
MengXiang:
@luv2bafangirl
I really don't understand the Chinese cancel culture. What do their fans have to do with it? Are they banned for life.
In USA unless you have sexual or serious assault, I don't see them getting cancelled. Even so they would have their names scrubbed.
The c-netizen hold their actors/actresses (especially the liuliang/idol type of actors/ctresses) on much higher standard than for normal people. I think it has something to do with their insane influence on their fans. So they must also fill in as the good role model for their fans and be judged constantly by the public. Moreover the chinese gov also can punished an actor’s misconduct by deeming it an act that destroying public morality (or something like that) by banning him temporary or even permanently (the case where this actor‘s name got scrubbed clean from every projects he was in, his weibo and douyin account got deleted his new projects won’t get censorship approval so can’t be released).
Some very egregious/unmoral misconducts in c-netizen‘s view, like I mentioned before in my previous post, will caused a big enough backlash from the public (or even turn their fans against them) to affect the actors/actresses career permanently, as the image of these actors is everything. It is the THING that got them ads and brands ambassador contracts. As soon as the image crumble the knee jerk reaction of the brands is to distance themselves and their own image from these suddenly problematic actors and the brands cut them off. They are also then dropped from dramas or variety show they are in or in negotiation with. So the public and fans play a big role in an actor career.
Fans can even cause an actor’s downfall like what happened with Xiao Zhan a couple of years before, where his rabid fans caused a beloved fanfic site to be closed down and made the public and users of that fanfic site so angry that they then retaliate by boycotting him (and also because they hold XZ and his team to be responsible for the misconduct of those rabid fans as it is a known and common practice that the actor‘s agent/team has close cooperation with the fans groups and often coordinate with them for promotional events or to hype up the actor or his upcoming projects). It was then followed by gov official ban for about a year or so. I think no drama starring him was aired in that year and his weibo and douyin got suspended. I‘m not sure if he was dropped by his brands as well as I‘m not his fans and only know about this big scandal years after it happened.
The government even tried to control the fans after Xiao Zhan‘s case by holding the actor hostage. Basically the gov says that if the fans caused trouble (excessive fans war for e.x.) then their beloved actor will bear the consequences (getting soft ban) like getting his weibo‘s account suspended for some time, etc. This happened to Zhao Li Ying and another actor, when their fans got in nasty fans war with each other.
The c-actors and actresses must keep their nose clean and their image as white as snow at all time and control their fans or risk the c-netizen and/or gov wrath and lose their career. Once their image is destroyed, they won’t get any new project as no one want to finance/bet on a dead horse, because although those actors may still have many loyal fans the public opinion (possible backlash on the project for casting this actor) weights more while gov permanent bann is the nail on the coffin on their career. The ones getting soft ban are the lucky ones.
Hope this answer your question. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me on this issue can correct me if I said something wrong in my post above or give more insight about this topic.