Loving Andy to death
Andy Lau poses with Yang Lijuan at his 46th birthday party in Hong Kong on March 25. The following day, Yang's father committed suicide because his daughter's request to talk with Lau in person was turned down. |
Yang Lijuan and her mother reportedly plan to ask Lau for half a million yuan ($64,700) as compensation for the death of her father Yang Qinji, a 68-year-old retired teacher, who drowned himself in the ocean off Hong Kong last Monday. Press reports say the elder Yang left behind a 15-page letter to Lau, saying he was killing himself so that Lau would pay attention to his daughter.
Now netizens and commentators are discussing the bizarre saga that culminated in this tragic ending, with some putting emphasis on the actions of the individual family members and others looking for larger social and cultural explanations.
Yang and her parents, who live in Northwest China's Gansu Province, reportedly had borrowed money to make their fourth trip to view Lau, going to Hong Kong so she could attend a party thrown by fans for Lau's birthday on March 25. She'd spent about two hours watching Lau perform and play games with fans, and her idol had posed for a picture with her. She'd requested time to talk with Lau in person, but his agents had turned her down.
Celebrity obsession has ballooned in China in recent years. Zhou Chao |
The next morning, Hong Kong police recovered her father's body which she and her mother refused to take home when they left Hong Kong two days later. Lau issued a statement expressing shock and his company sent staff to console Yang and her mother and provided money for their travel home, but made it clear that a personal meeting with Lau was out of the question.
Yang has been obsessed with Lau for 13 years, after she claimed to have had a telling dream about the star. In these years, the family exhausted its savings on satisfying her craze. The father sold their house and even considered selling a kidney to raise money for two trips to Beijing and two more to Hong Kong.
A Web survey conducted by sina.com that had drawn more than 50,000 responses by Friday found that nearly 60 percent of respondents thought Yang herself had driven her father to suicide, and another 28 percent blamed his death on the father, while only 1.52 percent thought Lau was to blame.
The 15-page suicide note left by Yang's 68-year-old father Yang Qinji. Xinhua |
Yang's delusions are certainly an important factor, according to Liu Caimei, a master's student in psychology at Beijing Normal University.
"It's quite normal for teenagers to romanticize their idols and have crushes on them," she said. "But usually the crush is short-lived and vanishes once they get over this stage. Her parents should find a therapist for her, instead of indulging her."
Zhou, who has a daughter, feels some empathy with the father but says he obviously went far overboard in what he thought was a demonstration of his love.
Media also plays a role in the situation, pointed out Judy Polumbaum, a professor from the University of Iowa's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
"It is the media that make people feel they are close to celebrities' lives," she said. "You can see them on TV in your own house or chat with them on the Internet. Celebrity culture leads people to believe stars are their friends, when they really aren't anything of the sort."
The construction and illumination of stardom come naturally to commercial media, but are not necessarily good for society, according to Wu Jing, a media scholar teaching communication at Peking University.
"To some extent, entertainment media are happy to see irrationality among fans, which will bring them profit. It's their basic instinct," she said. "But things can go too far to where media cannot control the situation and social problems result."
From last year, reports about Yang's obsession with Lau made headlines around China. Most accounts portrayed Yang's behavior as abnormal, but some writers offered encouragement, saying Lau should give Yang a chance to "realize her dream".
Luo Xin, an anchor at Shanghai-based Dragon TV, recalled that Yang had condemned the media in an interview, saying the tragedy "was all you journalists' fault".
"Some media tried to counsel the family psychologically, but there were some hoping the incident would grow huge so as to attract more readers, viewers or clicks," Luo said on a commentary program, adding that the latter were "neglecting their social responsibility".
What observers do agree on is that Yang represents an extreme case of a more widespread phenomenon mania for celebrities that has ballooned in China in recent years, due partly to the advent of televised contests that produce instant nationally-recognized stars.
Reports of fans pursuing famous performers from one city to another so as to catch all their concerts, spending absurd amounts of money to transmit text messages supporting their favored contestants in shows, and growing wildly excited at attaining an autograph or even a smile from an idol abound in today's mass media.
Most fans don't see themselves in Yang's situation. Take 27-year-old Zhang Na, an aficionado of Li Yuchun, the champion of China's first "Supergirl" contest.
"Few of my friends are irrational," said Zhang, who is active in a Li Yuchun fan club in her hometown in Zhejiang Province. "We try our best not to be like that, because that will embarrass our idol. People will say, look, that person's fans are crazy. If you really love someone, you won't hurt him or her. Yang is just an extreme case."
Polumbaum, however, thinks extreme cases, rather than being aberrant, often illustrate prevalent social realities. "People don't notice it until these cases happen," she said. "It could be anyone; Yang is just the one who crossed the line."
(China Daily 04/03/2007 page18)
