On May 31, Chinese actor Zhang Linghe’s brand event at a shopping mall in Nanning, Guangxi was suddenly cancelled. Clips from the venue went viral as an overwhelming number of fans crowded the area, causing the mall’s glass entrance doors to shatter. Five people sustained minor cuts and abrasions. Both the brand and the mall reportedly underestimated Zhang Linghe’s popularity. The huge crowd turned up even though there was no advance notice that Zhang Linghe would arrive.
Some had started lining up outside the mall as early as midnight. By daytime, the entrance was completely packed with people. When the doors finally opened, fans surged forward and the force of the crowd was so great that the mall’s heavy glass doors shattered. Inside the mall, every floor was also packed with people hoping to watch the event.
Following the incident, Zhang Linghe’s studio issued an apology, saying safety is their top priority and expressing regret to fans who had traveled to Nanning for the event. The studio also announced they would compensate affected fans for their travel and accommodation expenses. The brand, which had apologized to the fans and Zhang Linghe, originally planned to compensate only invited attendees. However, Zhang Linghe voluntarily expanded the reimbursement program to include all fans who traveled to the event on their own.
Responsibility for the incident was largely attributed to inadequate security and crowd management, and Zhang Linghe choosing to personally cover the resulting financial losses through himself and his studio has garnered praise from his fans.
Banu
Not so smart and dangerous. They can better hold it somewhere else in allow access to certain amount of people for safety reasons to them and their artist.
Good thing they canceled.
Merry
It was paid by the mall and the brand to promote the mall ,since most malls are dying in china right now ;so why would they do it somewhere ,they do acually want in , i bet they acually did make some money even though he didnt show up
Kai
Compensating those fans who were not invited only encourages more of this kind of uncivilised behavour. He should not compensate them at all. And issue a warning that if any fans behave in such a manner causing damage and loss to others, then nobody gets to see him. Every fan should take personal responsibility to behave in a civil manner.
XZF
@Kai
Agreed with you.
Wendy
I also agree. This is fundamentally different from if the artist canceled because he was sick; this is a cancelation because the fans’ behavior is the problem. And you are correct; paying people for bad behavior only rewards and encourages it.
Also there is a part of me that wonders how likely someone is to fraudulantly claim money compensation. How do you prove you traveled specifically to meet him? He could end up paying gas money for anybody there that was shopping not as an invitee that day.
Lastly, there was clearly a leak from either his studio, the sponsors, or the invitees that so many people packed in although ‘no advanced notice’ was given that he would be there. Hope he checks on his side to make sure he doesn’t have someone selling out his schedule and he should demand the sponsors to check their staff too. Otherwise this would be all too easily repeated. Public relations is spinning this as a positive because he’s shelling out money but this could easily have been a disaster if someone had been seriously hurt. In fact, was it Zhang Linghe that had an almost identical incident earlier? I feel like I read about a similar situation before, I think there was videos of people crowded against a mall glass door… does anyone else remember?
Dee
I wonder if I care enough for a celebrity to go wait in line like this? Now food sure 🤣🤣
Du
For all those proposing to hold event somewhere else, ZLH is paid handsome amount by the mall and brand that has shop in it to appear exactly at the mall. This is common practice in China and no big name is above such events. If he doesn’t do that he will soon have whole internet on his back branding him arrogant and haughty.
Also it is not only fans fault, the mall failed to organise event as high risk overcrowding event, they simply hired few extra security guides and that’s it. There are strict protocols for such events to keep order and avoid overcrowding. They failed. The mass cannot be controlled by ppl inside, it has to be controlled by outside, designated routes, flow of the crowd has to be predesigned not let to the crowd to design its own flow. There are specialised security companies doing exactly that in China. If anyone should compensate ppl, organisers should have compensated everyone and ZLH.
Anon
Actually, we do not know for sure that the event organiser and the mall were 100% to blame. As you said, these are common events and they would surely have put all necessary crowd controls and protocols in place. If fans do their part, all would be orderly. It only takes a few unruly fans (the type that American police would freely use their tasers on) to ignore instructions and start a stampede. It could even be a sabotage by anti-fans (Ok, I am speculating now, but it is a possible scenario, given the intense rivalry among fans. It has happened often enough before in China’s fandom world). Chinese police or security companies do not carry tasers or guns or riot shields outside of authorised special operations.
ChenMo
or maybe it was a clever ploy to use the stars name without paying him. ie. conspire to attract all kinds of people to the mall, then openly say we’re not paying you becoz you cancelled. The mall still gets the free promotion. The only one who loses is the star.