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BTS super fan finds fame writing fanfiction about K-pop group, uses earnings to start business

SINGAPORE — To most people, Ms Ng Kwok Ching is an ordinary teenager who goes about her day-to-day activities unnoticed.

Ms Ng Kwok Ching poses with the BTS portraits she drew and her Loveholic Beauty cosmetics at her home in Jurong West on Dec 22, 2020.

Ms Ng Kwok Ching poses with the BTS portraits she drew and her Loveholic Beauty cosmetics at her home in Jurong West on Dec 22, 2020.

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  • Ms Ng Kwok Ching is most known by her online moniker jiminfication
  • She has amassed a following of 77,600 readers on Wattpad
  • Her BTS fanfiction stories have earned her thousands of dollars
  • She used the earnings to start a cosmetics business

 

SINGAPORE — To most people, Ms Ng Kwok Ching is an ordinary teenager who goes about her day-to-day activities unnoticed.

But to those who are fans of the international K-pop sensation BTS, the 19-year-old student is something of a mini-celebrity, popular for her fictional works featuring the seven “idols” in various fantastical scenarios.

Once, she was even recognised by a reader while out buying chicken rice at her neighbourhood coffee shop — something that she did not foresee would ever happen when she published her first story online three years ago.

“I was very shocked because I don’t usually mention my personal Instagram account a lot. The fact that they can remember my face is very unexpected,” she said.

Most known by her online moniker jiminfication, Ms Ng has amassed a following of 77,600 readers on Wattpad, a social storytelling platform that is popular among fanfiction readers and writers.

She has written seven stories — all on BTS.

In her stories, often written in the romance genre, the members of BTS are planted in various fantasy scenarios with a cast — usually with at least one female protagonist — of original characters created by Ms Ng herself.

In one story, they are socialites living in high society. In another, one of the boys in the band is cast as a chief executive officer of a high-powered firm.

Her most popular story to date, titled Rivals, is a 50-chapter opus where a top-performing female student comes head to head with another student at the school, played by BTS’ Jungkook.

“I think I put a lot of my personal touch into these stories,” said Ms Ng. “So when you read them, it really pulls at your heartstrings.”

OVERNIGHT SUCCESS

Writing fanfiction was a natural segue for Ms Ng as she got deeper into the fandom.

For one thing, she was already reading the fanfiction other fans were writing and sharing online.

Ms Ng had also always been interested in writing, penning original works in her free time as a hobby.

So the decision to write BTS fanfiction was a no-brainer — it allowed her to exercise her creative muscles while getting more involved in the fandom.

Success came overnight for Ms Ng, whose story about a young woman who meets a “hot, rugged stranger” — played by BTS’ Jimin — turned roommate became an instant hit with BTS fans on Wattpad.

Because of how saturated the fanfiction market is, Ms Ng said she was already surprised and elated when she saw that the story had 10 views in the first few hours after she published it online.

So when the view count jumped to more than 1,000 the next day, she could hardly believe her eyes.

“At first, when I got 10 views, I was very happy. I told myself I’m going to print this story out, since 10 people read my story… but the next day before I even printed it out, it reached 1,000 views,” said Ms Ng.

Other authors on the site told her they were jealous, because it usually takes someone several stories before they are able to stand out in the sea of fanfiction that is on the site.

Ms Ng chalks it partly to luck that the algorithm had picked up her story and recommended it to more readers.

Initially, she savoured every comment that came in, eagerly opening the app to find out what a reader had to say.

But, eventually, it got to a point where she could no longer keep up with the comments pouring in from readers and viewers.

“There were a few thousand (comments) every minute,” she said.

FULFILLING LIFELONG DREAMS

With an audience of loyal readers in tow, Ms Ng also started to attract the attention of other publishing platforms, like Readme, RNovel and Inkitt, who were interested in paying her a sum of money to republish her works on their websites.

For her most popular story Rivals, she was able to earn US$1,000 (S$1,330) from the various platforms.

For her other stories, Ms Ng said on average, she has earned about US$250 to US$500 for each story.

It is for these reasons that her parents have also come on board and supported her on her endeavours.

They were initially worried that she was writing inappropriate stories, given the bad reputation that fanfiction has for being “weird” and “lewd”.

With the money saved up, the teenager was able to fulfil one of her lifelong goals to start her own cosmetics business. She founded Loveholic Beauty earlier this year.

Using a starting capital of US$1,000, she sourced for suppliers who sent her formulas for various lip gloss and eye shadow products, which she sampled and tested before choosing which ones she wanted to manufacture for her store.

She also designed the packaging of the products and did all the marketing materials herself.

Though Loveholic Beauty has not made a profit yet, Ms Ng said she plans to continue growing her customer base and the business.

FANS ENJOY HER CREATIVE PLOTS

Fans of Ms Ng’s stories said that they enjoyed her writing because she always has a creative and unique concept to offer with her stories that even appeals to readers who are not big fans of BTS.

Said one reader, Ms Henrietta Chan, 19: “Her plots are fascinating from beginning to end, unlike certain stories that have an interesting opening, but get more and more boring.”

“She always ends each chapter with a cliffhanger, which would make her readers excited for more,” added the university student, who is based in Taiwan.

Related topics

BTS fanfiction

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