Chinese fans mark pop star’s b-day on city’s skyline

From billboards to digital ad campaigns, fans of Chinese pop are known to splash money around to celebrate their favorite idols.

Roy Wang is no exception. The member of pop megastar trio TFBoys saw his 18th birthday marked on Thursday with a fan-sponsored light show that splashed his likeness across Hangzhou’s skyline.

Photos show a fresh-faced Wang projected across hi-rises in the city’s central business district on Sunday, along with birthday messages.

His fans, known as “little sweet dumplings” (a play on Wang’s first name), apparently shelled out quite a bit, reportedly hiring the design team behind the light display for the recent Asian Games.

“We lit up a city for you,” one fan said on Sina Weibo.

Wang’s official Weibo account was equally lit up, receiving around 111,000 birthday blessings as of noon Thursday.

“I have been following you for 1,621 days, and you have grown from a boy to a young man,” wrote one fan. “Keep chasing your dream and we hope you find a larger stage for yourself.”

Wang is not the only member of TFBoys to be showered with eye-catching birthday greetings.

Recently, fans of TFBoy Karry Wang (no relation) splurged on a month-long advert covering an elevated train in Chongqing for his 17th birthday, while bandmate Jackson Yi saw his name in lights on an LED billboard in New York’s Times Square, qq.com reported in September.