Xiaomin, who is in her third year, has been very busy recently, grabbing tickets, delineating the support area, buying light boxes, and calling on people to go to the scene… Because of a 5th anniversary concert of her "Idol" (the homonym of the word "idol" in English – reporter’s note), Xiaomin has experienced up to 2 months of abuse and battle (Internet catchphrase, the same as PK here – reporter’s note).
Today’s fan group is called "rice", and the circle they form is called "rice circle" and "rice ball". As the saying goes, "Once you enter the rice circle, it is as deep as the sea, and from now on, Idol is your wife", this sentence is a true portrayal of the current rice circle.
In the past, chasing a certain star or band was at most buying albums and watching concerts. Basically, they were all loose fans, and there was no concept of a fan circle. In recent years, with the expansion of the fan base, the idol economy has continued to develop, giving birth to a variety of ways to buy peripherals (derivative products) for idols, rent advertising space for promotion, vote, and do charity and public welfare activities. In order to win the favor of Idol, fans are busy brushing sales every day, brushing topics and discussions on social networking sites, participating in pre-voting, on-site voting, etc., and also conducting an extremely fast Amway (Internet term, referring to strong recommendation) for Idol’s new works.
Xiaomin’s love bean is one of the members of a well-known idol boy group in China, and fans like her are called "Weijian" in the fan circle. "I will spend money for the stars. On the one hand, I will buy albums and official peripherals, on the other hand, I will buy air tickets and tickets to watch the performance, and on the other hand, I will buy the support fee." Xiaomin said that the anniversary concert or celebration of the group every year is a "Weijian" support battle. Each star or group has an official support color, the group has a support color, and each member will have a separate support color.
"In order to make the concert scene a little more friendly, the main task of the people in the circle this year is to battle the light signs." Since very early on, Xiaomin’s fan circle has begun to call on everyone to buy light signs. Purchases are usually called by the support club and big fans, and develop from various organizations to the whole circle. "The more light signs you buy, the better!" Xiaomin bought 8 light signs with an area of 1 square meter in one go, and each light sign sold for 188 yuan.
The members of the support committee "basically bought it, and those who don’t go will contribute." Xiaoyu couldn’t go to the concert because of something, so she participated in online fundraising to raise funds to buy light signs. "The fundraising groups are all temporarily formed," Xiaoyu said. This time, the support committee started to call for the purchase of light signs in the micro bar. There are many ways to raise funds, and they are constantly innovating. "Some time ago, Alipay had a scan code to receive red envelopes. We asked a big fan to issue a QR code for payment, and others scanned the code for consumption. The red envelope income can be a large amount of money, and it can be used to buy light signs. Of course, there are also direct transfers through WeChat, Alipay or self-purchase."
Xiaoyu participated in the fundraising activities of the support, Alipay red envelopes earned tens of thousands of yuan, and fans directly transferred tens of thousands of yuan. The total amount is specific, Xiaoyu said "not completely open so I don’t know". There are many members of the fan circle like Xiaoyu. They know that the fundraising process can only be semi-public, and they also know that there are dark debts, but they will still support each fundraising without hesitation.
"Dark accounts are inevitable, and the money that should be raised will not be fully disclosed," Xiaomin said, because some of the money will be used for public relations, such as for the promotion of newspapers and magazines and self-media endorsement products. This is the part that cannot be made public, and public disclosure will allow the opponent to fully understand their situation. "Even if there is a dark account, as long as the vast majority of the money is spent where it should be spent, and the amount is not high, no one will investigate it."
Nowadays, it has become the norm for the support committee to raise money, and the problems in the supervision of funds have been frequently reported in the newspapers. Just in July this year, "101 fund-raising was investigated" once made the hot search list. There are media reports that in the process of creating 101 fans to raise funds, there are "fans" in the name of boosting popularity for the Idol finals. After collecting funds, they ran away and even bought a sea view house.
Xiaomin thinks she is lucky, because she has been in the rice circle for 4 years and has never encountered a run away. She is also relatively tolerant of the tricks in "fund-raising", "We need people who do these things, and forcing them (fund-raising promoters) away is not conducive to the stability of the rice circle, because the big fan has the voice over and the appeal."
If fans don’t pursue it, is there no supervision in the gray area of fundraising in the fan circle? Lawyer Yuan Shaoguang of Beijing Tongchuang Law Firm believes that the promoter of "fundraising" should be responsible for the authenticity, legality and use of crowdfunding funds. The promoter cannot misappropriate or embezzle crowdfunding funds. If the promoter uses fictional facts or concealing the truth to defraud crowdfunding funds for the purpose of illegal possession (such as running away with money, etc.), he may be suspected of criminal crimes such as fraud.
In the end, Xiaomin’s support association bought a total of more than 5,000 light signs, "It’s not enough to buy light signs, after all, it takes heads to hold light signs". Each support association must determine the support area in advance, determine the number of people present and grab tickets. China Youth Daily · China Youth Online reporter saw from a "concert support area map" provided by Xiaomin that 32,000 seats at the concert site were divided in different colors, and they were all booked by fans of 5 support associations. The support association where Xiaomin is located has 4,000 to 5,000 people present to help out.
"Everyone who can be called has gone, and it is difficult to grab tickets!" Xiaomin grabbed the front row of the infield at the price of 1880 yuan through the ticket-grabbing platform, and bought 3 peak tickets (stand tickets) out of her own pocket for friends who are not fans to go in and help hold the light signs. The 3 tickets given to friends cost more than 3,000 yuan, but Xiaomin felt it was worth it for her love bean.
From a psychological point of view, their needs have reached the level of one-way payment to obtain great satisfaction and pleasure, and deep mining is their own values. "Wang Chao, a researcher at a digital economy think tank, believes that deep fans will bind their value orientation to idols. In the process of pursuit, they join the support group because of the herd effect. When everyone has the same goal to do one thing, this is his knowledge system, and he will be subtly influenced by this group.
Faced with the strong support of fans, the reaction of stars is not the same. Also this year, Zhu Yilong Studio sent a letter of thanks and apology on Weibo, deciding to refund all the hundreds of thousands of yuan of support fees raised by the support club, which attracted attention. "From a legal perspective, fans voluntarily raise funds. Even if the promoter runs away after fundraising, the star does not need to bear civil liability if he does not know and has no fault," said lawyer Yuan Shaoguang.
In the opinion of Li Xuejing, a "technical fan" who works as a video director, the star’s move is due to "fan behavior idols pay the bill". She believes that the support fee is burning fans’ money, and it is understandable that the star asks to return it after knowing it. "Because many fans support is a spontaneous behavior, the star does not know it, and there is no transparent fan management and financial mechanism, which causes a lot of things similar to fans running away with money and earning rebates in the middle. Once there is a problem with fans burning money for support, it is easy to cause scolding wars among fans, and it will also affect the star artists themselves. These are all factors that stars should consider."
Compared with some celebrities who need fans’ support in order to be exposed, famous, and hyped, Li Xuejing pays more attention to those stars who speak with their acting and singing skills, because they are willing to settle down. "Fans need rationality, and only works are the foundation of a star’s foothold."
Yuan Rui, China Youth Daily China Youth Online Reporter