Ah, yes. One of the more divisive
topics among fans, though generally viewed as harmless. Shipping.
You probably got a taste of it in
my SHINee guide, but here’s a little refresher: shipping is basically making up
couples, usually in the same band. Today I’ll expand a little more into it, as
well as the good and the dangers of it.
Shipping is spread in different
fandoms in different degrees. If you’re into SHINee, you’ll see ships everywhere. In B2ST they’re rare. You’ll
have to dig if you want Block B ships. The reasons for why there’s little or
more shipping vary, but usually it’s based on two factors: the members
themselves and the company. SM (who own TVXQ!, Super Junior, SHINee, SNSD etc)
promote shipping like crazy. They’ll make the members of the ship have same
clothes or accessories, or the choreography or something will coincidentally
have the ship members fall together. This is why SM bands generally have more
ships. It also depends greatly on the members of course. When we have
fan-service kings like Jonghyun and super-affectionate guys like Siwon, ships
are bound to sail.
Ships usually have names. Since
Korean first names are usually two-part, most ship names are made by joining
two parts together. Like YunJae (Yunho
and Jaejoong), EunHae (Eunhyuk and Donghae), JongKey (Jonghyun and Key)
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| JongKey |
The sequence of names in the ship
name also matter. If you’re more well-versed with yaoi (the standard name for
male×male fiction) you’ll know that
when things get… adult… there’s usually a top and a bottom. The ‘top’s name
comes first, usually. For example, YunJae is sometimes made into JaeHo, where
Yunho bottoms (but I find that kind of awkward to think about).
There’re a few categories of ships
(well, in my mind anyway) so I’ll list them:
The Fan-Service Ship
This one is caused by the members
actually doing their best to promote the ship, usually egged on by the company.
Most ships, if they get popular enough, eventually roll on into this kind of
ship. The members just get more touchy than usual, describe the other by more…
suggestive terms. Since I adore Super Junior’s Kyuhyun, I’ll use his ships to
describe. A proper example of a fan-service ship for Kyuhyun would be KyuMin,
his ship with Sungmin. Kyuhyun’s a pretty good fan-servicer, and this ship goes
far in SJ.
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| KyuMin |
The Personal Ship
My favourite kind of ship. This
one is a ship-starter, and might tumble into a fan-service ship, depending on
popularity. This one is just genuine closeness, no fan-service. For example,
JongKey of SHINee started as a personal ship, but then became a fan-service
ship. The Kyuhyun ship would be KyuMi (yes, the names are close, it’s also
called QMi), his ship with Zhou Mi. It’s the Kyuhyun ship I ship.
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| KyuMi |
The Crack Ship
This one… just stems. From nothing
really, it just occurred. We just need one frame, or one picture, or one word,
and it booms. These are usually just fringe ships, difficult to find stuff for,
and usually just done in good humour. Occasionally this is just done to make up
ship names. I’ll just leave my once-shipped OnHo of SHINee here.
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| OnHo |
The Cross-Band Ship
Most ships are in one band, but
some cross-over to other bands. These are somewhat rarer than in-band ships. A
nice example would be KyuMin, the Kyuhyun×Changmin
ship. Kyuhyun’s from SJ, and Changmin TVXQ! They are quite good friends, which
is usually the base of a cross-band ship. I ship this too, actually. Sorry
Mimi.
The cross-band ship is also the
root of:
The Hetero Ship
Most ships are homosexual, since
co-ed bands (bands with both guys and girls) are rare. They’re usually done for
fun– very few ships are viewed as ‘real’ by usual shippers. Hetero ships (where
it’s actually male×female) are
sometimes viewed as just fun, but also sometimes viewed seriously. Some stem
from dating rumours, like Kyutoria (Kyuhyun and f(x)’s Victoria) or from shows like We Got Married,
like Yongseo (CN: Blue’s Yonghwa and SNSD’s Seohyun).
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| YongSeo |
Now remember, shipping is usually
done just for fun. Very few actually think their ships are real. It’s just fun
to squee over some of your favourite members of your band acting all sweet or
lovey with each other, or just saving some pictures or writing some
(occasionally hilarious) fanfiction. Most shippers usually have a multitude of
ships they support, usually with overlapping members. Just don’t take it too
seriously, don’t bring down other people’s ships, and you’ll be fine.
For example, my recent cross-band crack ship of B.A.P's Daehyun and B2ST's Gikwang. People, they wore the same shirt in a very short amount of time! Couple matching!
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| Gikwang extreme right |
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| Daehyun on the right. Same shirt. |
But of course, there always is a
section of those who take it too seriously, and it gets completely out of
control.
YunJae was a ship in TVXQ! (DBSK),
and it was immensely popular. In 2009, three members of TVXQ! left, Jaejoong
one of them. So the ship ended, right?
Nope. A great deal of YunJae
shippers believed YunJae was real, and it followed the two of them. Matching
them up, rumours flying every time they happened to be in the same country. People went to TVXQ! and
Jaejoong concerts (his solo concerts, plus ones with his new band JYJ) and held
up YunJae banners, went to fanmeets and randomly yelled out the other’s name.
People, the TVXQ! split up was really painful, I’m sure, for the members as
well, so I think the least we could do is not keep yelling out ‘Yunho’ or
‘YunJae’ at their concerts, whether or not YunJae was ever real.
Though Jaejoong is totally gay
and Yunho is questionable.
Well, I hope my guide on shipping
did something for you, and if not, I’m just happy to say a little about my
favourite ships.
