Emotional complexity of fan-controlled comments: Affective labor of fans of high-popularity Chinese stars
In China, fan participation in media production is becoming more mainstream and diverse, and fan groups themselves are developing perceptible emotional attributes; thus, studies on affective labor involving fans are gradually increasing in number. Fan-controlled comments are a feature of fan culture that has received much attention due to their rapid growth and influence.
This study uses sentiment analysis and keyword analysis to examine the main types of “emotions” felt by today's fans of highly popular stars and classifies them into four categories: idols, fan communities, the self, and the outside world. Both positive and negative emotions coexist. The study found that fans engage in this kind of obligatory affective labor, creating second-hand exchanges for personal spiritual enrichment, and focusing more on building and expressing emotions. In addition, as affective laborers, they gain a sense of belonging to a fan community and form group symbols because of their shared emotions and concerns. Throughout the process of controlling comments, the time and energy of the fan groups are consumed, their emotions are controlled, and their behavior is restrained; however, the immediate purpose they want to achieve is not achieved. What seems to be an active choice is a trap of alienated labor, bound and controlled by forces.
Media discourse has long been considered to profoundly influence social norms and ideologies. However, the Internet has extensively blurred the boundaries between media and private discourse over the past two decades. The convenience and uniformity of the Internet have allowed ordinary people to participate in media production, and the Web has provided opportunities and platforms for people to do so. In the age of streaming media, people can easily post information on social networks, and the Internet's ease of use and accessibility allows users to interact and engage in interactive behaviors through their comments. Fans no longer seem to be a subcultural group in the traditional sense. In China, fan participation in media production is becoming more mainstream and diverse, and fan groups themselves carry perceptible emotional attributes. Thus, the study of affective labor involving fans is gradually increasing. The purpose of fan-controlled comments is to control comments and suppress negative information. A common tactic is to make many similar comments under star-related content, so that these comments are ranked at the top, such as favorable comments and replies to positive comments, while argue with negative comments to get them below in the comments section (Jiang, 2019). Fan-controlled comments are one of the major characteristics of fan culture, and the “data fervor” they bring has given rise to ultra-high-power consumption, while the data are one of the criteria for judging whether a high-popularity star is commercially valuable, leading countless fan data laborers to voluntarily participate in Chinese capital games (Hu and Liu, 2021).
Tencent QQ Music, China's music streaming platform, has become the most popular way for young music fans to acquire and listen to music because of its decentralization, interactivity, freedom of choice, and portability, thereby creating the most active and satisfied users. The platform has a comment section where fans worldwide share their emotional experiences of the same songs with regular users in a virtual comment section. Social media has become a window for users to communicate mutually through self-expression (Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik, 2021). The term prosumer, a combination of the terms producer and consumer, was first proposed by American futurist Alvin Toffler in The Third Wave. Toffler (1984) argued that the boundary between consumers and producers is increasingly blurred and that consumers also assume the function of the producer in the process of consumption. In the context of high popularity and high commercial value, fan groups are no longer mere consumers, but combine the roles of consumers and producers. Jenkins (2006a) mentioned that fandom is a vehicle for marginalized subcultural groups (women, the young, and so on) to create a space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations. Fandom is a method of appropriating media texts and rereading them in a fashion that serves different interests. This is a way of transforming mass culture into popular culture. According to the China Top Stream Fan Circle Report (Fandom Beijing, 2020).
However, Wang Yibo did not become popular until 2019, when he played the role of Lan Zhan in The Untamed, which was adapted from a serial novel with millions of fans, Master Devil. Additionally, because he and the other main character, Xiao Zhan, are handsome and fit the aesthetic that currently appeals to youth, they have caused a wave of “CP” fans. According to Ren (2021), CP is an abbreviation for coupling that was first used in Japanese ACGN fan-fiction in reference to male same-sex pairings. This has since expanded in scope. On the “Archive of Our Own” (AO3) platform, CP fans created many fictions. At the end of February 2020, Xiao Zhan's fans sparked widespread controversy by writing the romantic relationship of Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan on AO3, which restricted the use of the website in China and caused a widespread public outcry. However, Wang Yibo retained a large group of loyal fans that supported him after the AO3 incident. Whether it concerns the products he endorses or the events he attends, his fans fully supported him. Song (2021) suggested that fan group seem to have no entry criteria for labeling themselves as fans of a particular star. However, fan group are also regulated by social groups. Both Wang Yibo's fan group and other Chinese highly popular star fan groups have well-managed community organizations, including data stations, controlled comment groups, purification groups against attacks on stars, and copywriting groups.
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Frontier / Yuruo Wei