As protestors in America mourned the death of George Floyd, the hastag #BlackLivesMatter was trending on social media platforms with solidarity posts worldwide as a protest against police brutality. The big boost for #BlackLivesMatter can be attributed to Korean popular music (K-pop) superfans, or “stans”. There’s a growing desire among youth to pair fandom with activism, but such a movement is vulnerable, says Dymples Leong, a Senior Analyst with Centre of Excellence for National Security at RSIS, in a commentary.

…Dymples Leong is a Senior Analyst with Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.