Fan said in a post on Weibo that a woman stalking him for several days broke into his hotel room several times on the morning of April 6 after obtaining a key card from the hotel reception. — SCMP
Beijing police are investigating after an obsessed fan broke into the hotel room of the current world No 1 table tennis player, Fan Zhendong, and reportedly stole his underwear.
Fan said in a post on Weibo that a woman stalking him for several days broke into his hotel room several times on the morning of April 6 after obtaining a key card from the hotel reception. He said that hotel cleaning staff who were witnesses to the incident and surveillance cameras could prove the woman entered his room, the Beijing News reported.
Fan is currently ranked as the top player for men’s singles globally by the International Table Tennis Federation and is the leading player in China, where he is a major celebrity.
“I’ve been calling on my fans multiple times to be rational, to keep their distance from me and to boycott fandom culture,” Fan said in the post. “This intrusive incident has harmed me a lot. To guarantee my personal safety, I have decided to halt my interactions with individual fans, including accepting the delivery of fan mail.”
Fan said he reported the incident at a police station in Beijing’s Dongcheng District but some media did not mention the reported theft of his underwear or whether the woman had been apprehended. A police document subsequently circulated on social media by Fan’s friends appeared to show the police authority was investigating the matter.
It is not the first time the table tennis player has dealt with harassment from diehard fans. In 2021, his fans took over an airport in southern China’s Guangdong province as he was boarding a plane. They demanded Fan provide autographs, and pose for photos and videos, making it difficult for the athlete to board his flight due to the number of fans crammed into the airport.
“I do not want my personal itinerary to be followed or exposed publicly. I beg my fans to allow me to be an ordinary person,” Fan said on Weibo after the airport incident.
He also criticised certain extreme behaviours shown by some of his fans.
“Your action is not helpful but harmful for me. Please don’t trigger verbal abuse online under the excuse of caring for me. For some of these irrational people, I beg you to respect me. Please understand that I feel deeply uncomfortable being secretly photographed and filmed all the time,” said Fan.
“Please watch my competitions and cheer for me. That’s enough.”
Fan is not the only sports star in mainland China who has been stalked and harassed by fans.
Two years ago, a video of a woman trying to forcibly put a hat on the head of Chinese gold medallist swimmer Wang Shun at an airport in eastern China went viral.
Last year, Wang Chuqin, another famous Chinese table tennis player, was surrounded by dozens of female fans at a Beijing airport who refused to leave his side and demanded to take photos with him. – South China Morning Post
