Tag Archives: fans

Korean Culture

Why are K-pop fans so unattractive?

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Now this post may upset people so I will ask the question straight away:

Why are so many fans of K-pop music so freaking ugly?

If you think about it, the fans you normally see listening to k-music, attending concerts or looking at fan merchandise are hardly attractive. But when it comes to the musicians themselves, it’s a different story.

I did a search online and it seems there are other people who have noticed the same thing. Here is a sample quote:

Even in countries who have the most prettiest people, only ugly people like kpop. Like you’ll rarely find a pretty kpop fan.

I kind of agree with the post. This isn’t too say that attractive people don’t listen to K-pop, of course they do. But the bulk of K-pop fans are strange looking and nothing like the idols themselves. I saw in Korea that the fans who were waiting outside the offices of JYP’s offices in Cheongdam-dong were mainly older and less attractive than typical Koreans. And when I went to the busking area of Hongdae the international fans were all overweight and unattractive.

I’m not shaming anybody, I’m just pointing this out because I consider it of note.  And if you don’t believe me, have a look at this photo I took on my phone in the Dunkin’ Doughnuts opposite JYP in Gangnam:

k-pop.jpg

Korean Culture, Personal

Why I don’t like Korea fans

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What’s your passion? Is it an interest that you enjoy sharing with others or is it an activity that you pursue alone? Maybe you enjoy meeting up with people who also share your passion.

Or is it difficult to find someone who likes the same things as you? I am a huge fan of Korea and if I wanted to I could attend many meet-ups for fans of Korea. But I choose not to. Here’s why. I already know what I like about Korea. I’m not really interested in listening to what others have to say about it. Maybe they know more than I do, or maybe they don’t. But I know from painful experience that it can be frustrating to listen to others drone on about something which you care about. It’s also why I don’t enjoy book groups because I find myself disagreeing when ever someone shares their opinions on the book, or I can’t understand why they don’t like it for the same reasons I do.

That’s why I don’t bother attending any fan meet-ups that I see advertised on Facebook. I’m very happy watching Korean films whenever there is a festival, but I’m not interested in hearing what any non-Korean has to say about them. Sometimes a passion shared is a passion weakened.

I went to a Korean language class and it was terrible, because it was full of people talking about Korea but they didn’t know anything. If I want to learn about Korea I will do it by getting to know other Koreans. It’s the only way as far as I’m concerned.

This year, I will be visiting Korea for the first time. I heard that it’s really cold in winter. So maybe there will be fewer foreign tourists. Well, I can only hope…

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Female K-fans: are they ruining things for the rest of us?

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Sometimes it’s not easy to be  a fan of Korea. The language is very difficult for one thing. The country can be hard to understand and the people can be fairly intolerant of foreigners (not all, but definitely some). What makes it really difficult are the many fans who seem to like Korea because of the recent Korean wave, known as Hallyu. The popularity of Korean dramas and pop-music has led to fans calling anything Korean  K-something or other: from food to dramas.

I don’t hate K-pop, I think it’s enjoyable if inane part of Korean culture. I like the old traditions and I don’t think that K-pop, or K-drama has anything of value to say about Korean culture. That hasn’t stopped seemingly thousands of fans from making annoying you-tube videos with pop-up emoticons and sappy music. Most of them are extremely boring  They also try and copy Korean behaviour such as age-yo, where every expression is exaggerated and baby-talk is used. Most korean women rarely act in this way but that hasn’t stopped them from adapting it in a bizarre piece of cross-cultural appropriation.

Korea has a rich history dating back thousands of years but most fans (they seem to be mainly female) seem to think Korean culture starts with Girls Generation and Super Junior. I would be surprised if someone based their love of England on songs by the Spice Girls and Take That.

Although I enjoy learning about Korea (I’ve read several books about its history) I don’t think everything that has come out of the country has done in recent years has been great. However these fans are making me wonder if I should start loving a different Asian country (like Japan) instead.