fandom

Jieun Choi
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Who Is to Blame for the Ills of South Korea's Musical Industry?

At a quarter to ten on a Friday evening, the glass door of a theater in Hyehwa, Seoul, opened, letting out a group of young women. Instead of leaving, they slowly queued just beyond the stone path that led up to the building. They were fans of Mama, Don’t

Andrea Martinez Lopez
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What It's Like to Love "B-list" K-pop Idols

On Oct. 19, 150 people, mostly young women, stood in the cold early autumn air since 6 a.m. for two hours to be ushered inside a building in the far western corner of Seoul. They waited so they could watch the same song-and-dance sequence performed three times by a

Jieun Choi
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Pro-Japanese Roots Haunt South Korean Actor Kang Dong-won

Popular South Korean actor Kang Dong-won is under fire for an ancestor he has never met, about whom he talked about in passing in an interview ten years ago.  In a 2007 interview with Chosun Ilbo, Kang boasted that his maternal great-grandfather, Lee Jong-man, had been a

Katelyn Hemmeke
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Planting Rainforests and Donating Rice: The Fascinating World of K-pop Fandom

For approximately $35,000, you can plant 27,500 trees to help preserve the Brazilian rainforest. But this isn’t just the work of environmentalists — it’s also the work of K-pop fans. It’s a legendary story in K-pop fandom. 2012 marked the 20th debut anniversary of Seo Taiji