Musings on KDrama Fandom
I don’t know if I was in my right mind or not when I thought I will start a 30 day writing challenge based on Kdramas!!, and even though I made a list of 30 topics to write about, some days are still tough and words do not flow easily. For today I thought I will delve into the topic of Kdrama fandom.
The last time I had a fangirl phase was in school when I loved anything and everything to do with Harry Potter. Some years ago my mother unearthed a scrapbook filled with newspaper cuttings of Harry Potter news items and pictures of Daniel Radcliffe. The discovery made me laugh hard, and made me wonder how the teenage me must have looked insane to my parents, going gaga over Harry Potter! Over the years I have read and come across different fandoms, and reading research papers on the same as well. Little did I imagine at the age of 30 I would unapologetically be fangirling over Kdramas and oppas. I have also successfully initiated several other people into the Kdrama blackhole :D
In my earlier article about how I started watching Kdramas, I explained how viewing them was an emotional and cathartic experience for me. While learning Korean, I have met other fangirls as well, wherein we discuss and exchange information about our favourite dramas. I have also become friends (virtually) with someone from my university in Delhi whom I had never interacted with during my studies. I now have a nifty group of girlfriends who watch, talk and sleep Kdramas, and the sisterhood and understanding is something that I cannot express explicitly in words. I guess this is why fan communities are strong support systems as well.
The fandom is why I love the Kdrama Her Private Life a lot. It was refreshing to see a healthy and non-judgemental outlook to fangirling. It’s interesting that some Kdramas do tend to depict the unsavoury aspects of fandom as well. For instance, in How I Married an Anti-Fan, the male protagonist is a superstar, who unintentionally makes life difficult for the female protagonist who is a reporter, which is why she does not like him and ends up receiving intense hate from his fandom. In Touch Your Heart, the female protagonist is a famous actor and her partner breaks up with her briefly in the belief that news of her romantic relationship will affect her popularity. It is no surprise that even in real, Kdrama actors are very careful about opening up about their dating lives, and even then, it’s only their agencies who make a formal announcement if two actors are romantically together.
I mean think about it, in an Indian context, if we look at Bollywood, I cannot recall actors’ managers ever formally announcing the relationship of a star. It’s mostly heresy and gossip in media reports, and we only know the truth until the actors actually get married and publicise their photos in Sabyasachi outfits! Or if not Bollywood, I cannot say the same for Hollywood either.
I learnt that different Kdrama actors have fan communities named after them!! So for example, Lee Min-Ho fans call themselves Minoz!! and fyi, I am a Minoz <3 (My Beans-Park Min-Young: Sukkies-Lee Jong-Suk: Starlight Angel-Park Shin-Hye: Ki Aile-Song Joong-Ki: Sueweeties-Bae Suzy: Jeomju-Park Seo-Joon:UAENA-IU). I was also slightly bemused at the fan wars that took place during the airing of Start-Up. There were those who felt Dal-Mi should have been with Ji-Pyeong, and those shipped Do-San and Dal-Mi. It was my first brush with how intense fan culture and discussions can get.
Instagram, Twitter and TikTok have thriving fanpages, dedicated to Kdrama actors or shows. I mean, my Instagram and TikTok is full of Kdrama feed, not that I am complaining! Often it is through the various fan accounts that I get suggestions on what to watch next. But I must confess, I do wish the accounts moved beyond just showing edited clips of Kdramas. They tend to get repetitive after a while and do not offer anything new.
There are times when I cannot relate or understand the intense scrutiny and vitriol that some Kdrama actors might receive. Dramas have been cancelled and some stars forced to take time off because of backlash from the fans. I won’t go into the details of it because some of them are polarising topics and I am personally not a fan of cancel culture, but I am always taken aback by the immense influence and power fan communities hold in such instances. As a researcher, I am also careful about not letting my fandom veer into the territory of oriental fetishism. Yup, that’s my nerd kicking in again, but given that the one thing I am so passionate about is refusal to fall into frameworks set by the Anglophone world (I try atleast), I want my fandom to lead into a genuine appreciation and learn about Korea with both its positives and flaws. I am learning Korean not only with the intention to one day watch the dramas without subtitles, but hopefully also be able to read Korean literature, visit the country and conduct some research too. So here’s to the more positive aspect of Kdrama fandom!!