If you go after the K-Pop fans, you must be feeling pretty invincible.
Chinese social media network Weibo has banned 22 fan accounts dedicated to Korean bands including BTS and Blackpink as part of a wider government crackdown on celebrity fan culture.
The latest action comes after one BTS fan account, which had 1.1 million members, crowdfunded for a stunt to celebrate Park Jimin's 26th birthday. According to Al-Jazeera, the group raised $211,000 within three minutes and $508,000 within the hour.
The money went towards wrapping an entire Jeju Air plane with Jimin's image as well as a celebratory message.
The First in the world—Customized Exclusive Airplane in cooperation with Jeju Air
Period: 9.1-11.30 Flight Number: HL8087
Note: The route may be changed due to some special reasons, please download Flightradar24 to check the flight information. pic.twitter.com/vp6AMpqjgd
Weibo said it was suspending the account for 60 days for supposed illegal fundraising and also what it called "irrational star-chasing behaviour", according to The New York Times.
Soon afterwards, Weibo suspended 21 other fan accounts for 30 days. Between the accounts, millions of fans have been caught in the crackdown.
Weibo's move comes as the Chinese government turned its attention to celebrity and pop culture as part of a suite of social controls in the 100th anniversary year of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
Last week, the government's National Radio and Television Administration issued a series of dictates which tightened controls on TV content it said was "unhealthy". It included a ban on what it views as "effeminate men", criticising male actors who wore "excessive" make-up.
The ban also extended to reality TV shows that voted off contestants, unless the voting was done by a live audience, and talent search TV competitions or "idol audition shows" that groomed the next generation of stars.
BTS has legion of fans around the world, including in China. Photo / Getty Images
It encouraged TV programs that would promote socialist, traditional or patriotic values and that actors and celebrities with the "wrong" political or moral values should not be featured in projects.
It also struck out at "vulgar internet" celebrities as it condemned online fan culture as "chaotic". Earlier, the government banned online rankings of celebrities.
The government has also restricted people under 18's online video gaming time to one hour a day on Fridays, weekends and public holidays.
Chinese celebrities have become a target for a government that appears to be seeking a wind-back of modern pop culture and fandoms.
Actor and billionaire Zhao Wei, who first broke out in the late 1990s, has had her online presence scrubbed in China. Her TV shows and films have been removed from all online platforms, her fan pages were taken down and hashtags referring to her were also censored.
Zhao Wei's work has been scrubbed from the internet in China. Photo / Getty Images
No official reason has been given for Zhao Wei's "cancellation" but she is an associate of Jack Ma, the billionaire tech entrepreneur who disappeared from public view for several months last year amid a government crackdown of the tech sector.
Among other celebrities to be caught in the net of the government's crackdown is Zheng Shuang, who was fined $64 million for tax evasion, and Zhang Zhehan who saw his work scrubbed from the internet after an old photo of him posing at a Japanese shrine resurfaced.
International star Fan Bingbing was the first high-profile actor to be targeted in 2018 when she disappeared from public view for four months. She was later required to repay $98 million in unpaid taxes.
State broadcaster CCTV said last week, "For some time now, artists' moral failures and legal violations, the cultivation of younger idols and chaotic fandoms have attracted widespread attention society".
