When people see the word 'ifans', they think of the west, why?

[Haruwu]

South Korea is a nation to itself, every other country outside of it is international, so why is it when people see international fans, they think of only the U.S or western countries?

 

I mean, it's the age old argument of a group being bigger internationally or in Korea itself, but when people do bring up international, they usually go towards the U.S rather than a widespread of all countries outside of Korea.

 

 

Let me take examples. The two biggest acts in K-pop right now.

 

TWICE: People use the excuse that their international fanbase is weak compared to their Korean fanbase, but when people do use this argument, they mostly bring up western related discussion. What about their Asian fanbase, their Japanese fanbase, SEA fanbase? If they did not have an international fanbase, why would they be so popular? Most of their views on YouTube come from Japan, 2nd is South Korea, but the rest of course are international countries views.

 

BTS: It's kind of the opposite for BTS. People use the excuse that their Korean + rest of international fanbase is weak compared to their western fanbase. Its often said that it's not good that their fanbase is built up by only ifans, using ifans as a way to word for western fans. They have a huge fanbase all over Asia too, their Japanese fanbase is huge, SEA, other asian countries etc. So how come people build up international people only as the west? Sure they are doing great in the west too, but that's not the only source of their international fanbase.

 

I just want to see peoples opinions and generate a discussion on why ifans are related to the west for a majority of the time, considering South Korea is only 1 country and all other countries in the world are seen as international.

[pururin]

i live in the west so i think of ppl who are like me

[Green Tea Is Green]

Because they think the US is the center of the world 

[KJBrosENT]

I think it's because I-fans is more generally associated with western fans.

Like, I have never seen the term "I-fans" used for any other fanbase, except for western fans.

[IceSmile]

True though. Twice is very popular in SEA. I don't get the hype over western validation, when SELLING and longterm relevancy is up to their neighboring Asian fans. Because let's be COMPLETELY honest, aside from SK ofc, it makes up almost 50% of their sales, if not more.

 

It's the old notion that the west were the source of movies, tv shows and celebrities. But these days West =/= International relevancy. Although it IS a pretty big deal, like a milestone, but not as big as completely hitting it solid in SEA and Asia.

[UMJI MOODS]

Honestly to me ifans meant everywhere but Korea. I'm from North America but I think we are far from the biggest group of international fans.

[Rose.]

It's fair to say it's westerners, but i recognize it as everyone outside of SK

[Vikturi]

SEA are the true i-fans lmao we spend the most on idols other than China and Japan

[bronx.]

I live in Eastern Europe and I think of myself as a Western fan


 

[pururin]

the thing with bts is that you all forget their biggest fanbases outside of korea is western in north n south america and this is why we care about western "validation", bc it means they are closer to us

 

[TAE ZONE]

you have a valid point

 

for my fandom, ppl talk about kfans, jfans, cfans, and ifans (aka whoever isn't kor/jpn/chinese)

 

but in general kpop fans use ifans = western. idky.

[loonatrash]

I think it's because most people think of the US when the word 'ifans' come up I guess

[gojo]

Because they think the US is the center of the world

 

[xxxcherie]

I'm Asian and there are many kpop fans in my country so I never think "ifans = western"

[dahmosa]

SEA are the true i-fans lmao we spend the most on idols other than China and Japan

Plus what we lack in money, we make up with time.

 

 

 

 

[Belkiss]

Good question

[Platty]

It's fair to say it's westerners, but i recognize it as everyone outside of SK

[FactMan]

It's only those from that west that think that, I include c-netz when I say it.

 

And those from the west that do so is because their world view is self centered. Sorry not sorry.

[TAE AMO]

it's weird tbh. and like you said it's not just people using lack of western popularity to put down groups either since many people have also used i-fans=western fans to put down groups as well 

 

like i've seen many people say i-fans are useless when they probably do not mean j-fans and c-fans (since those fans are already accepted as really important from what i've seen?). i think i've done that before too without really thinking about it. i think many people simply think of asian countries as separate from i-fans subconsciously 

[flashfox]

so we conclude that twice has a big ifandom and bts is not only about western fans

[canto]

South Korea is a nation to itself, every other country outside of it is international, so why is it when people see international fans, they think of only the U.S or western countries?

 

I mean, it's the age old argument of a group being bigger internationally or in Korea itself, but when people do bring up international, they usually go towards the U.S rather than a widespread of all countries outside of Korea.

 

 

Let me take examples. The two biggest acts in K-pop right now.

 

TWICE: People use the excuse that their international fanbase is weak compared to their Korean fanbase, but when people do use this argument, they mostly bring up western related discussion. What about their Asian fanbase, their Japanese fanbase, SEA fanbase? If they did not have an international fanbase, why would they be so popular? Most of their views on YouTube come from Japan, 2nd is South Korea, but the rest of course are international countries views.

 

BTS: It's kind of the opposite for BTS. People use the excuse that their Korean + rest of international fanbase is weak compared to their western fanbase. Its often said that it's not good that their fanbase is built up by only ifans, using ifans as a way to word for western fans. They have a huge fanbase all over Asia too, their Japanese fanbase is huge, SEA, other asian countries etc. So how come people build up international people only as the west? Sure they are doing great in the west too, but that's not the only source of their international fanbase.

 

I just want to see peoples opinions and generate a discussion on why ifans are related to the west for a majority of the time, considering South Korea is only 1 country and all other countries in the world are seen as international.

 

you are on OH, which is an English speaking forum.  probably about half the kids are English-speaking ethnic Chinese from Singapore, SEA and around the world but the forum is oriented towards the US and West, so that's what you see

 

in Korea when Koreans think of "international fans" they often think of Japan and SEA/Flip/Chinese fans.

 

Western fans are still a small footprint because Kpop is not nearly as popular in the West as in many parts of Asia where it's mainstream music.  however as SNS/Twitter/youtube is dominated by the US I can see it slowly moving towards the West.

 

in Korea though it will take many years before the image of an American or European fan pops into the mind of Koreans when they think of international Kpop fan

[Haruwu]

it's weird tbh. and like you said it's not just people using lack of western popularity to put down groups either since many people have also used i-fans=western fans to put down groups as well 

 

like i've seen many people say i-fans are useless when they probably do not mean j-fans and c-fans (since those fans are already accepted as really important from what i've seen?). i think i've done that before too without really thinking about it. i think many people simply think of asian countries as separate from i-fans subconsciously 

Yeah that's what I mean. I guess us ifans ourselves generalise the ifans as westerners when it really is a broader term to use :P

 

 

so we conclude that twice has a big ifandom and bts is not only about western fans

that may be the tea

[Grin and bear it]

True though. Twice is very popular in SEA. I don't get the hype over western validation, when SELLING and longterm relevancy is up to their neighboring Asian fans. Because let's be COMPLETELY honest, aside from SK ofc, it makes up almost 50% of their sales, if not more.

 

It's the old notion that the west were the source of movies, tv shows and celebrities. But these days West =/= International relevancy. Although it IS a pretty big deal, like a milestone, but not as big as completely hitting it solid in SEA and Asia.

BTS' popularity in America has gotten them huge opportunities and popularity in Asia. It got them more popular in Japan and they got to do Music station. Their SEA, Indian, middle eastern popularity blew up as well. It's getting them global cf deals, it's skyrocketed their recognition in SK as well. So you are kind of wrong on that front.

 

Edit: in any case, you can't say BTS is popular in Asia. As someone who has family in the Phillipeans and Taiwan I can tell you they are pretty huge there.

[Feary]

I'm from North America and I've never thought of ifans = Western fans.

 

That's honestly illogical, I wasn't even aware there were people who thought like that. But with how western obsessed some people are I'm honestly not surprised.

 

All fans outside Korea are ifans, but most people tend to use C-fans or J-fans when it comes to the other East Asian countries.

[Aliens-United]

At least in the ARMY fandom, I-fans refer to all fans outside of South Korea, China and Japan because we already have specific names for fans from the latter three countries.