China's National Radio and Television Administration issued a notice on Thursday that put a lid on idol training shows - competitive reality shows that pit potential stars against each other, with the winners going on to become China's newest idols - by prohibiting TV and streaming platforms from airing them.
Dampening the fever
The ban against idol training shows, such as the hugely popular Idol Producer and the Produce 101, is part of the government's recent move to calm down fervent fandoms and an industry that preys on people's love for glamour and fame.
Recent high profile incidents include rampant disputes between fan clubs and fans spending exorbitant money to pamper their favorite idols with extravagant gifts. It is also an effort to bring some transparency and honest to the fan industry, as manipulation of social media searches and fan polls and hiring professional online trolls to publish purposefully inflammatory posts aimed at inciting discord between fans of various idols.
Some insiders say that the chaos of the fan industry was inevitable in the social media age as some young idols today have only been able to stay in the limelight by relying on fan support, such as encouraging fans to vote for them in various polls, instead of depending on actual talent.
"It is not just us who carries out promotions, every fan club does. We have different jobs within the fan club; some people are in charge of raising money to buy gifts for our idol's special occasions. Some others, including me do publicity work, posting content about him on Sina Weibo, Douban and so on," Jasmine Ma, a fan of an Idol Producer star, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
However, while fans show their love for their idols may seem like harmlessly fun, behind this idol craze is "a dark chain in the entertainment industry made up of agencies, so-called 'fan clubs' and platforms," said Zhang Yiwu, a professor of cultural studies at Peking University, adding that these forces can pressure young people to take things too far.
Yi Yun, a netizen, told the Global Times on Wednesday that many fans she knows online are only around 13 or 14 years old, they have a lot of pocket money to use to help launch their idols to the top on influential "star" lists on social media platforms.
Da Qi (pseudonym), a netizen, told the Global Times on Wednesday that she once got actively involved in fan activities during the airing of Chinese variety show Youth With You Season 3, which was ultimately cancelled mid-season after a marketing scheme urged fan clubs to purchase boxes of milk with special QR codes inside the caps to show support for their favorite contestants. In their desperate rush to get these caps, fans bought a lot of boxes of milk, to the point that many of these boxes went to waste.
"I once purchased a box of milk to support my favorite trainee, but I didn't know they would pour the milk into the sewers as we normal fans were just in charge of raising funds and the leader of the fan club is responsible for handling voting," said Da Qi.
The September notice is not the only measure that has been introduced to try and curb out-of-control fans.
In August, the Cyberspace Administration of China also announced that online platforms should crack down on bots, which are often used to fabricate likes and comments online, and artificially inflate online traffic numbers.
Historical issue
Back in 2006, China's pioneering singing idol show Super Girls was stopped after its fan voting system was determined to have negative impacts such as "overly hyping fan culture" and manipulating people to spend money to support their idols.
The show was seen as very innovative compared to other reality shows of that time because it made fans almost a part of the competition itself.
Over the past 15 years, while such shows have gone from pushing a single new star to entire boy or girl bands, and from a focus on talent and good performances to an emphasize on looks, the core foundation - getting fans excited - has not changed.
To this end, entertainment agencies have focused on "packaging" a perfect image for their stars, spending huge amounts to market their idols on social media platforms. Meanwhile, some fan clubs and promotional accounts began deliberately posting controversial topics to further push online debate to a climax in order to increase a star's exposure and turn a profit.
China's "idol competition" programs were based on the South Korean model, and that with their introduction many Chinese stars who had made a star journey in South Korea re-oriented their career toward China, like Kris Wu, a former member of K-pop band EXO. Zhang, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
However, the reason why China gradually formed such a chaotic fan industry compared to South Korea's may come down to the huge differences in the two countries' population and market size.
"China has 1.4 billion people while South Korea only has 52 million people, which means the number of teen fans in China is much bigger than that of South Korea. Therefore China needs to have a larger entertainment market to serve its netizens," said Zhang.
Banning idol competition programs is just a way to readjust a distorted system, Zhang noted, adding that the chaos of China's entertainment industry will only be solved by implementing scientific and standardized systems to regulate it.
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