16. We Are Watching You

The Affective Power of Celebrities

Hi there. Welcome to Active Faults. 

Last issue talked of reverse support and fan service, namely celebrity practices to meet a fan’s need. It’s a concept that touches on critical questions of power, labour and fandom as a service economy: who’s being exploited as assets in a celebrity-fan relationship, the artist packaged like a commodity or their followers paying for it? 

From this issue on, let me try to ask a question that’s even more difficult to answer: what does power look like when both sides are co-dependent on each other? 

When, why and how would a celebrity overpower their fans? More specifically, how are they influencing, regulating and controlling their fan base? 

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Boyfriends

A popular reverse support method in South Korea makes good use of food trucks. SEVENTEEN’s leader S.COUPS, currently on a hiatus due to an injury, dispatched a few of those for fans participating in their music show to apologise for his absence. What’s interesting is one of his messaging on the trucks:

Safety is the top priority, so maintain the order 

Princess Kkuma (note: S.COUPS’ widely popular pet dog) and SEVENTEEN’s general leader is watching

Largely a joke, of course. But, the idol persona this truck message feeds into isn’t. It corresponds to the image he has kept up for the past 8 odd years: the charismatic but imposing Alpha Male, the head of the wolf pack. He had always appeared to be a powerful representative figure, often speaking on behalf of the members (and fans) when negotiating with the company. His Instagram byline writes “SEVENTEEN, CARAT Leader”, taking on a responsibility to “lead” both the group and the fandom. Below is one of many, many edits of his leader moments:

If you know anything about fandom, you would’ve picked up on the sexual undertones behind “Alpha Male” here. A celebrity’s sexual appeal is often an exercise of power in disguise. S.COUPS was able to use the truck messaging to his favour, because the “bossy” tone can be interpreted as a demonstration of “boyfriend power” (男友力). This refers to a distinct form of celebrity charm one associates with an ideal boyfriend. It is one of those relatively new terminologies in the entertainment industry that’s so prevalent it becomes ill-defined. It can describe anything from six-pack abs to carrying their movie co-star bridal style, but note my choice of word here: “boyfriend power” is no equivalent to “partner power”.

More often than not, fans’ sexual fantasies of celebrities do not involve a desire for a nuanced, emotionally complex individual to enter a long-term relationship with. Instead, they project their own need for intimacy onto blurry caricatures of (hyper)masculinity, a key element of which being an urge to lead, control and give orders. Think Christian Grey from the 50 shades series and Edward Cullen on whom he was based. 

Leveraging sexual appeal is a generative act. That’s the best thing about power in the form of desirability: it involves a self-objectification that renders the possessor seemingly inferior, raising no suspicions. It can even attract new fans and watch its influence swell. 

At the same time, S.COUPS is also known as the caretaker, the protective “momager” who’s always looking out for his teammates and his fans. His truck-dispatching, obviously a thoughtful and attentive gesture, adds weight to his messaging that was intended to regulate potentially unruly fan behaviours and prop up his persona. His instructions will be obeyed because he cares and he’s doing this as an attractive, loving “boyfriend”. 

The said food truck dispatched. Source: @pepizzaboy on Twitter

Power exercised as desirability and through the provision of care shows that celebrity power is almost always a variation of affective power. No surprises here, because the celebrity-fan relationship is an affective relationship above everything else. The celebrity can achieve an end by eliciting the appropriate emotional response in the fan that spurs a move. 

At the end of Liu Yuxin’s concert, the singer thanked her band members individually and to my surprise, the entire stadium promptly intercepted her speech with loud chants of “xiexie” (thank you) after the recital of each name. I later found out that this borderline eerie mantra of gratitude was a fan initiative after Liu was “unhappy” with the crowd’s silence during this segment at her first show. Her fandom then organised themselves to have “better concert etiquettes”. 

This is a prime example of Liu’s affective power over her fans. By making her emotions explicitly known, an emotional resonance ripples out amongst the fans through which she commands the crowd. I remember thinking, on my seat, that no wonder Chinese politicians are wary of and subjugate entertainers.

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Misbehaving

In recent years, neiyu celebrities’ affective powers can be wielded to draw healthy boundaries. Some celebrities market a“fan-bickering” persona (怼粉) that could be a key to success, if treaded very carefully. Our old friend Wang Yibo is a prime example, where his “uncooperative” attitude when it comes to fan service was seen as “manly” and “assertive” by some but plain rude by others. Idols like Huang Zitao have gone a step further to pull a Doja Cat move, pausing some of his activities in a “boycott” of fans who complained about his styling team. Fanquan reviews of these are understandably mixed.

TF Boys’ successor, TNT, is probably the boy group most plagued by “saesangs”, obsessive stalker fans who follow them to family dinners, friends outings, or break into their dorm rooms. Their fostered idol upbringing is a double-edged sword: with a secure and loyal fan base comes menacing individuals who consider themselves a part of the celebrity’s lives. The boys, most probably under company orders, used to hold their peace on the subject matter and maintain civility within the fandom. As they grow older the TNT members started to address the issue head on. Here are some of their Weibo posts:

I’m gonna say this again, don’t tail my car and let me go home, thank you!

Just casually eating out please stop taking photos thank you

Felt like a fugitive eating dinner today [because I was so on edge and kept looking around], so funny how I’m not the one who’s a fugitive

I felt like we’re in a zoo being observed like gorillas by humans

One member took photos of the stalkers’ car on more than one occasion to call them out and write: “I originally wanted to have a meal with my family…now that I’m not that hungry anymore, going back to work”:

Soaring up to headlines and Hot Searches every time, these explicit polemics of saesangs intended to control inappropriate fan behaviours are tactfully phrased. They regularly mention “home”, “family” and personal matter to highlight their invaded privacy, thereby evoking sympathy, rage and condemnation both within the fandom and general public. They remain courteous and non-confrontational to, again, arouse compassion and pity. 

Most are sympathetic, while some call TNT “hypocritical” and ungrateful for the traffic that stalker fans bring them, since they are also the most hardcore stans. Others argue that they should go to the police instead of making it a social media stunt if they want the stalkers gone. My take is that the latter misses the point: these posts are not actually meant for the saesangs in the first place. 

They are targeting the fans who “behaved” or the rational fans (理智粉). The emotional response aimed here is guilt and shame, the most powerful sentiments to weaponise. Feeling embarrassed for their peers and somehow inadequate in their duty to protect the celebrity, a newfound allegiance is created that’s more robust than ever. The so-called rational fans are prompted to act a bit irrationally by fanning harder and fighting harder, now with a common enemy in sight.

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Abuse

This is one specimen of a broader set of “fan abuse” (虐粉) and “fan consolidation” (固粉) tactics deployed by celebrities and their managers. As the language suggests, both refer to practices of celebrity control over fans to generate higher traffic, profit and more influence. 

It’s hard to recall how fans found out about these, mostly likely from a whistleblower and an industry insider exposing it as trade secrets. Some classic 虐粉 discourses look like this: “we’re getting dethroned and we need to take back what’s ours”, “we’re bullied by another fandom”, “our [celeb name] has worked so hard so we gotta keep trying”. I used the plural “We”, because sometimes it’s the Lead Fans or the Supporting Fan Club who does it on behalf of the celebrity, under instructions from the company.

There are also the Professional Fans (职业粉丝 or 脂粉 as an euphemism), who are like mercenaries hired by the company to infiltrate the fandom and post inorganic, swaying content serving an end of their own. They wield affective powers delegated to them by the celebrities to hurl fan bases into doing more chart-beating while strengthening the fan’s emotional commitment. To use my favourite metaphor, the priests rule over the layfolk in the absence (hence looming omnipresence) of God. 

You get the gist. The creation of a common enemy, fabrication of rumours to fuel competitions, stakeholders setting a predetermined agenda, constructing an illusion of us against the world. Doesn’t that remind you of China’s foreign policy?

Nowadays, a large majority of fans are well aware of this and consciously rebel against it. The tricky thing is, they will have to either fan in isolation or un-fan in order to completely dissociate from these practices. In some ways, to be controlled in fandom is a necessary prerequisite to fanning. It’s an essential condition. You’d have to extricate yourself from the larger fandom and create distance between you and the celebrity to retain clarity, meaning a loss of a group identity. 

You’d have to be the lone wolf admiring the head of the pack from another snowy peak. 

*Cover photo: rear view mirror stickers of a BTS lyric