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P1harmony debuted in 2020，which is a Kpop men‘s group of FNC entertainment. There are 6 members- Keeho , THeo, Jiung, Intak, Soul, Jongsoeb. The name

of their fans is Piece. Keeho is the leader of the group.

In this latest official poster on the company’s website, Keeho is positioned at the center, with his arms outstretched to embrace the two members in front of him,

like a parent figure quietly supporting the group from behind. This visual composition aligns with his long-established leader image as a gentle, nurturing presence within the team, someone who cares for and supports his fellow members like a compassionate mother.

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Born in 27,9,2001, Keeho is the leader of P1harmony. Also, he is the main vocal in the group. Here is the screenshot of his personal page in Weverse. （Weverse is an application where holds the official fan society. It is used by many entertainment companies to disseminate official information about the artist to fans and provide a platform for interaction between fans and the artist.)

This screenshot shows Keeho’s profile on a fan communication platform. He warmly invites fan interaction (“ask me about anything”) and expresses gratitude for their love and support in another post. The banner includes photos with other members, highlighting his role as a group leader and reinforcing his approachable and caring image.

Keeho’s post “ask me about anything” performs a tone of openness and familiarity, creating the illusion of equal communication and reinforcing his image as an accessible idol. His use of both English and Korean highlights his bilingual identity, aligning with FNC’s branding of him as a global spokesperson. Repeated gratitude in his award post reflects affective labour, a professionalized form of sincerity that sustains emotional investment from fans. The “authenticity” displayed in these posts may partly reflect Keeho’s genuine personality, but it is more likely a performance shaped by institutional management. His gentleness, sincerity, and sense of humor together constitute a continuously manufactured form of “branded authenticity.”

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From the tour schedule, it is clear that P1Harmony’s 2025 concerts cover major Asian and North American markets (Seoul, Sydney, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York), while the 2026 tour expands into Europe (Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, and London Wembley). This progression reflects FNC’s strategic plan to consolidate its Asian fan base before advancing into Western markets, transforming cultural presence into global capital. The sequence of destinations functions not only as commercial expansion but also as a brand narrative: positioning P1Harmony as a truly “global K-pop group.” In the promotional materials, Keeho, as the group’s leader and English-speaking spokesperson, is placed at the visual centre.

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The industrial construction of Keeho’s star image demonstrates how FNC strategically manufactures a transnational and marketable persona through global promotion, brand discourse, and visual mediation. the industrial construction of Keeho’s star image lies in FNC’s deliberate packaging of his persona and the strategic role he occupies within the group’s global positioning. Keeho’s star image emerges as a co-constructed product of industrial strategy and personal agency, where FNC’s branding logic intersects with his own identity, language, and performative choices.

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This screenshot from Spotify shows P1Harmony’s latest English album released in September this year, which includes four all-English tracks and a Spanish version of the title song.

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These two screenshots show the lyrics of “EX” and “Night of My Life” from P1Harmony’s English album.

The core theme of “EX” is female autonomy and romantic freedom. The line “Every girl deserves to have her exploration” reflects a post-feminist discourse of self-agency and pleasure, encouraging women to break free from traditional romantic roles. It also mirrors a Western cultural attitude toward relationships, one that values independence, freedom, and enjoyment. For a K-pop boy group, such openly feminist and English-language lyrics are relatively rare, revealing the group’s creative alignment with Western pop culture and values.

“Night of My Life”, on the other hand, is filled with a party-like and self-empowering atmosphere. It conveys the message of living in the moment and celebrating freedom and success, which is characteristic of Western youth culture. Linguistically, expressions like “My fit is mint, Milano / Doing what I wanna” carry a clear hip-hop tone, symbolizing confidence, independence, and lifestyle expression. The overall vibe is upbeat and direct, making it a prime example of mainstream Western pop sensibility tailored for global audiences.

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The posters adopt a metallic, futuristic aesthetic, with the members standing on elevated ground as if dominating a global stage, symbolising cross-cultural ambition. The title “MOST WANTED,” rendered in sharp, inflated typography, conveys a rebellious yet fashionable youth image. Keeho’s central, upright posture visually marks him as the leader and communicator, reinforcing his persona as a modern leader and inclusive bridge. His Canadian upbringing and fluent English make him a key figure in FNC’s global narrative. Frequently serving as the group’s spokesperson in overseas interviews, he represents both linguistic and cultural accessibility. This persona is not merely personal but also a brand function strategically managed, designed to generate trust and appeal in Western markets.

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3. the image shaping behind the first stage of EX

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3. the image shaping behind the first stage of EX

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P1Harmony’s first English album performance for EX, staged in the United States rather than Korea, was not a coincidence but an industrial act. It symbolises FNC’s ambition to transform the group from a “Korean idol band” into a global brand. In other words, this was not merely a concert in the U.S., but a performative moment of brand storytelling. Through this act, FNC translated the cultural ideal of “bringing K-pop to the world” into a market-driven operation. Both P1Harmony’s and Keeho’s appearances on this stage serve as the execution of the company’s globalisation strategy.

During the interview segment, only Keeho communicated fluently and confidently with the host. When asked why they decided to release an English album, he replied: “It’s time for K-pop to reach a larger audience. It’s not just for Koreans, but for everyone.” This statement is crucial from an industrial perspective. It was not merely a personal expression but a brand discourse assigned to him by the company. Keeho acts here as a cross-cultural spokesperson, embodying FNC’s global branding stance: “K-pop belongs to everyone.” His English fluency and inclusive rhetoric are institutionalised tools, deployed to humanise and internationalise the brand image.

Throughout the broadcast, Keeho was consistently framed at the centre of the camera, while the audience behind him showed fans of diverse races and nationalities. This visual arrangement produces a narrative of “multicultural coexistence” and “global unity,” positioning Keeho as a symbol of inclusivity and approachability. His image is therefore a product of visual storytelling, one carefully designed through camera work and stage composition to portray him as a global leader.

Keeho’s Canadian background, bilingual ability, and gentle confidence may appear as personal traits, yet they are, in fact, deliberately selected and amplified as brand markers by FNC. The company capitalises on these “authentic” qualities to craft an internationally marketable idol who embodies “realness.” The essence of stardom, as Dyer (1998) argues, lies in contradiction, being both real and ideal, ordinary and extraordinary. Keeho exemplifies this industrial contradiction: his “authenticity” is not innate but produced through selective promotion, narrative framing, and visual construction, a form of branded authenticity engineered to meet the demands of the global market.

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ScreenRecording 10 27 2025 01 33 58 1 （Source：Sina Weibo）

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Keeho was once caught up in a nightclub scandal. In 2023, an anonymous user posted a video on Twitter showing Keeho and one of group members dancing at a nightclub, which sparked widespread discussion. Although the original post was later deleted, the video remained online and was re-uploaded to Chinese social media platforms. The incident began with an anonymous post on Twitter, which quickly went viral after being published. Some neutral K-pop bloggers on Chinese social media platforms reposted the content, bringing the discussion into the Chinese online sphere. Fans from different regions appeared to respond differently to the scandal. In Asia, many fans tend to react strongly against such controversies, as they often expect their idols to maintain a positive image free from negative news. This kind of scandal inevitably shattered that idealized image and disrupted the fantasy they held about their idols. However, fans in Western regions seemed largely indifferent to the issue. After two years, discussions about the incident have almost completely disappeared from platforms such as Twitter and YouTube, where Western fans are more active. In contrast, the full story of the event can still be easily found on Chinese social media. For Chinese fans, both long-time supporters and newcomers, this incident remains an unavoidable topic of discussion within the fandom.

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1. Para-Media and Transnational Circulation: The Mediation of Keeho’s 2023 Nightclub Controversy

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1. Para-Media and Transnational Circulation: The Mediation of Keeho’s 2023 Nightclub Controversy

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The 2023 nightclub controversy surrounding Keeho reveals how media circulation and fan discourse jointly shape the star image in K-pop’s transnational context. The incident began with an anonymous post on Twitter, which featured a short video of Keeho and other members dancing in a nightclub. Although the original post was deleted, the video was quickly reuploaded across multiple platforms, particularly on Chinese social media, where neutral K-pop news accounts acted as para-media，transferring information from Western networks into local fan spaces. These accounts did not produce original reporting but functioned as translators and distributors, ensuring that the “scandal” reached a wider yet fragmented audience.

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2. Differing Moral Frameworks and the Managed Visibility of Idol Scandals

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2. Differing Moral Frameworks and the Managed Visibility of Idol Scandals

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The absence of mainstream media coverage is significant. It reflects the managed visibility of idol culture, where entertainment companies and major outlets strategically avoid controversies to preserve the profitability of an idol’s image. As a result, the dissemination of the video relied on informal fan networks and secondary media, transforming the scandal into what Redmond (2014) terms an “affective circulation”, a flow of emotional responses rather than factual journalism. On Chinese platforms, discussions were often moralistic and critical, reflecting local expectations of purity and professionalism within idol culture. Conversely, in Western fandom spaces such as Twitter and YouTube, reactions were minimal and short-lived; fans tended to dismiss the event as ordinary leisure, highlighting differing moral frameworks across cultural fandoms.

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2.1 Re-narration and Emotional Repair: How Fandom Reshaped Keeho’s Star Image

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2.1 Re-narration and Emotional Repair: How Fandom Reshaped Keeho’s Star Image

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The scandal did not destroy Keeho’s image; instead, it reshaped it. Some fans adopted a redemptive narrative,“he is actually a good person”, to neutralise the moral threat posed by the controversy. Others engaged in humour, defence, or counter-discourse to challenge the external framing of the “scandal.” Meanwhile, many fans transformed their continued support into a form of personal growth and emotional healing. Through this collective re-narration, Keeho’s star image was repaired and re-emotionalised within the intertwined discourses of media and fandom, ultimately sustaining his public persona as sincere, gentle, and deserving of love.

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3. Transnational Mediation and Moral Disjuncture: The Circulation of Keeho’s Nightclub Scandal Across Cultural Markets

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3. Transnational Mediation and Moral Disjuncture: The Circulation of Keeho’s Nightclub Scandal Across Cultural Markets

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On Western platforms like Twitter, discussions were casual, sarcastic, and largely indifferent. The scandal was de-dramatized, which in turn reinforced Keeho’s image as authentic and down-to-earth.

In contrast, on Chinese social media, reposted content combined tones of “gossip consumption” and “defensive justification,” creating a secondary sphere of public opinion that prolonged the scandal’s visibility.

Within the K-pop context, the Korean media remained largely silent, with mainstream outlets avoiding coverage. The company managed to stabilize Keeho’s image through strategic silence, effectively controlling the narrative by not engaging with it directly.

The transnational circulation of Keeho’s nightclub controversy reveals the uneven geography of K-pop fandom and its impact on image construction. While the initial posts on Twitter were met with indifference or sarcasm,“no one cares because they have no Korean fans”, the same comments were later translated and reposted on Chinese social media, where the discussion gained renewed intensity. This disjuncture between Western detachment and Asian moral scrutiny reveals the uneven distribution of celebrity visibility and influence across cultural markets.

The absence of Korean mainstream coverage further shows the operation of managed silence within the idol industry, allowing the scandal to circulate only within semi-official and fan-translated spaces. Through this fragmented flow of information, Keeho’s image was redefined: Western fandoms normalised the event as casual nightlife, whereas Chinese fans re-moralised it as a test of character. Together, these responses illustrate how media circulation and fan commentary co-produce celebrity meaning across linguistic boundaries, turning controversy into another stage for negotiating authenticity.

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Keeho, a Canadian-Korean member, stands out as the group’s fluent English speaker and global spokesperson. His cross-cultural background gives P1Harmony a more international presence, setting him apart from his Korean and Japanese-Korean teammates. Known as the “team’s mother,” Keeho shows humour, warmth, and emotional intelligence. His leadership style is caring rather than authoritative, creating harmony within the group and reinforcing his image as a nurturing leader. As P1Harmony’s main vocal, Keeho’s wide vocal range and soulful tone fit R&B perfectly, “a voice more soothing than the ocean,” as he describes himself. His voice bridges the contrast between the group’s sharper and higher-pitched vocalists, creating musical harmony that reflects his emotional and artistic role in the team.

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Keeho’s look in this album combines preppy details (tie, stripes) with subcultural and playful elements such as pink fur, oversized jewelry, and toy props. The mix of blue and pink tones creates a striking contrast between calmness and flamboyance. The use of pink, fur, and makeup blurs gender boundaries, constructing a “soft yet confident” aesthetic. This fluidity mirrors Keeho’s de-gendered appeal. He embodies both the charismatic leader and the caring friend within the group. The repeated use of mirrors and phone cameras evokes self-gaze and the fan’s gaze. This visual symbol reinforces the illusion of intimacy. Keeho appears both as an idol and as a self-aware individual, reflecting the performance of authenticity central to K-pop stardom.

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🐎Keeho’s Star Image through Fan-Created Practices🐎

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🐎Keeho’s Star Image through Fan-Created Practices🐎

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Beyond media circulation and public reactions, Keeho’s star image continues to evolve through the creative participation of his fans. Rather than being passive consumers, fans actively reshape his persona through visual, textual, and performative practices, including fanart, fanfiction, and co-created images from fansign events. These practices demonstrate how fan creativity operates as a form of participatory authorship, a process through which Keeho’s image is continuously reimagined, negotiated, and reproduced across aesthetic, emotional, and social dimensions.

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1. Visual Recomposition and Gendered Imagination

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1. Visual Recomposition and Gendered Imagination

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Fans reconstruct Keeho’s appearance through fanart, AI-generated portraits, and edited videos. These visuals fall into two tendencies, one emphasising masculinity and strength, the other highlighting androgyny or feminised aesthetics. Through this visual reworking, fans negotiate gender fluidity and body ideals, transforming industrial images into sites of personal fantasy and collective authorship.

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2. Narrative Rewriting and Emotional Projection

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2. Narrative Rewriting and Emotional Projection

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“Dream girl fiction” (梦女文) refers to a type of fan-created narrative that allows female fans to imaginatively insert themselves into a romantic relationship with their idol. These stories often adopt a first-person or self-insert perspective, offering readers a sense of emotional intimacy and fantasy of being “the girlfriend” of the celebrity. Rather than depicting the idol realistically, dream girl fiction functions as an affective space where fans can explore desire, affection, and idealised companionship through narrative immersion.

In fan-written narratives, Keeho’s persona is reimagined through two dominant modes of emotional projection. In self-insert romance stories, many fans begin from his Canadian background, constructing him as a “Western boy” or even a playful, confident playboy figure, an interpretation influenced by his streetwear fashion, bilingualism, and self-assured stage presence.

In boy-love fiction （Fan-created boylove 「BL 」fiction featuring Keeho and other members as main characters），however, Keeho is often positioned as the bottom partner. This recurring characterisation reflects how fans perceive and amplify his “feminine” or soft emotional traits, such as empathy, humour, and expressive warmth.

On fan community polls, he is frequently ranked as the “No.1 bottom” of P1Harmony, affectionately nicknamed “辣妹 (spicy girl)”, “mean girl”, or even “queen”，“bitchy”. These nicknames and narrative roles illustrate how fans collectively rewrite his gendered persona, negotiating power, intimacy, and desire through creative re-authorship.

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The third category consists of images produced during phototime at fansign events, where attending fans provide props and help create specific looks for Keeho. Compared with the previous two categories, this one is more distinctive. Unlike fan-edited or fan-imagined outputs, this type involves the idol’s direct participation in the visual creation process. The resulting images are widely circulated on social media, generating visibility and engagement for the idol.

Fans who regularly attend fansigns and consistently produce high-quality photo outputs are often recognized as “fansite” or core fans, admired by others within the fandom. Different props and concepts lead to diverse visual styles, ranging from masculine or feminine aesthetics to couple (CP) themes with other members, or stylizations inspired by Keeho’s own daily fashion and meme-based concepts. These co-created visual performances not only enrich the idol’s image repertoire but also continuously fuel his online popularity.

Through these interactions, fans become active co-producers of Keeho’s public image, blending fandom aesthetics with industrial publicity.