Fan leaders' control on Xiao Zhan's Chinese fan community

Abstract

Fans of Chinese media celebrity Xiao Zhan provide a case study of the existence of a highly centralized, well-trained fan community in Chinese media fandom, in which a majority of the fans are controlled and exploited by a faction of fan leaders. Fans have strong, exclusive feelings regarding their idol. Fan leaders make use of these feelings in order to organize the fans to routinize a wide range of data-manuipulation activities to ensure the success of their idols, and in so doing, these fans' actions exhibit conformity rather than autonomy. By controlling the dissemination of information within the community, fan leaders cultivate individual fans to ensure that they engage in a series of activities that support their idols.