hey so I'm a white American than just recently got into GOT7, and I want to write fanfiction for them. but I'm sort of uneducated on their cultures and I don't want it to seem like I'm white washing them while I write, do you have any advice for me? :(
I think before anything, I would start with their personalities. How they are as a human, their relationships and how they interact with other people -with each other, friends, family.
Then, what their interests are (Mark & his skateboards, Jackson w/ his fencing history, JB and Junior like to read a lot) or is there anything that really stands out in their person ie. Quiet Mark, Energy-Ball Jackson, JinYoung is introverted, JB’s leader abilities, etc…)
After researching about GOT7 as a group/person. Then I would research the culture. Firstly the Korean culture for the Korean members, Thai culture for BamBam, Chinese-American Culture for Mark, and Hong Kong (not Mainland China/Chinese but Hong Kong -cause there is a major difference) Culture for Jackson.
GOT7 is very multicultural, as yes they have a lot of western influences, ie they love In-n-Out, watch American movies (fast & furious), travel to America quite a-lot for a Korean group. So I wouldn’t erase those influences from your fanfics.
But make sure to keep in mind of the culture in Asia (esp if you are writing MxM), settings/landmarks in Korea, the type of cuisine they would have (GOT7 is seen to have western food like McD’s/burgers/pastas but they also eat Korean Soups, Dokbokki, Sundae (JB&BamBam love this btw). Also of course do some research about Seoul and the cities in Korea. Also respect for elders is HUGE is Korea (as well as other Asian Cultures), thus bowing when greeting others, or turning away from the elder when taking a shot of Soju, or even the honorifics of saying “Hyung”, “Oppa”, “Noona”, “Unnie” when addressing someone older than you. And “Games” are a big part of the culture as well, you can see GOT7 play a lot of games with each other, like the “Frying Pan game”, Asia is Big on PC/Mobile gaming as opposed to console gaming (Playstations/XBox -but do note GOT7/JB does own a PS4-)
Of course you don’t have to do in depth research, cause writing fanfic/stories are an authors imagined/re-imagined fiction piece.So have fun with the creative process. But if you are doing stories where the culture does come to play -ie. Food at a Baseball game: instead of Hotdogs, Chicken/pizza/kimbap is usually the food-of-choice - , just having that bit of knowledge would make the fanfic’s setting a bit more believable, and some would even appreciate it ^^
Well that’s my advice, hope it helps. But the most important things is, fanfics is a creative outlet, it really is just your imagination, so get creative, let those juices run. And have fun with writing ^^
