China’s virtual idols meet their fans at the intersection of entertainment and technology
- A team of about 200 people from China and Japan worked for six months to prepare for the two-hour performance
- China’s virtual idol industry, valued at less than 100 million yuan last year, is expected to grow to 1.5 billion yuan by 2023
Top Chinese pianist Lang Lang accompanied 15-year old singer Luo Tianyi in a performance for thousands of screaming fans at Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz arena last Saturday.
Luo, with grey pigtails and green eyes, has over three million fans on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, and tickets to the concert cost as much as 1,580 yuan (US$235).
Only thing is, Luo is not real. She is a virtual idol who shared the staged with Lang, marking the first concert between a holographic singer and real-life musician in China.
Luo is China’s most popular virtual idol – digital avatars with their own voices and personalities. At the concert, Lang’s piano work and Luo’s synthesised voice were enhanced by breathtaking visual effects. Fans waved blue glow sticks to the rhythm and yelled Luo’s name, with some even bursting into tears.
“I know how powerful these virtual idols are and they are really cute,” Lang Lang told the South China Morning Post before the concert. “I think sparks will fly when my music encounters hers.”
Saturday’s event was the second time Gao Yu, a university student from Sichuan province, has travelled to Shanghai for one of Luo’s concerts.