Idol worship hits fresh highs as new generation rises
China’s burgeoning fan industry is set to soar and become a billion-dollar business. Christine Low reports.
The media today totally do not understand the new generation of young people.” Ding Jie, CEO of fan services app Owhat
It all began early last year, when Cai Xiaolun started watching
Idol Producer, an talent survival program produced by online video platform iQiyi. She soon became aware of a contestant named Cai Xukun and quickly became a devoted fan.
Through her participation in several show-related events, Cai Xiaolun met the founder of KUN’s Fan Club, which is devoted to Cai Xukun, and after giving it some thought she decided to join.
Now, as a registered club member, she keeps herself busy with a range of responsibilities; discussing with other members how to split the workload for events, managing the official account on micro-blogging platform Sina Weibo, organizing charity activities and communicating with external partners about collaboration. She juggles all those duties with her job in the finance industry.
Despite her hectic lifestyle as a fan club member and not receiving any financial benefit from all the work, she does not find it the least bit bothersome, as support for Cai Xukun’s career is what matters most.
“We fans always use this phrase ‘Generate sparks for love’,” said Cai Xiaolun, who spoke with China Daily under an assumed name to ensure her privacy as an official club spokesperson. “All this hard work is to show our appreciation and support for Cai Xukun.”
The ardent support of his fans is part of the reason Cai Xukun is one of China’s biggest breakout stars. With his suave looks and confident performances on Idol Producer, he finished in first place, garnering more than 47.6 million votes in the finale. From then on, the bilingual singer-songwriter’s career soared.
Cai Xukun’s rise in China’s entertainment landscape, particularly the idol scene, has brought lots of love and admiration from fans, but his success is also representative of the booming fan economy.
However, as this new sector continues to grow, the increasingly profitable business is still largely misunderstood.
Misunderstanding
A report by Entgroup, an entertainment industry observer, estimates that China’s idol market will be worth 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) by next year, with fans contributing about half of the total through consumption of products and services related to their idols.
In a broader context, the fan economy is considered to include all fans in the entertainment industry, but the meteoric rise of a new generation of idols explains the sector’s recent boom.
The sheer number of participants sets China’s fan economy apart from its counterparts overseas and makes it a highly lucrative business.
However, many Chinese fans feel their oftentimes overzealous support for their idols is grossly misunderstood by many people.
“The time and money we spend on supporting our idols is the same as people spending their time and money on their hobbies or having a meal with friends,” Cai Xiaolun said.
Ma Zihan, a 19-year-old student at Beijing Foreign Studies University, feels the same way. “Even though some people criticize us as suffering from ‘brain damage’ as fans, chasing idols is definitely very satisfying,” she said.
Their thoughts are also reflective of the business perspective, according to Ding Jie, CEO of fan services app Owhat, who said the needs of fans are not well understood.
“The media today totally do not understand the new generation of young people,” she said. “The people managing the media were born in the 1970s and ’80s. They do not understand how to satisfy the consumption habits, needs and minds of young girls.”
Unlike pop stars from a generation or two before, the interaction between idols and their fans has significantly increased through social media. In China, the use of micro blogs has narrowed the gap between idols and fans, helping to push forward closer communication between them and changing the fans’ expectations of their idols.
They eagerly await selfies, music video teasers, magazine photo shoots and daily updates from their idols’ micro blogs.
As almost every idol has his or her own official account, Ding said fans will directly ask them for updates on their work or songs by leaving messages on their page.
Ding added that with constant communication being a key part in the idol-fan relationship, idols are like fast-moving consumer goods. That means they have to continually update their social media accounts by showing different sides of themselves and producing works of value to give fans reasons to continue to like them. If not, their fame can be very short lived.
“Fans have high demands and expectations of their idols or bands, because fans know how to appreciate,” Ding said. “What they see on the web are world-class stars, not just Chinese stars, and fans will compare them.
“They only choose what they feel is a better thing. They don’t say that they only like Korean stars or Western stars. If the quality of Chinese idols improves, I believe (more) fans will also like Chinese idols.”
Rise of the idols
Chinese fans have supported singers and stars from South Korea, Japan and Western countries for several years. However, after homegrown boy band TFBoys emerged in 2013, fan support began to shift from foreign stars to local performers. Ding considers this the first wave of China’s idols.
“The emergence of the domestic fan economy and new idol industry mentality came at the time TFBoys started becoming popular and Exo’s Chinese members returned to the country,” Ding said. Exo is a popular boy band that used to have South Korean and Chinese members, but is now exclusively Korean.
In the five years since Ding started her business, she has seen fan support move from South Korean stars in 2014 to Chinese idols in 2016. As Cai Xukun and a new bunch of idols burst onto the entertainment scene last year through talent survival programs, their appearance marked the secForeign ond wave of idols making a stir in the fan industry.
Owhat has also seen fan activities grow in favor of homegrown stars, from 30 percent when its operations began in 2014 to about 60 percent currently, reversing the popularity foreign stars once enjoyed in China.
Another area that sheds light on the sector is fan mentality. Guo Yunqi, a 19-year-old student at Beijing Studies University, said that while fans of idol bands overseas usually support the band as a whole, Chinese fans tend to support just one member of a local band — their support is only for their idol’s personal good. Guo has been chasing idols for nearly 10 years and is a fan of South Korean boy bands such as GOT7 and Winner.
“Fans will only like one member of a group. If you look at TFBoys, you will understand,” she said. “That is why a local band has not really stood out in the past few years.”
Ma, who is a fan of Yi Yangqianxi of TFBoys, has a similar view. “At first, there were a lot of TFBoys fans, but after each member had their own solo performances and activities, the number of fans for each individual member skyrocketed,” she said.
“The reason most fans support only one member is probably because each person’s style and tastes are different, and the backgrounds of many fan groups are different.”
Despite the fast rise of idols in recent years, there are still not enough high-quality stars to fuel the domestic idol market or fan economy. Ding said the fan economy does not currently exist, because the sector is still in the early developmental stages and there are not enough idols in terms of quantity and quality to drive it. She added that fan activity and movement are in place now, rather than an economy.
Producing and managing quality stars is something the idol market needs now, and it is also something that Cai Xukun has experienced. Before becoming the super idol that he is today with his Idol Producer fame, he appeared on another talent reality television show Super Idol, produced by Anhui Television and South Korea’s Munhwa Broadcasting Corp in 2015.
Despite the initial buzz for the megaproject between the two countries and Cai Xukun eventually debuting in SWIN, an idol group formed after the program, mismanagement and a slew of problems led to him leaving the group and striking out on his own.
Devotion, adoration
From LED screens in New York’s Times Square to the walls of subway stations in China and several other countries, posters of young male and female stars along with good wishes from fans are frequently seen occupying advertising spaces. Most of the money to pay for these ads is crowdfunded online by Chinese fan clubs, and their extravagant spending has made headlines several times.
Unlike fan culture in Western countries, where fans are more individualistic and private in their support of their idols and pop stars, fan culture in East Asian countries is collectivist in nature.
This culture of doing things in groups explains crowdfunding for ad boards in prominent public places, buying tickets in groups to sit together at concerts and fan meetings, and organizing charity events and group donations in the name of their idols.
The collectivist culture also leads to highly organized fan club activities, especially in many Chinese and South Korean operations.
Members split duties to handle activities such as collecting and publishing information about their idols’ schedules, concert details and news conferences on social media, taking photographs and videos at various events, and organizing the purchase of items such as light sticks and headgear to be worn at concerts.
This is where Owhat enters the picture, providing services that help fans organize their activities along with an online platform on which they can buy and sell items and services related to their idols.
The platform, which prides itself as a business focused on providing value-added services in the fan economy, receives more than 1 million orders for idol-related products every month.
For members of KUN’s Fan Club, coming together to undertake charity work is a large part of their activity, in addition to supporting their idol’s music and performance-related events. Since the club was established in January last year, the members have donated 300,000 yuan and its various subgroups have organized 50 charity works related to the environment, education and help for the needy.
Stellar future
The idol concept has value, and idols have proven to be entertainers who can communicate with young people in close proximity. Hence, despite the problems currently facing the idol market and fan economy, there are indications that the sector will continue to grow.
Just like the entertainment industry in the United States, Owhat’s Ding said that there will be demand for knowledgeable professionals in the idol industry and more specialized jobs will be needed to service both idols and fans.
“There will be more professional service providers,” she said. “For example, there will be companies specializing in services such as augmented reality, content, communication and business development. I feel that the industry as a whole will become more and more like the one in the United States.”
To fuel the growth of idols’ careers, it is important that they and the industry know how to capture fans’ hearts. However, as a fan, Cai Xiaolun’s wish for the industry’s development is simple.
“I hope that all related media and businesses will have an even more open-minded mentality when it comes to treating us fans as customers,” she said.
“Fans should do what good fans do, businesses should do what good businesses do, and together we can make the development of the idol industry even more vigorous and positive.”