Rizki Amalia A1B214049

THE POSITIVE SIDE OF BEING KPOPERS WHICH PEOPLE USUALLY DO NOT SEE

Who is Kpoper? Simply say, Kpoper is a person who loves Kpop. According to Timothy Laurie (2016), “K-pop (an abbreviation of Korean pop) is a musical genre originating in South Korea that is characterized by a wide variety of audiovisual elements”. We can also see the term ‘Kpoper’ as the community who loves this kind of music genre.

This Kpop phenomenon becomes a trend in Indonesia. Based on the writer experience, the Kpop phenomenon came to Indonesia around 2007-2009 eras. At that time, Kpop is not as big as it is today. Kpop becomes more famous in Indonesia after people around the world get shock by the release of one of the most famous Kpop song in the world, Gangnam Style. When it is released, people around the world are jamming to it, including the people in Indonesia. As stated by Muhammad Al Ghifari in kompasiana.com (2015), “Minggu (9/9) ketika ada beberapa anak muda memulai tari flashmob Gangnam Style di Bundaran HI. Karena gerakan tarinya unik, ditambah lagu Psy yang mulai diperdengarkan, akhirnya mereka sukses mengajak ratusan orang bergoyang ala Psy”.  Since then, Kpop is increasingly popular in Indonesia.

Kpop is one of South Korean culture, and we all know there are always positive and negative sides from culture that comes from another country. Kpopers as a community who loves this Kpop phenomenon so much usually get ‘negative look’ from people around them. Many citizen see them as ‘people who do not love their nationality’, ‘people who spend money for useless thingy’, and ‘people who go crazy for someone who doesn’t even know they are exist’. Well, we can’t deny the fact that some of these people called Kpopers have those negative side, but as a Kpoper myself I can tell that being a Kpoper is not as bad as most people seems to think.

If people try to broaden their sights and be open minded about new things, there are actually many positive sides of being a Kpoper: being a Kpoper makes you have broader sight of culture around the world, being a Kpoper makes you introduce your culture to others, being a Kpoper is not always about ‘spending money’ but also ‘gaining money’, being a Kpoper makes you get a lot of knowledge and it can shape your critical thinking skills, and being a Kpoper makes you realize that one of human’s job in this world is to help other human.

First, being a Kpoper makes you have broader sight of culture around the world. In the Kpop world, there are many people who came from different countries, different cultures. “Respect” is not just a word here, but being a Kpoper makes you know how to apply the meaning of “respect” properly. As a Kpoper myself, I learn how to see things from the others’ perspective. It’s like doing math: four plus four equals eight, and five plus three equals eight too. Just because people think differently doesn’t mean they are wrong. God created human differ from one another. It is normal to have different opinion, as long as we respect theirs, they will respect us too. That is why being a Kpoper makes you have a broader sight about others culture.

Second, being a Kpoper makes you introduce your culture to others. As stated before, if you are a kpoper you will hear, at least once, that you do not love your nationality. Well, that kind of thinking should be shaved. People should not generalize things just because one or two people do something negative. Being a Kpoper doesn’t mean only ‘accepting culture’ but Kpoper also ‘introducing the culture’ to other Kpopers. Since, Kpopers come from many different places around the world, in order to communicate well; we should make other understand our culture. So, there will not be any misunderstanding between one Kpoper to the others.

Third, being a Kpoper is not always about ‘spending money’ but also ‘gaining money’. In Indonesia, there are many Kpop shops, online and offline. Most of the owners are once fans of Kpop who become successful entrepreneurs. As stated by Rizki Eliani, the owner of necshopkpop, one of successful Kpop shops in Indonesia. She started from just a fan girl to a successful Kpop stuff seller. In one of her interview posted in necshopkpop.com (2015), Rizki stated that her first budget is about Rp700.000; and she usually gets back her asset in seven days. Beside from ‘gaining money’, most Kpopers learn how to save money. Since most Kpopers’ dream is to go to their idols’ concert, they start saving their money and they try to use their money properly. They learn how to manage their income and outcome. They also learn how to be patient because gaining money is not easy. It is a hard and it is also a long process, but it sure will be worth it in the end.

Fourth, being a Kpoper makes you get a lot of knowledge and shape your critical thinking skills. For some people, Kpop music video usually looks weird and strange at first, but some of them actually contain many information. As stated by an account on onehallyu.com (2016), “recently, Demian has been gaining attention after the release of a famous idol group Bangtan Boys second album short films”. Later fans found out that Demian is one of the popular literatures in its era. According to cliffsnotes.com, “Demian could be classified as a Bildungsroman, a novel of education, popular in Germany's era of Romanticism”. One of the major themes of the novel is the existence of opposing forces which has been portrait in the Bangtan Boys’s short films. The book has been a popular request at Korean libraries as confirmed by Minumsa Books, one of book publishers in South Korea. Don’t you think it’s awesome when we see the product of a Kpop group inspire people to read a literature masterpiece? Besides, another amazing analysis also has done by one of EXO’s fan as reported by Yohana Natalia Vebriana on hipwee.com (2015).

“Belum lama ini, saat boyband EXO comeback, mereka melibatkan para penggemar untuk menebak sebuah pathcode di MV teaser individual yang telah dirilis. Pathcode tersebut dijadikan password untuk login ke situs resmi mereka, di mana agensi akan terus meng-update foto teaser individual anggota EXO”.

According to that article, fans guess the path code correctly after they analyzed the path code based on mathematical and alphabetical theory. People who are not Kpopers may think “Why do they waste their time to analyze such unimportant codes?” instead of thinking like that, it is better to think “How can they do such hard analysis that even not everyone can understand the meaning?” I’m pretty sure if they shape their critical thinking skills by doing such analysis, it can be useful for their career in the future. There’s always something to learn, even if it is just analyzing the meaning behind a path code.

The last, being a Kpoper makes you realize that one of human’s job in this world is to help other human. There is a trend in Kpop world that fans are collecting money to donate in the name of their favorite stars. Some donate to create a forest or make donations to people who are underprivileged. As reported by Ock Hyun-Ju in thestar.com (2014), “Fans of Xiu Min of K-pop idol group EXO-M donated 10 million won (Rp112.567.000) to a local charity in his name to help Ethiopian children access clean water and education, to celebrate his 24th birthday”. It’s amazing how these Kpopers thinking about giving a lot of money for a good purpose. There are actually many Kpop fans that have done this besides Xiumin of EXO’s fans, other example is WINNER’s fans from Indonesia.

“Kami telah mendonasikan sebagian hasil keuntungan yang di dapatkan kepada UNICEF untuk membantu anak-anak yang membutuhkan atas nama WINNER. Terima kasih bagi Incles yang sudah membeli produk WINNER pada kami, ini adalah hasil keuntungan (fansite goods, official goods & unofficial goods) yg kami dapat dan kami gunakan untuk mendonasikan kepada yang membutuhkan”. ([WINNER] 2nd Anniversary Fan Support #WINNERVE2SARY, 2016)

Those statements are proved by a picture of the donation sheet with Stepfanie Alexandra’s sign as PSFR Donor Relations Officers of UNICEF Indonesia. According to the website, they are also donating money to renovate a kindergarten in Bojoreco village, Demak. They said that they do that for celebrating the group WINNER’s 2^nd anniversary. Imagine if they do this every year, don’t you think it will be very useful for people who are in need?

Those I have mentioned are just small amount of the positive sides of being a Kpoper. So, here I want to strengthen my opinion that being a Kpoper is not a bad thing. People should not just see negative side of a phenomenon, but they should also look at the positive sides of it. People should learn to see both sides; it will broaden their thoughts and mind which can lead to what we call ‘open-minded’.

References:
Laurie, Timothy. 2016. 2016 Toward a Gendered Aesthetics of K-Pop. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/12328829/2016_Toward_a_Gendered_Aesthetics_of_K-Pop

Al-Ghifari, Muhammad. 2015. Fenomena Gangnam Style. Retrieved from http://www.kompasiana.com/obambafrznc12/fenomena-gangnam-style_55180ff98133118f669deca1

Eliani, Rizki. 2015. INTERVIEW FOR THE PROGRES BUSINESS ONLINE SHOPPING KPOP AT EMAIL. Retrieved from http://www.necshopkpop.com/2015/03/interview-for-progres-business-online.html

Vebriana, Yohana Natalia. 2015. Inilah Sisi Lain Para Penggemar Korea yang Jarang Kamu Tahu. Retrieved from http://www.hipwee.com/list/inilah-sisi-lain-para-penggemar-korea-yang-jarang-kamu-tahu/

Saucy, Internal. 2016. Interest in Hermann Hesse's "Demian" surges following references in BTS' short films. Retrieved from http://onehallyu.com/topic/391133-interest-in-hermann-hesses-demian-surges-following-references-in-bts-short-films/

Hyun-Ju, Ock. 2014. K-pop fans donate to charity. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2014/06/08/kpop-fans-donate-to-charity-the-giftgiving-culture-among-kpop-fans-is-now-evolving-into-helping-so/

Admin. 2016. [WINNER] 2nd Anniversary Fan Support #WINNERVE2SARY. Retrieved https://winnerworldid.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/winner-anniversary-support/