Huayu 2014: From Traffic Stars to Superstars

Chapter 78 To My Love (Your Song)

In May, Bangkok is so hot it feels like being stuffed into a steamer.

Gao Huan has been here for almost two weeks, filming from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, with only a chance to catch his breath when he eats his boxed lunch.

The air here is always humid, and it sticks to your body and you can't shake it off.

The makeshift sunshade set up by the film crew was packed with people. The air blown by the fans was hot, and even after blowing for a long time, the sweat didn't dry. Instead, it blew dust and mud onto their faces.

But what's hotter than the weather is the fans.

At first, there were only a few people.

They stood quietly behind the barbed wire fence surrounding the filming location, wearing blue support outfits and holding light sticks and banners.

When Gao Huan came out after filming a scene, he waved to them from afar, and the girls immediately squatted down and cried.

Then the number of people increased. From a few to dozens, from dozens to hundreds, and from hundreds to hundreds.

They flew in from all over the country, some from Beijing, some from Shanghai, and some from Chengdu.

There were college students, white-collar workers who had just started working, and even high school students.

They stood under the scorching Bangkok sun for an entire day.

There was no shade, no water, and no toilet.

Some people suffered from heatstroke and were helped to sit by the roadside by their companions. After they recovered, they stood up again.

Some people, their faces sunburned and their noses peeling, were still holding up light sticks.

The security guards couldn't stop them, and they couldn't communicate because of the language barrier—they couldn't speak Thai and their English was broken and hesitant.

When Gao Huan was filming, he caught a glimpse of the sea of ​​blue people outside the barbed wire fence out of the corner of his eye, and his heart felt like it was being blocked by something.

After filming wrapped up that day, he sat on the sofa in his hotel room, his phone screen displaying Weibo hashtags.

Fans posted one photo after another from the event, and the comments were full of things like "I really want to go to Bangkok to see Huan Ge," "I've already bought my plane ticket," and "Any girls want to team up?"

His finger paused on the screen for a moment, then he exited Weibo, opened WeChat, and found Yangyang Jin.

"Please post this on Weibo for me tomorrow morning."

Yangyang Jin quickly replied: "What content?"

Gao Huan typed half of it, deleted it, retyped it, and deleted it again.

Finally, he sent a voice message: "Just say it's too hot in Bangkok, don't come. I won't meet you."

I'll find time to hold a fan meeting later, and then we can meet properly.

In addition, the studio contacted various fan groups, repeatedly emphasizing that no group trips to Bangkok were allowed, and no solo trips to Bangkok were permitted.

He paused, then added, "Don't let them come; it's not safe on the road."

Yangyang Jin replied with "Received".

Gao Huan put her phone on the coffee table, leaned back on the sofa, and closed her eyes.

Images flashed through my mind: the sunburnt faces outside the barbed wire fence, the hands that had been raised for hours without being lowered, and the blue support shirts soaked with sweat.

He remembered something he had seen on the news in his previous life.

On September 21, 2017, Wang Junkai turned eighteen.

The fan club's support plan began to be prepared six months in advance.

That year, the "spending money on fan support" in the domestic fan circle had just entered the arms race stage, with fans of each group competing to see who had the bigger fan base, the higher budget, and the more creative ideas.

Wang Junkai's fan club, which calls itself "Little Crabs," treats this coming-of-age ceremony as a battle with no upper limit on budget and no end to extravagance.

The first wave of domestic support was launched in Chongqing. The giant LED screen at Jiefangbei played a montage of Wang Junkai's growth from his debut to the age of eighteen on a loop, from the afternoon until the early hours of the morning.

The scene cuts to his little tiger teeth when he first debuted. Some passersby stop to take pictures, and some ask, "Who is this?" A girl holding a light board next to him says with red eyes, "He's the boy I've liked for four years."

Outside of Chongqing, LED screens in commercial districts in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen lit up simultaneously.

Sanlitun, the Bund, Guangzhou Tower, Shenzhen Bay—it's as if fans used a satellite map to mark all the landmark commercial screens across the country, then bought slots for each one and uniformly changed them to birthday wishes.

Someone remarked on WeChat Moments: "When I opened Weibo, it felt like all the LED screens in China were celebrating Wang Junkai's birthday."

C

But the domestic performance was just a warm-up. What truly shocked both those inside and outside the industry was the scale and prestige displayed overseas.

The Nasdaq screen in Times Square, New York, one of the world's most expensive GG signs, had its rights to be played on a loop for two whole days by fans.

A Reuters reporter took a photo and sent it back to headquarters. In the photo, Wang Junkai's face took up most of the screen, with a dense text of English blessings below.

A local Chinese person passing by took a video and posted it on Weibo with the caption, "Seeing Wang Junkai in New York gives me a strange sense of pride."

That video was shared over 100,000 times.

At the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, known as the world's busiest intersection, the exterior screens of buildings on both sides simultaneously lit up with the Chinese message "Happy 18th Birthday".

Inside the terminal at London Heathrow Airport, a giant LCD screen was playing a video message of blessings from Wang Junkai in both Chinese and English.

Paris, France; Milan, Italy; Seoul, South Korea; Sydney, Australia —

The fan club is like marking all the target cities on a world map and then conquering them one by one.

According to statistics, Wang Junkai's birthday support that year covered more than a dozen countries and more than 30 cities, and the overseas LED screen rental fee alone exceeded seven figures in RMB.

But LED screens are just the most basic operation.

Fans rented a helicopter and flew a huge banner over Chongqing that read "Happy 18th Birthday Wang Junkai".

Hot air balloons are another "routine operation".

Fans printed Wang Junkai's photo on a hot air balloon in a certain city. The balloon floated in the air and drifted with the wind. Passersby thought it was a tourism advertisement until they saw his face in the photo.

Yachts were also present. On its birthday, a cruise ship on the Yangtze River in Chongqing was chartered by fans, with huge posters adorning its hull as it slowly sailed across the river.

Subway signs, bus stop billboards, airport light boxes—fans have placed ads in every place ordinary people pass by on their daily commutes. Some office workers, while waiting for the subway, looked up and saw Wang Junkai's face, then looked down at their phones and found that Weibo's trending topics were all related to his birthday.

But what's most astonishing is the fan club's investment in public welfare.

They adopted an African elephant in Wang Junkai's name and erected a sign on the Kenyan savanna with his name engraved on it.

They donated a Hope Primary School in Liangshan, Sichuan, and the school's name includes the character "Kai".

They also supported stray animal rescue stations in more than a dozen cities across the country, with each station displaying a sign in the name of "Wang Junkai's fans".

Someone calculated that the publicly available support budget alone exceeds five million.

And the effort that individual fans put in, whether publicly or privately, is simply incalculable.

The fan culture that year was so vibrant that it was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

Some people were trampled and knocked down at concerts, some cried until they fainted at the airport just to see their idols, and some went to the company building to unfurl banners after their idols went public with their relationships. These things were no longer news in 2017, but rather commonplace.

On the night of Wang Junkai's 18th birthday, seven out of the top ten trending topics on Weibo were related to him, and the topic garnered over two billion views.

Fans celebrated wildly in the supertopic. Someone posted a picture of four photos collaged together: the LED screen in Times Square, New York; the Shibuya intersection in Tokyo; the large screen in Jiefangbei, Chongqing; and the terminal building at Heathrow Airport in London. The caption read: "The whole world is wishing you a happy birthday."

That Weibo post was shared over 100,000 times. The most upvoted comment read: "He is my youth."

In his previous life, Gao Huan didn't care much about these news reports because he wasn't the one being chased.

But now he is.

Those girls weren't just doing data analysis and chasing after celebrities; they were giving almost everything they could for a chance to "get closer to him."

But he couldn't let them sacrifice themselves for this.

At 10:00 AM on May 12th, Gao Huan updated his Weibo.

The text was short, and the tone was unlike his usual style, even a little serious: "Bangkok is hot, extremely hot."

Don't come to visit the set, I won't see anyone.

We'll try to hold a fan meeting this year, so everyone can get to know each other properly.

Now, please take good care of yourself.

-

Be the happiest star who loves yourself the most.

The accompanying photo is of him on set, wearing a training uniform, covered in sweat, his makeup ruined by the sweat, and his skin red from the sun.

No retouching, no filters, just a real, tired photo.

Less than ten minutes after the Weibo post was published, it received over 10,000 comments.

Most of the comments in the front row were "Huan Ge, take care of your health", "Filming must be hard", and "We're not going to Bangkok".

But as you scroll down, you'll still see people saying things like, "I've already bought my plane ticket," "I'm already at the airport," and "Can't I even take a quick look from afar?"

Gao Huan sat in the car, looking at the comments, but did not reply.

Yangyangjin's side acted even faster.

At the same time, the studio's official Weibo account issued a statement, with more official wording, but the core message was the same: "Please do not travel to Bangkok to visit the set, and please do not believe any itinerary information from unofficial channels."

Mr. Gao Huan will organize fan meet-and-greets through official channels in the future.

The announcement concluded with the statement, "Your safety and happiness are what he cares about most."

Immediately afterwards, the fan site managers of several major fan sites associated with Yangyang Jin began sending messages in various groups.

Most of those groups were QQ groups. In 2015, the main battleground for fan groups was QQ groups and Weibo supertopics, where fans exchanged information, organized support activities, and shared materials.

Each group has hundreds of people, and larger groups have thousands. Messages are refreshed very quickly, sometimes tens of thousands a day.

Yangyang Jin posted an announcement in one of the groups.

The group was called "Huanxing·BJ Station". The group announcement pinned the studio's official statement, and the group owner emphasized in red: "Organizing visits to the Bangkok set is not allowed. Violators will be kicked out of the group."

Posting Bangkok itinerary information is not allowed; violators will be removed from the group.

No unauthorized travel to Bangkok is permitted, and no organizational information will be provided within the group.

The group chat exploded for a while. Some people asked, "Why can't you go?", some said, "I've already asked for leave," but most people expressed their understanding.

An administrator named "Galaxy First Star" posted a long message: "Brother Huan said not to go, so we won't go. He's worried about our safety, so let's not cause him any trouble."

I really want to see him; I'll wait for the meeting.

Anyone who goes to Bangkok without permission and then posts about it in the group chat, don't blame me for being ruthless.

She spoke in a harsh tone, but no one in the group argued with her.

Because everyone knows that she was one of Gao Huan's earliest fans, ever since the premiere of "Swords of Legends". She was the group leader of several large groups and also spearheaded several offline support events.

Her words carry more weight than the group admin's.

Gao Huan later saw the message on Yangyang Jin's phone.

He asked, "Who is this 'first star in the galaxy'?"

Yangyang Jin did some research: "She's a long-time fan who's followed you since your debut, and she's the administrator of several large fan groups. She's a very capable person; she organized the previous support events."

Gao Huan nodded without saying a word. But he remembered that name.

After finishing work that evening, Gao Huan posted another Weibo post, this time in a much more relaxed tone.

"On May 20th, there is a song specially dedicated to you."

Before that, please eat well, attend classes diligently, and work hard.

"Only when you are safe can I film with peace of mind."

The last sentence is: "Be the happiest star who loves yourself the most."

After posting, he didn't read the comments, threw his phone on the bed, and went to take a shower.

But he didn't know that the number of comments under that Weibo post exceeded 100,000 within half an hour.

The phrase "Be the most cheerful star who loves yourself the most" was captured by fans, made into various pictures, and posted everywhere.

Some people set this sentence as their screensaver, some wrote it into their signatures, and some posted long articles in the super topic saying they cried all night after seeing this sentence.

Because they realized that when he said "I love myself the most," he wasn't just saying it casually.

After that Weibo post was published, the number of fans outside the Bangkok film set gradually decreased.

At first, some people were unwilling to leave and stood outside the barbed wire fence. Later, some people couldn't hold on any longer, suffered heatstroke, and fainted. They were taken away by ambulance.

After seeing the news, the rest of them finally started packing up and heading back.

Before leaving, someone shouted "Brother Huan, take care of yourself" to the filming area inside the barbed wire fence, and then squatted on the ground and cried for a long time.

Yangyang Jin later told Gao Huan that the studio's private messages were almost overwhelmed in those days, all from fans saying "We'll be good," "We're leaving," and "Take care, Huan-ge."

Gao Huan didn't say anything after listening, but he sat on the hotel balcony for a long time that night. The nights in Bangkok were cooler than the days, and the lights on the Mekong River flickered in the darkness.

He recalled what Gao Beibei had once told him: "If someone cares about you, you should also care about them. You can't do things one-sidedly for long."

He's starting to understand now. ————

September 20th, noon.

Gao Huan's Weibo was updated on time.

There was only one link and a line of small print: "Your Song - Dedicated to all the joyful stars."

Clicking the link leads to NetEase Cloud Music, and the cover is a hand-drawn picture of a deep blue night sky full of stars, one of which is particularly bright and is drawn in the shape of a heart.

There was no signature or other design below, only a starry sky and twinkling stars.