K-Pop Demystified II: The Obsession with Age

Many K-Pop fans are bewildered by how the Koreans count their age.  Not so challenging for me because as a Chinese, I’m not unfamiliar with counting of age using the Lunar Calendar.  You see, Asians who make use of the Lunar Calendar consider newborn babies as 1 year-old.  And add on another year every Lunar New Year.  So, in general Koreans always quote themselves as a year or two older than they actually are because of the counting system.

Say for example someone born on 1 January 1990.  He would be considered to be 1 year old the moment he was born.  And since the Lunar New Year is usually towards the end of January or early February by the Gregorian calendar, the baby would be considered to be 2 years old after the Lunar New Year.  I checked it up: Lunar New Year in 1990 was on 27 Jan 1990.  Effectively the baby in question would be considered to be 2 years old on 27 Jan 1990 although in actual, he would only be 27 days old.

Follow so far?  I know it’s rather confusing and very counter-intuitive.

Now, you might be asking why do the Koreans hold such an obsessive attitude towards reckoning the correct age.  This is simply because age partially shapes the way they interact with other people, be it of the same or differing ages.  In general, Koreans are only considered to be friends with people of the same age.  Those older than them in age are ‘seniors’ and have to be accorded respect while those younger than them are ‘juniors’.  You could say that seniority is very important in the Korean culture, and perhaps this differentiation is best understood if we take a look at how they address one another in Korean language.

Hyung – what a male calls a male senior
Noona – what a male calls a female senior
Oppa – what a female calls a male senior
Unnie – what a female calls a female senior
Dongsaeng – what seniors call their juniors
Chingu – friend, to be used only for same-age friends generally

As a result of this emphasis on age, a very interesting phenomenon has occurred in K-Pop called the ‘line’ whereby K-Pop idols of the same age are categorised according to their ‘lines’. Take for example in Super Junior the 86-line* (born in 1986) comprises 3 members – Eunhyuk, Siwon and Donghae, more often stylised as EunSiHae.

EunSiHae are exceptionally chummy with one another in the group as evident in the pictures they posted up on their Twitter accounts, although it is not to say that they aren’t close to other members.  They are just closer, likely because their friendship could blossom naturally without the burden of seniority and according respect.  They could also converse in casual language (banmal), dropping all the honorifics otherwise required.

A famous ‘line’ that has taken K-Pop by storm recently would be the 94-line comprising the youngest members (maknaes) of several girl groups – Sulli and Krystal of f(x), Johyun of 4minute, Suzy of miss A and Jiyoung of KARA.  These girls are currently the youngest idols in the K-Pop industry and they have garnered a lot of attention due to their friendship (across idol groups and agencies) and liveliness.

And sometimes, if your name is big enough in the Korean entertainment industry, you may also have a ‘line’ named after you!  Social butterfly Heechul of Super Junior is one such example.  Initially called the ‘Hee-line’ and now called ‘Chocoball’, his group of mostly blood-type AB celebrity friends spans widely across the whole industry and boasts of big names like Jang Guen Suk and the likes.

On one hand, I tend to feel that this emphasis on seniority is very limiting on development of friendships amongst K-Pop idols and imposes unnecessary formalities on the younger ones.  But on the other hand, this ‘line’ phenomenon wouldn’t have evolved if not for these restrictions and I have to agree that some of these ‘lines’ are rather interesting to watch.

* There is  a fourth member born in 1986 – Sungmin – but because he was born on 1 Jan, he’s frequently considered to be one year older and therefore senior to the 3.