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On March 31, 2023, Zhang Jike was exposed to have a huge debt and sent a private video of his ex-girlfriend Ms. Jing to the creditor to "pay off the debt". After the incident was exposed, it caused an uproar.

Overnight, Zhang Jike fell into a shaky situation.

Although the authorities did not take any action when the incident occurred (In fact, more than a year later, there is still no result), but Zhang Jike suffered "brand cuts" one after another - Anta was the first to terminate all cooperation, and then Butterfly Table Tennis Rackets also announced the deletion of Zhang Jike's portrait and co-branded product information, and other brands followed suit and removed any promotional content related to Zhang Jike.

You should know that Zhang Jike once earned 60 million yuan a year and was a Grand Slam winner. He was once a proud son who won glory for his country! He has endorsed more than a dozen well-known domestic and foreign brands, including Mizuno Sports, Butterfly Sports Bag Series, Coca-Cola, Li Ning Ultralight Running Shoes, Mengniu, Yanjing Beer, Dongfeng Yueda Kia, Anta, etc., and participated in the recording of more than 20 variety shows.

Zhang JikeIt is a successful example of an athlete turning into an entertainment star.

Why?

Zhang Jike has the confidence and huge commercial value to enter the entertainment industry because of the huge number of fans that other athletes cannot match. Compared with the fan clubs of top-tier celebrities, Zhang Jike's fans are "not inferior" and have extremely strong fighting power.

It was from Zhang Jike that the sports world began to see the beginning of the "fan circle" phenomenon. Many years ago, a fight between Chinese table tennis stars that affected a large number of people was set off. This "violent civil war" was called the "Fruit and Butterfly War" - and it was also a concrete manifestation of the fan circle phenomenon in sports.

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What is the "Fruit Plate Wars"?

If we want to explain it clearly, we must first explain what is "fruit" and what is "butterfly".

"Sister Guo" refers to the fan group of table tennis player Ma Long called "Dragon Fruit", while "Sister Butterfly" refers to the fan group of Zhang Jike called "Butterfly".

"Dragon Fruit" is easy to understand, as is Ma Long. In fact, Zhang Jike's old fans are called "Tadpole", which is also easy to understand.

What does the word “butterfly” come from?

The reason is simple, because Zhang Jike likes to use "Butterfly" table tennis rackets (a brand born in Japan), and table tennis friends should be familiar with it. Zhang Jike has a long-term cooperation with "Butterfly" and has a joint product - Zhang Jike Super ZLC.

Later, the fans began to call themselves "butterflies".

However, everything will end on April 5, 2023. After Butterfly Rackets announced the suspension of cooperation, what will the "butterflies" do with themselves?

Zhang Jike and Ma Long were both born in 1988, with an age difference of 8 months (Zhang is older than Ma). They should have been the "dragon and phoenix" in the field of table tennis, but after the "fan circle" invaded the sports world, they triggered a lot of "bloody" entanglements.

In fact, as early as the 2012 Olympics, Zhang Jike was in his peak form and attracted a wave of fans, but most of these people were normal fans.

Since 2013, when the four members of EXO returned to China, young and handsome men in the entertainment industry began to rise, and "fangirls", "station sisters" and "fan circles" became popular, making the domestic entertainment industry enter the "fan circle era" and intensifying. So much so that eight years later, the Cyberspace Administration of China had to intervene - cracking down on fan circles in the name of "Clear and Bright Operation".

However, judging from the external situation of a certain platform activity on March 25, 2023, the fans holding the banner of the star are like a horde of thousands of troops, which makes people tremble with fear and shudder - the "fan circle" has never disappeared! Even if the official stepped in, it would be of no avail. It can only be said that it was cleared up in vain.

Chasing stars is a personal freedom and it is normal. There is nothing wrong with it in moderation. But the fan circle has long been deformed and has become a cancer in the domestic entertainment industry. And this cancer has spread from the entertainment industry to the sports industry.

Against this background, the handsome Zhang Jike became the object of admiration of many people.

Even though they are all celebrities, there is a chain of contempt. Sports stars objectively have a "sense of superiority" over entertainers because they win glory for the country. When this sense of superiority is transferred to their fans, it turns into "violence", which is more extreme and terrifying than fans of entertainment stars.

Therefore, the fans of sports stars are more aggressive, and they have a sense of superiority because of the championship halo - "My brother has won glory for the country, why don't you worship him?"

Before the 2016 Olympics, Zhang Jike had completely become a popular star. This also indicated that his fans had gathered. Among them, a large number of fans may have never watched table tennis before, but had "transferred" directly from other fan clubs.

On March 20 of that year, Zhang Jike defeated Ma Long 4-1 to win the men's singles championship in the ITTF World Tour Kuwait Open. This was the basis for Zhang Jike to gain the admiration of a large number of fans.

During the Rio Olympics, the "Fruit and Butterfly War" is about to break out.

On the morning of August 12 of the same year, in the men's table tennis singles final of the Rio Olympics, Zhang Jike, who was in great momentum, lost to Ma Long 0-4 and won the runner-up.

This made "Sister Butterfly" unbearable and she started to quarrel.

From who has better skills, who won the Grand Slam, to who is more handsome, who is more popular, who is more friendly... there will be arguments on every dimension.

According to netizens who have participated, there are often hundreds of thousands or even millions of forwarded comments, and the “performance chart” fills the entire topic forum.

This is an unprecedented event in the field of sports.

There is a question that the fans of the two groups have been arguing about for a long time - who stole whose technology?

Zhang Jike's fans once dug up a paper to prove that Ma Long stole Zhang Jike's skills. The paper said that Ma Long and Ma Long's coach once studied Zhang Jike's playing skills to improve themselves.

However, the national table tennis team has a clear rule that one cannot study the skills of non-retired players in private, and can only try to figure it out in actual combat and practice. Therefore, the Butterfly Sisters believe that Ma Long is "stealing" by studying Zhang Jike's skills in private.

Of course, Sister Guo was not to be outdone. They said that the database mentioned in this paper also included Ma Long's technical samples, so there was no such thing as a special study of Zhang Jike's technology. The Sisters Butterfly were taking things out of context and making a fuss.

They also believe that Zhang Jike's backhand technique was passed down by the national table tennis team and is not his own patent. Therefore, it is natural for Ma Long, as the captain, to practice this technique.

Of course, this is still considered a relatively advanced level of tearing.

But most of the time, some netizens commented that compared with the battles between Messi and Ronaldo fans, the "Fruit and Butterfly fights" are often like "armed fights at the village entrance."

It can be seen how ugly the scene is.

Since 2016, the "fight" between fans has been going on. Some netizens joked that no matter which team fights in the table tennis world, the final outcome will be the fight between Guodie and Guodie.

In November 2021, there was news that Zhang Jike would announce his retirement. Netizens felt that the "Fruit Butterfly War" was finally coming to an end. However, there was no follow-up on his retirement, and the fans of the two groups continued to fight to the death.

Later, many media described Zhang Jike as a "retired athlete", but Liu Guoliang once said in an interview that Zhang Jike hoped to retire with his good friend Ma Long.

Are you prepared to love and hate each other for a lifetime?

Zhang Jike and Ma Long love and hate each other

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In fact, it was Zhang Jike who opened the "Pandora's Box" of fan circles in the sports world.

After him, other table tennis players (and even other sports stars) were more or less infected with the "fan culture", and these fans also started to engage in so-called "village fights".

As a result, Fan Zhendong, the next generation leader of table tennis and nine years younger than Zhang Jike and Ma Long, was overwhelmed by the situation. He repeatedly made harsh remarks to the fan circle.

On November 15, 2022, Fan Zhendong ranked first in the men's singles with 7700 points. When he got off the plane, he found a large group of fans coming to meet him.

That night, Fan Zhendong posted a message, calling for "not bringing fan circle bad habits into competitive sports."

Fan Zhendong said in the article, "I hope everyone can gain a positive and optimistic attitude from competitive sports and stay away from the hostility of fan circles. Anyone's fan circle-like words and deeds are harmful to me. Please don't use the banner of caring for me and doing good for me to analyze and discuss my work, life and interpersonal relationships, or even quarrel and abuse them."

Directly point to the vital points of our predecessors.

In fact, this is not the first time that Fan Zhendong has criticized fan culture.

In September 2021, Fan Zhendong wrote that a large number of fans sending him off at the airport caused him great distress and had a very negative impact. A month later, he wrote another long article to regulate the words and deeds of fans. On February 1, 2022, he once again wrote about the behavior of fans - I hope everyone will not pay attention to me outside the stadium, let alone spy or comment.

Therefore, many people praised Fan Zhendong for being "clear-headed".

So, how does Zhang Jike view his fans and his relationship with his teammates?

Zhang Jike once said, "When I went to competitions before, only a few dozen people watched me. But after 2016, wow, it really felt like a concert."

In 2016-2017, he was still not used to it, but gradually, he began to enjoy being surrounded by fans. It was with Zhang Jike's tacit approval and connivance that his fans quickly became fan clubs.

As for his teammate Ma Long, Zhang Jike admitted in an interview with Lu Yu, "If we meet on the court, there is no way we can become friends." The implication is that they are in a competitive relationship.

This also sends a strong signal to his fans: Just fight!

Therefore, Zhang Jike's indifference to his teammates and his indulgence towards fans led to constant fighting, and he turned a blind eye to all of this. Not to mention being as sober as Fan Zhendong, he might even enjoy it and indulge in the feeling of being surrounded by fans.

Of course, later on, when he wanted to enter the entertainment industry, he really needed this wave of fans cheering for him.

Who are Zhang Jike’s fans?

Most of them are girls who like his looks or rebellious personality. These people don’t understand table tennis at all and don’t like it. They are only interested in Zhang Jike as a person.

It is likely that these girls also like other popular stars.

An anonymous Zhihu user said that Zhang Jike is too fan-flattering compared to other members of the national table tennis team. "I'm not sure if this has something to do with the harsh upbringing he had since childhood. His father seemed to have beaten him often when he was a child, which may have caused him to be particularly afraid of losing. I just hope Jike can guide his fans correctly."

Another fan who likes Zhang Jike said:

"I like Zhang Jike very much and have been in the so-called fan club for a long time, but I really can't stand fans shouting his name like a microphone in various official competition venues. It's right that you want to express your love, but I find it extremely embarrassing... and won't this affect his competition?"

But Zhang Jike doesn't think so.

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The "Banyuetan" magazine under Xinhua News Agency once published an article criticizing the fan circleization of sports. The title is:

We should "go beyond the circle" instead of the "fan circle" and be wary of the "fan circle culture" invading sports.

The article states that "fan culture" is highly exclusive. Fans need to support their idols unconditionally and will not tolerate any criticism. They are only allowed to "protect" their idols and do not allow others to comment. This can easily turn discussions of the event into black-and-white "comment control" and "taking sides."

Indeed, fans of celebrities (or movie fans, music fans) and fans in fan clubs are completely different.

Football fans, movie fans, and music fans mainly care about the performance of athletes and the works of artists, and do not pay much attention to the private lives of these stars. If the other party does something wrong, they will resolutely criticize it; while fans in fan circles only pay attention to private lives and turn this worship into "profit".”——Because fan clubs can bring benefits, for example, fans can sell peripherals, pictures, and even private information to generate substantial monetary benefits.

In addition, compared to the "vulgarity" of the entertainment industry in the eyes of the public, sports stars have a natural halo attribute, which can bring about a positive cycle if they are in a mild environment.

However, after becoming a fan circle, precisely because of the aura of competition, fans become fearless and arrogant, thinking that their idols are superior to entertainment stars. After being extremely alienated, they have evolved into a group that is even more terrifying than the fans of traffic stars.

Being surrounded by fans for a long time will undoubtedly make people lose themselves, develop an arrogant and self-centered personality, and seriously lack moral bottom line - they think they are the "king" and can do whatever they want, just like the group of traffic stars who collapsed before.

Fan circles are rampant, just like the "Lord of the Rings". For traffic stars, success or failure depends on this.

What is particularly interesting is that the majority of fans in fan circles are women, but they condone idols doing things that hurt women - this is the case with Zhang Jike, Li Moufeng, Wu Moufan, and many young idols... and the same will be true for other idols whose reputations will collapse in the future.

Compared with Fan Zhendong's "clarity", in addition to Zhang Jike who has to take the blame for the fan clubization of sports, his opponent Ma Long is also to blame.

Take a look at Ma Long’s personal Weibo, which is also dominated by fans, with tens of thousands of reposts, which clearly shows signs of manual maintenance - a typical routine of traffic stars.

But has Ma Long ever loudly refuted the fan circle? Does he dare to regulate fans like Fan Zhendong did?

The fan-circle-like sports world lacks the purity of competition and has increased hostility, while "hosts" like Zhang Jike are intoxicated and lost amidst the crowd of fans.

I hope Ma Long can take this as a warning and not get lost. Of course, other traffic stars also need to have a clear understanding - using fans to create momentum is one thing, but if you are addicted to it, you will inevitably collapse one day.

The downfall of Zhang Jike's reputation is mainly due to his poor character. As the originator of the fan clubization of athletes, isn't he being backfired by his fans?

When an avalanche occurs, no snowflake is innocent. As a "community of interests", both the fan club and the idols should bear some responsibility for the "collapse" because they are the ones who watered this flower of evil.

After the debt incident, Zhang Jike's "butterfly" wailed"The whole country is strangling a hero who once fought for his country", but turned a blind eye to the evidence.

However, what makes people sad is that as a "champion" under the national system, Zhang Jike collapsed without any responsibility.Not only did he do a shoddy job, but he also backed down after the evidence revealed his wrongdoings and showed no apology, trying to get away with it.In the 2008 nude photo scandal, Edison Chen, who seemed to be a carefree person, dared to apologize openly and resolutely chose to quit the entertainment industry completely, taking responsibility like a man.

This further highlights the absurdity of Zhang Jike being so popular with fans over the years.

Thinking about the fact that he has been brought up by the country since he was a child... I just want to ask, is it worthy of the taxpayers' money?