How Chinese TV star and boy band idol Xiao Zhan was brought down by his own fans
- A piece of homoerotic fan fiction depicting Xiao and fellow star of The Untamed Wang Yibo was published on two websites
- Xiao’s fans complained to authorities, who closed both sites, angering millions of users, who boycotted Xiao and the brands he supported
Fans can make or break a star. No idol better understands this than Chinese star Xiao Zhan, whose meticulously nurtured public image was toppled by his army of devoted fans overnight.
The recent incident, which pop idol management professionals see as an utter disaster, can be traced to a piece of fan fiction depicting Xiao as a cross-dressing sex worker falling in love with another famous male idol, Wang Yibo. The piece was published on Archive of Our Own or AO3, the go-to website for China’s animation, comics, game and novel subculture fans, and a Chinese social platform called Lofter.
Offended that their squeaky-clean idol’s image was given the homoerotic treatment in the fan fiction, his fans reported the piece in question to the Chinese authorities for containing “prostitution and pornographic content”.
China’s censorship police later took down AO3 and Lofter, rendering the sites inaccessible to millions of Chinese internet users, who are not Xiao fans, but enjoy viewing the fan fiction, fan art and other fan works contributed by users on the sites.
Outraged, internet users accused Xiao’s fans of muzzling the platforms and being complicit in China’s censorship machine. Calls for a boycott of the star and the brands associated with him, including Estée Lauder, Piaget and Cartier, quickly spread online, leading to numerous brands dropping Xiao as their spokesperson.