‘I beg you to respect me’: fan reportedly steals underwear of world No 1 table tennis player from hotel room in China as he begs for rational behaviour
- Fan Zhendong, current world No 1 men’s singles table tennis player, has contacted Beijing police after a fan allegedly broke into his hotel room and stole his underwear
- The top Chinese player says surveillance footage and witnesses can prove the fan entered his room
Beijing police are investigating after an obsessed fan broke into the hotel room of the current world No 1 table tennis player, Fan Zhendong, and reportedly stole his underwear.
Fan said in a post on Weibo that a woman stalking him for several days broke into his hotel room several times on the morning of April 6 after obtaining a key card from the hotel reception. He said that hotel cleaning staff who were witnesses to the incident and surveillance cameras could prove the woman entered his room, the Beijing News reported.
Fan is currently ranked as the top player for men’s singles globally by the International Table Tennis Federation and is the leading player in China, where he is a major celebrity.
“I’ve been calling on my fans multiple times to be rational, to keep their distance from me and to boycott fandom culture,” Fan said in the post. “This intrusive incident has harmed me a lot. To guarantee my personal safety, I have decided to halt my interactions with individual fans, including accepting the delivery of fan mail.”
Fan said he reported the incident at a police station in Beijing’s Dongcheng District but some media did not mention the reported theft of his underwear or whether the woman had been apprehended. A police document subsequently circulated on social media by Fan’s friends appeared to show the police authority was investigating the matter.
It is not the first time the table tennis player has dealt with harassment from diehard fans. In 2021, his fans took over an airport in southern China’s Guangdong province as he was boarding a plane. They demanded Fan provide autographs, and pose for photos and videos, making it difficult for the athlete to board his flight due to the number of fans crammed into the airport.
“I do not want my personal itinerary to be followed or exposed publicly. I beg my fans to allow me to be an ordinary person,” Fan said on Weibo after the airport incident.
