Sunday, March 2, 2014

Sasaeng Fans Are A Thing That Shouldn't Be

      In Korea, "idols", as celebrities are called, are a huge deal. You can't watch TV without seeing famous faces. They're everywhere in advertisements (fun note: one male idol advertised for a facial moisturizer. The ad campaign? A picture of him, followed by the caption "if you're still dry"). Each group of singers has a specific fanclub, with a designated name and color, like 2PM's metallic grey Hottests, TVXQ's red Cassiopeias, or Shinhwa's orange Shinhwa Changjos. But there's a darker side to Korean idols' fans - sasaeng fans. Note that every example I'll use really happened - nothing is hyperbole.

      Sasaeng literally translates to "private life", and saesang fans are a hellish combination of stalkers and paparazzi. They're like stalkers in that they follow their idols everywhere: they stake out their dorms, recording studios, offices, and so on; they pay black-market taxicabs exorbitant fees to follow their idols around 24/7; they break into their idols' residences to take articles of clothing, pee on their hand towels, etc; they send their idols extremely creepy gifts like messages written in menstrual blood. But they aren't just your average creepy stalkers. Oh no, it's worse. They're organized. Each idol group's sasaeng fans work together, splitting up into groups to watch various locations and texting the others after a sighting. Some get jobs at credit card companies just to track the idols' transactions so they can tell the others. In this way they're like paparazzi - they're networked. And they're insanely dedicated; many drop out of high school to pursue full-time stalking, and instead of sleeping at home, crash in pc bangs, stores that sell computer use by the hour.

     If you're still not sure how crazy these sasaeng fans are, I'll tell you more of what they've done. They've lied down in a row on the road to prevent their idols from leaving. They've disguised themselves as boys and snuck into the same restroom as their idols. They've endangered themselves and the public through disrupting traffic (even causing a traffic accident that injured their dear idols). They're broken into their idols' houses and tried to kiss them in their sleep. They've crashed their idol's brother's wedding. They've offered $100k (USD) for someone who would steal their idol's underwear. They've tapped their idols' phones, put GPS trackers on their cars, and set up cameras in their parking garages. They've frozen their phone accounts and called every number in their history to see if it was a girl. They've attempted to poison other celebrities that they see as a threat to their idol. There's nothing that can stop a sasaeng fan - not insecticide spray, not managers or idols having to physically fight them off ("[my idol]'s manager hit me!" becomes a badge of honor), not even the idols asking them honestly to please, please stop (recognition just fuels the fire). Even if they hurt their idol, like bruising their face or breaking their finger, it's just proof that they touched them. Other fans who come in contact can be attacked for being competition.

      The problem with sasaengs, aside from the rather obvious extreme creepiness, is that there isn't much being done about it. Breaking and entering is illegal, as is indecent assault and the speeds of over 200mph that the sasaeng taxis reach, yet there have been no indictments. Why? Well, for one, there's a wariness among idols and managers to prosecute. Deranged and in need of help as they are, sasaengs are supposedly still fans. At any rate, they do buy the idols' merchandise.... Also, many sasaeng fans are juveniles, and prosecuting schoolchildren may throw off current and potential fans as well as their parents. But those are really just stupid excuses.

      Underage or not, sasaeng fans need to stop. "Fan" isn't even a title they deserve; what kind of fan actively makes their idol miserable, pulling out their hair, groping them, throwing rocks at them and spraying them with menstrual blood? There are laws that can be applied, and they should be; if people take issue with human beings trying to retain a modicum of privacy in their already very public life, who cares? If parents say their kids can't buy your music because you protect yourself, what kind of world would we be living in?

      For that matter, where do sasaengs' parents get off? Being a sasaeng is time-consuming and expensive. How does a parent not see that their child is doing this? Honestly, there is something mentally wrong with someone who would participate in such behavior. Whether it's an addiction, as one sasaeng has described it, or some other condition, sasaengs need to get medical help. What they do is in no way normal.

      K-pop is an industry that thrives on the love and pockets of fans. Idols are constantly offering fanservice, and one of the most common things you will hear is a variation of "we owe everything to our fans". But sasaengs are not fans, and should not be thanked or tolerated. Their parents need to acknowledge what their children are doing and seek medical help, and most importantly, the idols' agencies need to take legal action. The only, only way this can stop is if there are real-world consequences for actions so extreme they sound entirely fictional. 

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Lassiter's Foreign Students Put Out Open Request for Invasive Personal Questions, Offer Free Proofreading In Various Languages

      Although it's long been an understood rule that asking detailed questions about the lives of foreign students as well as asking them to look over homework for a language class is expected, Lassiter's foreign students have formalized the norm with a plea for both inquiries and papers.

      "Because I moved here from Korea only about five years ago, a lot of people have really specific questions about everything from dating to public restrooms. I also get asked how much better living in America is, which is a really though-provoking question, since I never really thought about America being better than my home country," explains junior Jinki Lee, who along with a freshman from France led the request for free expression of "well-meaning" curiosity.

      "I also love answering questions for people who are learning Korean. Even if I barely know them, it's always my pleasure to discuss obscure grammatical nuances and which contexts would require which levels of formality." Indeed, the language aspect is the main focus of the foreign students' petition for questions. Four of the signatories are in the most advanced French class, and realized there how fulfilling it was to put down whatever they were working on and read over essays instead. They, especially sophomore Marc Boulanger, "wanted to allow other foreign students even more chances to be constantly taken advantage of and reminded of how different [they] are." Even students who learned another language from their parents have come together to add themselves to the list of resources, like junior Andy Yoo, who declares, "I want to personally enable every person to know random phrases in Chinese. I think it shows incredible initiative and drive when someone who doesn't speak Chinese asks me to say something to them in it."

      But one can never leave out the very specific, nationalistic questions that foreign-born students are fortunate enough to field daily. Connor Patton, from Canada, always appreciates it when American high schoolers request information on what it's like "being America's hat" and "drinking syrup for breakfast". Aforementioned Jinki Lee's favorite question is "Have you ever eaten dog meat?" Lee believes it's very flattering, because while he had not in fact been in deep enough poverty to kill and consume a stray dog, he likes that people think he's managed to come so far from his indigent state in his native country. "Makes me feel like a real success story - like, look what America has done for me."

      The specific plea is in the form of a letter that will be read on the upcoming announcements during homeroom. The exact language of the letter (repeated in each language represented by the signatories) is a little confusing, which Jinki admits may be because he was not born in the United States and may, as he's been assured by the native-born, have an inferior grasp of the language; the main point is that any Lassiter student who was not born in the United States offers their full expertise in any foreign language, for free, and will be glad to answer even obscure, bizzare, extremely personal, or nationalistic questions in great detail.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Fall Semester Reflections

1. Why should you join the Laureate? It's a relaxed, fun environment that enables you to contribute to an award-winning publication. You can learn how to write in a journalistic format (which is quite different from writing essays!) as well as lots of stuff about functional design. You also have an excuse to stand at the front of the school and shove papers into random strangers' arms. That's always fun.

2. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this isn't really a newspaper. That's all a front. Oh, sure, the editors do produce a newspaper every month or so, and the staff writers submit articles, but it's all to keep up the appearance. In reality, we're a secret base for covert operations in the service of an unnamed rebel group. When the staff writers randomly leave the room (don't try to stop us) we aren't just going to get food or use the restroom. We're going to an extremely secret device that essentially deconstructs the particles that make us up and rearranges them elsewhere such that the principles of conservation of matter-- never mind. You probably wouldn't understand it either. Each destination that we tell you is a codename for a particular activity. If we're going to "get lunch" we're actually stockpiling food for the rebel base in preparation for future activities of theirs. A trip to the vending machines is actually to a shady deal with a middle eastern arms dealer. And don't even ask about what those going "to the bathroom" are doing. You're replacing our previous administrator, who has gone to aid their cause... since he'll still be sending us orders, your job is really quite simple: explain things to the school as necessary, and keep a first-aid kit on hand. And never tell anyone what is actually happening unless you want an ominous knock on your front door from a guy wearing a red North Face knockoff and a gorilla mask.

3. I'm reasonably good at news and editorials (I certainly have opinions on things!), so I prefer to write those, but I can make myself write a feature sometimes. However, interviews are not my thing. I don't know the slightest thing about sports, I don't think I'm particularly funny, and since I'm more interested in Korean pop culture than that of America, I don't think A&E is my section either. I also happen to be an artist which gives me an aesthetic perspective on design. Having studied basic points of graphic design (and design of graphs) I think I would be strong in design, but since I'm not an editor and I don't really know how to use our main program - though I've tried - I haven't really had a chance to try that out. I might be able to help more with design in the future.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

First Issue of the Newspaper!

     We're planning to have the first issue of the Laureate out in September so we can have something to show when we visit Georgia (it's apparently an annual field trip)! That means it's really time to be busy writing. We each have at least two articles - one or two that we chose from the list to be published, and one that's an Onion-style satire. My "list" article is about the female punk band in Russia that was recently imprisoned, but it isn't news, it's an editorial. I'm planning on taking a good look at it from the side of the Russian government, and then moving to "free speech" and if that's really what we have in America. For example, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to cuss a lot and loudly in public (it certainly is against the rules on the bus), but isn't that technically free speech? Where do we draw the line?
     The other article I'm writing is the Onion one. That one I'm not too sure about. I've been awfully busy, so I haven't had much time to think about it. Perhaps it'll be something about sleep and students not getting enough? I don't really know; as I said, I haven't been thinking about it much. Heck, I'd write it about the Hallyu wave if I could find a way to relate it! I just don't think very many people would be interested in the spread of Korean pop culture. Although Gangnam Style in particular (by PSY) is becoming quite widespread (it was played at a football game, and after making a frankly amazing touchdown at a separate football game a Ravens player did the horse-riding dance from the music video) it's not quite such a big deal here. Though a friend of mine who goes to River Ridge is planning to do the aforementioned dance at her homecoming.
     Well I really ought to go do homework now because I have an awful lot of it, though I do happen to be free of an AP World History reading tonight. It's funny; yesterday I got up really early to do some homework, and a part of it was on this website called ChemThink. Apparently the teachers can see when you turn in your homework on that website, so I walked into Chemistry and my teacher eyed me suspiciously and asked, "What were you doing at 4:30?". Um, my homework? Hopefully I won't have to get up at 4:30 anymore though, if I can finish it tonight. Toodles!