‘Sasaeng fans’ refers to diehard fans who spend their lives chasing down their favorite celebrity for every minute of every day to find out about said celebrity’s personal lives and his or her every move. This twisted expression of love that goes too far makes their ‘Oppas’ suffer. It’s not a new issue and it even occurs in other countries around the world.

Though it isn’t well-known, many idols suffer from sasaeng fans. Of them all, JYJ (Kim Jaejoong, Park Yoochun, Kim Junsu) have been taking the most active approach to correct the problem. Kim Jaejoong once seemed to be in despair as he confessed, “Is it normal to live life, always on edge and having to hide, even when we eat, when we rest and when we enter our homes? This isn’t affection.”

Park Yoochun also seemed to scream out his frustrations as he said, “To the people outside my house, please leave. No matter how much I think about it, I feel like you’re anti fans,” and “I’m really worn out by this. Please stop following me. Don’t come to my house.”

Though these sharp requests have been given to the sasaeng fans, Kim Jaejoong declared that he felt as though his Twitter account had been hacked and would delete it if it happened again. Though it hasn’t been revealed if it was the work of a fan, it has become almost normal for celebrities to have even the most private areas of their lives hacked. Even e-mail accounts can’t escape the radar fence of these sasaeng fans.

The total devotion of these sasaeng fans, who don’t want to miss a single minute of the lives of their ‘oppas’, goes too far and has our oppas shuddering. These sasaeng fans attempt to define their acts as those that are done with the ‘heart of a fan’. But these sasaeng fans receive much scorn even within the fandom wherever they go. They’ve become the ‘ugly duckling’.

A representative from an idol group agency, which has a high stock price in Asia, not only Korea, gave his complaints on the matter. This representative sighed as he stated, “Idol groups are people just like your or me. Shouldn’t they be able to live their lives and be able to breathe?” and “Because cameras get shoved into the faces of celebrities, regardless of time or location, they can’t even eat their meals in peace. They’re suffocating.“

He continued to add, “We thought these sasaeng fans existed only in Korea, but they’re in other countries in the world. Especially in countries in which the Hallyu boom is raging, the sasaeng fans there are worse than the domestic ones. They ride taxis and chase us around. They’ve almost caused accidents a number of times.”

While in Singapore for their concert, Super Junior’s Lee Teuk and Kim Hee Chul were involved in a seven car pile up because they were being chased by some diehard fans. They were thrown into an extremely dangerous situation which almost cost them their lives.

No matter how much they say they like someone, this is going too far. Even if they try to justify their actions by saying that they love their oppas so much that this love overflows and they can’t help it, a line does exist which shouldn’t be crossed. Idols shudder at the thought that they’re being watched, no matter if they’re at home or outside, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that these sasaeng fans are flat-out stalkers. Even idols should be given some room to breathe. Though it seems as though this relationship between idols and their sasaeng fans is unbreakable, it’s an issue that needs to be addressed.

Source: [MyDaily]
Translated & Shared by: dongbangdata.net