▲ This photo, provided by Guancha News, shows a Jeju Airline's plane decroted with photos of Jimin and birthday banners flying through the sky. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) 

 

▲ This photo, provided by Guancha News, shows a Jeju Airline's plane decroted with photos of Jimin and birthday banners. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) 

 

 

SEOUL, Sep. 6 (Yonhap) -- Chinese fans of BTS' Jimin have been suspended from Weibo, China’s popular social media, for raising a large sum of money to customize a plane with Jimin’s photos.

The event took place in the middle of the Chinese authorities’ crackdown on fandoms’ excessive worship for celebrities.

The Chinese fan club for Jimin revealed a photo saying that a Jeju airline plane decorated with the artist’s pictures and “Happy Birthday”s has started its flight in South Korea on the 4th, according to Guancha News on the 5th.

The aircraft will be in operation for 3 months. The tickets and the disposable cups in the plane bear birthday banners as well.

On October 13th, the artist’s birthday, the fans are planning to advertise on The New York Times and on The Times, all in full color.

 

 

 

▲This photo, provided by Guancha News, shows an example image of Ji-min advertisement on New York Times. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) 

The fans have already been raising funds in April on portal site, Baidu, to celebrate the artist’s birthday. The collected amount marked 1 million yuan (180 million won) in 3 minutes and exceeded 2.3 million yuan (around 400 million won) in an hour.

As angry comments spread online after the fans’ birthday event for the artist was announced, Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter, has suspended the fans’ account (@朴智旻JIMIN_JMC) for 60 days and has deleted posts related to the event as well.

“Weibo will firmly object to and strictly deal with irrational worships for celebrities,” said the social media.

They also added, "Weibo will reinforce its ‘fandom’ supervision and will refine the Internet.”

When Yonhap News visited the fans’ Weibo account, it showed ‘This user’s account is in suspension for violating regulation.’

The accounts name was originally ‘JIMIN Bar’ but according to the authorities’ regulation it was changed into ‘JiMIN JMC’ on the 5th. China has banned using ‘bar,’ which means ‘gathering,’ for fan clubs’ names.

 

▲ This photo, provided by Weibo, shows the Weibo accounto of Ji-min's fans. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) 

A significant number of Chinese netizens commented that fundraising for celebrities is inappropriate as fans include adolescents who are not economically independent.

But there were also advocates saying that how to cheer for the idols they like is the fans’ choice.

BTS is not widely welcome in China for their mention of the Korean War in October 2020, earning an ‘Anti-China group’ from some of the netizens.

The band after receiving an award from an organization for the U.S.-South Korea relationship promotion, made a speech mentioning the 70th anniversary of the Korean War and said, “We will always remember the history of pain the two countries share (South Korea and the U.S.) and the countless sacrifices.”

At this, some Chinese netizens argued that BTS did not respect the sacrifices of the Chinese soldiers during the war.

Multiple distribution companies in China stopped delivering BTS related foods.

Earlier in July, the ‘Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission’ of the Communist Party of China announced regulations against supporting underage fans’ fundraising and inducing them to use large sums of money and shutdowns of related accounts or organizations. They have also issued a measurement to reinforce supervision over fandoms lacking order.

The Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced on Sep. 2 guidelines for mass culture supervision including reinforcement of education and warning against fansdoms’ fundraising as well.

The Chinese fandoms are now using JZ online, initials of Jízī (集資), which means fundraising, to avoid using the exact term, according to Guancha News.

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