Sports delegates raise concerns about fandom culture

Fanatic, disrespectful and sometimes toxic — the overzealous fan support of celebrity athletes has raised concerns across China's sports community, with the country's policy advisers and legislators lobbying against such blind idolization.

With the frenzy of her fan following apparently having gone too far, China's diving phenom Quan Hongchan even needed an anti-drone system deployed near her home in Maihe village in Zhanjiang, a coastal city in Guangdong province, to avoid invasions of her privacy by some extreme die-hard fans mobbing the neighborhood during Spring Festival this year.

The protective measure, prepared and confirmed by village officials before Quan's return for the holiday, has exposed the severity of irrational adulation and worship toward China's sports stars, known as the "fandom" culture, which has turned heads at the ongoing two sessions.

Yang Yang, China's first Winter Olympic champion, Zhang Yufei, a world-class swimmer, and Liu Guoliang, president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, are among the high-profile sports representatives attending the two sessions — the annual meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee — who have voiced their support on curbing the trend.

"I think there should be a fine line between supporting athletes in a passionate way and idolizing them blindly at the cost of rules and respect," said Yang, a gold-winning short-track speed skater at the 2002 Winter Olympics and a member of the sports panel of the CPPCC National Committee, China's top political advisory body. "Such behavior (by overzealous fans) will eventually hurt the athletes they support themselves, leaving a negative influence on the mental and physical well-being of their beloved athletes."