Tian Xiwei is one of the young actresses who’ve steadily risen to fame in China. With a growing number of fans supporting her, there are also increasing expectations from them. For a while now, Tian Xiwei’s fans have been calling for her to change stylists and be more selective with her scripts. When she appeared at Milan Fashion Week, her styling was criticized again, with fans feeling that her team could do better.
Tian Xiwei’s Response to Fans
Her currently airing drama In Between has already faced some backlash due to its controversial theme, and it hasn’t performed well in ratings either. It’s not uncommon for fans to express their frustration towards an actor’s studio, asking them to take better care of their idol. In Tian Xiwei’s case, they’ve been saying she should stop picking roles where she plays the same ‘fighter’ female characters and go for scripts that her fans want to see as well as to go for a better styling team.
Recently, Tian Xiwei interacted with fans on her supertopic and wrote:
“When each character meets everyone, I’m almost always asked during interviews what I want to say to the character. I can never give any opinions, only encouragement, because I know that the realization of ideals can only come from myself. The road is long and difficult. In the process of growing up, there’s a lot of people looking to bring others down to satisfy their superiority, and also a lot of ‘I’m doing this for your own good’. There are complaints, criticisms, challenges, and pressure…
So the days of encouraging each other and traveling together are precious to me ❤️ There are many kinds of love, and respect is the prerequisite. Respect free will, respect the fate of others, respect differences in individual choices. If one day we come to a fork in the road and can’t go the same way, I’m truly sorry. Thank you for your company on this journey, and I wish you happiness.”
Balancing Fan Expectations
While very diplomatic, Tian Xiwei’s words reflect the reality that Chinese celebrities often face high demands from their fans. Actress Chen Duling has also been in the spotlight recently after some fans left her fandom. They were disappointed that she hadn’t changed her styling team despite her team promising to do so. Many fans were also unhappy that her team hasn’t acted against anti-fans who smeared her. While many fans voice their opinions with the actor’s best interests in mind, it seems that Tian Xiwei stands firm in her personal choices, even if it means losing some fans.
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blueclue
Good for her for drawing a line. I feel a lot of people call themselves fans but they’re just trying to control what they expect their favorite should be. I think if you’re truly a fan of someone, you support their works, doesn’t mean every works. Not every roles are good.
I never watched any of her series but seeing enough of her name. To be honest, I can’t tell who is who with a lot of these c-actresses, most look too similar. I’m generally can recognize people face very good but some of these new artists do not have the uniqueness to their look that I can tell one from another. May be in due time I’ll recognize her just like I did with Bai Lu.
Xoxo
She has a good head on her shoulders. She told her fans to butt out in the most polite way possible. I don’t know that being a fan of an actress gives you the right to be controlling. Better take your admiration elsewhere if that is your forte. She’s right – the fans should learn to respect her decisions and her choices.
Cc
I kinda love her attitude here! Reminds me a little bit of Yang Mi’s attitude when she was younger. She’s living for herself, not to please fans.
Coralie
heh, she says this, but then you see actresses like tiffany tang, dilraba and most offensive of all – ju jingyi, who continually gets outrage from fans who speak out against their agencies when they’re getting shoddy work or the same shitty makeup face. they advocate on their behalf since these celebs can’t speak up for themselves
without fans’ help, no one would care about their working conditions tbh. look at boa kwon – there was so much support back when she was younger from fans who sees her suffering because of crap mgrs. they advocated change for her.
it’s a double edged sword – if you want to take responsibility over all your work and want no criticism, only support, then accept that your work life can be hell on your own terms. on the other hand, having fans criticize your work, image or whatever may be difficult to hear, but it allows for reflection. ju jingyi has seemingly not given AF about using the same pasty face makeup despite valid feedback from fans and it’s not helping her any
Ash
It’s all just business. All traffic celebrities have official fan clubs. These fan clubs organised fan attendance at events, waiting at airports, buy the products the stars endorsed in bulk, give 5 stars to all their dramas, even if it’s crap, hence artificially boosting the ratings, viral everything (great for marketing endorsements and advertisers) and keeping the celebrity in the hot search (as they say, there is no bad publicity). And of course, most infamous of all, engaged in fan wars.
These are all very valuable to the star, as it boost their image and commercial value, hence ensuring they get more work and endorsements. In return, the fan clubs expect something (other than payment). Hence, this behavior as if they “own” the celebrity and can dictate what they wear, who they date etc.
All their agencies treat these fan clubs with care. Just as they are a valuable resource, they can also be the agency to bring the celebrity down. If they organise a boycott of their work, the production companies might lose money or at least, not as profitable as it could have been. If they organise poor reviews, the show can get an extremely poor rating.
That’s why when agencies respond to incidents like these, it’s all in carefully worded long statements. Yeap, even this response by Tian Xiwei has been scripted, not because she has a cool head on her shoulders. Only those veterans who have solid reputation as an actor or director or whatever, and do not depend on endorsements etc for income, and already has a firm foothold in the industry can be more direct and essentially tell them to “FO”.
People often asked rhetorically why these fans are so crazy or whether they have a life of their own that they should poke their noses into everything. Actually, it’s all organised business, not about love for the person or whether the person has real acting chops or not. These professional fan club managers could just as easily drop a rising star and turn their attention to the next potential star. (Excepting the few truly mentally unstable fans, but that’s personal.) Nothing is starry eyed in the entertainment industry.