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in recent years, fan circle culture has spread rapidly among young people. according to the "2020 china economic market development scale status and future prospects analysis report" released earlier by guanyan tianxia (beijing) information consulting company, nearly 70% of the fan circle star-chasing groups are born after 2000. this also makes the fan circle culture labeled as fanaticism and immaturity. while the fan circle group is growing, it has also gradually spread from the entertainment circle to the surrounding areas such as the sports world. at the just-concluded paris olympics, some fans did not hesitate to disrupt the order of the game in order to chase stars, and even cyberbullyed athletes. faced with this phenomenon, mainland government departments have taken measures to rectify it and try to regulate the behavior of fan circles.

hong kong wen wei po reporters also infiltrated relevant fan club groups to try to understand the organizational structure and operating mechanism of the fan club. however, from what we have learned so far, this group, which is mainly composed of a large number of minors, has not been able to realize the seriousness of the problem.

this article is the first in a series of reports on the chaos in sports fan circles. for more related follow-up news, please follow the hong kong wen wei po and our social media accounts.

harassment by "private fans" has a long history

the trip of the mainland olympic athletes delegation to macau for the paris olympics ended yesterday. diving athlete quan hongchan encountered fans' "boundless" star-chasing, forcing quan hongchan to hide in the hotel toilet, and the hotel security and staff had to maintain order before leaving. the incident has once again made the topic of fan circles invading the sports world a hot topic among the public. the incident happened on september 1. quan hongchan went out with her teammates during the macau trip. when she returned to the hotel where she was staying, she was discovered by fans waiting at the scene. a large number of fans started the star-chasing mode like fish and locusts. quan hongchan was frightened and hid in the hotel toilet. a male fan even rushed into the women's toilet while holding a mobile phone and taking pictures. the scene was out of control for a while. seeing that quan hongchan could not get away, the hotel security quickly intervened to maintain order at the scene. a female security guard said to the fans, "you scared her, she is crying inside, you step back a little, she promised us that she would come out to take a photo with you, but you must line up. if you still do this, there will be no photo." later, someone suspected to be a national team staff member rushed over, and finally the security formed a human chain and successfully escorted quan hongchan away.

pan zhanle, a chinese swimmer who broke the world record and won the gold medal in the men's 100m freestyle, also said in an interview with cctv's "face to face", "i won't be able to go out alone from now on. now i'm interviewing here, and there are many people squatting downstairs of the hotel asking for autographs." pan zhanle said frankly that he was not happy, and said that whenever he performed well, fans would gather outside the hotel where he stayed to get his autograph. if his performance was not good, the fans would become fickle.

chinese table tennis player fan zhendong has also experienced the madness of fans. on april 6 last year, fan zhendong reported to the beijing police that a female fan had followed him to find out where he was staying in the hotel, got the room card at the hotel front desk, and entered the room several times while fan zhendong was out. fan zhendong then posted an article online to denounce the relevant behavior and decided to stop any form of contact with fans, including receiving letters.

fans of different athletes did not hesitate to verbally attack each other in the chat group. screenshot of the online chat

internet groups screen "only fans" and ask them to answer 200 questions before joining the group

in fact, the harassment faced by quan hongchan, pan zhanle and fan zhendong is a reality faced by almost every athlete in the national team. so what kind of fans can be so crazy?

a reporter from hong kong wen wei po previously submitted applications to join more than 10 different fan groups through keyword searches on social platforms and found that most of the relatively large groups would set a variety of identity verification questions.

some seem normal, using knowledge quizzes as the entry threshold, requiring answers to questions such as the points ranking of certain athletes, the score of defeating opponents in a certain race, etc.the most exaggerated thing is that some group entry questionnaires have more than 200 questions.

other groups clearly state that members can only support one athlete. for example, in the fan group called "shatou four-year agreement", the group owner will ask new members whether they support all athletes (universal fans) or only one person (single fan), thereby screening out loyal fans who truly identify with and focus on the "shatou" group.

in the above-mentioned group chats, hong kong wen wei po reporters found that most of the active fans of the group members are children born after 2000. their chat topics often focus on athlete star chasing and "cough candy" (referring to the sweetness and good match between male and female idols that make fans unable to extricate themselves). they rarely talk about table tennis matches. some children even often post notes in them, involving rumors such as "when will datou propose to sasha?"

a reporter from hong kong wen wei po went undercover in a sports fan club, but was unexpectedly refused entry because he did not support a single athlete. screenshot of online chat

fan clubs are in chaos and group owners and administrators are not paying attention

faced with the increasingly "overreaching" fan clubs, after the paris olympics, the chinese table tennis association and the chinese gymnastics association successively issued statements, expressing their firm support for the public security organs and relevant departments to crack down on and rectify the illegal and criminal activities of "fan clubs" in the sports field in accordance with the law, and strongly condemned any form of illegal and criminal activities on the internet. on august 28, the general administration of sports held a special work meeting on rectifying the chaos of "fan clubs" in the sports field. gao zhidan, director and party group secretary of the general administration of sports, attended the meeting and delivered a speech, emphasizing that the rectification of the chaos of "fan clubs" should be included in the scope of ideological work in the sports system, and political judgment, political understanding, and political execution should be effectively enhanced. the initiative and foresight of work should be continuously improved, and the trend of "fan clubization" in sports should be resolutely curbed. the soil and conditions for the growth of deformed "fan club culture" in the sports field should be resolutely eradicated, and a stable and favorable development environment should be created for the realization of the strategic goal of building a strong sports country.

however, the continuous actions taken by the authorities have not deterred the fan circle. in the above-mentioned online groups, some fans’ discussions have escalated to personal attacks and verbal abuse against athletes. what is even more surprising is that different fan groups of the same athlete are also full of gunpowder. some compare the number of autograph collections, while others compare the number of offline support. some groups even delegate some young members to lurk in other groups to collect intelligence or conduct malicious provocations. these immature and irrational behaviors have undoubtedly exacerbated the complexity and hostility of the online environment, but the members of the group are happy to do so, and no group owner or manager has intervened.

in the sports fan circle, making dolls out of athletes' photos has become a fairly mature industry. the picture shows that at the paris olympics, spectators held dolls of sun yingsha and wang chuqin to support their idols.

scalpers flood social media, mainland athletes become the "shop sign" of fan clubs

a 6-inch autographed photo costs about 20 yuan (rmb, the same below). if it is a popular athlete like sun yingsha or wang chuqin, you may need to add 150% to this price. the cheapest autographed racket of an athlete is less than 100 yuan, and the most expensive can reach thousands of yuan. although it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity of these sales items. however, at a time when the fan circle economy is increasingly penetrating the sports field, it has become an indisputable fact that the popular athletes who have won glory for the country are used as "shop signs" by the fan circle to attract business.

in the fan circle where the hong kong wen wei po reporter went undercover, it was easy to see relevant sales information. some members packaged themselves as employees of a certain entertainment company with a lot of "connections" in the community. in the group chat, they were also keen on reselling tickets for major events, taking photos and signing autographs for others, selling sports star cards, and homemade cheering merchandise, etc.

in addition to direct sales, some "fake scalpers" distribute benefits to fan groups to get more group members to give positive reviews on related posts, thereby attracting more fans with such needs and having more sales orders. in the upcoming wtt beijing grand slam, the ordinary ticket price in the sports fan circle has been hyped up to 3,000 yuan. some scalpers even hyped up the vip ticket to a sky-high price of 80,000 yuan per ticket, and the vip front row also costs 40,000 to 50,000 yuan. but compared with this year's chongqing station, the official price of the most expensive ticket is only 1,288 yuan.

some self-media and marketing accounts purchase photos taken by proxy at low cost, and then make big-headed dolls, key chains and other support products, generally priced between 20 and 50 yuan, and sell them through live broadcasts. some proxy photographers will also shoot videos or live broadcasts when picking up people at the airport, ask fans to watch and give them tips, and then sell self-made peripherals, some of which can sell thousands of pieces.

p check-in photos have a very large market in the sports fan circle. internet pictures

the black hands of proxy photographers extend to athletes visiting hong kong and macau from the mainland

information about athletes’ training or competition schedules is also a focus of transactions in sports fan circles. for example, the flight information of the national table tennis team can be found in the relevant weibo super topic. the price is generally within a few yuan. many buyers will post on other platforms to resell to make up for the loss. in the super topic of "collect or send pictures with fo", there are many posts such as "receive ×× to dp (abbreviation for proxy shooting), can fo (english abbreviation for direct shooting) and video". the price of proxy photos and id photos is generally a few yuan each. the price varies according to different occasions, but the most expensive is generally around ten yuan.

the chinese sports delegation started its visit to hong kong and macau on august 29, and the tickets were sold out immediately after they were sold. since the tickets for the three events of the chinese sports delegation in hong kong implement a strong real-name system that combines people, id cards, and faces, it eliminates the opportunity for scalpers to resell tickets, but it also gives rise to the demand for proxy photography and proxy signing in the fan circle. the so-called proxy photography and proxy signing means that the person is not present at the scene, and a third party takes photos and asks for autographs on the spot on his behalf. in addition, id photos are also popular in the circle. the so-called id photo is to take a photo of the cover of the client's personal social media account with the event site. even such check-in photos still have a great market demand in the fan circle.

on august 20, at the entrance of the national sports general administration training bureau, a large number of fans waited for athletes to pass by and ask for autographs and take photos. screenshot of the video from the hong kong wen wei po

fans of the star-chasing handsome man ask for autographs without knowing who he is

on august 20, the commendation meeting of the chinese sports delegation to the paris olympics was held in beijing. the athletes attending the meeting departed from the national sports general administration training bureau to the great hall of the people. on the morning of the same day, fans who had received the news in advance were waiting at the entrance of the national sports general administration training bureau and on the right overpass, hoping to get a photo with the passing athletes and ask for their autographs. this small probability of "luck" was not without results. a fan of zheng qinwen met her at the entrance of the training bureau at around 10 o'clock in the morning and immediately got zheng qinwen's autograph.

according to the on-site observation of the hong kong wen wei po reporter, a large proportion of the fans at the scene were minors. except for the "only fans" of a certain athlete, most people would rush to any athlete they met.one fan showed the reporter her autograph book, but she didn't know who signed some of the autographs. "he was pretty handsome, so i let him sign it."

when swimmer wang shun suddenly appeared in the courtyard, the crowd that had been scattered to look for the target quickly gathered together, and the fans burst into huge shouts, the level of madness was staggering. security personnel rushed over to maintain order, and a fan in the front row begged the security not to chase her away. "i don't want to take pictures anymore, just let me stay here and watch him."

in addition to the fanatical fans, a group of people who make a living by "taking photos and signing on behalf of others" also lingered at the gate of the training bureau. a "fan leader" walked back and forth and found that the reporter was interested in the table tennis players, so he kept running over to talk to him. he has three related group chats in his hands, two of which are full, and the other seems to be a more core group, which requires strict approval and is not allowed to join casually. the "fan leader" proudly showed the reporter his autograph book, which contains a large number of athletes' signatures. he told the reporter that there are often fans standing at the gate of the training bureau of the general administration of sports. after the paris olympics, when the first batch of athletes returned to china, there were even hundreds of people gathered at the gate, and the scale was astonishing. he attended the press conference of a new movie the day before because he received news that diving athlete quan hongchan would be present at that time. he also showed the reporter a lot of photos of picking up and following the photos at the airport. the athletes in the camera were in a hurry, and he didn't mind forcibly "framing" himself with them.