The continuous flops of Chinese artists Kris Wu Yifan, Huo Zun and Zhang Zhehan have once again made chaos in the Chinese entertainment industry a hot topic. At the time when the government severely criticized and signaled that the entertainment circle should be rectified, the female artist Zhao Liying’s fans were banned on a large scale because of deliberately provoking disputes on the Internet. Zhao Liying’s studio made an emergency statement.
On the afternoon of August 23, many official Weibo or big Vs of Zhao Liying’s fan base were banned on Sina Weibo, including the “Zhao Liying Global Fan Support Club” with 2.59 million fans and the “Zhao Liying Weiba” with 2.34 million fans.
According to reports, this is also the first fan group to be banned on a large scale for “mutual abuse” after the “Clearness · Fan Circles” Chaotic Rectification Campaign launched by the Cyberspace Administration of the Communist Party of China in June this year.
Why are Zhao Liying’s fan groups banned? Some Chinese internet users mentioned that on the evening of August 22, because some Chinese internet users released on Douban and Weibo that Zhao Liying would pair with again Wang Yibo who had worked with “You Fei” in the new drama “Savage Growth”, which triggered a collective boycott by Zhao Liying fans. It is said that fans of both sides had violently abused each other when they were partnering with “You Fei”.
Among Zhao Liying’s fans, some of the more influential big V advocates that Zhao Liying’s fans resist the “two rides”. At the same time, Zhao Liying fans insulted the rumored director of “Savage Growth” Fu Dongyu and the rumored partner Wang Yibo, and many Wang Yibo fans immediately verbally verbalized against Zhao Liying fans and attacked Zhao Liying herself.
However, these verbal abuses happened to hit the cusp of rectification on Weibo.
On the afternoon of August 23, based on the mutual abuse caused by the Zhao Liying fan groups, Weibo issued an announcement that fans of the star Zhao Moumou stepped on the war and promoted boycotts when there was no clear official news about his new drama; there was also some marketing. Numbers use questions to play, create topics, and carry out malicious hype about the content. Then four marketing accounts including “Yu Ba Po”, “Yu Ms”, “Humming Bird Entertainment” and “Xiao Dou Zai” were sentenced to 90 days of ban; Xiao Yu Gou Huozhong, Qi Xinyi -733, and sunrise Gao Gao Ten Weibo accounts such as Konghua Shanmian, etc. were permanently banned.
On the evening of August 23, Weibo added another penalty: 3,770 illegal Weibo entries were cleared, and 1,830 accounts were banned. Among them, 100 accounts with serious circumstances were permanently banned and 309 accounts were closed.
At 22:00 on August 23, after the official account of Zhao Liying’s Global Fan Support Club showed “permanent ban”, Zhao Liying’s studio officially spoke out against fans who were banned for insulting each other.
The statement said, “It is a wonderful thing to like someone. Becoming an actor’s audience, and then becoming a fan, to be able to walk together is a fate that is worth cherishing and grateful for each other.”
“We call on and advocate for every fan to jointly carry out high-quality online activities in a positive manner, and jointly maintain the network civilization. We also hope that every little partner with love can be full of loads no matter what part of the journey they are on. Come with joy, from following the light of the Internet to the light of becoming a reality.”
On August 22, the Chinese state media CCTV just published an article “The Fan Circle Culture Should Exorcise Evils and Righteousness”. The article criticized the current fans as being in madness and must correct the deformed star-chasing culture as soon as possible.
The article pointed out that under the deep bondage, fans’ “support of love” for idols has long gone beyond the economic scope and gradually extended to the field of values. The bottom-line star chasing became more and more fierce, and if they didn’t agree, they started a war of scolding. What’s more, some fans still “will not abandon” the idol suspected of rape, and also created a “rescue group” in an attempt to “rob prison”. The ridiculous dramas staged one after another, the “being cut is a kind of happiness” and the abnormal star-chasing have continuously expanded the derogatory weight of the term “fan circle”, making the culture of “fan circle” a turbid current in cyberspace, especially for teenagers. The negative impact caused by the development of values is deeply worrying.
The official also issued a signal that, for the current “fan circle” culture in China, it is time to exorcise evil spirits and strengthen the righteousness and clean up dirt. Moving from disorder to standardization is not only a necessary measure to control the chaos of the current “fan circles”, but also a proper meaning for the survival and development of the “fan circles”. Source