Celebrities and Fans’ Philanthropy in China: A Critique of Parasocial Relationship

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Celebrities and Fans’ Philanthropy in

China: A Critique of Parasocial

Relationship

Msc PLANET Europe

Mengnan Jiang

June 2018

Student Number Supervisors:

Cardiff University: Professor Mark Jayne

C1674007 Professor Arnoud Lagendijk

Radboud University Nijmegen:

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Abstract

Fandom culture has attracted many academic researches in recent years. The influence of celebrity is no longer a new subject, while fans of celebrity have become a new powerful part of civil society in China. They start to get involved in social engagement by doing philanthropy. This phenomenon has gained social attention but has been an academic gap, of which it is worth studying the motivation and influence.

The relationship between celebrity and fans used to be called a parasocial one (Robers, 2007). However, with the development of entertainment market, traditional influence of celebrity directly on public is weakened, and it appears now that celebrity and fans are more complicated characters of the society and are sharing a evolving relationship with double-way interaction, which propels further social impact.

This research focuses on the motivation and social impact of celebrity and fans'

philanthropy in China, through a critical perspective of the parasocial relationship between celebrity and fans, complements the existing researches on celebrity and fandom culture. In the research, I argue that celebrity and fans have reached a new relationship beyond parasocial, which motivates fans to do philanthropy and to cast impact on public. With appropriate improvement, future enlargement of celebrity and fans' philanthropy has huge potential to make positive differences to the society. 

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisors from both Cardiff University and Radboud University. Professor Mark Jayne and Professor Arnoud Lagendijk have both provided valuable knowledge and guidance for me. Thank you very much.

I also greatly appreciate all the 20 participants of interviews in the research. Thanks for giving your precious time to this study and providing so much interesting information. Thanks my parents and friends for always being of great support, especially all my classmates from PLANET Europe for sharing knowledge and supporting each other.

Finally, I would like to thank my partner Kuo Zhao for always keeping me company and being by my side. 

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List of Figures and Tables

Figure 2.4.1- Interaction Between Celebrity, Fans, and Public: Visual Conceptional Framework

Figure 3.3.1- TFBOYS on Chinese New Year Gala

Figure 4.0- Adjusted Model of Interactions between Celebrity, Fans and Public Figure 4.1.1-Fans Group ‘Teen Festival’ Posting on Weibo

Figure 4.1.2-TFBOYS Reply to Fans from Sign Language League of Renmin University

Figure 4.1.3-Data of Slogans Made by Fans as Weibo Topic (Karry, Roy, Jackson) Figure 4.1.4-Results of Googling “TFBOYS Positive Energy”

Figure 4.2.1-First Fans' philanthropy of BelovedGlory for Celebrating Karry’s Birthday

Figure 4.2.2-Fans Comments on RiceDonation

Table 4.3.1-Incomplete Statistic of Karry’s 18th Birthday Supporting Projects

Figure 4.3.2-Results of Searching TFBOYS in CYL’s Weibo & Latest Relevant Post Figure 4.3.3 Netizen Comments on Difference between Fandom Culture in China, Japan and Korea

Figure 4.4.1 Comparison of Initial (Left) and Adjusted (Right) Model of Interactions between Celebrity, Fans and Public 

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1. Introduction

1.1 Theoretical Context

With the development of the Internet and social media, as well as the increasingly entertaining society, the impact of celebrity and fandom culture has become a

noticeable phenomenon and attracted more academic research (Harris and Alexander, 1998; Rojek, 2001; Lewis, 2002). In Asia, the ‘fans support’ originated from Japan and South Korea is conquering the continent (Shim, 2006). In China, despite the short history of fandom culture, it has rapidly grew and reached an era of fan economy (Liang and Shen, 2017). Nowadays, fans can be the group of people who volunteer to pay for advertising the celebrity they worship in a bus or subway, even on a huge LED screen in a bustling business district, only for celebrating the birthday of the celebrity. However, there is one form of ‘fans support’ widely encouraged by public, which refers to fans doing charities or philanthropy in the name of their ‘idol’ (Li, 2016). In fact, the word ‘idol’ has developed a new meaning as a specific career divided from normal 1 celebrities, and refers to an image for encouraging fans to chase dream and be good people (Kim, 2015).

Fans always follow closely what the celebrities are endorsing, no matter it is

commercial advertisements for products or Public Service Announcements (PSAs). This gradually leads to a new phenomenon in the field of charities: fans' philanthropy (Chen, 2014). Fans donate in idol's name and the scale of other fans' philanthropy is gradually expanding. Appearing on more news reports, fans' philanthropy has caught even more attention than traditional celebrity philanthropy (Maclang, 2016). Meanwhile, the impact of celebrities and fans' philanthropy can be clearly observed. Many

initiatives are taken, such as self-organized donation for the disabled and poor kids, activities for low-carbon life promotion and afforestation etc (Asia News Network, 2014; Li, 2016). The subject of philanthropy projects varies and the activities turn to be very powerful since they are being discussed all over newspapers and social media. The discussion can be intense regarding the motivation of celebrity and fans, the

responsibility they are taking and the social impact they are making (Littler, 2008; Thrall

See Appendix for new definition of ‘idol’ in this case.

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et al., 2008; Driessens et al., 2012). In this research, the key ideas I engage are the relationship between celebrity and fans, as well as the motivation and impact of celebrity and fans' philanthropy.

1.2 Research Questions

In China, due to the improvement of public consumption and the sensitivity of political topics, the public is paying more attention to entertainment news and celebrities, which leads to stronger impact of celebrities and fans' behaviours. There has been many

discussions over the ‘crazy’ fandom culture in Asia, also regarding the pros and cons of the influence of celebrities from many aspects (Littler, 2008; Thrall et al., 2008; Driessens et al., 2012; Liang and Shen, 2017). However, there is an academic gap, a lack of research regarding fans' philanthropy.

The problem of celebrity and fans' philanthropy is that the public has trust issues for celebrity and understanding issues for fans (Driessens et al., 2012; Liang and Shen, 2017). The motivation and results of the philanthropy is yet to be revealed. The research believes that it is meaningful to find out the motivation of fans' philanthropy, as well as the impact of celebrities and fans' philanthropy in China. It also aims to provide suggestion and recommendation for promoting positive social impact of celebrity and fans actions in the future.

This article aims ultimately to learn how the celebrities and fans' philanthropy are making social impact in China. To answer this question, there are three research questions formed.

1. How is celebrity influencing fans behaviours and what is the relationship of celebrity and fans?

2. How is fans' philanthropy motivated and making differences to public?

3. Is it feasible to scale up and develop more similar forms of “celebrities and fans charity” in the future?

The first question aims specifically to figure out the interaction between celebrity and fans. How do they communicate and influence each other through their special identities? There are meaning transfer model (Pornpitakpan, 2003, MaCracken, 1989) and theory of

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different levels of worship (McCutcheon et al., 2002). Roberts (2007) put forward the form of 'parasocial relationship'. Still, the answer needs to be found out through research, which can explain the fandom culture now in China and part of the motivation of fan activities. The second question focuses more on all the factors that can possibly motivate fans' philanthropy, and also leads to the discovery regarding the relationship of fans and public. Fans can be motivated by sense of being pioneers (Garber & Paleo, 1983), of personal control (Harris, 1998), and of community (Jenkins, 2012) etc., while the research aims to find out most significant factors of it. Based on the answers of first two questions, the research will go further with the question of feasibility of scaling up in the future. It needs more analysis of the validity of the current phenomenon that fans are trying to make differences to the society. Supposing the findings from first two questions show that

celebrity and fans' philanthropy are making positive influence, the potential of scaling up in the future should be figured out as well.

To answer all the questions, the research chooses the scope of study within the Mainland China, and the case study of TFBOYS, the most famous band of idols in China. The research is conducted through semi-structured interviews and online textual analysis as two methods to collect relevant information and datas from the three member of the biggest fans groups of TFBOYS. The interviews listen to the voice of fans and the sexual analysis focuses on official announcements and news report regarding celebrity, as well as fans and public's posts online.According to data and information collected, the research addresses the current social impact of celebrity and fans in China and the key factors of the motivation and influence, through the analysis of comparison and combination of data from two methods. The research also proposes recommendations for future development of fans' philanthropy for promoting positive social impact in China.

1.3 Structure

The study begins with the literature review regarding celebrity worship and fandom culture, celebrity philanthropy and fans activism, as well as the features of civil society in China. A model is drawn as the theoretical framework through the literature review to address the relationships between celebrity, fans and public built on existing theories. The chapter of literature review is followed by the methodology part, including the academic philosophy of the research, the overview of methods used in study, and the research strategy of the paper. Then, the findings and analysis are addressed through quotes and pictures after 20

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interviews and deep online textual analysis, in accordance with corresponding research questions. The model drawn from literature review is also amended in the end of the chapter of findings. Finally, the study draws a conclusion as the answer to research questions, and proposes recommendations for potential further research.

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2 Literature Review

This chapter goes through literatures that provide fundamental debatesf. Section 2.1 sums up researches regarding celebrity charity and fan activism in the UK and the US, which provides fundament for the research in China. Celebrity is considered to be powerful for social engagement (Fletcher, 2015) and the motivation behind is analyzed mostly as a method to raise profile (Littler, 2008; Driessens et al., 2012). The Source Attractiveness Model and Meaning Transfer Model (Pornpitakpan, 2003) explains the influence of

celebrity endorsement. As for fan activism, 'a sense of community' (Jenkins, 2012; Kligler et al., 2012) is proposed as main factor, while shared media experience and good wish are also emphasized (Kligler et al., 2012). Section 2.2 explains the Chinese particularity in terms of civil society, focusing on the state-led philanthropy (Frolic,1997) and censorship with social media (Bamman et al., 2012). Section 2.3 shows the social impact of celebrity and fans activities through the interaction between celebrities and fans, built on the theory of parasocial relationship (Robers, 2007) and the 'Idol Phenomenon' (Fairchild, 2007).

A conclusion is finally made to provide a cornerstone for further research afterwards. A conceptional model of relationships of celebrity, fans and public is drawn as the theoretical framework of the study, based on the results of literature review. In addition, three key factors of fan activism (Kligler et al., 2012) are stressed out as significant reference for guidance of interviews.

2.1 Celebrity Charity and Fan Activism

Celebrities all over the world have grown more prominence and therefore have gotten more influence on public and society. Fletcher (2015) addressed that “celebrities are increasingly able to command authority to address weighty social and political issues”. He believes the phenomenon is reflected as a result of the interaction between celebrities and the public. On the other side, it is also encouraged that the celebrity aims to keep good reputation by branding. The image of celebrity is influenced by public comments and inquiries, and thus has grown to what the public prefer to see. Therefore, supporting

charity becomes an ‘official part’ of celebrity job. It is not hard to understand that celebrities need to “raise their profile above the zone of the crudely commercial into the sanctified, quasi-religious realm of altruism and charity” (Littler, 2008), but there are still believes that many of them have good wishes to help genuinely. There are also opinions that the

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motivation does not matter much as long as it is doing good to the public. Littler (2008) sums up a brief history of celebrity philanthropy in the West: With Audrey Hepburn’s work for UNICEF as the often-cited early example of charity in the history, celebrity involved in charity is claimed to be ‘normal’ over the last two decades. Part of the reason that there began to appear an ‘expansion of celebrity charity involvement in 1990s’ could be concluded as “the changing natures of the domain of celebrity culture and of those happening to the ‘third’ (or voluntary, or charity) sector”. The social marketing was

expanding, and so was the ‘celebrity-based media entertainment’. Charity became a good brand for them. In the context of post-Fordism and the ‘cultural turn’, the widespread of celebrity philanthropy/charity can be understood well. Littler (2008) also pointed out the problems of this “marriage of celebrity and charity”: there can be inequality between celebrity and the organisation in terms of the financial benefit; the agenda-setting of organisation can be impacted by celebrity and the most important and urgent issues may not be tackled first; celebrities can be unhelpful by misleading people with inappropriate (even wrong) but powerful speech; and so on.

From a global perspective, the increasing phenomenon of celebrity charity is shown and situated in “a broader, and predominantly Western, neoliberal culture of individualisation”. (Bauman 2000; Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2001). Yet it is not only happening in the West. In China, there is less ‘neoliberal culture of individualisation’, celebrity charity has been rising through a quite different way. Jeffreys (2015) focuses on the celebrity philanthropy in mainland China and puts forwards that even with the government playing a significant role in charities, China has lately shown the gradually increased social marketing, as well as the social and civic engagement regarding many issues, one of which is the phenomenon of celebrity philanthropy. However, not surprisingly, celebrity philanthropy involves

government as a ‘correct leading’.

Following the endorsement and branding of celebrities, fans are taking actions as well, which is an understudied terrain of existing research on fandom and philanthropy. To understand fans' philanthropy/charity, there is a need to have a brief introduction of the historical rise of fandom culture, which also derives from the western postindustrial society. As a complex norm to explain, fans are shown as the “surprisingly intensified relationships created by a special category of audience” (Harris, 1998). Fandom, which is defined by Harris (1998) as ‘fans and their social and cultural environment’, can leads to a series of questions including what produces it, what roles are the fans playing in social and cultural

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processes, who can remain the identity of fans, etc. According to Harris (1998), fans become a focus for academic researchers from early 1990s, and voices have been inconsistent. However, most of them focus on the level of fan practices, no matter from a critical or not perspective. Drawn from these articles, there are two significant elements of fandom culture: identity and engagement. People who claim to be fans of some objects can be very much possibly motivated by ‘a sense of community’ (Jenkins,2012), even “a sense of personal control or influence over the object of fandom” (Harris, 1998). While with these practices bringing fans ‘the sense’, fans groups aiming to various objects are

growing rapidly, and thus fandom activism was generated.

There has been studies of fan activism in terms of civic and political participation in the US. In these researches, fans of popular culture instead of some certain celebrities or super stars are the objective of study. Jenkins (2012) defines fan activism as “forms of civic engagement and political participation that emerge from within fan culture itself, often in response to the shared interests of fans, often conducted through the infrastructure of existing fan practices and relationships, and often framed through metaphors drawn from popular and participatory culture”. Brough and Shresthova (2012) refer fan activism to a concept incorporated to “the range of intentional actions by fans, or the use of fanlike strategies, to provoke change”, and emphasise that fan activism is not something new, and it is noted that there were “early pioneers of the 1950s homophile movement met through fandom” (Garber, E & Paleo,L, 1983). Since then, many fan activities happened with few academic analysis on them. Charitable contributions also appeared to be one form of the fan activism when 9/11 terrorist attacks happened (Stein, 2002). With collective fans getting more and more engaged with civic participatory, fans groups can be identified as a new form of social and political participation, shifted from the traditional non government organisations. They are considered to be the ‘intersections of cultural and civic/political participation’ (Brough, M. & Shresthova, S, 2012). In this study, it also leads to the role of civil society, which is discussed further later in this chapter.

As the intersection of cultural entertainment and social actions, fan activism can be analysed through three elements according to Kligler et. al (2012): shared media experiences, a sense of community, and a wish to help. In this research, these three elements are referenced as the guidance for studying the motivation of fans' philanthropy. Prepared interview questions are designed based on them and then go wider and deeper

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with the conversation. Specific contents are illustrated more in details in the methodology part.

Shared media experiences refer to the way of fans assembled through media. Fan activist groups are gathering people through the ‘power of the media experience that their

members share’(Kligler et. al, 2012). In western postindustrial society, mass media and popular culture, along with their derivatives, have been highlighted as significant parts of what are changing people’s daily lives. Everyone becomes self media. Culture becomes more individualised. People start to look for their community through self expression or even branding, namely, through shared media experiences and communication with each other. This also shows the feature of Internet age, and thus leads to a predictable result that these groups have a tendency of young people as members.

A sense of community, also called ‘a sense of collective’, is addressed by the fact that many fans activist groups are built on a base of existing community and can be developed to many local clubs making people ‘feel home’. Harris (2008) points out that in the context postindustrial world, due to the more class divided societies, one’s subordination ‘may be a source of anomie and despair’. From this point of view, some individuals may seek to ensure and express their identities to avoid becoming silence group through ‘a common interest in a symbol, icon or text’, and ‘redress their alienation through the social nature of fan practice’. Dell (2006) gives out a convincing conclusion based on the case study of postwar female fans of professional wrestling: the evolving of fan activities or movements can be triggered as the ‘specific responses to significant historical social and cultural shifts that threaten or displace social identities’. Besides, fans can create an exclusive

atmosphere in which only them can understand each other. Many fans enjoy ‘the sense of creating their own cultures … which more perfectly expresses their own social visions and fantasies’ (Jenkins, 2002). Harris (2008) notes this phenomenon as the motivation of self-invention, ‘in which fandom provides an opportunity to live in and through a set of symbols that are expressive of ones aspirations rather than “reality”’. This appears to be proven in Chinese fandom culture of celebrities. There is even a popular article ‘The Fandom Jargon Dictionary’ (Luo, 2017) talking about the exclusive words and sentence patterns fans of the “fluxes” (famous new generation celebrities who have enormous number of fans and can bring huge views where they appear) are using, which is commented by public as

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A wish to help is essentially different with the other two elements which are ‘on the foot of fandom’. It emphasizes the volunteerism of some fans groups members to get engaged with civic participation (Kligler et. al, 2012). It certainly shows individual differences since good wish to help is a very personal thing and can hardly be a collective trait of a

community. Furthermore, it can be the significant even decisive factor to the consequence of fan activities. Do they really care and want to make differences? Or do they just want to improve their image and satisfy their ‘sense of personal control’? The volunteerism of fans who are taking actions should be studied in details when doing the research.

Among these three elements of fan activism, ‘a sense of community’ leads to the

interaction of individual action and collective action. Since fans' philanthropy is regarding the collective and individual activities influencing each other, to conduct this study, there is a need to understand how normally the individual action is affected by communities or organisations. The ‘social proof heuristic’ of nudge theory helps with the understanding. (Sugden, 2017) A social proof heuristic refers to ‘the tendency for individuals to look at the behaviour of other people to help guide their own behaviour’. There has been relative study showing people’s choice of food nudged by social proof heuristic (Cheung et. al, 2017). It partly explains the reason of collective actions influencing individuals. Moreover, it is emphasised that this is the ‘golden age’ of online collective actions now for political or social participation because of the low threshold and costs of gathering people (Margetts et. al, 2015), which addresses the ‘shared media experience’ element further.

2.2 Celebrities and Civil Society in China

As one of the three major actors of the society, civil society is now discussed a lot more than it was in the past. The concepts of “associational revolution” and “power shift” are mentioned to describe the increasingly powerful role of civil society (Edwards, 2009). Many literatures also emphasize on the role of profit Organizations (NPOs) and

Non-government Organizations (NGOs). Beer et al. (2012) illustrate that the actions of NGOs work and shift between “advocacy, service Provision and regulation” due to tensions, scale of the organization and so on. In terms of many social change, the civil society is always a significant partner of the government and business. Literatures argue a lot that NGOs are showing great global influence. (Krut 1997; Price 2003; Fisher and Green 2004)

Apparently, fan activist groups, who conduct the fan activism as a new type of civic

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However, due to the political and social situation in China, there are some particular

features in terms of the entertainment market, the celebrities’ influence, as well as the civil society.

China’s civil society is described by scholars as ‘state-led’ (Frolic,1997) and still it is today. The concept of GONGOs (‘government-organized NGOs) is put forward by Ho (2001) to describe the NGOs in China. He mentions the Beijing Environmental Protection

Foundation as a typical case as a GONGO, using the facts that the Foundation can both publish draft for Beijing’s environmental legislation and engage with community activities, to illustrate its function as a NGO but with strong connections to the government. Yang (2003) points out three symbols of civil society’s development in China, including the growing number and change of social organizations, the more autonomy of organizations and individuals, and the nascent form of public sphere generated with the changing media. Yang (2003) also addresses the weakness of civil society in China and believes the state is still playing a significant role to influence it.

It is also pointed out that celebrity and fans' philanthropy in China is one of the phenomena showing the influence of civil society in a different way from western society. China shows its particularity regarding the development of non-profit sector which is “intimately bound up with government-led efforts to create a new public culture of philanthropy” (Jeffreys, 2015). As an action promoting civil engagement, the celebrity philanthropy has the features of both civil society and business, since the philanthropy can work like

commercial endorsement as branding. Studies also show that marketers are increasingly using endorsers to ‘shape and influence brand purchase’ and there is clearly different tendency of choosing celebrities (entertainment or sports, and different individuals) for endorsement when aiming at different consumers (Hung et. al, 2011). This addresses the influence on public behaviours can vary depending on different endorsers chosen for same products or philanthropy projects. However, the choice of celebrity endorsement is not only impacted by target groups but also the government. Jeffreys (2015) emphasised that ‘the close alignment of philanthropic activities with stated policy goals suggests that the government played an important role’. The civil society and celebrity in China are both related to the strong influence of government. However, Yang(2003) puts forwards that the development of internet has help with the growth of civil society by reducing geographical barriers, revealing news of environmental and social issues, and linking to relevant on-line pages addressing problems.

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The development of internet brings a new era for politic profile, business, and civil society, to a large extent through new media, while China has its new problems. There has been clear increase of the linkage between politics and entertainment in the western world (Holbert and Young, 2013). However, it is not as common in China because of the speech restriction to some extent. This does not refer to the real ‘speaking’ in daily life but mostly on social media, which tends to be the way to acquire information for most young people. Bamman et al. (2012) conducts an analysis of term deletion rates over all messages on Chinese Weibo, anda comparative analysis of term frequencies on Twitter vs. Sina. The results show that deleted terms on Chinese social media are ‘a mix of spam, politically sensitive terms, and terms whose sensitivity is shaped by current events’. The current events refer to many hot topics that ‘may lead to unstability’ including sexual harassment on students by professors from universities, muslim criminal, children amusement in certain private kindergarten, etc. The governmental censorship is only part of the deleted terms, while Sina Weibo has been trying to ‘keep people stable’ by deleting many social topics in heat which may trigger excessive emotions (Botanwang, 2013). While not surprisingly, the almost only topics left that are popular but not harmful are entertainment-related: news and gossips of celebrities. A special phenomenon is triggered on Chinese social media that market and party control are trying to reach a balance on Chinese media (Winfield and Peng, 2005) and entertainment news has been the main ‘alternative’ topics on Chinese social media and has gained a larger market, and more attention from the public than they should have gained in a freely posting environment.

It also shows closed loops and self-entertainment of many Chinese stars and their fans. Even though Weibo is almost only used in China, fans applied for Guinness World Record for the most comments and the most comments on Weibo Award, in order to show how popular and powerful their idol is (ChinaDaily, 2016). The phenomenon shows what activities fans are doing and how enthusiastic they are about supporting celebrity, but why? The answer shall be analysis in section 2.3 which addresses the interaction and relationship between celebrity and fans.

2.3 The Social Impact of Celebrity and Fans' philanthropy

Due to that the influence of fan activism is still in the early stage of development and that visible quantitive change can be difficult to measure, broader ways of evaluation need to

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be taken into consideration. To evaluate the impact of celebrities and fans' philanthropy, it would be reliable and persuasive to analysis from the general influence of celebrity, the motivation of celebrity and fans' philanthropy and the interaction between stakeholders in the case.

Celebrity influences people’s life in many ways. One that can be referenced it the

endorsement. Traditional influence of celebrity endorsement on public are studied in many models. Two of which, as Pornpitakpan (2003) summarises, refer to the Source

Attractiveness model and Meaning Transfer Model. Based on previous studies, it shows the influence of celebrity is more or less established on the source attractiveness

especially physical attractiveness, which contributes to the change of public attitude towards many issues. Besides, celebrity endorsement can be recognized as a process of meaning transfer, in which the meaning ‘first resides in the celebrity’, and then gets ‘transferred to a product when the celebrity endorses a product in an advertisement’, and finally is ‘moved from the product to the consumer’ (Pornpitakpan, 2003, MaCracken, 1989). It is reasonable to compare celebrity philanthropy with the commercial endorsement which are both promoted by celebrity power. In return, public behaviour shows the effect of celebrity and the public plays a role of supervisor to inhibit the possible over exaggeration or false information made by celebrity.

However, with the appearance of ‘professional fans’ of celebrity, part of the direct impact of celebrity on public has shifted to the impact through fans. Producers have improved the way of building “authentic celebrity” (Fairchild, 2007) image in order to make closer connections between celebrity and fans, and establish a strong bonding, a stable

relationship in which fans can show a highest scale of worship with ‘a mixture of empathy with the celebrity’s successes and failures, over-identification with the celebrity, compulsive behaviours, as well as obsession with details of the celebrity’s life’ (McCutcheon et al., 2002). Fans are also known as the followers who are forming attachments to celebrity figures that develop in ‘parasocial relationships, which are essentially imagined

relationships that tend to be experienced as real’ (Roberts, 2007), and thus they are willing and happy to support their idols by following relevant information and actions. This

interaction between celebrities and their fans, also claimed as ‘Idol

Phenomenon’ (Fairchild, 2007), leads to the explanation of fans activism based on celebrity endorsement and philanthropy.

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The evaluation of fan activism as civic participation could be referred as well, in terms of which, it needs to be explained that fans are part of the public but can still have interaction with the broader public. Fans, as a group with clear purpose doing activities, influence public attitude and behaviours by propaganda, and in the form of pushing and nudging. They form and contents of propaganda is of great significant whether the influence is positive because it can trigger rebels in many ways. While by doing goods, there are still a number of fans making differences and changing the attitude of public that can not be ignored. Public, sometimes professional NGOs, volunteer to provide feedback to the fans and seek for further cooperation (Kligler, 2012). Through news report it is clearly shown that fans of some Chinese celebrities are claimed to have achieved ‘phenomenal support’ for their idols and according to rough statistics, there are over 500 millions of fans

changing their behaviors due to the celebrities’ influence (chinanews.com, 2018). The ‘phenomenal support’ refers to clearly change on societal level which normally gets attention of big media and public.

While talking about impact on social change, there is an argument about the level of evaluation: on individual or on societal level? Quoted by Brough (2015), in the case of Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000), ‘Social change is sometimes measured as an aggregate of the individual’. This indicates the way in which ‘individual-level change aggregates to broader society-level change’ as the effect of accumulation. In the collective intelligence model, Pierre(1997) also puts forward another way of assessing the change or difference made by fan activism from the perspective of communication, referring to the change which occurs ‘through the interaction of a group’.

2.4 Conclusion

Literature review above starts with the studies of celebrity philanthropy in the US and the UK, and then goes through the context of fandom culture to fan activism, with the results of research in the US. It then sums up the current particularity in terms of civil society and celebrity in China, after which the studies regarding evaluation of impact made by celebrity and fan activism are reviewed. This chapter provides a context for the research regarding celebrity and fans' philanthropy, as well as the social impact of them in China.

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Figure 2.4.1 Interaction Between Celebrity, Fans, and Public Visual Conceptional Framework

The theoretical framework of the research consists two parts. The first part is a conceptional model (figure 2.4.1) drawn through the literature review, in terms of the

interactions between celebrity charity, fans activism, and public behaviour. Upon the model it is easier and clearer to understand the motivation of fans and public, as well as to

evaluate the impact of transferring meanings from celebrity to fans and public. The second part is the three key elements Kligler et. al (2012) address to explain fan activism: shared media experience, a sense of community, and a wish to help. This part provides a basic framework as the guidance of interviews and online analysis, and base on that the study is going deeper to obtain more findings.

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3. Research Design and Methodology

This chapter illustrates the research design and explains details of methodology. Section 3.1 starts with the philosophical models to address the epistemological and ontological consideration as the fundament of this study, then explains the qualitative inductive approach. Section 3.2 illustrates the concrete methods used in the research, including online textual analysis and semi-structured interviews and how they complement each other. Section 3.3 introduces TFBOYS as the case chosen to be studied, explaining the context of Chinese fandom culture. Section 3.4 makes a brief explanation of possible ethical issues with regard to the research. A conclusion is finally drawn to summarise the methodology of research.

3.1 Research Philosophy

The design of this research is built up based on the philosophy of epistemological and ontological approaches considered for the methodology. This section briefly explains such philosophical assumptions in order to provide a better understanding of the research strategy finally selected.

The research follows an interpretivist epistemological stance, whilst incorporating elements of constructivism as an ontological approaches. It is a core issue to find out what should be regarded as acceptable knowledge in a discipline and whether there is a same principle for the social world. The interpretivsm, as one of the two classic branches of epistemology, supports research practice of people to obtain an understanding of the objects by

exploration, observation, communication and other deep analysis. Conversely, the positivism seeks to explain things through objective laws and rules, and under many circumstance put forward certain hypothesis to be proved (Bryman, 2015). In this

reasearch, it is obvious that positivism is not applicable since there is not an assumption to be proved through any ‘experiment’. Walsham(1995) addresses that interpretivism has gained more ground in social researches especially for information systems research. Interpretivism is selected to illustrate this research because the objective of which is to summarise a conclusion through information system (online data collection), textual

analysis, and answers from people who are doing interviews. There is hardly a hypothesis made to be proved, not only due to the qualitative essence of the research but also

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because that this study is almost outlining a research void with regard to the celebrity and fans' philanthropy.

The research also incorporates the constructionist position of ontological consideration. There are two positions of ontological consideration that frequently refer to objectivism and

constructionism. The objectivism emphasises whether social entities are objective enough

to ‘have a reality external to social actors’, whilst the constructionism focus on whether the entities are built up ‘from the perceptions and actions of social actors’ (Bryman, 2015). Bryman also reckons that in the context of constructionism, social phenomena are generated and continuously updated to new forms through the activities of social actors. Since the topics of celebrity charity and fandom activism are still underdeveloped to many extents, it is predictable that the phenomena and the following theories are going through tremendous construction. Besides, there has been argument about whether the

philanthropies are generated only from the goodwill of celebrities themselves (Fletcher 2015). This can be a long-term dispute which gives out another symbol of constructionism. The phenomena of celebrities and fans groups doing philanthropies are created through the interaction of different social actors, in this case mainly refer to celebrity, fans and public, but can also include the producer and operating teams of celebrity and relevant partner organizations. As the significant ‘new bridge’ between celebrity and society, fans, whose voices have not been listened for the most of time, will be focused on through interviews in the study, in order to draw a path for how the phenomena are produced and where they are going.

Elo and Kyngäs (2008) emphasized on the inductive and deductive content analysis. In terms of this research, inductive content analysis will be the cornerstone of the study since it refers to a case where there are almost “no previous studies dealing with the

phenomenon or when it is fragmented” (Elo and Kyngäs, 2008). The research strategy of this study is a qualitative inductive one. The methods include mainly textual analysis online and interviews. There are 20 fans as participants of interviewes. For how much influence it is making and how people are motivated, the conclusions are based on deep qualitative analysis of both interviews and online texts.

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As previously addressed, this study aims to answer three main research questions through the methods of Online Textual Analysis and Semi-Structured Interview. These two methods are taken simultaneously to make sure the research collects unbiased data through

multiperspective view (Breitmayer et al., 1993; Boyd, 2000). The interviews show more subjective information from participants with various considerations, while the online texts can show more authentic ideas of larger amounts of fans under the cover of Internet IDs. They complement each other through the two aspects of research to "strengthen the design to increase the ability to interpret the findings" (Thurmond, 2001). This section explains why the methods are selected and how the work is conducted in the process of study.

3.2.1 Online Textual Analysis

With the development of internet and mass media,the age of online research methods has come, since ‘the permeation of everyday life by information and communication

technologies has grown ever more ubiquitous’ (Raymond et al, 2016). Internet penetration rate of the world has now reached 47%(International Telecommunications Union, 2016). In China, there are 710 million internet users and the internet penetration rate has been 52%. It is also worth noting that 75% of the internet users are between the age of 10-39 (China Internet Network Information Center, 2016), which means when the research is focusing on newly generated phenomena among relatively young people, online methods can be utilitarian.

Hsieh and Shannon (2005) addressed three approaches of content analysis: conventional, directed, and summative. Being not conventional and highly summative analysis, textual analysis online has become a gradually increasing used method. This research is partly conducted through the analysis method based on David Bell’s An Introduction to

Cybercultures (2006). Quoted by Bell (2006), John Butler (1998) addresses that there is a

‘high signal-to-noise ratio’ on the Internet, leading to the fact that ‘useful discussions are buried within a lot of idle chatter’. Butler refers that the resolution may be ‘a sense of what’s useful’ which unfortunately can only be developed through experience. Plant (1996) also emphasizes that ‘there is no selection on the net’. It is very important to draw out key information from the huge amount of texts, which, according to interviews done by

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Links are playing an important role in the cyberspace. The importance of them are sometimes ignored and not taken as seriously as sites and pages (Bell, 2006; Shields, 2000). Links are the doors or channels between one and another ‘small world’, while the connected worlds can somehow be ridiculous because of the simple calculating of search engines. With the development of artificial intelligence and programs like cookies, links are getting more of use now and can save more time for researchers to find valuable

information.

Online texts involve complex elements to be anylised. Mitra and Cohend highlight six key features of them: intertextuality, nonlinearity, a blurring of the reader/writer distinction, ‘multimedianess’, ‘globalness’ and ephemerality. The intertextuality refers to the links issues talked above and makes the web a real ‘net’. It should be used well when more related information is needed to be discovered. In this study, hyperlinks on the official website of the entertainment corporate, as well as the links shown on the official page of celebrities’ social media, shall all be taken into consideration. The nonlinearity points out that there is no beginning or end for the web. The blurring refers to the identities and

stances of internet users. In this case, it really needs to be careful about the truly intension of people expressing ideas and points online because in Chinese fandom culture there can be ‘performance’ out of certain purpose regarding competition. The ‘multimedianess’

addresses the convergence of pictures, sound, and texts online (Wise, 2000). In the case of Chinese net, especially social media, one special form shall be highlighted: memes. They are playing significant roles online and are worth analysing in many fields. While the ‘globalness’ is easier to understand under the circumstance of world wide web. In this study the internationalisation of celebrities shall be payed attention as one of the factors to be analysed. Finally, the ephemerality —— world is changing fast especially online. News keep popping up and people can forget the ‘old’ hot topic in several days. In the case of Chinese web, it may also refer to some information that can get eliminated within one hour. However, since most of the celebrities are standing with the government, this

consideration may not be studied as key points in this research.

The topics include influence of celebrities, fans group as civil society, volunteer working, cooperation between social actors, initiatives from online to offline, social responsibility, sustainability and so on. As for the source of literature and documents, the qualitative analysis of most topics requires academic articles. However, in this research, there are many information needed to be acquired from news report and social media. In another

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word, online research methods are very important in the process of data and information collection. Social media plays a significant role in this research as it shows visible datas of influence including the number of views, reposts, likes and comments. There are two major Chinese social medias in China: Weibo and WeChat. Weibo is comparable to

Twitter, where there are three different kinds of users including verified individuals, verified organizations and common users. Till September 30th of 2016, the active population of Weibo has reached 297 million, increased by 34% compared with the same period in 2015. (data.weibo.com, 2017) WeChat is an application mainly focusing on instant message, which will be mainly used in the methods of survey. Relevant details will be elaborated in next section.

3.2.2 Semi-Structured Interviews

One of the reasons for selecting semi-structured interviews as the means of data collection is to the explore perceptions and more information regarding complex questions (Barriball and While, 1994). Since the research questions in this article are covering many sub-questions, semi-structured interviews are chosen to collect different opinions from 20 different fans. The specific designed questions are based on three aspects: shared media experience, a sense of community, and a wish to help (Kliger, 2012). Apart from the designed questions, when interesting points pop up from the interviewees, there are always impromptu questions for digging up more information, probing to "ensure that complete and consistent information is received across different interviews" (Harrell and Bradley, 2009). Probing is very important in these interviews, not only because there are many sub-questions originally from the research, but also because during the interviews new concepts and phenomena are expected to be shown. Barriball and While (1994) also sum up how probing ensures reliability of the data, including the clarification and

exploration of more details and sensitive issues, as well as recalling the relevant memory of respondents.

Another problem refers to the social desirability. Respondents may answer questions in a way is preferred whether it is objectively true (Brink, 1991; Dearnley, 2005). It is important to use techniques when asking questions, especially gaining rapport (Leech, 2002). In this research, the barrier is reduced to the lowest through the interviewer’s maintain of

conversation including appropriate etiquette. Besides, the textual analysis complements the data collected from interviews (Breitmayer et al., 1993; Thurmond, 2001). The

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interviews in this research aim at 20 fans of three members of TFBOYS. Respondents include individual fans, members of fans group, and leaders of fans groups who are in charge of the organisation and coordination of all initiatives. The specific context and more details are illustrate in next section: case study.

3.3 Case Study: I Fight for the Fighting Boys

This research aims at the cases in China where the influence of celebrities and fans groups are growing rapidly. Three of the most popular celebrities and the fans of them will be picked as the topic to accomplish interviews. They are three teenagers who used to be in one band called The Fighting Boys (TFBOYS) but now started their own career life separately. These three teenagers are Karry Wang, Roy Wang and Jackson Yi. Each of them has been rewarded as one of the Top 10 most influential people on internet in China. Karry Wang is also the Guinness World Record Holder for holding ‘the most reposted Weibo’ for a total of 42,776,438 reposts. The endorsement of them has gone beyond commercial brands but more directed to philanthropy. Karry and Roy are both

ambassadors of UN projects now. Karry is cooperating with UN Environment for saving endangered species (https://www.unenvironment.org/) and Roy stands for the project of children eduction in poor area under the cooperation with UNICEF (https://www.unicef.org/ zh) . The three boys have also all started their own charity foundation in 2017, focusing on different fields of charities (news.sina.com.cn).

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However, the influence they made on philanthropy relies very much on their fans. Fans groups of many celebrities like them in China are considered to be ‘crazy’ by public because they are doing professional organized support activities for their idols, and philanthropies are one form of these activities (news.sina.com.cn). Fans claim that they have been making differences to the society because of their idols. However, many

controversial voices are spoken against their ‘flashy but useless’ work, and the public also questions why they are so motivated by some far away ‘stars’ instead of people who love them ‘in the reality’, or some touchable symbols and icons?

“In the discussion around fandom, the authentic voices of fans themselves are rarely heard. Fans who exist within an organized web of interpretive communities define themselves and their roles very differently from any of these groups…”

(Harris, 1998)

Due to the objective to let fans speak their voices, and also due to restrictions for reaching celebrities themselves, the respondents of designed semi-structured interviews are

selected to be the members and some leaders of each fans group. The content of these interviews covers all the three research questions listed in section 2.

A particular phenomenon that worth to bring up is the ‘Attribute’ of fans. Fans of different persons from same band have their own nicknames and the identity as whose fan is called ‘the Attribute’. For example, Karry’s fans are called ‘crabs’, Roy’s fans are called ‘rice balls’, and Jackson’s fans ‘paper cranes’. Most importantly and unfortunately, almost all of them literally hate each other because of the competition for resources, and fans want to ‘beat’ each other in every competition of ‘supporting activities’ to show that ‘My idol is more popular than yours’. This phenomenon leads to many, according to public media,

‘ridiculous fighting’, but also generates peculiar motivation for them to take actions. It does not only exist between celebrities from the same band or group, but also appears when it comes to celebrities who used to cooperate and had conflicts. Despite the indecency, this phenomenon is something worth to study in this case and is brought up during the

interviews.

Online textual analysis also takes place before and after the interviews with the fans, in order to prepare for conversation and to collect more datas that may not be shown during the interviews. Chinese social media Weibo and Weixin are main tools in terms of the

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textual analysis, while some apps specifically for fan user groups mentioned in the interviews are also analysed as auxiliary tools. Tremendous information can be found online and only those can help with the answer of research questions are remained in this article.

3.4 Ethical Consideration

Despite that the conversation were not intrusive for the participants in nature, and in any conventional sense the interviewees could not be judged to be vulnerable, still certain questions could be perceived as professionally compromising when meeting some topics. For instance, when asked about original good wishes that were not generated by idols, some participants tended to show the goodness of themselves in an exaggerated way that are not shown through their actions. While one of the fundamental components of

research ethics is the avoidance of harm to research participants (Economic and Social Research Council, 2010) and in this study, it mainly refers to interview participants. All the interviewees were assured of confidentiality in the presentation of results. Many of them did not give their real name to the researcher at all, instead, they used online ID all the time. The results of the research also avoided to show any information that may identify the participants, and the researcher performed to be with no judgement, so that the

participant are encouraged to speak freely and be brave enough to show the real persons inside them.

In addition to the confidentiality, the research also faces the problem of cross-language studies, both in terms of textual analysis and interviews. Li (2011) suggests that

interviewees should be given the choice of which language to use during the talk. While due to the facts that most interviewees in this study can only speak Chinese and the research speaks Chinese as first language, the contents can be understood to the best in Chinese. All interviews were conducted in Chinese and transcribed into English to the best of researcher’s knowledge.

3.5 Conclusion

The research follows an interpretivist epistemological stance, incorporating elements of constructivism ontological approaches, and is conducted with a qualitative inductive strategy. It aims to answer the research questions regarding celebrity and fans'

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as well as semi-structured interviews with members and leaders of selected fans groups. Fans groups of Karry Wang, Roy Wang, and Jackson Yi are selected since they are extremely popular and famous in China now, also because they are all from TFBOYS, sharing similar background and resources but different fans.

The research is conducted with two methods complementing each other: online textual analysis and semi-structured interview. To legitimize the qualitative data analysis, these two are chosen to reach within-method triangulation. The triangulation mainly refers to ‘seeking convergence and corroboration of results from different analytical methods used on the same data’ (Leech and Onwuegbuzie, 2007), which in this case, focuses on the information directly acquired from interviewees’ responds, and the information drawn out of social media, both in terms of interaction between celebrity, fans and public. This is of significance since when the participants of interviews express some points and provide some data out of their certain intention or purpose, the relatively more authentic

information from online users with the virtual identities can play a corrective role.

The study, including the concrete work of textual analysis and interview questions

designing, is based on the conceptional model of relationships between celebrity, fans and public, as well as the three key elements through the whole process: shared media

experience, a sense of community, and a wish to help. Through the whole process, these are the guidance for collecting and analysing information. Both methods are fully

considered with ethical issues to ensure that there is no harm to participants, and that information collected are genuine, reliable and valid as possible.

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4 Findings and Analysis

This chapter sorts out the collected data, summarizes the current situation of celebrity and fans' philanthropy in China, and then addresses the findings in correspondence with each research question. Section 4.1 discusses the findings in terms of the relationship of

celebrity and fans, reflects on 'parasocial relationship' (Roberts, 2007), as well as the theory of 'strong empathy and over-identified' (McCutcheon et al., 2002). Section 4.2 discovers the motivation of fans' philanthropy and how individual behaviours are

encouraged to change. It makes comparison and complements for the three factors of fan activism (Jenkins, 2012; Kliger, 2012). Section 4.3 takes the research to a higher level through the consideration of scaling up the current phenomenon of celebrity and fans' philanthropy, in the context of Chinese state-led civil society (Frolic, 1997). Section 4.4 finally synthesises the findings after the interviews and online textual analysis, again integrating them as a whole with the theoretical framework of the literature review. The conclusion of this chapter is made with an amended model from theoretical framework of this research, showing the weakened impact of celebrity on public and the strengthened effect of public on celebrity.

Figure 4.0 Adjusted Model of Interactions between Celebrity, Fans and Public

The findings are based on data and information collected from interviews and online texts, 2 taking TFBOYS and their fans as the case. Information acquired from interviews is shown mostly with direct quotes to keep the origin expression of participants. Data collected

See Appendix for List of Participants of Interviews and their Basic Information

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online are mostly from the Chinese social media Weibo, and some from google. Online textual analysis is shown with screenshots (with translation) and relative explanation. The information from either way complement each other to make sure the research collects unbiased data through multiperspective view (Breitmayer et al., 1993; Boyd, 2000).

The findings tell that the current supporting activities for celebrity can be divided to daily supports and birthday celebration. Fans' philanthropy is more concentrated in birthday celebration activities, but can also be organized by certain fans groups for daily activities. The fans groups mentioned here are “professional”, which means they exists as self-established organizations with name, fixed members and specific work content. Hereafter the study refers them as PFGs (Professional Fans Groups) . Fans in and out of PFGs can 3 both be motivated by celebrity in many ways, and take initiatives in different forms. For fans' philanthropy, background information is that most celebrities have their own philanthropy foundations now, for example, Karry’s “Kindle Blue Fund”, Roy’s “Yuan

Foundation” etc. Under this circumstance, further details about fans activism are discussed in following sections.

4.1 Interaction and Relationship of Celebrity and Fans

As drawn in the theoretical framework of literature review, celebrity and fans share a particular relationship that involves strong empathy and special parasocial interaction (Roberts, 2007; McCutcheon et al., 2002). This has been greatly developed since the blooming of entertainment market. Fairchild (2007) pointed out that producers have improved the way of building “authentic celebrity” image in order to establish a strong bonding and a stable relationship between celebrity and fans. During the interviews, many fans admit that after being the ‘stars chaser’ for a while, they are very aware of how the celebrity is ‘produced’. However, they still free strong empathy that keeps them on the track.

“We fully understand that there is a certain routine of producing a star in a industrial way. However, the one we choose to be our idol is special to us, normally because we have been growing up with him since he was almost nothing. We feel his joy and his pain. We are proud when he achieved something and feel angry when he is hurt. It’s more like raising a baby.”

See Appendix for “Terminology Explanation”.

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(Shaw, first year Master student, fan of TFBOYS)

The words ‘raising a baby’ are more literal than exaggeration. Like many other fans of TFBOYS, Shaw fell for the three boys since 2014 when they were only 14/15 years old children. Nearly all participants (18 out of 20) have been to live concerts, holding light boards to support their idol. Posts on Weibo show that supporting is important. From the perspective of fans, light boards let idol see them and know that they goes there from all parts of the country just for him/her. This is typical ‘parasocial interaction’ (Roberts, 2007) since most fans would never have chance to communicate with celebrity face to face. On Weibo, it shows that for each big event, there are well organised supporting activities initiated by both fans groups and individuals. In stead of light sticks, light boards with idol’s name on it have became the mainstream. Figure 4.1.1 shows one of the biggest fans groups of TFBOYS, Teen Festival, posing on Weibo to ask if any individual fans are willing to give or sell their tickets for concert, so that they can manage to support boys with huge light boards.

Figure 4.1.1 Fans Group ‘Teen Festival’ Posting on Weibo

In addition to the one-sided ‘let him know’ support, another classic behaviour of parasocial relationship is the comments of fans under the social media account of celebrity. The one way conversation is a comfort for fans and as they stresses, it is not always ‘single arrow’. They get ‘treats’ now and then, both online and offline. For example, for the fact that his fans on Weibo reached 10 millions, Karry Wang prepared a funny video of himself on Weibo as a gift for fans. On the live concert of his 15th birthday celebration, Karry

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to 2014, the three member of TFBOYS used to reply fans comments online and even through phone calls. However, it is easy to understand that with the number of fans growing rapidly, the two way dialogue becomes harder for celebrity, therefore any feedback that fans can get are considered as ‘treats’ by fans.

“They made a video as reply to our university’s sign language song and did sign language in the video in 2014… back then I was still a fan of the whole band. I reposted it on Weibo. It is posted by Beijing Welfare Fund for Disabled People.”

Bei, Senior Student, fan of Jackson)

Figure 4.1.2 TFBOYS Reply to Fans from Sign Language League of Renmin University

The particular relationship between celebrity and fans have increasingly motivated fans to take initiatives to support their idols. When celebrity promotes something, fans are keen to take actions immediately. Celebrity has been devoting more to philanthropy, which

motivates fans to focus more on tricky environmental or social issues, and to support celebrity by donating or doing goods.

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“To be honest, I would say every action fans have been taken are focused on Roy. Even though part of us wants to do true goods to the society, the reason why we are doing it is that Roy promotes to do philanthropy. We want to make him happy and proud, and we want a good reputation for him and his fans…I am in charge of many PFGs of Roy. We do work like maintaining idol’s image, protecting him from hurt, obtaining more opportunities…We need to be professional. This is our responsibility as fans. We should do more than just being entertained by Roy or just saying I love you so much. We should be sweet and useful to him.”

(Minnie, new media worker, fan of Roy Wang)

Minnie is a ‘head fan’ of Roy. She has over 10,000 followers on Weibo, and has power to 4 influence many individual fans. Her thoughts above are widely shown during the interview, also among the online discussions. Fans are not satisfied with being ‘takers’; they want to be ‘givers’ as well. Minnie thinks you need to be a fighter. She does not like the two former teammates of Roy because “they shared Roy’s fame and resources”. It is funny to realise that every fan, no matter of which idol (Karry, Roy or Jackson), considers their idol to be the one whose fame and resources are shared, or even taken unfairly by his teammates. Fans of one member take the other two as rivals. Because of this, the competition

between fans are formed in terms of Fans Supporting Activities (FSAs).However, there are different opinions as well, but mostly from fans of the band instead of one certain member.

“I think fans should support idols in a mild way since it is hardly the real life. I find it quite nasty that fans of different members are fighting all the days. It can be really boring and tiring. Why people can not focus more on their lives? I do not disagree that we should support them as possible as we can, but it is deformity now, the fandom culture in China.”

(Penny, designer, fan of TFBOYS)

The online textual analysis confirmed her words. In the comments area of each boy’s posts, fans who have different idols are always verbally attacking each other. On the other hand, they also compare whose fans are making more positive influence, making secret competitions to prove which celebrity is most influential. They also have certain mean

Fan of celebrity who has many other fans as followers See Terminology Explanation in Appendix

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nicknames for the celebrities they do not like, which they have been using a lot in online “battle” with other fans.

This is not the only aspect where the interviews and online textual analysis fit. During the interviews, fans expressed the same core rule of celebrity worshiping: “Everything we do is based on and aimed for idol’s benefits.” From the youngest interviewee (Yi, 19 years old) to the eldest one (Fo, 34 years old), the participants have reached the agreement that the celebrity is of most significance. In term of this point of view, online fans have shown surprising consistency. For example, fans have there own slogan for their idol (which is always rhythm in Chinese). Karry’s fans always tag #beginning to future, only for Karry#. Roy’s fans tag #love only for Roy#. Jackson’s fans tag #wholeheartedly, Jackson Yi#. The thoughts ‘everything only for him’ are shown everywhere on Weibo, WeChat and other social medias.

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“Everything is for idol.” What if celebrity misbehave? This was not directly answered by most participants of the interviews. For example, despite Roy has been described as ‘not good at singing’ by some professional online commentator, Minnie reckons that Roy is very gifted for singing. She also believes Roy is a kind boy “like an angel” and the other two members from the band have been “copying Roy’s promoting and market modes”. While Zoe, a sophomore fan of Jackson, says some of Roy’s fans have been doing “things they should be shameful of”. She reckons Jackson is the boy who hardly makes any mistake and who is a real idol.

“As a rational fan, I would say that they are people, they make mistakes as well. However, since I really like them, I believe they do not mean it to misbehave. Also, they do not dare to. Chinese public is extremely strict with this. It is not like Justin Bieber. Chinese society is less tolerant. Misbehaving can lead to vital risks of their career. TFBOYS have surprisingly innocent history and they show up everywhere when a positive image is needed. They have been chosen by the government to encourage or inspire young people to be hardworking and patriotic. Even when they are criticized by public, fans tend to blame the agency instead of boys themselves.”

(Jade, fan of TFBOYS, first year NGO worker)

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Jade shares a point strongly supported by online data. Search for “TFBOYS, Positive Energy” on Google, there are about 4,8000,000 results (figure 4.1.4). However, the opinion of criticizing celebrity Jade has shared can not easily be supported by online information. Fans online are posting similar contents even with certain format to compliment celebrity. Essential information may have been hided into this ‘ocean’ as the ‘high signal-to-noise ratio’ pointed out by John Butler (1998). Nonetheless, this “information buried”

phenomenon can be related with some other data collected from the interviews: comments control, which has increased the difficulty of online textual analysis for research, and

makes some information from the interview very valuable.

“I did not join any fans supporting groups. I was in the data group. Data group is for improving the data of celebrity and works together with the comments control

group. The data mentioned here refers to numbers of reposts, comments and views of relative trends, which makes investors think the celebrity is powerful. Fans also do comments control to filter the information to be seen by public, to cover the negative news and critical comments. The comments you see have been filtered by fans who work like machines and who are highly organised.”

(Kong, 20, freshman student)

“I am not sure if this is typical Chinese fans stuff, but I used to be in fans group of Korean stars and never experienced comments control there.”

(Nin, 25, kindergarten teacher)

The comments control not only increases the difficulty of textual analysis online, but also changes the public image of celebrity through fans actions. It shows the thoughts of fans to be useful for idols, and adds a new form of interaction of fans on celebrity. The relationship between celebrity and fans becomes closer.

One thing celebrity shows powerful influence refers to the celebrity endorsement, both commercially and regarding philanthropy. The public may pay attention to what celebrities are endorsing or promoting, but they choose to buy or contribute based on their own choices. Fans are different. They are keen on getting same style of idol, including clothes, restaurants, even articles of daily use. When searching on AliExpress, the key words

Celebrities and Fans’ Philanthropy in China: A Critique of Parasocial Relationship