Fanship Phenomenon: Blessing or Curse (Part 2)

In my previous article, I touched base on how fans and antifans effect the lives of celebrities. Whether we file these actions under the Fan or AntiFan label, sometimes the outcome can be one in the same. In this article you will read how the constant obsessive behavior has led to greater expense and even cost some people their lives…

Cruelness does seem like a waste of effort for many, yet for some of these antifans it seems to be the only thing on their agenda. Rapper Jang Woo Hyuk (from H.O.T. / J.T.L) as well as singer Lee Minwoo (from Shinwha) both had antifans reserve tickets to performances. Therefore making them unavailable for purchase and subsequently the concerts were cancelled to poor attendee numbers. Singer ChaeYeon & Suju Member Heechul had to fight rumors that they were dating. No matter how Heechul openly denied and defended Chae Yeon it only seemed to energize more rumors and attacks. Couplings seem to fuel the best scandal. Several years ago Rain & Hyori were rumored to be sleeping together. Their closeness was linked to the many performances they were working on during award ceremony season. Yet people note Danny Ahn’s radio show when Kim Tae Woo asked Rain via phone convo if they were together. The rumor is JYPE studios covered up the radio broadcast by paying a member another band to expose himself on live TV, but Rain/JYPE filed a lawsuit against the people who kept printing these rumor and won in court.

JYP seems to be a easy target especially since Rain left the ranks of JYP-entertainment. Rain’s rash of bad luck and concerts cancellations have had obsessive fans blame JYP for Rain’s dark cloud. One such fan from an American Rain fansite tried to begin a rumor that it was JYP who paid off inspectors so that his LA concert would be cancelled. The creative but false rumors of JYPE bulling and sabotaging Rain feed many of these younger fans who believe life plays out like Drama. We need to take a lesson how many times postings become actual news. For example on various Korean forums that Actress/model Byun Jung Soo died. The news was picked up and then forwarded to actual news sources. It was a quite a shock for Byun Jung Soo since she was alive and well.

Member of Fly to the Sky Brian Joo was harassed after a radio program, where he was asked about an unfortunate incident where American Soldiers had indirectly caused the death of two Korean girls by running them over with tanks. Although the soldiers weren’t prosecuted for murder there was much anti-Americans sentiment that followed. Brian who is Korean American, asked that the people of Korea treat the soldiers as individuals, not as as people who represent the actions of all Americans. He defended why relations between two countries were important not to strain and asked Koreans not to speak badly about Americans. As word spread Brian was misquoted as defending the soldiers, he was then targeted with a great backlash. He then had to make amends by clarifying that he did indeed feel the people involved with the incident were guilty and should face proper punishment. He apologized for not being able speak Korean well enough to make that understandable. However many people still say that Brian was too Pro-American after this situation and it did damage his popularity. as a singing idol. Many say that his solo album did not do as well as it should have. However its not only financial damage that these popular stars.

DongBangShinKi’ member U-know was the victim of attempted assault and had to be hospitalized after a taping of Happy Sunday Heroine 6, when he was poisoned by a juice drink containing super glue. The female suspect (who the police called Ko), spiked the singers drink was apprehended and identified as a member of an anti-DBSK website. During her time at this website she posted many threatening letters to U-Know, saying she wanted to end his life. Here is a excerpt of one such letter.“Watch your mouth… Ever since the debut of TVXQ you have been stuck up. You won’t last more than a couple years… You would be forever seen as some teen idols not real singers. Do you know your limit? Your limit is that only little kids like you!…I really want to kill you. - KO”. After this poisoning incident, Heechul from Suju posted to his personal cyworld for people to pick on him instead. The antifans then responded by commenting that he shouldn’t worry because he is next.

Celebrities even have had their parents and siblings targeted. Yoon Kye Sang’s, from G.O.D, mother was poisoned by an concoction of laundry detergents and bleach. She also needed to be hospitalized. This incident was also claimed to be the work of the group, Ko the attacker of U-Know belonged to in another post. Here is a excerpt “Do you remember in 2000, when Yoon Kye Sang’s from G.O.Ds mother drank that mix with washing detergent and vomit, in the end she needed to be hospitalised. That incident was also from us. We all have a common name called, antifans. We are the people that will does something wickedly on stars.”

When Super Junior Kang In received knee surgery he was advised that perfoming would do more damage and he would not be able to heal correctly. He ignored the warnings but fell into the audience. Not noticing he fell the his group went on with the song, antifans took this time to actually stomp on his leg.

Now a days people are familiar with Hallyu royalty Yoon Eun Hye but before she was the Princess for Goong, and a Prince of Coffee, she belonged to the pop group BabyVOX. During her time as a member, she suffered cornea damaged to an attack by a antifan. The group was waiting inside a van to tape the program “music engine” when they were approached by a man that pretended to a BabyVOX fan. He then offered a pikachu doll as a present to YEH, but instead shot her in the eye with a water pistol filled with some sort of acidic content. The young singer was in severe pain and could not open her eyes,because of this their performance was cancelled and YEH was brought to receive proper medical attention. The groups members said that the liquid smelled like a combination of vinegar, cleaner and soy sauce.

This is just part of the list of YEH being on the receiving end of Anitfanship. She was target for people throwing eggs, and food when she first appeared as a BabyVOX member. Fans explained themselves at the disappointment of her joining the group at such a young age and replacing Lee Gai. These fans  took it upon themselves to bully YEH even though she herself was just a young teenager of 15 years old. Due to all these situations she decided not to meet with fans up close, she also doesn’t allow unauthorized pics taken of her and will not associate with people during live events.

The recent hash of Korean superstar suicides remind us of how much we are losing great talents. But many of these suicides had traces of fan and antifan harassment. Jung Da Bin, Singer U;Nee and Lee Eun Ju were all at the height of their careers when they met their untimely deaths. These actresses noted that they were openly scarred by by the great lengths people had gone to ruin their reputations. Actress Jung Da Bin (27) noted that she was tortured by plastic surgery rumors. Singer U;nee (26) also was open about the negative comments on her success and reputation. Lastly actress Lee Eun Ju (25)sighted that it was fans, as well as her family, who would not accept her after semi nude scenes in a film, even though these films and her acting was always critically acclaimed.

It is hard to believe that in many of these cases when people are actually harmed that their assailant isn’t charged. In the case of YEH her attackers ran but in the case of U-know he decided not to press charges. In that situation the person who is only identified as KO was not appreciative at all and continued on antiDBSK forums.