10 Utterly Disturbing Ways That Obsessed Fans Go Too Far
8. The Entire Phenomenon Of Korean Sasaeng Fans
Sasaeng mostly relates to the pursuit of Korean pop music stars by highly organised gangs of cheerfully psychotic teenaged girls, the word more or less literally means private life. Sasaeng fans are essentially Beliebers on PCP. For the sasaeng fan, its not just about a crush or an infatuation that leads to unruly behaviour: their obsessive, car crash invasion of the lives of their heroes is an end in itself. You have to understand that K-Pop is not just a cultural phenomenon, but an industry. We mean that literally the manufacturing method that creates a new K-Pop brand makes Simon Cowells reality show pop empire look like the raw, unbridled creativity of the New York punk scene of the mid-seventies. The audition process is ruthless, and the years of regimented training involve signing long term contracts before youve sung a note. Trainees give up their lives and often their schooling to devote themselves to this career when theyre chosen, and live together in close formation like army cadets. In many ways, it takes as much dedication, hard work and sheer willpower to become a K-Pop star as it does to join the Marines. Sasaeng fans are like the nemeses of K-Pop. The most popular boy bands can have as many as 100 full time stalkers after them at any one time. Theyll trace and record private phone calls, emails and text messages; place GPS trackers on their targets cars; install their own surveillance cameras near homes and of course break into houses, steal personal property and attempt to sexually molest their targets. That worrying letter we mentioned earlier, written in menstrual blood and decorated with pubic hair? Sent by a sasaeng fan to a K-Pop idol. Theres even a phenomenon known as sasaeng taxis specialised taxi services that charge huge money by the hour to ferry fangirls around at dangerously high speeds, chasing Korean pop stars. This has been known to cause horrific accidents: one story has nightmarish clone army Super Juniors van chased by no less than eight sasaeng taxis, eventually causing a multi-car pile-up that actually included the stars own vehicle. Sasaeng fans will coordinate and plan together with far more efficiency than most criminal gangs, spending vast quantities of money: if a squadron of ex-sasaeng fangirls ever decided to become international terrorists, the free world would be dust within months. As a consequence of their actions, Korean law has changed to specifically allow for the actions of crazed sasaeng fans, and K-Pop idols have their own official support and counseling centre to help them cope with the worry and stress.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
