How much is K-pop going to be hurt by China’s crackdown on entertainment? The impact is already being felt
- Chinese fan clubs of K-pop stars have already been asked to change their names, while fans are now limited to buying an album only once
- According to South Korean music chart Hanteo, over 10 per cent of all K-pop albums verified through its sales system this year have been sold to fans in China
“As we are writing this, we are sorry to inform you that we may not be able to order as many copies as we had expected,” reads a tweet posted on August 31. “As some of you may know, we have run into unexpected obstacles with tightened restrictions on fan clubs.”
The post was shared by the account @LISABar_CN, or Lisa Bar, the first and largest fan club in China dedicated to Blackpink’s Lisa, ahead of the release of her first single album, Lalisa, on September 10.
The message reflects growing changes in Chinese fandom communities following a government crackdown on both the general entertainment field and particularly pop idol culture. The ramifications for the K-pop industry are potentially huge as local fandom spaces become less able to support their favourite South Korea-based stars.
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In the four-tweet thread, Lisa Bar’s administrator shared regrets about Chinese fans not being able to support their favourite star as much as they had wanted to - fans are now limited to only buying an album once, whereas previously many would have bought the same album multiple times to help their favourite idols or groups post higher sales – and hinted to the impact on Chinese fan spaces in the larger international K-pop communities.
“We are sorry as we also had expectations for ourselves to do our best for Lisa, but we have to comply with the guidelines placed upon fans,” they wrote. “We hope everyone can do their best and we work hard together. All for Lisa.
“As Chinese fans, we have stepped up to the role of being the fan organisations that international fans could rely on, but we didn’t expect that eventually we would let you all down. We are very sorry, we hope you all can work hard for us at this moment.”
