[Fanday Mondays] Shinhwa Philippines prepares for 2012

The Philippine K-Pop community is a vibrant group of people, young and young-at-heart, who express their passion for Korean music, drama, food, pop culture and all things K-Pop.

To recognize and celebrate this energetic subculture of fan clubs, talents, and personalities, Yahoo! Philippines OMG! is starting a feature called "Fanday Mondays". Every first and third Monday of the month starting October 2011, Yahoo! Philippines OMG!, through its "OKPOP" blog, will feature one local K-Pop fan club or personality. The goal of this series is to increase awareness and foster camaraderie among local K-Pop fan clubs and K-Pop fanatics.

To formally start "Fanday Mondays", this inaugural feature was completed with respect to the Korean custom of honoring seniors or sunbaes. Today's feature is on one of the senior K-Pop fan clubs in the Philippines—Shinhwa Philippines.

Fan Club Name: Shinhwa Philippines
Website: www.shinhwaphilippines.com
Related K-Pop Star(s): Shinhwa, Eric Mun, Lee Min Woo, Kim Dong Wan, Shin Hye Sung, Jun Jin, and Andy Lee
Year Established: December 2007
Date of Artist Debut: March 1998

Shinhwa Philippines started from an international fan forum which evolved into a local forum as the number of Filipino Shinhwa fans increased. With the aim of unifying Filipino Shinhwa fans, the local forum was launched on December 8, 2007. The club's main inspiration is to foster friendship and loyalty as exemplified by the Shinhwa members specially their group's touching story of loyalty and survival in the K-Pop industry.

As of now, Shinhwa is not active in the K-Pop industry due to mandatory military training. However, members Eric Mun, Kim Dong Wan and Shin Hye Sung are doing individual activities while the other three members are completing their service. Shinhwa is expected to make their K-Pop comeback by March 2012.

Fangirling and promoting the Philippines at the same time

Shinhwa Philippines or ShinPhil is one of the pioneer participants of the Philippine K-Pop Convention. As a fan club, the group tries to send Filipino representatives to various Shinhwa activities including those in Seoul, Taiwan and Thailand. During Shinhwa's 10^th anniversary concert, the ShinPhil representatives brought with them a support banner featuring the Shinhwa members riding a jeepney. The Filipino theme used for the banner aims to make Shinhwa aware that they have loyal fans in the Philippines. Since the Filipino representatives were seated up close, the representatives reported that some Shinhwa members did a double take upon seeing the unusual banner and actually looked at the banner closely. Shinhwa Philippines hopes that Shinhwa will include a Philippine stop during their reunion concert's Asian tour. The group also wishes that a local distributor will release Shinhwa's comeback album in 2012.

Fangirling and Making a Difference

Shinhwa Philippines has prepared unique fan gifts for their idols. As a fan club, ShinPhil has given to various charities in the name of Shinhwa.

To celebrate Shinhwa's 10^th anniversary in 2008, ShinPhil started supporting a child with World Vision under Shinhwa's name. To celebrate Shinhwa's 13^th anniversary this year, ShinPhil planted six seedlings thru Haribon Foundation on behalf of each of the Shinhwa members. ShinPhil also continues to participate in the annual Philippine K-Pop Convention where all proceeds go to the Gawad Kalinga movement.

Fangirl Recommendations

For those not familiar with Shinhwa but are interested to know who they are, Shinhwa Philippines recommends that you check out the 10^th Anniversary Concert DVD which is a 4-hour long DVD that highlights 10 years of Shinhwa. Another recommended DVD is the "All About Shinhwa" box set, which has 6 DVDs complete with clips about all 6 Shinhwa members.

Fangirling Fun

Fan clubs are never complete without fun activities and forum debates and discussions. Shinhwa Philippines regularly organize club gatherings to further develop friendships among members. Shinhwa Philippines also organizes bulk ordering for Shinhwa albums and DVDs and coordinates with fan clubs in Seoul. The group also coordinates with international Shinhwa fans in support for individual Shinhwa members who are currently active in the business. ShinPhil sends flowers, food support and scrapbooks to the members as support for their individual activities.

The Shinhwa Philippines forum is also a venue for fangirling fun. Right now, the hottest topics in the forum include the anticipation for Shinhwa's comeback in 2012, plans to unite and meet up with international fans for the much-awaited Shinhwa reunion concert, and Eric Mun's interesting drama with a drama "Spy Myung Wol."

Here's a video of club highlights prepared by Shinhwa Philippines.

Indeed, Shinhwa Philippines is already busy preparing for their idol's return in 2012. I am sure their orange glowsticks are all fired up to support Shinhwa even before 2012 begins.

Today's feature is dedicated in memory of Ms. Mari Zaragoza Calica, the mom of Shinhwa Philippines and a mom through and through.

Catherine Deen blogs for Yahoo! Philippines OMG!. She lives, eats and breathes Korean music, cuisine, telenovelas, and pop culture. Follow her on Twitter @cathsdeen.