Last year, TVXQ made it to the news for having set yet another record in the Korean entertainment industry. They had become the first foreign artist to hold three 5-Dome tours in Japan.
They are not well known among the newer Kpop fans, but once upon a time, before they were split, TVXQ was the biggest five-member boy band in the Hallyu wave. They made it in the Guinness World Records once, for having the world's largest official fan club back in the day, and we are talking about Korean, Japanese and international fans combined, way before the era of popular social media sites and smartphones. Some say that they kick-started the second generation of Kpop idol groups and helped install the Kpop industry in Asia.
So who are the members?
Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu who broke off from SM in 2010 and formed JYJ.
Yunho and Changmin who returned as a duo, TVXQ or now more commonly known as Tohoshinki.
Due to the fame they acquired, the members started noticing extreme "Privates" who started following them in events, concerts and tapings. Soon, these groups of women became what we now call as the Sasaeng fans.
One of the first Sataek (Saesang + Taxi) I heard of came from the TVXQ fandom. This is where taxi drivers were hired to follow the members around. After every event, it became normal to see least 10 of these following TVXQ's van. They are also paid to keep watch to locate the idols when a situation comes where the girls lost them during the race. The drivers will call other taxis to find the group.
They basically designed the system later Sasaeng groups will follow.
Back in 2006, Yunho proved that Sasaengs are not necessarily their own fans. He explained later in KBS 2TV's 'Story Show Do Dream' about the incident of drinking super glue due to an anti-fan which contributed to his panic disorder
Yunho:
"I received orange juice from someone who I thought was a staff member, but suddenly I ended up coughing up blood and I vomited and passed out. I was angry at first but the anti-fan told me that he hated seeing me laugh on TV when he was going through hard times, so I realized that I could be a harmful influence on other people.SuperJunior's Kim Heechul talked about the incident in his Cyworld:
After that incident, I started avoiding people and if I saw any similar place or object as that day, my heart started beating faster, and my body reacted even before my mind "
credits: Tina (from friend-ryeowookitis:DBSG@LJ)
"Yunho probably accepted it with a smile, not knowing anything..Did you see his face.. and smile as you passed on the drink..?There was an interview of Kim Jaejoong from 2007 in which he told a story on how he was spending time alone at the Han River when he decided to invited Yoochun over via text. Much to his surprise, he received a reply back saying:
Are you insane.. or you've just rotted so much that your brain has rotted, too..
Are you happy seeing the article that Yunho collapsed, thinking your mission is complete? If you've completed your mission, show your rotten face and go to hell."
"Who are you and why are you asking Yoochun-oppa to come out to meet you?"Apparently, not only do the fans can hack into their idol's private phone records, they also check all the calls and messages that come through the phone to check if there's a girl or not.
The group has an event when Changmin and Jaejoong decided to go to the bathroom. Allegendly, two Chinese female fans followed them, trying to get a video footage. Naturally, Jaejoong and Changmin were surprised and scolded them away.
The next day, at Sokcho airport, the commotion began, the same women from the day before were swearing at Changmin, calling him crazy and that deserves a painful death and the same goes for his family. He was hit on the head and shoulders with a bag full or rocks as well. This became a huge controversy since some claimed that the two boys were the first who hit the women and they in turn, became anti-fans in a matter of hours. Regardless of who started it, Changmin looked pained from the ordeal and when the other members joined him, he started crying.
In 2009, before the split, some fans were harassing the members and recorded the meeting which were released by Dispatch later in 2012. The audio recordings are more than ten minutes long. You could hear Yoochun, Jaejoong, and Junsu cursing at Sasaeng fans.
Most notable was Jaejoong's angry rant. Apparently, he drinking out with his friends and afterwards, exploded in anger due to noticing Sasaeng fans trailing him on the way home. Here are some exerpts (I edited some to be more understandable and also because his cursing was repetitive, read the full translation here)
"You guys never really think about how stressful it is for us. I'd rather become normal and live without any of this
Anywhere I go someone follows. Anywhere I go someone calls me. Anywhere I go someone calls me and they're like "Where are you...You're there right now?" Why am I always living and and running away anxiously? Am I a convict?
Do you know how many of you there are? There are tenfolds, fucking taxi cab drivers need to make a living and take you guys and fucking follow me around. Risking their own lives and follow me around. Even if its the red light, even if there's a bunch of cars in front, they go into the opposite lane and drive in reverse and follow me around.
Fuck you guys are just fucking whores huh? You want to get attention from young idol members. All against the privacy of the singer you like and get on taxi cabs. Do you even have that much money? If you bought even one CD with that money, we would have gotten number one on the chart. Fuck, in Japan, we have to work for 5 years before getting that number one spot despite the support of our fans, if you guys had bought a fucking CD instead of following me around in taxi cabs we could have fucking went on the Oricon charts.
You bitches always doing this shit with taxis. Fuck do you know why I bought my car RA? I bought it to lose the taxis, I bought it to lose the taxis but I just couldn't. There were too many taxis, those fucking taxis really just rolling over for money and follow me to the extreme. You guys spend that money to the extreme and follow me and yet you are still greedy.
You guys pull an all-nighter all the time but say shit about us when we do the same. And when i get so fucking pissed and can’t contain myself, you say you can't go home because your face is swollen and want compensation money and call the police."And who would forget the now-legendary photo of Junsu's hoard of sasaeng fans waiting right outside the restaurant?
Or when a sasaeng posted a picture of a sleeping Jaejoong?
In 2009, the South Korean-Japanese collaboration film, Heaven's Postman, starring Kim Jaejoong and Han Hyo-joo was released. A stage director has a small academy where he planned a field trip to take the students to see the movie sets for class. Unexpectedly, word got out and Sasaeng fans enrolled hastily, paying $2000 to $3000 just so they can join the trip. After the visit, Jaejoong was so shaken by the experience and explained to the the rest of the staff that “I know them.”
In 2010, Jaejoong posted a complaint in Twitter. As summarized: For 7 years, he didn't have much time to meet his friends, family, and acquaintances because fans have always caused delays for 2-3 hours. All of the 5 members have have cried in public and were even involved in car accidents, but these Saesang fans in their Sataeks would just look at them with smiling faces.
In 2011, Kang Ho Dong asked the two members the question, "Did you ever have a hard time because of the excessive love you received from fans?"
Changmin:
"I changed my phone number because I get a lot of prank calls. 5 minutes after I changed it, I got a text on the number saying 'You changed your number', which shocked me. I changed my phone number again and I got a text saying 'Changing your number frequently isn't good'. I also got pictures of items that could only be found in our dorm."
"I was very surprised at that time. If you know my phone number, it means that you have looked through my personal information, which is a violation of the law. Taking pictures of our dorm is also a crime since it's trespassing."In 2012, JYJ’s Yoochun getting hit a female fan, while he was on his way to the salon, went viral. According to the comments, the sasaeng fan hit Yoochun because she figured he may remember her because she slapped him. But the year proved to be quite troublesome because 5 months later, he also experienced having sasaeng fans install CCTV cameras in the parking lot of his home
That same year, Junsu’s twin brother talked about the issue with the fanatical supporters on twitter:
"Before, when my brother came home for a holiday, I saw his face that was suffering from saesangs but I said that because they’re fans they will treat them (JYJ) well…until I went with him, after that I thought this was maddening…"
*Blog post is still incomplete. Will be updated soon*
Sources:
http://bit.ly/2DWMWZg
http://bit.ly/2GKr1lM
http://bit.ly/2Eemiu7
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