Mira JC – Creating Fandom Joy From The US to Korea

Claudia Henock 0:08
Hi everyone! Welcome to Your Most Precious Thing, the show that talks about the stories behind items we hold near and dear to our hearts. I am your host, Claudia Henock. And let’s meet our guest for this week.

Claudia Henock 0:18
Just as a heads up before we continue, this episode does feature a discussion about weight when it comes to cultural standards. So if that is a topic that you feel uncomfortable listening to, I’ll see you next episode.

Claudia Henock 0:39
Mira JC is a 26 year old traditional artist influenced by Kpop and anime that is based on the East Coast. One of her biggest inspirations behind her art is the Korean boy band, BTS, and her passion has led her to amazing opportunities, including being a part of an art exhibition in South Korea.

Claudia Henock 0:57
Hey Mira, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Mira JC 1:00
Good. Thank you for inviting me.

Claudia Henock 1:03
No problem, it’s a pleasure. So to start this episode, what would you say is your most precious thing?

Mira JC 1:11
Well, there’s quite a few when I think about it, but I guess Kpop is a good chunk of it, I guess. Should I start with how I got into it?

Claudia Henock 1:23
Sure!

Mira JC 1:23
So, I had to have appendectomy done back in like, December 2016, like a week before Christmas. While recovering, I got into like, K dramas and stuff like that. And one of the K dramas was, not BTS related, but a different kpop group oriented. And I kind of liked them, but not enough to like fully get into them yet. I did later on. But I had a friend, who I saw posting constant Kpop, and I asked her if she had other groups to recommend. And she recommended BTS and a few others, but BTS was the first one, which is funny, because it’s not even her favorite group. Yeah, she’s got so many more, but it kind of like spiraled from there. And I just got into it pretty quickly. I mean, they’re seven member group with, all guys, and they have this way of being genuinely funny. Like you can tell it’s not staged.

Claudia Henock 2:22
Yeah.

Mira JC 2:22
And they seem to have this relationship with each other that just is awesome to watch. And even though there’s a language barrier, I’m trying to learn. I want to be able to understand it without subtitles, because even with its subtitles, there is, it’s not necessarily wanted to true to what they said.

Claudia Henock 2:41
Yeah, totally. Because sometimes with like, stuff like Google Translate or different translators and how they perceive things, what the members may say in Korean may not be an exact translation, how we understand the English, but I think that’s always like really cool, too. Especially, since you can always become a fan of something that’s outside of your typical culture or outside of your country. That’s always really cool.

Mira JC 2:42
Yeah.

Claudia Henock 2:43
So who would you say is your favorite member of like BTS?

Mira JC 2:53
When I first started, I had a favorite member, and it was the oldest member, Jin. But as time went by, I realized that they’re all really special in their own way to me, so there is no,what’s called bias, favorite member. I like all of them in different ways. They have different like special, specialness to them. There’s some that that are just funny without trying, and some that you know they are trying a little bit, but like not in like, a dishonest way.

Claudia Henock 3:42
Yeah, absolutely. So I know when you post on social media sometimes, I know you do a lot traditional artwork. And one of the things I wanted to ask was, how did BTS and other Kpop groups become like a source of inspiration for your art?

Mira JC 3:58
Well, I got kind of tired of always doing the anime manga art, and it not really, like, I have this thing where it looks pretty like similar to what I looked at to draw it, and I don’t have like, I guess, originality. to my art. I don’t have my own style. And realism isn’t really like your own style, you just drawing it the way it almost shows up on the picture, page, whatever. But I’d never been very good at it. And it pushed me to be better at realism.

Claudia Henock 4:28
That’s actually a really cool way to think about too, because I don’t come from an artistic like artist point of view. But it’s a really cool just seeing how what you’ve see a photo translates into like pen and paper as well. And I always find that really cool and fascinating.

Mira JC 4:44
Yeah, I want to try to work harder on doing it in color more. Because mostly it’s just pencil and maybe some Sharpie to do like the like really dark parts on it.

Claudia Henock 4:53
So, I know we’ve talked about like BTS a little bit but are there any other Kpop groups that you like as well?

Mira JC 4:59
Ah, yes, there’s actually a group that debuted after them within the same company called TXT or TOMORROW X TOGETHER. They are a five member, male group. And then there’s other groups like Twice, which is a nine member, female group, or Dreamcatcher, which is a, if I memorized correctly, a seven member girl group also. Those are the main ones I like, and then there’s some like soloists. I listen to stuff other than Kpop, I swear!

Claudia Henock 5:29
That’s, that’s no problem.

Mira JC 5:32
But, I just, there’s so much to Kpop. And what’s funny is that there’s a lot of artists where when you listen to, like that doesn’t really sound pop, but because it’s Korean, they mostly are labeled as Kpop.

Claudia Henock 5:43
I always find that really fascinating, too, because I think it’s always really important to like, listen to beyond what’s outside what’s typically on the radio, and just to explore, like, different interests in stuff. And if you see something that you like, it doesn’t hurt to go into it more.

Mira JC 6:00
Exactly.

Claudia Henock 6:01
So you mentioned you got into K dramas, and you got into Kpop. Do you ever want to go to Korea someday?

Mira JC 6:09
Yes, I do want to, I know that I need to work on my health a lot before I go first.

Claudia Henock 6:18
Yeah, because sometimes being in a new environment can just be a little bit stressful, especially with being in a totally different culture, so I do understand that as well.

Mira JC 6:27
Yeah, I know. I’m gonna get like, whether my hair is the same color it is, the fun colors I have now, or I go with my natural hair color by time I eventually go. I know I’ll get attention because I’m a taller person.

Claudia Henock 6:41
Yeah.

Mira JC 6:42
I’m like, 5’11”.

Claudia Henock 6:44
Oh, God, that very tall!

Mira JC 6:47
Yeah, it’s more so that I am not of a smaller size, per se. I, for my health, I know, I need to lose weight. But I feel like, to not be ridiculed, as you know, big American person. I would also need to lose weight, but also to fit comfortably for my own self. I know I don’t need to lose weight to suit society, I guess.

Claudia Henock 7:13
Yeah.

Mira JC 7:14
It’s more so I know it’s for my health.

Claudia Henock 7:16
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s a decision that you want to make on your own, based on your own needs and desires, which is always something that’s really important too.

Mira JC 7:24
Yeah, exactly. I’ve heard from people, or other people saying about themselves when they, when, if they’re bigger. They’re not trying to lose weight, they like themselves as they are, it’s like, I don’t fully dislike how I am, I dislike the limits that it causes. Yeah, cause I know I’m gonna stand it out because foreigners stand out. Period, no matter what.

Claudia Henock 7:46
Yeah, absolutely. Like, if we were like chilling in a cafe in Seoul right now, people would be like, “Hey, what are these two Americans doing here? What’s happening?” Or they’re probably just like used to it at this point.

Mira JC 7:56
Depending on where, yes, yeah. I think the cities Itaewon, I think they have a lot more foreigners there. It wouldn’t be as strange, but you mostly, when you see foreigners, if they get interviewed on like the street and stuff over there. You see that they’re, they’re thinner.

Claudia Henock 8:14
Yeah.

Mira JC 8:15
There’s not really any like, plus size.

Claudia Henock 8:19
Gotcha. Yeah, the more closely resemble, like the typical, like Korean person, I guess, the less you like stand out to like the general population?

Mira JC 8:28
Yeah, I mean, like I said, you’re gonna stand out no matter what, by not being Asian at all. Yeah, I mean, I did get the really cool chance where some of my art was printed out in Busan some weeks ago, and put up an art gallery.

Claudia Henock 8:45
Oh, where was it? That’s actually really cool.

Mira JC 8:48
I posted about it, a while back. I know it was in Busan, and I’m on my phone with no other social media abilities right now, but I know I posted on it and made it public. There was some photos, and a video that somebody took that I screen recorded from Instagram, where it shows like the hallway with a bunch of different people’s art. I had four artworks put in, and what’s funny is when you watch the video, you can pinpoint some of them posted two or three times on the walls, and I thought that was odd.

Claudia Henock 9:17
Okay, but that’s really cool. That’s really cool for like your artwork to be like on the other side of the world.

Mira JC 9:23
I know. I was like, I was fascinated. I was like, “I’m gonna try this thing. See if it works and see if I get accepted.” If I don’t, no harm done, but if I do, that’s pretty cool. And I didn’t get like an email, or anything, I just had to find out from other people posting and I was like, “Oh, I should go check out this person, who’s in Korea, Instagram’s and see if I can pinpoint my own”, I think it was only there for a couple weeks. But yeah.

Claudia Henock 9:49
That’s still really cool.

Mira JC 9:50
Yeah, it was. The main event was for some more abstract artists that are apparently more famous over there, and then they gave an opportunity for BTS fandom to send in their own art to be put up on the walls.

Claudia Henock 10:06
That’s really cool. So it’s just kind of like a collaboration between this particular group of artists and like the BTS fandom in general?

Mira JC 10:12
I think that even though it’s abstract, they were artists inspired by BTS. That part wasn’t really made clear to me. I just know that the people posted about how there was an opportunity to send your art in. And BTS were performing in the same city at the time. So, there’s a chance they could have stopped by and gone and seen it.

Claudia Henock 10:33
Oh, that’s cool. So, yeah, was there ever a confirmation that BTS visited the actual gallery where the art was?

Mira JC 10:41
Not that I know, there’s a chance that the leader of the group could have, because he’s a big, big art fan. He released a solo album recently. And he’s known for going to art galleries and museums and all kinds of stuff.

Claudia Henock 10:56
That’s actually really cool. And on the topic about the group members, I had been falling faintly how some of the members were starting to go into Korea’s like, I think it’s like two year military service.

Mira JC 11:10
I think it’s just under two years.

Claudia Henock 11:12
Oh, yeah, just under two years.

Mira JC 11:14
18 months!

Claudia Henock 11:15
So when I was looking at various articles and people were talking about, like how some of the members were going to military service is going to affect like Korea’s economy because a lot of the Korean economy is affected by is influenced by Kpop, and especially groups like BTS.

Mira JC 11:28
That is true. Apparently, BTS brought in like quite a few billion in revenue, especially during the height of COVID, which was pretty fascinating.

Claudia Henock 11:38
Yeah.

Mira JC 11:39
So far, only one member has gone, because there’s only a few months difference between the one who went, and the next oldest one, I think that they’ll probably be close to going next. But my guess is it would be sometime after their birthday. Because the one who went, his birthday was like the fourth of this month. And the next one, his birthday is March. So my guess is after his birthday, he’ll be going.

Claudia Henock 12:07
Yeah, so just like, little baby steps for each member just to go into like the military service. And from what I understand, it’s going to cause like the group to go on the hiatus.

Mira JC 12:17
Hiatus as a group, but not necessarily for solo activities. While this has been going on, the member who went to military, he released a single, and then after that, the youngest member put out a song. The other younger ones are trying to, they’re currently in the process of making music for their own solo stuff. And then the leader and lead rapper, he just put out his own album where he worked with people like Erykah Badu. Yeah, it was pretty, pretty fascinating. I didn’t expect some of the the people that he has featured on.

Claudia Henock 12:51
But that’s actually really cool, and actually pretty fascinating, too, because I like the fact that people still keep going.

Mira JC 12:58
Yeah, I mean, lots of groups do that. They’d have their own solo activities, whether they, I mean, some groups also don’t stay together as long as they have. There’s very few groups that have stayed together for over seven years. It’s like a, not a curse, but it’s just something that commonly happens when the seven year hits that groups tend to separate.

Claudia Henock 13:18
How long has BTS been a group, do you know?

Mira JC 13:21
Eight years? No, it’s going almost 10 years now, because they count when they formed, but not necessarily when they debuted. It’s been about eight since they debuted, I think, around 8 but 10 years since they were put together, probably. They just put on there, for sale, this like 10 year coin thing that was only available to buy if you’re in Korea because it’s made of gold.

Claudia Henock 13:45
Oh my god!

Mira JC 13:46
Yeah, it cost $3,000, and somehow…

Claudia Henock 13:49
Oh my god!

Mira JC 13:50
Korea sold it out. I know it was a limited run, but that’s insane.

Claudia Henock 13:56
Yeah, like a $3,000 gold coin, like oh my god.

Mira JC 14:00
I know.

Claudia Henock 14:02
That’s actually really interesting, and really crazy to hear.

Mira JC 14:09
I feel like the company that takes care of BTS, TXT, and them. They know that BTS fans, there’s always gonna be somebody for something.

Claudia Henock 14:17
Yeah, I can definitely understand that too. You just got to make the most money possible with like best possible collaborations to go with the widest audience possible.

Mira JC 14:25
They need somebody who is an artist, but also part of the fandom though, I feel personally, to help design some of the like, the designs on the clothing, or just some stuff it because it feels like they’re just making it as minimal as possible, and it just looks not the best. Plus they don’t make plus size clothing either. So it’s like, “Oh, that looks like a cute hoodie maybe, but it stops at like size large.” And it’s always women sizing. So let’s say that they have a guy, who’s bigger guy, he wants to get a sweatshirt. He can’t get it either.

Claudia Henock 14:59
Yeah, and just plus the size differences in general from culture to culture too, that just kind of like reminds me a time where I bought some cosplay items, and it was like Japanese, I think it was like a Japanese size large, but I was American size large at the time, and I didn’t fit the Japanese size large.

Mira JC 15:01
Yeah, it was probably something like a small or medium in our sizes.

Claudia Henock 15:14
Yeah, that’s always like really fascinating to me, and just like, essentially like product placement, and how they create products and collaborations in general. Whether it’s something with BTS or something with a popular fandom.

Mira JC 15:30
Yeah, cause I know that there’s going to be a like BTS Lego collaboration. I keep seeing pictures about it. There was BTS Snickers collaboration at one point, not that long ago.

Claudia Henock 15:41
Okay, if you can actually send me information about the BTS Lego thing? That’s actually pretty interesting, too.

Mira JC 15:47
Yeah, I’ve just seen some ads in passing, like on Instagram and Twitter and stuff. I’ll try to find it though. I don’t think any details have been put out yet, but it’s like a purple Lego heart, and it’s something referencing working with a group, and like an idol group. Just like, oh, yeah, that’s BTS. They’re known for the Purple Heart thing.

Claudia Henock 16:08
So one of the questions I have is, for anyone that’s listening right now, that’s like very curious about Kpop, but doesn’t know how to get into it, do you have any tips for anyone that wants to get into Kpop?

Mira JC 16:18
I’d say just for me, the best thing to do would just be to go on Spotify, find the playlist that automatically made called Kpop Rising, and just let it play and start listening. Just, you might click with some songs, because I don’t know the majority of the groups I listen to anymore on that playlist, but I know songs I like because I listen to them. And for me, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that I pay attention to words, it could just be the way that it’s sung, or the melodies to it. It just has that little click in my little ADHD brain. That just, it’s that right feeling.

Claudia Henock 16:54
Yeah, because you just never know what you’re going to really connect to, whether it’s like, how someone sings it, or someone’s voice, or the beat, or the melody, you just never know what you’re gonna connect to.

Mira JC 17:03
Yeah, I kind of just threw myself into it, because I kind of had pulled away from like, watching anime. There wasn’t much coming out at the time that I was interested in. And I really threw myself into it. And there’s a thing called having ADHD hyperfixations, and I worried that it would be like that. I was one of those stereotypes that had a One Direction fixation for a little while before.

Claudia Henock 17:28
Yeah.

Mira JC 17:28
And I’m not into that at all anymore. But going into what is, I think six years strong now. Because it was December 26, 2016. And now it’s December 2020.

Claudia Henock 17:42
2022, actually.

Mira JC 17:44
2022? I forgot the two. But yeah, like six years strong. Like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’ve got so much merchandise now that I’m like, I don’t think I can leave at this point.

Claudia Henock 18:03
It makes you happy!

Mira JC 18:05
It does. It does. I mean, there’s this thing, even though, unlike, I guess US artists where you buy the album, and it’s just the CD, and maybe a little bit of a lyric book, per se. With Kpop, there’s just so much to it when you buy an album, because it’s not just an album, it’s a photo book, it’s photocard, you might get stickers, or you definitely get a poster most of the time, but you get all kinds of little stuff. And I’ve got photo cards. I’ve got fan art from other people that I bought, and it’s just fun to look at. It’s fun to have. I actually go to anime conventions now looking for Kpop.

Claudia Henock 18:41
Hey, I’m not surprised because there’s usually like two or three stalls that are purely dedicated to like Kpop and Jpop material now too, and then some of the artists may sell prints of different artists too. It just depends on who you know, and what you look for.

Mira JC 18:53
I mean, I know there was at Nekocon, there was at least one Kpop table, but the only problem is all she had was like photocards that you could look through on the table, but the albums were like behind her on some shelves, and I’ve got poor eyesight. I couldn’t read the albums to figure out which ones she even had. But I luckily, the last day, found a second booth that had them for discounted and got a normally like almost $25 album for like 10 bucks.

Claudia Henock 19:21
Oh, nice. That’s awesome.

Mira JC 19:23
Yeah, it was unopened. That’s what made me go, “Wait, but it’s unopened? Why is it so cheap?”

Claudia Henock 19:28
Yes, it’s a good deal.

Mira JC 19:31
I was really excited. I didn’t go nuts. I normally don’t go nuts buying stuff. Like the most nuts I went was probably 2018, 2019 Katsucon.

Claudia Henock 19:43
Yeah.

Mira JC 19:43
I was there with my friends, and I bought stuff because it was also the weekend of my mom’s birthday. So I went and I got her stuff, because I got her into like Kdrama and Kpop a bit too. So I got her these really pretty chopsticks that have those like pretty, like those like Chinese dress designs to them.

Claudia Henock 20:02
Yeah.

Mira JC 20:02
Each one had its own color and design on it and a bento box.

Claudia Henock 20:07
Okay.

Mira JC 20:08
So I got stuff for me, and then I got that for her.

Claudia Henock 20:11
But that’s really cool. And what would you say is your mom’s favorite group currently?

Mira JC 20:17
She used to be more into a group called SS501, but she’s kind of pulled away from Kpop. And I’ll show her stuff, but she always compares it to BTS, because that’s my favorite group. Which is funny, and it’s pretty cool. But yeah, I mean, it’s not her favorite thing. She listens to a bunch of stuff too. Because she’s had time. I’ll put it as nicely as it gets, to listen to quite a bit.

Claudia Henock 20:44
Yeah. Times always a weird thing. Like you never know what you are going to like, you’re never know if you’re going to be a fan of it six years later, or if you’re gonna like it from a year now. Time is always weird.

Mira JC 20:55
Yeah, I mean, if you compare my mom and my dad, when he was alive, my mom, she will learn about stuff, get into stuff, she’s willing to just learn and listen to a bunch of stuff. Whereas my dad, he would watch stuff you wouldn’t expect.

Claudia Henock 21:10
Okay?

Mira JC 21:11
Like, I read The Vampire Diaries books, and when I heard the show, when it originally was coming out, I was like, “Oh, I’m interested.” But I didn’t watch it right away. He watched it right away.

Claudia Henock 21:22
Oh, dang!

Mira JC 21:23
And the Teen Wolf series that was on MTV, and just other like, unexpected, like teen romance oriented, somewhat action shows, I’d catch him watching it. And it’s funny, and he had a broad range of stuff he would watch. He did not like Kpop, because a lot of Kpop has rap in it, and he was a huge disliker of rap music.

Claudia Henock 21:45
Okay.

Mira JC 21:46
Like when we would be out in the car, and somebody would be blaring rap music, his solution was to roll his windows down, and blare country music. Just like fighting fire with fire does not save my eardrums.

Claudia Henock 21:59
I’m just like, I don’t know if this makes it better or makes it worse.

Mira JC 22:03
If it drowns out the sound for him, that’s fine, but give me a warning. So I can like plug my ears.

Claudia Henock 22:09
Yeah, because you don’t know how long it’s gonna be in the car.

Mira JC 22:13
Yeah, that’s true.

Claudia Henock 22:15
So Mira, I want to say thank you for chatting with me today. Do you have any social media that people can follow you on at all?

Mira JC 22:23
Yes, I have one that’s I post that, I have Instagram for both just like my Kpop art specifically, and only really that. And then I also post my Kpop, but in batches on like my cosplay and other art Instagram. So just Kpop would be @bangtansparrow. So B-A-N-G-T-A-N, and then of course how sparrow, like the bird, is spelled. And then for the other Instagram, it would be crystal gem, and then my first name with just straight up no spaces, dots, slashes, none of that stuff for both of them. They both apply to Twitter also.

Claudia Henock 23:04
Oh, awesome. I’ll definitely go ahead, in the show notes. I’ll definitely put the links for both the, are you okay if I put the links for both the Instagrams and the Twitters in the show notes?

Mira JC 23:15
Yeah, that’s certainly fine. I just want to note for the Twitters, I have the B and S for the BangtanSparrow on Twitters capitalized. And for the other one, the C, G, and M for CrystalGemMira on Twitter is capitalized.

Claudia Henock 23:31
Yeah. But Mira, I want to say thank you again for chatting with me today about Kpop, time, and just fandom in general. And I really appreciate you talking with me today.

Mira JC 23:42
I’m really glad I chose to do it, I was worried that I would be a stumbling rambling mass, or just to silent and sitting here with my eyes wide open like, “Crap, what do I say now?”

Claudia Henock 23:53
Don’t worry. I feel like the same way when I do these interviews too. Because sometimes, I just don’t know what people are going to say. So that’s how I formulate my questions. And sometimes there are moments where like, “What’s the next question I’m going to ask?”

Mira JC 24:06
Yeah, my brain likes to do this thing now, because I used to have a problem where I would blurt things out. And it would be the bad things that I shouldn’t say. So instead, my brain freezes, and I’m sitting there thinking like, “What I say now,” and having to take that time to really think my words through, and now I’ve got this label of being silent too much.

Claudia Henock 24:28
Well, you’re definitely not silent in this interview, and it was actually really fun learning more about Kpop and BTS from your perspective, as well. It was actually a lot of fun.

Mira JC 24:38
I’m glad! If you ever have a different subject that you do podcasts on, or if you want to do a part two about something else. I’d be glad to do it. I can always go on about anime or game systems.

Claudia Henock 24:52
Maybe, that might be a really fun thing in the future if you’re down for it.

Mira JC 24:55
Yeah, definitely.

Claudia Henock 24:58
Awesome. Well, I don’t want to keep you up to long on this wonderful Saturday morning. But Mira, I want to say thank you again for being a guest on my show. And, yeah, I hope you have an awesome day.

Mira JC 25:09
I hope you do too. I had a lot of fun.

Claudia Henock 25:11
Thank you! Have a good one, bye!

Mira JC 25:13
You too. Bye.

Claudia Henock 25:19
Thank you for listening to this episode of Your Most Precious Thing. You can follow me @claudiahenock on Instagram and Twitter, as well as Claudia Henock on LinkedIn. You can also follow Your Most Precious Thing through my official website, www.claudiahenock.com, in addition to anywhere where you listen to your podcasts. Intro and outro music is Synapse by Shane Ivers, and you can find his music on silvermansound.com.