Yes, you’ve read it right. Sasaeng fans are actually not fans, they’re stalkers. They are obsessive fans who are stalking or engaged in other activities that constitute an invasion of a K-pop idol or other public figure’s privacy. The phrase sasaeng derives from the Korean terms sa meaning “personal” and saeng meaning “life,” referring to the invasion of the fans into the private lives of celebrities. In the K-pop industry, unfortunately, that type of fan is pretty easy to find. According to the estimates of celebrity managers in the Korean press, famous Korean celebrities may have between 500 and 1,000 sasaeng fans and be actively followed by about 100 sasaeng fans each day. Sasaeng fans are identified as being usually female, aged 17 to 22, and motivated to commit what, in some cases, can amount to borderline-criminal acts to attract attention from celebrities. Examples of such acts include searching for celebrities in their dorms or homes, stealing personal belongings or details, harassing family members, and sending inappropriate gifts like lingerie to idols. That’s so horrible, right? Imagine what it feels like to be the idol who being stalked 24/7 by sasaeng fans. In this article, Channel-Korea will be providing you everything you need to know about sasaeng fans and horrible things they did to their idols. It’s everything you shouldn’t do! So, stay tuned!
Sasaeng Fans Who Have Been Revealed By Their Idols
The existence of sasaeng fans is no longer new in the K-pop world. K-pop idols are often targeted by sasaeng fans due to their extreme popularity. They also have ambitions to always be remembered by their idols, even if in the wrong way. There are so many things outside the rules of common sense that they do to get closer and jeopardize the privacy of their idols. Some things that have been done by sasaeng fans have even caused a stir with the public. Here, we’ll let you know which sasaeng fans are revealed by their idols. Check the list below!
BTS
Sasaeng fans have always been one of the greatest pains in the K-Pop industry – and the Big Hit Entertainment company of BTS has put its foot down. Big Hit Entertainment released an official list of fan names that indicate the behavior of sasaeng who are troubling their idols, BTS. On Monday, January 14th, 2019, some of the fans’ names were blacklisted and uploaded to the BTS fan cafe account, along with violations of fan ethics. The violations included illegal photos, illegal ticket sales, and violations of BTS’s privacy at the airport. Those on the list have canceled their fan club memberships. Although most fans respect BTS’s private spaces at airports, agency concerns about the security and privacy of BTS at airports continue to grow. Publicly announcing such fanatical fans showed that Big Hit Entertainment does not tolerate such behavior. Although sasaeng is nothing new, fans are surprised to find a number of their favorite BTS “photographers” on the list. Now, fans are appealing to fellow ARMY (BTS fans) not to share anything made by this blacklisted fan. One of the fans on the list is Carrot Nuna, a fanite who focuses on Jungkook. Although the blacklist won’t solve the sasaeng-BTS problem that keeps popping up, at least this list can convince other fans to re-evaluate their own behavior so they don’t get blacklisted.
CNBLUE’s Yonghwa
Being a popular celebrity isn’t always fun. The CNBLUE leader, Jung Yong-hwa, was one of them ones who had to have a hard time because of the actions of the sasaeng. CNBLUE had a fan signing in 2017. Band leader Jung Yong-hwa warned his overly-obsessive fans, or sasaeng, who might have been at the event after the event. CNBLUE members stood up to deliver their closing statements as the event wrapped up, according to Koreaboo. Leader Jung Yong-hwa, however, took the moment to warn any sasaeng fans at the event. In his speech, Jung Yong-hwa asked his excessively obsessive fans not to come to his house and to stop messaging his family members. Apparently, Yonghwa’s family received rude messages from fans of sasaeng. Jung Yong-hwa also talked about the sasaeng who was determined to visit his house in order to meet the CNBLUE member. Annoyed to be chased by sasaeng, Jung Yong-hwa then gave a loud warning. “Please do not come again to my house. And do not send messages to my family,” said Jung Yong-hwa. “They received so many messages that they were having a hard time.” Also, Jung Yong-hwa warned the sasaeng fan who went to his house and approached his car casually. Jung Yong-hwa confirmed that the moment was caught by his closed-circuit camera. He also added that if she rolls up to his house again, he would post the fan’s recorded security footage, which revealed her face. Yonghwa’s more reasonable fans supported his decision, saying that the security footage should be uploaded. Jung Yong-hwa, however, responded that he was not free to do so. “I looked at the CCTV footage and found a sasaeng walking so casually to the car as if she had done it once or twice,” Jung Yonghwa said. “If any of you come again, I will upload it directly on the internet. I will upload all the CCTV footage that shows your faces (sasaeng. Just wait.” But, it’s not only Jung Yong-hwa. Certain other members of CNBLUE were also troubled by their sasaeng fans. Apparently, some of Jung Yonghwa’s bandmates also received rude messages from their obsessive fans. Other CNBLUE boys expressed how they wanted to upload screenshots of the rude messages after Jung Yong-hwamade his statement. They knew it would be inappropriate, though.
EXO’s Baekhyun
After disclosing a phone number during his live broadcast, EXO’s Baekhyun came under tremendous fire in February, 2018. The phone number appears to have belonged to an innocent citizen, which he claimed to belong to a sasaeng. The K-Pop idol had to publicly apologize for his actions when the citizen complained that Baekhyun was careless. Sasaeng fans are so-called fans who are excessive in their actions to get their celebrity’s attention. Such sasaengs are not concerned with violating privacy, being violent, and causing inconvenience to everyone else. Since then, when a Twitter account, “Rose”, came forward, this case took a wild turn when the user claimed to be the sasaeng behind the offensive phone calls during the infamous live broadcast by Baekhyun. The user confirmed that they did belong to the phone number revealed by Baekhyun during the live broadcast, and that they pretended to be victims of Baekhyun’s action by their family. The user uploaded a long statement to explain his/her identity and ask for forgiveness from EXO and EXO-Ls. Here’s her statement as reported by Koreaboo: “Hello, this is Rose. It’s Nabom=LoveNi=Rose. I apologize for the late response. I deleted my original accounts after receiving DMs that pointed out the truth about me. When ‘BH’ disclosed the phone number during the broadcast, I tweeted that my family member is receiving a lot of phone calls, and I requested not to call my family. I received DMs that asked how my family would be a victim when the number did belong to me and I called him. I was lying about that, I apologize. I should have explained, but instead, I deleted that account. Then I created another account, LoveNi, and pretended all is well. As I tweeted, though, I made a mistake of revealing my identity and people found out LoveNi is Nabom. I deleted that account as well, without explaining anything. For a while, I’ve been making and deleting accounts as needed. This Rose account is one of them. I’ve been using this account to tweet like nothing is wrong. I’m so sorry that I’ve deleted all my previous accounts without explaining myself. I apologize to everyone whom I have hurt, after what I said about BH’s live broadcast. I also apologize for the negative comments I’ve tweeted on my private accounts about EXO members. To everyone I’ve offended and hurt, I am really sorry.” The EXO-Ls were upset with the user. The apology tweet received endless threads of criticism for what he/she has done to Baekhyun — and how he had to “apologize for something he didn’t do.”
2PM’s Taecyeon
2PM’s Taecyeon is not afraid of facing sasaeng (obsessive fans). Instead of doing nothing, he chose to expose the actions of sasaeng who had repeatedly tried to disturb him and the members of 2PM. On Wednesday, July 3, 2019, Taecyeon exposed Sasaeng‘s ugliness through his personal Twitter account. In two posts, he uploaded several screenshots containing messages sent by Sasaeng to 2PM members via e-mail or chat application. Through the screenshot, fans can see how Sasaeng is sending swear words to the boy-band from JYP Entertainment. This unidentified person mocked 2PM members ‘having no work’, while saying that he knew the house address and telephone number of 2PM members. One of the messages also contained ridicule for 2PM’s Junho, asking him to go to the hospital. Based on a Soompi report, in another message, Sasaeng even complained because Taecyeon blocked him/her. Sasaeng asked why Taecyeon did it, even though he/she “wanted to tell about the danger” to the 31-year-old man. Through the caption of his post, Taecyeon requested that fans help report the identity of the person who committed this unpleasant act. He suspected that the messages were sent by the same person, even though they used different e-mails. — taec yeon ok (@taeccool) July 3, 2019 “If you have information about these people, please let me know. I won’t let this crazy maniac bully us. 2PM needs your help, Hottests!” he wrote in English. “Let’s stop this person from hurting my members,” he added. Five hours after making his first tweet, Taecyeon also made a new tweet about the sasaeng. He said that this was a ‘war’ between him and Hottests (2PM’s fandom name).
— taec yeon ok (@taeccool) July 3, 2019
