertainme Jun) nt 1998 Shinhwa Changjo S.M., Good • Interview with former Ent., sasaeng fan (Shin Hye Shinhwa Seung) Company 2005 SS 501 Triple S DSP Media • Interview with former sasaeng fan (Kim Hyung Joon) 2010 JYJ [no name] C-Jes • Interview with Kim Jung Entertainme Won (Junsu fan) nt • Interview with former JYJ fan (Junsu fan) 2005 Super Junior E.L.F S.M. • Interview with fan (Everlasting Entertainme (Heechul) Friends) nt • Interview with former sasaeng fan (Donghae) • Observation Sungmin’s café. 2010 Infinite Inspirit Woollim • Interview with Infinite Entertainme sasaeng fan (Sungjong) nt 2011 EXO EXO-L S.M. • Interview with D.O.’s fan Entertainme • Interview with D.O.’s nt homma • Observation at Kiss The Radio • Observation EXO’luxion concert 2013 BTS (Bangtan Army BigHit • Interview with V’s fan Boys) Entertainme • Observation Fanclub nt Meeting 2015 iKon iKonics YG • Observation hostel, Entertainme practice room nt • Observation iKoncert 2015 Monsta X Monbebe Starship • Observation ‘Mon café’ Entertainme event nt !7 Introduction A number of authors argue that South Korea (from hereon referred to as ‘Korea’) has been either underrepresented or misinterpreted in sociological and anthropological theory (Kang 2004; Gitzen 2013). Kang (2004) has been concerned with the way researchers have used theories, notions, and definitions that have been articulated in the Western context and readily applied it to South Korean phenomena, creating a ‘colonial’ way of knowledge production. Additionally, Gitzen notes that, although there has been much written on the Korean cultural industries, especially K-pop, this has almost always been done in relation to the phenomenon of the ‘Hallyu Wave’, the spread of Korean popular culture in Asia and beyond. “Yet little research exists that attempts to situate Korean popular culture (especially popular music) within its own capitalist and contextual paradigms and frameworks” (Gitzen, 2013, 7). Considering the subject of this thesis also falls in the realm of Korean popular culture, this comment struck a note with me and has motivated me to contribute something to the wider topic of Korean Studies. This thesis will be an attempt to analyze specific Korean conditions and how these conditions have been an environment in which the sasaeng fan has been able to emerge out of, and subsequently what reflections by Korean society on the sasaeng fandom tell us about Korean society itself. Although I have no pretensions this will be a completely successful endeavor, I very much hope it can be taken as a serious pursuit of the formerly mentioned. In this thesis, I will look a question of how girls and young women position themselves in a capitalist, patriarchal state, through the expressions of fandom. Though it may seem that fandom the central topic, in actuality it functions merely as a looking glass, through which we can understand negotiations of gender dispositions and expressions of youth culture. The research focuses specifically on one of the most deviant forms of fandom in particular and youth culture in general, that is present in the current Korean society: sasaeng fandom. Sasaeng fandom is a specific expression of fan activity that finds its origin in South Korea, specifically in de Korean pop music scene. Sasaeng fans are notorious for their relentless pursuit of the pop stars, or, as they are usually referred to in Korea, ‘idols’. This pursuit does not exist of a merely a literal chase to see the stars, but the main objective of sasaeng fans is to make their presence known to the idol. They employ different invasive techniques such as; physical violence, breaking and entering, stalking, hacking of social media accounts and phone numbers and leaving traces of their presence, in the form of used menstrual pads and the like, at locations private to the idol. There has been a lot of social anxiety around the phenomenon of the sasaeng fan: the general public sees them as an example of the corruption of Korean youth, and fellow K-pop fans do not consider them fans. The sasaeng is essentially deemed to be a ‘Bad Girl’, understood by Miller & Bardsley (2005) as someone: “(…)who is named and then analyzed for the social disruption which, it is hoped, she will contain within her “deviancy”. Her libertine sexuality, her assertiveness, and her perceived disrespect are labeled “behavioral problems” thus sidetracking scrutiny away from such social issues as class inequities, !8 tension in the family system, and the arbitrariness of patriarchal constraints on women” (Miller & Bardsley 2005, 1-2). Though the authors formulated this in relation to deviant girls in a Japanese context, I find that this quote is relevant for all girls and women who grow up in patriarchal societies. In the Korean context, the patriarchy is intertwined with hegemonic notions and ideas that are specific to the Korean locale. It is, for example, informed by Neo-Confucianism and consumer nationalism and in chapter three I will explain this further. But if we consider the ‘Bad Girl’ as a way to describe the subversiveness of young women, can we classify the sasaeng fan as the stereotypical Bad Girl? I attempt to answer this question in the thesis. Research Question As mentioned, I will try to see how the sasaeng fan fits within the Bad Girl trope. Because the Bad Girl trope implies the position of young women in relation to societal forces such as patriarchy, consumer mentalities and the web of social relations, answering this question supports my main question that I have phrased as follows: “How can we understand sasaeng fandom, as a practice, in relation to South Korea’s socio-historic and cultural circumstances?” Consequently, this question will be supported by the following sub-questions: (1) What kind of meaning does fandom in general hold for young Korean girls? (2) What are socio-historical factors that could have contributed to the rise of the sasaeng fandom phenomenon? (3) What are some of the (underlying) motivations that can be formulated around the behavior of sasaeng fandom? Methodology My fieldwork took place over the course of three months in South Korea’s and K-pop’s main arena, Seoul, where I stayed between the 6th of January 2016 and the 29th of March 2016.

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