When one thinks of the word ‘fandom’, being a medium for social justice is usually not the first thing that comes to mind. Particularly, the reputation of K-pop fans from an outsider’s perspective has been quite controversial. ARMY, the term for BTS’s fan base, has been carelessly labeled several times, particularly in the West, as “12-year-old girls who have too much time on their hands”. Of course, the labels vary, but the meaning is clear- K-pop fandoms are being belittled, underestimated, and misunderstood.
K-pop fans are a diverse group of people, some of which are indeed 12-year-olds girls. Still, fandom as a whole consists of many others, including university students, adult professionals- lawyers, doctors, teachers-, and many more. When these so-called ’12-year-olds’ are coming together to organize massive projects for good causes, can they really be shrugged off? Why should they be cast aside when coming together is more important than ever, amidst global issues such as inequality and the climate crisis?
Even though I am not a part of the ‘ARMY,’ I have witnessed several times first-hand what K-pop fandoms can accomplish, just as I would like to share in the following story:
It was just another day of scrolling through Twitter when I stumbled upon an announcement of a birthday project for my favorite idol, Zhang Hao, who is the center of the new boy group ‘ZEROBASEONE’ formed from the survival show, Boys Planet. Within K-pop culture, it is common for fans to organize projects for individual members to celebrate their birthdays, which can range from raising money to rent billboards for advertising, to more heartwarming acts such as raising money to be donated to charity under the name of the idol.
Zhang Hao was a licensed music teacher before he participated in Boys Planet, therefore a group of his fans, who call themselves ‘Zhang Hao’s Rosin,’ decided that it would be a great idea to raise money to donate a music learning playground to Jiehu Elementary School, located in the impoverished mountainous region of Yunnan, China. The name of their fandom, ‘Zhang Hao’s Rosin’, plays a significant role as to why they chose to do this specific project. Zhang Hao is a violin player, and one of the things needed to play the violin is the addition of rosin to the bow, enabling the violin to make music. Debuting from a survival show, his fans (myself included), voted for him every single day so that he could make his debut. Hence, in a sense, us ‘rosins’ quite literally enabled his dreams to come true – just as a rosin makes a violin able to produce music. The sentiment was clear: just as we supported our idol in achieving his dream of making music, we support those who have similar dreams, but do not have the resources to achieve them.
I thought that the idea was splendid and perfectly in line with Zhang Hao’s character. However, at the time, I had no means to donate to the project, which left me regretful. But as a ‘rosin’ myself, I did what I could by tweeting, and sharing tweets related to the project. At the time, my tweets only had a few likes and had yet to catch traction. However, little did I know of the potential future impact of the seemingly small act of liking and retweeting.
A few months later, I saw a tweet on the updated progress of the music learning playground. To my pleasant surprise, it was revealed that a grand total of over 120 instruments were donated to the elementary school including but not limited to recorders, harmonicas, triangles, and tambourines. Additionally, the instruments were joined with essential equipment such as music stands and alcohol pads. The school was all set to fulfill the musical dreams of their students. The update tweet also revealed the number of donors, and I could not help but notice that only 15 people donated to the cause, yet so much had already been accomplished. Although the donors were likely to be rich, this was nevertheless impressive.
Witnessing this act of good will made me imagine the sheer possibilities of K-pop fandoms in promoting social justice all over the world. With 15 people, a school with unfavorable circumstances is now able to teach music. What more could hundreds, thousands, or even millions of fans achieve when they come together for a good cause? These days, 4th or even 5th generation K-pop groups commonly sell over a million albums per release, indicating the fast growth of fandoms in the current times. In fact, the group that Zhang Hao is a part of, ZEROBASEONE, just made K-pop history, with their debut album, “YOUTH IN THE SHADE,” selling over 1.8 million copies. At the time of debut, with the group being barely a month old, this accomplishment was unheard of. ZEROBASEONE’s fandom will only grow from this point onwards and one can only imagine what the fandom could potentially accomplish in the future.
However, the keyword ‘potentially’ should be underlined. Despite the untapped potential of K-pop fandoms to be a medium for social justice, the core nature of fandom cannot be ignored as their utmost priority is the worship of their idol. I admittedly share that nature myself, spending most of my energy in relation to Zhang Hao admiring his pictures, watching his performances, tweeting about my excitement regarding anything Zhang Hao-esque and, from time to time, supporting these efforts of social justice when they pop up on my social media feed. However, every fan has a different background and fandoms, when properly organized, have the potential of bridging gaps in power or wealth to support a cause. It may be difficult, but committed fans with time, money, and effort can make a real change -not just to find joy in supporting their beloved idol, but in making an impact in the world we live in today. That is something myself and many other K-pop fans all over the world hope to be able to do.
