Earlier this year, one of South Korea’s biggest entertainment companies, SM Entertainment, found the plaza outside their headquarters in Seoul filled with hundreds of funeral wreaths. Sent by fans of one of the K-pop groups the company manages, the floral tributes lined the street not in mourning, but as a form of protest at the return of a boy band member they deemed controversial.
Once a solemn symbol of mourning, funeral wreaths have taken on a new role in South Korea—as a symbol of protest.
