By Kang Hyun-kyung
LIMA ― Fans living in other parts of Asia embark on a pilgrimage to South Korea to attend their K-pop stars’ performance or meet them in person. K-pop idols conduct performances in Asian countries to reach their fans, helping them have more opportunity to interact with their stars.
Unlike Asian fans, those residing in distant countries such as Peru have fewer opportunities to meet their K-pop idols in person partly because these stars rarely perform there.
Flying to Seoul from Peru takes more than 20 hours, including several hours of downtime when transferring planes, making it difficult for Peruvian fans to visit here.
The distant star-fan relations allowed fans in Latin America to develop their own way of interacting with their idols. Fans meet in a certain venue, for example at a concert hall, on a certain day to watch their K-pop idols’ music videos or DVDs together with other like-minded people.
Last year, Estrella Park was surprised at the young crowds who flocked to an event hall in San Isidro, Lima, to watch a big screen running DVDs of South Korean pop stars.
The students, mostly who attend high schools and colleges based in Peru’s capital city, sang and danced for two and a half hours in a cheerful atmosphere.
The K-pop stars that appeared on the big screen that the 25-year old medical school student saw included Girls’ Generation, SS501, Big Bang and TVXQ.
Park said she heard about the Korean wave or hallyu before she joined such a “bizarre” union where fans, who had few opportunities to meet their idols in person, set up their own events to experience K-pop stars.
“After the San Isidro event, I felt that hallyu is really here and it has made a real impact on teens and young college students,” she said.
The hallyu boom has created a new way to bridge fans and their idols in Peru. The two meet through videos on a big screen.
In Arenales shopping mall in Lima, visitors can easily find posters advertising K-pop fan clubs in Peru that organize get-togethers of their own. Some fan clubs launch a dance off where contestants are invited to show off their dancing skills.
Fans set up a date on July 3 to celebrate the birthday of singer Kim Hyun-joong, an SS501 member.
Girl group KARA fans are slated to meet at 1:30 p.m. on June 25 to celebrate two birthday girls, Han Seung-yeon and Park Gyuri.
Shops there display and sell K-pop stars’ latest CDs and DVDs.
Lucia Guzman, a staff member selling music CDs and comic books at a store in the shopping mall, said the sales of K-pop stars’ CDs are as good as that of Japanese comics.
She said most of her customers are high school students and her store is usually packed with K-pop fans who want to buy their idols’ albums during the weekend.
Korean dramas airing on major television networks in Peru are a major driving force behind the hallyu boom in the South American country, people who are familiar with the phenomenon said.
From January 2002, several Korean dramas, including “My Lovely Samsoon,” have aired on major television networks.
The Korean Embassy in Peru said nine hallyu fan clubs have been organized.
The popularity of K-pop and Korean drama in Peru has created a rising demand for Korean language programs.
In Peru, four universities, including San Marcos University, currently provide Korean language programs.
Recently, an increasing number of universities have asked the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) Peru Office if it can place volunteers to teach Korean at their university.
As more Peruvians show an interest in Korea and its culture, some called on policymakers to come up with an effective response.
Jang Bong-soon, head of the KOICA office, noted that the establishment of a culture center in Peru could be an idea to meet the rising demand.
“We can teach Korean language there, or organize a variety of cultural events to raise awareness of the Korean culture. We can also consider a youth exchange program targeting Peruvian university students who are interested in knowing more about Korea,” he said.