A famous mathematics teacher in China has sparked angry calls for a boycott of his classes after he slammed what he believes are the over-enthusiastic fans of the top mainland boy band TFBoys.
On August 6, the band held a 10th anniversary concert in Xian in the northwestern province of Shaanxi. The gig was widely believed to be the last they will perform together as a group.
Thousands flocked to the event, crowding public spaces and blocking roads in the city. It was this “brainless star chasing” which prompted the PhD in maths holder and nationally popular, Tang Jiafeng, to lash out at the band’s fans.
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Also known as The Fighting Boys, the three-member band – Karry Wang Junkai, 24, and Jackson Yee Yangqianxi and Roy Wang Yuan, both 23, first emerged in 2013.
More than 6.5 million people scrambled for the 30,000 tickets that were available for the Xian concert, causing a surge in ticket prices which in some cases reached 200,000 yuan (US$27,000) on the black market.
Every hotel in the city was fully booked in the days before and after the concert, according to Jiupai News.
The clamour did not go down well with Tang, who took to the social media platform Weibo on August 10 to vent his anger.
“What are you fans going crazy about? This behaviour is the sorrow of our era. I wonder what on earth this band are good at?” he said.
“Are they really only good at collecting faeces?” the academic added, referring to a mocking name the band were given by some during their early years because TF are the initials of the Chinese word tao feng which means collecting faeces.
Tang, who is popular with people sitting graduate school entrance exams and large numbers of mainland university students, deleted the last sentence after thousands of fans criticised him online for humiliating the group.
His post has received more than 80,000 comments and 550,000 likes on Weibo.
Mainland social media was divided over Tang’s criticism of the fans.
“Finally there is an expert standing out to berate the crazy fans of TFBoys. I feel so relieved,” one online observer said.
“Teacher Tang, please hold on. There will definitely be online violence against you. Those fans are as horrible as cult followers,” wrote another.
But a fan of the band hit back: “I used my own money to follow the stars that I have loved since I was a little girl. What’s wrong with that? I think you need to understand what mutual respect is.”
Another fan echoed those sentiments: “You don’t know much about TFBoys. You don’t know how hard they work and you don’t know that they sing and act well. You are old and you don’t understand young people’s thoughts. Please show more tolerance and mind your own business.”
“Sisters, let’s protest against this teacher. Let’s report him to the Ministry of Education for having bad ethics. Tell every person you know not to enrol in his class. Let’s make him lose his job,” another online observer said.
A majority of the band’s fans are females who made up about 90 per cent of the Xian audience.
Despite warnings from the band, thousands of fans assembled outside the venue, blocking roads in the area.
Xian extended subway operating times to accommodate the throngs of fans, hundreds of buses were laid on and 6,000 police officers provided security.
The city said it took in a total of 416 million yuan (US$57 million) in tourism income over August 6 and 7 thanks to the concert.
An editorial in Jimu News said it was not, and should not be, possible to ban star chasing activity.
“But we should use the right values to guide fans, rather than simply condemning them or abusing them. We should curb the manipulation of fandom culture, strengthen the supervision of various departments and crack down on ticket scalpers so that fans can chase their stars in a civilised way,” the editorial said.
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