The K-Pop Idol Fighting Against His Company And Capitalism In His Own Way

While all that is required of being a fan is to be just that, often, there are many more ways for fans to participate in fan culture. One of the most often experienced parts of K-Pop fan culture is buying albums and collecting “photocards.”

NewJeans’ album and photocards. | ADOR

While in the past, collecting photocards was a simple and fun experience, as of late, it has become increasingly difficult for fans to keep up with the numerous ones released by groups for each comeback.

It has become such a problem that several of the major labels are under investigation by the Korean Fair Trade Commission on suspicions of unfair sales tactics, with NCT‘s NCT 2020 album specifically brought up.

The various photocards for NCT’s NCT 2020 album.

One of NCT’s subunits, NCT DREAM, was brought up around the same time for their shocking number of photocards for their recently released album, ISTJ. While many of the photocards are from the 28 different versions of the albums, a majority are perks offered for purchasing the album from a specific shop, for a fan sign event or some other pop-up event.

| Instiz

With how many cards there are (and often how cute the cards will turn out to be), some fans struggle to decide what to purchase. Luckily, there seems to be an artist who understands the struggle and is doing his part to “fight” the company and capitalism.

Many know Jaemin as a talented and silly member of NCT DREAM who cares deeply for fans. His concern runs so deeply that he even cares for fans’ wallets!

NCT DREAM’s Jaemin | Marie Claire

Recently, Jaemin shared that he’s aware of fans’ opinions on photocards, even calling them “devil-like scraps of paper.”

| Dear U. Bubble

• “Here you go, babies. Yesterday’s selfie”
• “Hahahahaha! Poca is a devil-like scrap of paper hahaha”
• “You’re saying it’s a relief that it wasn’t taken away in an unrevealed state?”
• “But the picture with the bear was taken from me.”
• “Hahahahahahaha”
• “The devil’s scraps of paper will come out again”

In the ultimate show of support for fans’ “struggle,” Jaemin revealed he “fought” with his company to prevent photos that he knew would be highly sought after from being turned into photocards, even sharing the cute images himself.

| Dear U. Bubble

• “Pick out what you like”
• “The company was trying to take it away”
• “But I said I had to give the ones with the stickers to my Y/N and said no.”
• “Keke”
• “I made a deal though, of course. I gave them the ones without stickers”
• “Heh”

We appreciate idols like Jaemin!