(Source)
A good introduction to saseng (사생) fans by Collette Bennett at CNN, and I’m not just saying that because I get a mention towards the end(!). But if anyone’s confused by the connections I make to the Korean advertising industry and celebrity endorsements though, please see here for links to many posts and articles I’ve written about the subject.
Also, for related reading, see here for a discussion of the article at a JYJ fansite (they’re mentioned in the article), Asian Junkie for “Korean Executive Says K-Pop Fans Are A Cult + The Fandom Scares An American Journalist,” and XX Factor for “Your Pop-Culture Obsession Is Not a Sickness.”
p.s. Apologies to Colette if it’s my fault (I made the same mistake in my email), but it’s sa (“a” as in “hat”) seng (“e” as in “pet”), not “saesang” (pronounced “say-seng”) as reported in the article. Or is that some Seoul variation that I’m unaware of?
The Grand Narrative 
It’s actually 사생, from 사생활.
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Thanks for the confirmation!
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Sorry, that might be confusing for non-hangeul readers.
사생 (sasaeng) = O
사셍 (saseng) = X
사생팬 (sasaeng fan) = 私生, 연예인의 사생활을 쫓는 팬 (fan stalking celebrities by invading their private lives)
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Thanks again!
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“A is in hat”? I think you must say hat very differently from the way I do…..
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No offense, but in that case, can you offer an alternative? :) How would you describe the “아” sound in “사”?
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The first “a” in Cathay?
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For an English speaker unfamiliar with Korean, I’d describe it as sounding like “ah”….
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I think both cover how “아” can be said. Probably if we could just speak to each other, we’d find we’re actually agreeing!
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That’s why I wrote that you must say “hat” very definitely from how I pronounce it. In my dialect (N. American English) there is no way that anybody would ever mistake the a in “hat” and 아 as the same sound. For me the a in hat is unambiguously /æ/ and 아 is /a/. Sorry to get linguistically geeky. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_chart_for_English_dialects
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I suppose any orthography that isn’t strongly phonemic will have a hard time adapting to Korean romanization, especially English. If your mother tongue is Finnish, Italian, or Turkish, for instance, the /a/ sound wouldn’t pose much of a problem.
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