Sasaeng, K-pop Culture That Never Dies

Still cut Her Private Life (Twitter @CJnDrama)

JAKARTA - Lucas, a member of the WayV group, wrote about his disappointment with Sasaeng on Monday, January 18. The group rapper shared briefly via the feature message Bubble, that when he was shooting for a program, several people followed him.

Apart from Lucas, other members such as Xiaojun and Kun also uploaded posts about the presence of sasaeng. According to them, the activities they do should not be followed, let alone still in winter.

The hashtag #ProtectWAYV began to reverberate on the internet. Fans ask SM Entertainment as the WayV agency to provide protection for its members. Even though the agency has not responded to anything, fans have not stopped writing their protests on social media.

Sasaeng fan (사생 팬) is a term for an obsessive fan. The word sasaeng consists of sa (사), which is personal and saeng (생), which is life. The goal of sasaeng is to get the attention of the idols they are pursuing in the wrong way.

This term was first pronounced by the Korea JoongAng Daily in 2001 during the first generation of K-pop careers. Like other fans, they follow their idol deeply until they break through informal schedules or idol life outside of their career.

In the 2000s, sasaeng sought attention directly from their idols. One thing that fans really remember is the TVXQ group. In 2006, Yunho once received a gift of orange juice drink from a fan, but after finishing the drink, Yunho vomited blood and passed out.

It turned out that the drink had been mixed with strong glue by a sasaeng. This person also includes a letter stating the reason he gave the drink. He said, he hated Yunho. Yunho tried to fight his trauma by collecting all the drinks from the same brand and trying to drink them all.

Evolving Over Time

The K-pop industry has not always been filled with sheer luxury or pleasure. Sasaeng is one of the negative elements in the never ending K-pop industry. As the years passed, the development of sasaeng followed the technology. If in the 2000s most sasaeng activities were done physically, nowadays they can be 'annoying' physically and online.

These people will do various things, such as work at an agency to find out personal information about their idols. Some information such as flight schedules, phone numbers, and application IDs to send messages are busy being traded online to fans.

Not only that, the sasaeng were also determined to follow idol activities unofficially. For example the case with WayV. They are currently shooting but the sasaeng are following the shooting process by waiting in the middle of winter.

There is also a taxi sasaeng, a term for an obsessive fan who follows an idol all day by hiring a taxi. In fact, they do not hesitate to break traffic rules. The large number of taxis has made various idols involved in accidents. Super Junior had an accident that injured Heechul's leg, one of the members. As a result, until now Heechul can't dance anymore.

Entering the idol's house is also done by many sasaeng. A number of idols such as Chanyeol EXO, Henry, Block B, GOT7 and others wrote via social media because many sasaeng were waiting or trying to enter their homes.

The sasaeng also followed the idols on the plane. In 2019, V BTS shared his experience of continuing to meet sasaeng on the plane. "We want to get on a regular flight, but when we travel long or short, some people find what plane we are on and take seats in front of or beside us."

“Because of that, we can't rest comfortably. Very uncomfortable. To be honest, I want them (sasaeng) to stop doing it. It's creepy. "

Sasaeng, who found the idol's phone number, tried to call his idol in the middle of public activities. EXO's Chanyeol and GOT7's Youngjae are some of the idols who often ask sasaeng not to contact them in the middle of live streaming or regular activities because it is very annoying.

EXO's DO also revealed, ever since his personal belongings were stolen by sasaeng and sold on the internet, he has had victim mentality. “It's so bad that my feelings change even when I look at the ordinary fans. My character changed. I became shy and wary but because of sasaeng, I became more like that. "

Sasaeng's Creepy Story

TVXQ's Yunho story is one of the scary sasaeng stories. Every year, idols are always faced with issues like this. BIGBANG's GDRAGON asked fans to stop waiting in front of his private residence.

GDRAGON's brother wrote that he was scared because the fans waited in the parking basement and on the apartment floor where the Untitled 2014 singer family lived. EXO members also almost got into the wrong car after appearing because the van was similar to the agency car, it turned out to be owned by Sasaeng.

While performing with SNSD, Taeyeon was pulled by a man forcibly. Sunny, his group mate immediately arrested Taeyeon assisted by the host and other staff so that the action could be stopped.

GOT7's Jackson was also involved in an accident after a car hit the back of his car. He had to walk the airport with the help of the staff. Then, the WANNA ONE flight was delayed at one time because a group of sasaeng wanted to take the flight. They also break through the locker room or dormitory to meet WANNA ONE.

How the Agency Handles Sasaeng

Each agency always tries to protect their artists from sasaeng attacks, but somehow sasaeng also always have a way to get the artist's attention. The agencies also always try to warn fans not to overreact through official statements.

JYP Entertainment, for example, on several occasions they stated that they would legally sue people who tried to contact the artist's personal contact or continued to wait in GOT7's dorm.

Likewise, SM Entertainment is committed to protecting their artists from rumors spread on social media. They also asked fans to respect the artist's realm of privacy.

However, the number of cases like this does not encourage the South Korean government to impose penalties. Usually a sasaeng act is only convicted if it has the implications of a criminal case, such as illegally breaking into someone's house or following their idol who caused the accident.

Hashtags like #ProtectWAYV are one of the many things fans are doing so that the agency can take action immediately. Because, fast or late, this sasaeng activity really disrupts fans' lives.