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<H1 class=left>K-pop for the planet: Fans of South Korean stars take up climate
activism</H1>
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<DIV class="meta left">by <A
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<DIV class="meta small left">Wednesday, 3 February 2021 00:01 GMT</DIV>
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<H2 class=lead-text>Lovers of the mega-bands are launching online campaigns to
raise funds and awareness in response to disasters and deforestation - and hope
their idols will join them</H2>
<P>* Tech-savvy fans use social media to spur change</P>
<P>* K-pop sensation Blackpink promotes COP26 climate summit</P>
<P>* Campaigns help disaster-hit communities, protect forests</P>
<P>By Beh Lih Yi</P>
<P>Feb 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From petitioning to save forests to
raising cash for disaster victims, a growing army of K-pop fans worldwide has
emerged as the latest force in the global fight against climate change.</P>
<P>Young and tech-savvy, K-pop lovers have used their social media power to take
up political causes, including mobilising funds for the Black Lives Matter
movement in the United States last year and supporting <A
href="https://news.trust.org/item/20201102151819-3as7c" target=_blank>Thailand's
pro-democracy protests</A>.</P>
<P>But the group is now increasingly vocal on climate change, shining a youth
spotlight on environmental issues that get relatively little attention in some
parts of the world.</P>
<P>"K-pop fans are mostly millennials and from the Gen-Z generation - we want to
fight for our future," said Indonesian student Nurul Sarifah, 21, who set up
the <A href="https://twitter.com/kpop4planet" target=_blank>Kpop4Planet</A>
movement in mid-January.</P>
<P>Using social media, it aims to become a platform for like-minded K-pop fans
around the world to discuss and raise awareness on climate-change issues
affecting their home cities, said Sarifah, a fan of top South Korean boyband
EXO.</P>
<P>"Every day we are experiencing these effects: pollution, heatwaves, floods,
wildfires. We can change this by doing good, just like how our idols did, so we
can enjoy K-pop on a liveable planet," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
by phone.</P>
<P>The movement is just one of the latest campaigns by K-pop fans seeking to
make a difference for nature and the climate.</P>
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<P>STAR POWER</P>
<P>As K-pop became a global phenomenon in the last two decades, the
philanthropic efforts of its South Korean stars - from donating to orphanages to
planting trees - have pushed fans to adopt similar approaches to social and
environmental problems.</P>
<P>Climate change has become an increasingly important issue and was highlighted
in December when K-pop global sensation Blackpink released a video to raise
awareness ahead of the U.N. climate summit, COP26, due to take place in Glasgow
in November.</P>
<P>In it, the girl band told their nearly 60 million subscribers on YouTube it
was not too late to act on climate change and urged their fans, known as BLINKs,
to learn more.</P>
<P>The COP26 talks are widely viewed as a make-or-break moment for the 2015
Paris Agreement, with governments under pressure to submit stronger climate
action plans to limit global warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial times.</P>
<P>Fans of the mega-band BTS, known as ARMY, meanwhile have planted tens of
thousands of trees in recent years, from South Korea to the Philippines in the
name of their celebrities.</P>
<P>They also raised funds for flood-hit communities in the Indian state of Assam
last year.</P>
<P>"K-pop fandom does great things beyond borders and generations," said South
Korean activist Kim Na-yeon, 15, from campaign group Youth 4 Climate Action,
which last year sued the Korean government for being slow to tackle climate
change.</P>
<P>Awareness is low in South Korea, she said, adding that she connects with
other fans through their shared love for K-pop and taps into the network to
advocate for climate action.</P>
<P>"As I have been a K-pop fan for a long time, I know how people are gathering
and moving online, so I am using my skills for our campaign," said Kim, a fan of
boyband NCT Dream.</P>
<DIV style="opacity: 1" class="inline-photo inline-media-container"><IMG alt=""
src="https://d8zcwdvc14g2e.cloudfront.net/contentAsset/image/e110feb5-b3c5-4ccf-9361-68f3a4379375/multimediaFileUpload2/byInode/1/filter/Resize,Jpeg/jpeg_q/69/resize_w/1230">
<DIV class=caption>Volunteers send relief items donated by Indonesian fans of
South Korean mega-band BTS to earthquake victims in West Sulawesi province,
Indonesia. HANDOUT/BTS Army INA Project</DIV></DIV>
<P>The diverse backgrounds of K-pop followers - from North America to Asia - are
seen as key to engaging fans in deeper discussions on a range of contemporary
issues.</P>
<P>"K-pop fans are generally open-minded and outward-facing in their approach to
the world. If they weren't, they'd listen to music from their own country in
their own local language," said CedarBough Saeji, an academic who studies K-pop
fan culture.</P>
<P>"It shouldn't be surprising that they also share their views on their own
local political, social and environmental issues," added the assistant professor
in East Asian languages and cultures at Indiana University Bloomington in the
United States.</P>
<P>John Lie, a sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley,
who authored a book about K-pop, said the phenomenon was driven by fans seeking
to show the genre is "not mere mindless entertainment" and is "rare in idol
music".</P>
<P>DISASTER RELIEF</P>
<P>In Indonesia, K-pop fans mobilised quickly to raise nearly $100,000 in
January for those affected by <A
href="https://news.trust.org/item/20210118091429-5n64l" target=_blank>floods in
South Kalimantan</A> and a powerful earthquake on Sulawesi island that killed
about 80 people and displaced more than 30,000.</P>
<P>With climate change expected to fuel extreme weather disasters including in
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 270 million, Arendeelle, a K-pop fan who
helped initiate the recent fundraising effort, said she was prepared to do
more.</P>
<P>"We care about the environment. We are inspired by our idols who have shown
us their utmost concerns about society," said Arendeelle, who goes by one name
and is a coordinator of ELF Indonesia, the local fan club of K-pop group Super
Junior.</P>
<DIV style="opacity: 1" class="inline-photo inline-media-container"><IMG alt=""
src="https://d8zcwdvc14g2e.cloudfront.net/contentAsset/image/e110feb5-b3c5-4ccf-9361-68f3a4379375/multimediaFileUpload3/byInode/1/filter/Resize,Jpeg/jpeg_q/69/resize_w/1230">
<DIV class=caption>Kang Lucia, fan of K-pop boy band BTS, takes a selfie at a
cafe decorated with photos and merchandise of them, in Seoul, South Korea,
September 24, 2020. REUTERS/Heo Ran</DIV></DIV>
<P>Indonesian K-pop fans last year also helped boost an online campaign to
highlight rapid deforestation in Papua, by sharing the #SavePapuanForest hashtag
on social media and making it a trending topic on Twitter.</P>
<P>Such momentum is what Sarifah of Kpop4Planet seeks to spur in her push for
more debate on climate change and its impacts.</P>
<P>"Deforestation is one of the reasons why these natural disasters happen," she
said. "It is relatable to all of us."</P>
<P>Sarifah said she hoped EXO and other K-pop stars would lend their support to
her green campaign.</P>
<P>"The K-pop fan movement is big and if our idols also help (on climate
justice), it will become even bigger," she added.</P>
<P><STRONG>Read more:</STRONG></P>
<P><A href="https://news.trust.org/item/20201208123117-56o4j" target=_blank>No
such thing as 'sustainable' palm oil, says Indonesian youth activist</A></P>
<P><A href="https://news.trust.org/item/20201119193706-fhoqy/"
target=_blank>Angry at sluggish climate action, young negotiators 'scream' for
change </A></P>
<P><A href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200820011132-yp4ds/"
target=_blank>Papuan tribes fear sacrifice of sago forests that stave off
hunger </A></P>
<P>(Reporting by Beh Lih Yi @behlihyi; editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit
the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that
covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or
fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)</P>
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