Chaos & Introspection At Mark Lee Lookalike Contest
I never in my entire life thought I’d die at 33 in Washington Square Park, but for a brief second on Friday afternoon around 2PM I thought it was a possibility. I tripped, and really imagined for a split second that I might get trampled as Mark Lee was swarmed by fans rushing him, as he raised hands together, showing both appreciation for them and simultaneously seeming to ask them to step back.
This was my overly anxious brain working in overtime, and there was never a real danger, but it took some my body to learn what my brain and heart knew.
I had been standing in the back of a crowd for about an hour, standing right in front of the Park’s iconic arch. The crowd was organised in a circle, and had come together for one of several recent celebrity lookalike contests that were taking place in NYC over the past few weeks.
This one was for Mark Lee of NCT, NCT 127, NCT Dream, and SUPERM, and so the competition began at 1:27 on your dot. That happened only after the coordinators got a fine for gathering in public by park police, declaring “We got a fine for NCTzen”, referring to NCT’s fans, among whom there is a meme about being consistently at the scene of crimes.
There were five contestants; one was dressed as Spidermark and another was someone wearing a hoodie with an iPad over their face featuring a picture of Mark. One of the others, #5, eventually won. But before he did, I had left because right around 2PM Mark Lee himself had shown up and it was chaos that led me to do some soul searching (and not be next to another person for several hours).
Standing in the back of the crowd, I could barely see the proceedings, including dance performances, and heard only a little from the organisers of the lookalike contest as they introduced the competitors. But even though I wasn’t in the prime viewing spot for the lookalike contest, it turned out that the back right corner (I think of it as back right of the crowd but it was a circle) was where Mark walked in from the street into the park, accompanied by his team.
Mark was in town for NYC’s Jingle Ball, performing with NCT Dream. He had posted about the Lookalike contest the day before, so people hoped he may come by a la Timothee Chalamet. The organisers in fact had rescheduled the competition, seemingly to align with NCT Dream being in town. And it seems like that paid off.
It also raised attention to the contest with people hoping Mark would show, and many fans seemingly only attended the Lookalike contest because they thought Mark may show up. I had already been planning to go, and had taken Thursday and Friday off from my day job for a bit of personal time so I was able to attend. I thought it’d be fun to report on it for this newsletter, because I honestly wasn’t sure how well a lookalike for a K-pop star would do in NYC.
The entire time I stood in the crowd, there were definitely people there for the lookalike contest, but frequent questions of “Is he here?” plus “I came because I hoped he would” could be heard.
I personally thought it was a good bet, because of Mark’s posts. But I had also heard from someone on another artist’s team about how Jingle Ball rehearsals were taking place pretty early in the day for the MSG show that night. I thought it might be impossible for Mark to come, solely because NCT Dream might have to do a run through likely around the same time as the contest.
I was also working on a time crunch: I had to head out by 2:15, because I had to prep a little bit still before Shabbat fell. As a Sabbath-observant Jew, I don’t use transportation or actively use electricity over the Jewish Sabbath and it begins around 4PM in NYC for much of the winter so I had to get home ASAP. I texted a friend, waffling about if I should stay until the end of the contest or leave because it was getting late, but what if I missed Mark and the reporting that could come out of that?
I may have a day job now (support journalism, while you can, everyone!), but I’m a journalist at heart and missing any Big Reporting Moment is the worst feeling. This friend said she thought I could leave, if I didn’t mind missing the winner. I decided to stay a bit longer, since eliminations had begun and hopefully they’d finish soon, and I could see what it was like to declare a Mark Lee lookalike.
And then I heard sounds of surprise behind me, and it was my immediate reaction (as both s New Yorker and a journalist) to immediately begin filming. Before I knew it, I was swept up in the crowd moving with Mark Lee and his security guards. (I honestly don’t know where the rest of his crew was, but hopefully they didn’t get squished).
I have been in many tight crowds before, and thought it’d be fine. Kept recording, and assumed people would calm down in a second.
I was wrong.
Or rather, I was right but some seconds of life feel longer than others.
My video’s only 22 seconds long, but it was 22 seconds of hell. I know rationally how to handle crowd crushes, and have been in a near one before (trying to get to the subway after New Years Eve festivities in Taipei). I’ve always been concerned about them at K-pop-related events, and the horrors of the Itaewon Halloween crowd crush haunts.
Nearly tripping at one point, I could just imagine getting trampled by people videoing the same shots of Mark walking forward, surrounded by guards and asking people to step back. There was no way to really step back, because people were walking and pushing so immensely, it was like a wave. In my video, you can hear a few people asking for safety, and a few of us cursing.
I felt the heel of my shoe get stuck on someone else, and my ever-anxious brain made me immediately go to the thought that I might actually fall amid all the people. I got out, ultimately, because I forced my way away from the wave following Mark. I saw him, and the rolling crowd following him, move to the Center of the contest. I don’t know what he said, and then I saw the crowd moving again, so stepped aside and watched as they followed him back to the street. He was gone. I decided I would leave too.
Like the good reporter I tell myself I am, I immediately posted the video on social media, in the threads on Threads and Bluesky where I had been simultaneously live posting, and then gave permission to some journalists there who had been standing on the other side of the circle so their outlets could reshare the video after I posted it on TikTok.
@tamartoks Mark Lee @NCT Official just showed up at the NYC lookalike contest #marklee #nct #nctdream #nct127
♬ original sound - Tamar Herman
Mark ended up reposting my video via Billboard’s post. It should feel like a reporting win. But I can feel my heart racing as I write this, thinking about that moment, and I don’t know if anything ever can be worth that, and certainly not what ultimately is a fancam.
I’ve seen the videos before of idols getting mobbed, but always presumed it couldn’t be quite as bad as it looked; people can’t really want to create a crowd crush to get close to their faves, can they? The answer is I was perhaps overly naive, because they very much can, and K-pop companies enable it, and celebritydom in general increasinglys. As pointed out to me by a very wise friend I asked to take a look at this, it’s not the fans wholly at fault because this sort of intensity is capitalised on by K-pop companies.
Fandom fervour and supportive behaviour may transform over the years, but it always finds a way to edge between loyal passion and dangerous intensity.
I can’t imagine how K-pop idols, who regularly go through this sort of thing, handle that sort of crowding rushes. By the time I got home about 45 minutes later my adrenaline was still noticeably high, my body still in defence mode and shaking slightly. I missed the pronouncement of the contest winner, and settled into a quiet Sabbath, turning off my phone.
After sunset Saturday, I turned it back on and saw posts on social media from the organisers and winner, and was glad that everyone seemed to have so much fun, and that people had helped them pay off the fine. Mark posted a video too, and seemed to be very affable about it all. It seems he had planned to stay longer, and had brought a camera person with him. Without the crush, maybe he would have stayed longer and it may have turned into a vlog, as K-pop idols tend to do.
I also saw thousands of comments on my videos and across social media criticising the crowd. One criticism that stuck out was the acknowledgement that American fans are not in fact better than Asian ones. I repeatedly saw that idea, as fans declared that the collective we of American fans, represented by the crowd at the lookalike event, had failed the greater K-pop community.
I’ve been thinking about it ever since, because it made me so sad: that very idea, that some region of fans are better behaved than any other, was built on the presumption that one group of people is better than another culturally. The western-centricity, the Orientalism in that ideal felt sadder to me even than the behaviour itself. Maybe this would be a wake up call to fans who feel that way, but I doubt it. Humans will human.
Mobbing someone is, for better or worse, very human in nature. So is placing your In Group above others, and Othering people by declaring a moral high-ground. That makes it even scarier to me, how a calm crowd could get so intense all of a sudden, but it also gives me hope, because after Mark left, the crowd returned to normal and finished the competition.
I don’t really have any big takeaway. My initial reaction was What The Actual Fuck, and I drafted a newsletter preaching about how bad the behaviour was. But, as scary and stressful as it was, I also understand it, and luckily nobody was hurt. For some fans, that’ll be the best moment of their year. I’ve seen fans come together across many fandoms over the year to do so much good, and I don’t believe anyone is at fault. We all can do some soul searching, perhaps, about how we treat those around us, whether they’re famous or not, whether they’re the same as us or not.
Note: I wrote this on a plane, on my iPad. There are likely typos. Please comment, or email me tamarhermanwrites@gmail.com.
In the news…
South Korea impeached President Yoon after he declared martial law. I have a short newsletter planned about the fandom and light stick aspects of the protests, hope you enjoy it once I publish.
With K-pop and light sticks, South Koreans demanded Yoon’s impeachment (Washington Post)
What I’ve been working o
I have several newsletters planned before the end of the year, but for now I leave you with the NME Best 0f 2024 K-pop songs list, which I participated in. Please check out my blurbs for ATEEZ’s Work and ILLIT’s Magnetic, and enjoy all the other blurbs and songs.
NME
