Research on the Vicious Phenomenon of Chinese

Entertainment Circle Culture on Weibo Platform

Siqi Li 1, † and Yitong Ma 2, *, †

1
School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai university, Shanghai, Shanghai, China
2
College of liberal arts & sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT06269, United states

*[email protected]

Abstract. The vicious development of capital for the entertainment of the “Fan-
quan” has become a major trend at present and has formed a vicious cycle. Alt-
hough many articles have explained and studied some certain aspects of the vi-
cious cycle, the research on the cycle itself is still in the blank stage. Therefore,
by observing and comparing the special cases of Korean entertainment and ana-
lysing the behavior of their fan groups on the Weibo plat-form, this paper studies
the phenomenon of capital intervention on the vicious cycle of the “Fanquan” on
the Weibo platform. The study found that the intervention of capital led to the
successful entry of artists with insufficient strength into the entertainment indus-
try and gained a lot of attention, while the lack of artist strength caused the fol-
lowers to argue endlessly, and the debate itself would become an asset to earn
benefits for the capitalists. These interests will once again assist the capital to
have an impact on the artists. This series of behaviors has led to the continuous
emergence of in-sufficient traffic stars in the Chinese entertainment industry. The
appearance of these people has seriously affected the environment of the Chinese
entertainment industry and seriously reduced the quality of Chinese entertain-
ment works. In response to this vicious circle, all sectors of society should work
together to make changes to promote the high-quality development of China's
entertainment industry.

Keywords: Entertainment, Culture, Weibo

1 Introduction

Weibo was launched by Sina on August 14, 2009. It refers to a broadcast -style social
media and network platform based on user relationship information sharing, dissemi-
nation and acquisition of short and real-time information through a follow mechanism.
Weibo allows users to access through Web, Wap, Mail, App, IM, SMS, and through
various mobile terminals such as PCs and mobile phones, and realize instant sharing,
dissemination and interaction of information in the form of text, pictures, videos and
other multimedia. Sina Weibo has more than 500 million registered users; among them,
there are 313 million monthly a ctive users, 85% of whom use the Weibo mobile appli-
cation, 70% are college students, 50.10% are male, and 49.90% are female. More than

© The Author(s) 2023

H. Mallick et al. (Eds.): ICEMCI 2022, AEBMR 231, pp. 1998–2005, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-098-5_225
 Research on the Vicious Phenomenon of Chinese 1999

100 million messages are posted by users every day. Despite fierce competition among
Chinese social media platforms, Sina Weibo re-mains the most popular. On August 8,
2018, Weibo won the Golden Games Award for Best Effective Operation of the Year.
As of September 2021, the monthly active users of Weibo reached 573 million, of
which 94% were from the mobile terminal; the num ber of daily active users reached
248 million. As of the first quarter of 2022, more than 582 million monthly active users
(252 million daily active users). Mean-while, there are already 4.4 million verified ac-
counts on Weibo, including celebri-ties, KOL, corporate partners and media agencies.
Weibo “Chaohua” is the abbreviation of super topic. It is a function launched by
Sina Weibo. It is a circle formed by people with common interests. It is similar to in-
terest groups and fan groups. Most of them are about star idols. At the same time, there
are also “Chaohua” such as reading, food, psychology. that are not highly re -lated to
star idols. Different from ordinary topics, users of ordinary topics can freely post up-
dates, express opinions, after searching, while super topics have strict rules, and man-
agers will delete and block inappropriate remarks published in them. There -fore, it is
more like a screening, excluding people who do not really love a certain thing or star,
so as to ensure the harmony of this social circle.
The entertainment industry mainly refers to the group and its ecology of people en-
gaged in performing arts. At present, on the Weibo platform, almost all artists who are
engaged in performing arts have their own Weibo accounts; even artists without Weibo
accounts, as long as they have a certain degree of exposure, will have their Weibo
“Chaohua”, and “Chaohua” is One of the important factors that make up the “Fanquan”.
“Fanquan” refers to the abbreviation of fandom in Internet terms. The English word
for fan is fans, and the pronounce of fan in Chinese is Fan （饭）. The fan group is
called Fan（饭）, and the circle they form is called “Fanquan”. The concept of a “Fan-
quan” did not exist before. In the past, fans mostly bought their own albums and
watched concerts, rather than buying and watching in an organized way. There will be
no gathering group star-chasing activities. But in recent years, with the development of
the entertainment industry and the expansion of the fan group. “Fan -quan”, a cultural
and entertainment community formed spontaneously by fans, has gradually developed
into an organized and professional circle of interests. Its formation is not only due to
pure star worship, but the interaction between fans in the circle to seek value and iden-
tity [1]. The organizers of the “Fanquan” are generally "Fentou" who stand out from
the fan group. They usually have various skills such as taking pictures, PS, and resource
handling, and use these skills to attract loose fans. China's “Fanquan” culture is a new
form of fan culture developed with the Internet's intervention in the entertainment in-
dustry and the ecological change of the idol in-dustry [2].
On the Weibo, the organization of “Fanquan” is generally constructed through
“Chaohua”. The leader of a certain artist's “Fanquan” (to be generally called Fentou)
posts in “Chaohua” to notify fans of the artist's itinerary or organize fans to conduct
reviews and collective anti-black campaigns. Conduct reviews refers to manipulating
comments, likes and replies to good comments to make them hot, and reports or covers
negative comments. Generally, there are two types. One is to reply to a large number
of templated compliments under the Weibo posted by the artist, so that the front row of
the artist's comment area looks harmonious and beautiful. The other means that when
2000 S. Li and Y. Ma

the marketing account or other official Weibo other than the artist publishes news about
different artists at the same time, the comments praising one's own artist will be pushed
to the front row. Make other "passers-by" who are not chasing stars click on the post to
see the achievements of their artists and recom mend their idols through comments.
Anti-black is a way for fans to organize and report comments and accounts that damage
the star's image and malicious slander. Weibo has become the most important traffic
"battlefield" in the fandom, and fans known as "“Fanquan” girls" collectively create
one data miracle after another on Weibo [3].
Sina Weibo was reborn with the "entertainment marketing curtain" opened in 2015
as a turning point and has made rapid progress with a net profit of more than 200% for
two consecutive years, gradually growing into China's largest gathering space for “Fan-
quan” culture, and self-proclaimed "fans". Leader of the Economic Era" [4].

2 Literature review

Research by Haiyin Pang and Chengyun Wan shows that. The popular “Fanquan” cul-
ture in the current Chinese entertainment industry belongs to a subculture, that has been
alienated. The intervention of capital has transformed this culture into a consumer cul-
ture in essence. This consumption is a consumption of the idol concept. Doping fans'
personal feelings towards idols generates consumption, and the ultimate beneficiary is
capital. With the continuous development and expansion of the “Fanquan” group, “Fan-
quan” now has a mature language system, skill division, and has obvious class stratifi-
cation. Some small fans are no longer in love with artists, but are used as tools to make
data for artists. Cut video. They put a lot of time and energy into maintaining their idol's
image on various platforms. The biggest problem that people needs to solve at present
is how to rationally chase stars. The re-searchers believe that artists should shoulder the
responsibility of guiding fans positively. The platform itself should also have the right
attitude and make strict order. Strictly brushing ratings and other bad and war-inducing
behaviors. And how to coordinate the relationship between culture, entertainment, and
consumption, a nd guide the public, especially the youth group, to rationally chase stars
is the direction that needs to be worked hard in the future. The research topic of this
article provides good evidence for researchers to study the vicious circle phenomenon
of the fandom [5].
Mingyue Deng Zhang's research found. For sales promotion on the Weibo plat -form,
in addition to the fan economy in which the official company is the producer and seller,
such as idol manufacturing companies and video companies, there is also a profit model
of "self-operation" by fans in the fandom. This profit model has a strong sustainability
due to emotional bonds, identity, and the constant replacement of “Fanquan”. Its profit
purpose is to support idols or buy idol endorsement prod ucts. Combining Mingyue
Deng Zhang's research with practice can be found. This kind of profit model of "self -
operation" by fans was originally made and sold by fans. Whether it is product samples
or sending them to manufacturers for production. They are all carried out by KOLs
among fans. And various capital parties saw the merits of this profit model, and also
 Research on the Vicious Phenomenon of Chinese 2001

began to produce official peripheral products, and cooperated with fans' "self-operat-
ing" parties. A series of products such as posters, banners, designed by fans are pro-
duced and sold by the official. It can be seen that the role of capital in the “Fanquan”
has always existed and is constantly expanding. And many studies have shown that the
current fans' emotions - such as admiration, love, disgust, have been digitized by capital
and traffic. Compared with the “Fanquan” that originally needed to produce high -qual-
ity content to gain the right to speak in the fandom. The various lists provided by Weibo
provide a trans-mission channel for fans' emotions, and through the constant updating
of the algorithm and the rhetoric of "helping fans to gradually occupy a dominant posi-
tion in the process of chasing stars, to achieve self -show and self-value realization"
Bundle and squeeze fans for the production of leader board data. Qi Tong's research
found that "after emotion is digitized, it can calculate and generate new value, become
the nutrient of supply flow, and continuously stimulate consumption", which provides
a certain proof for our follow-up research on the vicious circle of Fandom [6].
Xiquan Deng and Jie Sun's research shows that. Under the role of capital and the
pursuit of profit maximization, stars have become a commodity. The cultivation of stars
has become a workshop assembly line work, and the pro ducts produced are expanded
and reproduced through controversial topics. However, this research has certain limita-
tions. Their research emphasizes the impact of "capital + traffic stars + “Fanquan”" on
socialist core values and mainstream cultural works, but does not explain the impact of
this model on the high-quality development of the entire cultural industry. The impact
did not explain the relationship between capital, traffic stars and “Fanquan”. The high -
quality development of the entire cultural industry and the relationship between the
above three subjects are very important. Chinese culture itself is extremely inclusive. It
is impossible for China's entertainment and cultural industry to have only mainstream
culture, and a clear study of the relation-ship between the three subjects is conducive
to taking more targeted measures to rectify the current chaos in the Fandom [7].

3 Methodology

In this study, the researchers chose the method of qualitative research and selects the
artists under SM company to conduct case analysis. First of all, SM Entertainment is
recognized as a powerful star-making factory in the world, and has cultivated a large
number of world-famous actors, idols, comedians and other artists. More-over, it is
worth noting that the artists of SM company used to have super high appearance and
super strength at the same time. This is in stark contrast to the current phenomenon of
domestic entertainment - domestic entertainment is all beautiful waste (good appear-
ance but have no strength), good-looking but low in strength. The strength we mean
here is: the actor's acting skills are not embarrassing and do not let people out of role,
and the idol dances with sufficient strength, and the singing voice is stable and does not
tremble during dancing. Recently, SM's newly launched idol group AESPA has caused
a large-scale controversy. Its “Fanquan” also has a large-scale "fight by words" phe-
nomenon. This phenomenon is relatively rare in Korean entertainment and can be com-
pared with China as a special case. In domestic entertainment, the phenomenon of
2002 S. Li and Y. Ma

"good-looking but not powerful is very popular, good-looking but strong but not pop-
ular" is too common, fans and passers-by are used to it, so it is difficult to identify
special cases. Therefore, dom estic entertainment artists and their fan groups are not
selected for observation and analysis.

4 Result

The vicious circle of China's entertainment industry: artists with low talent. Flow stars
grow rapidly in a capital-driven industrialization rather than culture [7]. For example,
although his strength and appearance are very ordinary. But relying on capital market-
ing has many fans. During the broadcast of his works, his facial paralysis-style acting
skills were continuously marketed and appeared on the Weibo hot search list. Superim-
posed on the crazy pursuit of him by fans, his status in internal entertainment has been
held up higher and higher. For the current Chinese entertainment industry. Whether it
is an actor or a singer and dancer, it only needs to rely on the operation of capital to
become a hot star, and can earn benefits for capital. Having strength has become a lux-
ury for them.
The vicious circle of China's entertainment circle: the problem of the “Fanquan”
battle. After Yibo Wang successfully gained a large number of fans through capital
marketing to him, he began to appear in film and television dramas. In the play, the
male and male couple formed with another starring Zhan Xiao has gained a lot of couple
fans. So a Chinese online novelist crea ted a fanfiction with Zhan Xiao as the theme.
After this novel was released, it was thought by Zhan Xiao fans to intention -ally insult
Zhan Xiao. Dissatisfied with Zhan Xiao fans. Fans began to report this novel on a large
scale and caused netizens and fans to report each other to control the online campaign
of comments. A months-long public opinion war has formed. Ultimately, the novel site
was permanently shut down. This is the famous "227 Incident". This incident caused a
huge sensation at the time and had a serious impact on netizens. In recent years, the
operation mechanism of "capital, traffic star, Fanquan" has continuously provoked dis-
putes and struggles among different fan groups. It has resulted in the bad consequences
of group discord and even split with-in the group [7]. Whether it is netizens, the plat-
forms themselves, or government regulators, the “Fanquan” should be rectified to pre-
vent the disorderly expansion of capital in the entertainment industry.

5 Discussion

There are many reasons for the low strength of artists. Apart from their own talent,
acquired training and practice are very important. In this study, it can be seen that the
reasons for the low strength of artists are as follows. First, the training time is not
enough. From receiving training to debuting on stage, they have experienced a rela-
tively short period of time, or did not spend enough time to practice during the training
period, so their strength has not been improved. Secondly, it is the fast -food business
model caused by the company's capital operation. Different from the previous enter-
tainment industry focusing on creating artists who can leave classic works, in order to
 Research on the Vicious Phenomenon of Chinese 2003

invest less energy to obtain greater economic benefits, various entertain ment companies
have begun to produce fast-food artists. They train the artist to be quick rather than
finely crafted, and instead focus on packaging the artist for their brilliance. These pack-
ages include public opinion packaging, appearance modifica tion, that is, cosmetic or
makeup and so on.
Fans of the “Fanquan” are coerced by these capitals, falling into the irrational traps
of consumption such as "idol character design", "virtual emotion" and "rela tionship im-
agination" and cannot extricate themselves, and invest more and mo re funds into capital
[10]. At the same time, because fans spontaneously create for idols, it saves more mar-
keting costs for the company, and at the same time increases the packaging of artists
[11]. But these packages are like the sugar and salt of junk f ood to artists. Although it
can bring the taste "delicious" to the food, it is not nutritious or even harmful to the
growth and health of the human body. For the develop ment of the entertainment indus-
try, although packaging can make artists look dazzling and attract the attention of the
public, it cannot really bring works that can be appreciated and played to the public,
nor can it bring positive contribution to the development of the entertainment industry.
To improve this situation, the artists themselves should start changing firstly. Artists
themselves should consciously exercise their own strength, should aim to become a top-
notch artist rather than a "top-notch" star, and should even be ashamed of the phenom-
enon that their strength and popularity do not match. The second is the company. When
various entertainment companies launch artists, they should take into account both eco-
nomic and social benefits and have a longer-term vision. The bottom line cannot be
given up for short-term profits. For artists with insufficient strength, they should focus
on training or giving them a little bit punishment, so that it is possible to produce clas-
sics and achieve long-term profitability. Finally, in terms of society, if the public im -
proves their aesthetic ability, reduces their tolerance for insufficient artists, and does
not give "vases" a chance, so that artists and entertainment companies understand that
relying only on "junk food" is unprofitable, so that it can solve one part of the vicious
cycle more thoroughly, suspend the cycle, and allow the entertainment in -dustry to de-
velop better.
In fact, the lack of artist strength is one of the important reasons for the tearing of
the “Fanquan”. Under the chaos of the entertainment industry, where traffic data and
star rankings are equal, fans scramble for entertainment resources for "idol", and public
opinion resources are grouped internally and attacked externally [7]. Which is also one
of the connection points of what we call a vicious cycle. If a person's strength is world -
renowned and recognized by everyone, then there will be no situa tion where they fight
each other with their words. “Facts speak louder than words.” Just like the fact that
people have noses, eyes, and mouths, even if one group of peo ple attacked someone by
saying "you don't have a nose", there would not be another group of people trying des-
perately to use words to prove that this person actually has a nose, the facts can be used
directly instead of language. The attacking group will gradually feel bored and stop
attacking if it fails to get response for a long time, so that there will not be such a large-
scale “Fanquan” war on Weibo today. Secondly, the public opinion packaging carried
out by the company is also one of the reasons for the fight and tearing of the “Fanquan”.
"Good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles", in order to make their
2004 S. Li and Y. Ma

artists quickly popular, the com pany usually adopts the marketing method of posting
controversial topics or opinions. It has also left opinionated and stubborn fans arguing
and even insulting each other to justify their claims. In addition, there are social reasons.
Similar to the above reasons, that is, the emptiness of the spiritual world caused by the
lack of public moral quality and the low quality of entertainment works. At the same
time, online platforms cannot be completely shrouded in law and cannot restrict every-
one's speech. The level of public appreciation and moral need to be improved, and the
emptiness of the spiritual world makes them do nothing. They can only focus on fans
quarrelling and insulting each other but ignore the works themselves. The quarrels they
are concerned about, under the leadership of "fentou", fans combine the extension of
power with religious belief-like personal cults to stimulate the fighting power of each
fan, which gradually spills out the culture of the “Fanquan”, and fans even use the rules
of the fandom to demand People outside the circle, "the party is the same as the other",
"report if you don't like it", "fans accusing and commenting" and other fan circle be-
haviors have deeply affected ordinary netizens [13]. The solution to this situation is to
improve the artist's strength, at the same time, pay attention to the public's appreciation
level and moral education, and use moral shame to restrain the behavior of fans.

6 Conclusion

The authors believe that the origin of the vicious cycle of entertainment is be -cause of
the intervention of capitalists. The involvement of capitalists has caused artists to pay
less attention to their own strength. Because even if they don't work hard and have no
strength at all, they can rely on marketing to have many fans, so as to gain benefits for
the capitalists and achieve their goals. In the Chinese entertain ment, batches of fast-
food artists continue to appear. They are just like fast food. They attract everyone's
attention by their taste, but they are very harmful. This phenomenon is extremely seri-
ous on the Weibo. In order to continuously expose their artists to the public and increase
their popularity, entertainment companies usually use the marketing method of posting
controversial topics on Weibo hot searches. Guide netizens to participate in it and con-
tribute data to it. And fans who have been brainwashed by capitalists will frantically
defend their artists when they participate in such topics. They were arguing and insult-
ing each other. The emergence of such artists has seriously affected the environment of
the Chinese entertainment and lowered the quality of it. However, the capitalists who
have tasted the sweetness of this operation will not stop there. Then Chinese entertain-
ment will continue to appear such a vicious circle. Weibo has long since become a
battlefield for fans. Perhaps everyone has forgotten that the original Weibo was only a
social platform for sharing short and real-time information. In response to this phenom-
enon, various parties should work together to make changes to promote the high -quality
development of China's entertainment industry, and hope that there will be more truly
quality artists worthy of the audience's love in the Chinese entertainment industry.
 Research on the Vicious Phenomenon of Chinese 2005

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