Web stars blossom on the Internet over night. The legend of their paths to popularity presents itself every day. How did the Tianxian sister, or the Goddess sister, make millions after she was found in a remote mountain village only 10 months before and pushed to the front of the public eye?

The "web star", Tianxian sister, performs on stage. [southcn.com]

Behind the stars are the star makers, who are called the "black hands" by some netizens. A report published Monday by Southcn.com described the mysterious profession of the "black hands".

The Tianxian sister was found and made into a star by Lang Xiong, a netizen who can barely type and used an electric notepad to enter writing into his computer and post it on web sites..

Lang, who has a master's degree from the National Defense University, describes himself as "very bad with web techniques, but sensitive to web stars," and as having a strong ability to control things.

Lang started using the Internet in 2001, and came to enjoy viewing and writing articles on forums as a hobby. When he met the Tianxian sister while traveling in the mountains, however, he became determined to turn the pure and graceful minority girl into a star.

In the 10 months since last September, the Tianxian sister has made headlines on websites and attended product-promotion meetings constantly.

"She has made nearly 2 million yuan so far," Lang said, "and her CDs, posters, and movies are all under production."

Lang Xiong said hedisliked the title "black hand", and that he had devoted a lot to promoting the Tianxian sister. "Compared with professional agent companies, I have more problems and less funds to publicize the stars," he said.

Another well-known "black hand," Chen Mo, who made Liumangyan, or the Nasty swallow, famous, told Southcn.com he was different from Lang Xiong because his reason for putting beautiful girls on the web was to attract viewers, not just to make web stars.

In fact, many "black hands" are directors at public relations planning companies. "People need the web stars and like seeing them on the web because they are bored by disinteresting web sites.

Although "black hands" need web stars to make money, girls who dream of being famous need "black hands," too.

"A girl contacted me directly and offered me 500,000 yuan to promote her," Lang Xiong said. "But I refused after I found out that she didn't have what it takes to be a star."