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urge and engage fans in other coun-
tries since the start of 2020.
Instead of taking photos herself,
Lam now shares retouched screen
captures of online events and concerts
on her fansite account.

Adapting with Passion
Another K-pop fan Hong Tsz-tung
is also adapting to the new online
mode.
Hong went to Kwun Tong Prom-
enade with her friends to watch an
online concert together in May 2020.
“A huge part of the grass lawn there
was closed to the public to prevent so-
cial gatherings, but we still managed
to find a spot to sit down and watch
the concert,” she recalls.
The 20-year-old girl says that in Fan-made K-pop goods. (Photo courtesy of Gloria Hong Tsz-tung)
Hong Kong, K-pop fans usually meet
up to buy and sell fan-made goods, disperse whenever they are gathering
such as trading cards and dolls at a due to social distancing policies. Manageable Difficulties
flyover on the second floor of Lang- “Fans are not really affected by Due to the stark increase in coro-
ham Place. this though, I once saw a photo on navirus infections in July 2020, Hong
She adds that before the pandem- Instagram in which BTS (a k-pop boy stoped going to the shopping mall
ic, security guards only asked fans to group) fans clustered together at the in Mongkok. She chose to mail self-
scatter if they were blocking pedestri- flyover to get fan-made supporting made items to other fans instead but
ans’ way. Now, the guards ask fans to items,” Hong says. was faced with problems.
“There were incidents of mailing
goods to the wrong people and miss-
ing mails,” Hong says.
The problem of logistics is shared
by K-pop merchandise shop owner
Kary Wong Ka-man and her husband.
The couple buys goods of different
idol groups such as albums, lightsticks
and keyrings, from official websites of
those idol groups and K-pop stores
in Korea. They cannot predict what
merchandises will arrive and when
they will arrive even after placing the
order.
They can only wait for shipping
warehouses in South Korea to mail
the merchandises. And the warehous-
es only do so when the goods reach a
certain weight.

Offline concerts of Lam’s idols. (Photo courtesy of Ikea Lam Tsz-kwan)