As was discussed heavily in the post about Korean superstitions, fan death used to be rife in Korea. Literally everyone would tell you fans could kill, and frequently did every summer. People of all ages would tell you not to sleep with the fan on, and doctors, police, politicians, news media, and even the fan manufacturers themselves would back them up (according to one commenter, the latter still print safety warnings in the instructions for their “deadly” products).
It used to be a major feature of living here, right up there with Dokdo, K-pop, and “Korea has four seasons.” But now it’s just faded away. Young people don’t seem to believe it, and middle-aged people who once believed it must have quietly figured it out. That’s admirable, but also pretty astonishing. There also seems to be no research into this disappearing superstition, which is a real shame because it could have other implications on other superstitions and different types of outdated beliefs.
Curious to hear everyone’s anecdotes and any related resources, but I’m especially interested to figure out around when fan death lost its credibility (which I suspect happened mainly around the early-mid 2010s), and also hearing about the experiences of Koreans who were exposed to the fan death belief, and how they perceived it and whether they disbelieved or later changed their minds.
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