A Study on the Current Situation of Chinese Native Cultivating Idol

Culture

Xiunan Gou

School of Journalism and Communications, Communication University of Zhejiang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310018, China

Keywords: Cultivating Idol, The Younger Age of Fans, Cultivating Idol Market, Cultural Communication.

Abstract: In 2009, the culture of Japanese cultivating idols was introduced to the Chinese mainland. After 16 years of

rapid development, cultivating idols and their fan circles have become an indispensable part of the Chinese

mainland entertainment industry. The influence brought by the "Cultivating idol" has received extensive

attention, but research on the changes in the cultivating idol market in recent years is still insufficient. This

essay focuses on the current development status of the Chinese cultivating idol. This research has made some

discoveries, such as: changes in the fan circles, problems existing within the fan circles, the positive impact

brought by cultivating idols, and the predicament of the cultivating idol market. Based on this, this essay puts

forward the following suggestions: protect minor idols and ensure their rights are not violated, establish a

supervision mechanism for agencies, and agencies and idols should actively guide fans to chase stars

rationally.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Definition and Culture of

Cultivating an Idol

Cultivating idols refers to the idol who gradually

grows up under the public's attention. Fans will

accompany their growth, and their daily lives and

training will be presented before the fans' eyes.

Different from the Korean idol system, fans will

participate in the growth of their idols, and they often

invest deeper emotions in their idols.

The concept of "Cultivating" was first applied to

simulation games in Japan, where players spent a lot

of time and energy nurturing their virtual lovers or

pets. Later, this concept was adopted in the Japanese

idol industry (Galbraith, 2012).

The Japanese girl group "Onyanko Club"

launched by the renowned Japanese director Akimoto

Yasushi in 1985, attracted a large number of fans as

soon as it emerged. In 2005, AKB48, a large Japanese

girl idol group also launched by Akimoto Yasushi,

quickly rose to fame (Setiawan, 2023). Fans could

support their idols by voting and participating in

activities. This novel interactive approach brought

fans closer to their idols (Hsun, 2021).

The companies in China to train and cultivate

idols were established by drawing on the business

model of Japan's Johnny & Associates (Li, 2023).

Different from the Japanese training system, the

Chinese entertainment more emphasis on the concept

of "family", and all its trainees are classified into

different "generations".

1.2 Literature Review

At present, in the field of Chinese studies, there is are

lot of research on "cultivating idols" and "cultivating

idol fans".

In terms of the "cultural difference" theory, the

Japanese "cultivating idol system" culture is quite

different from that of China. And during the

localization process of this culture in China, it will

also change due to the cultural differences between

the two regions. Regarding such research, for

instance, it was mentioned that influenced by the

otaku culture, the Japanese idol culture emphasizes

the virtual romantic relationship between idols and

fans (Aoyagi, 2020). However, the idol groups in

China positioned themselves as "student idols" in

terms of image, and there were more mother fans and

sister fans (Zhao, 2017). But according to the data the

author collected in this research, after eight years, the

Gou, X.

A Study on the Current Situation of Chinese Native Cultivating Idol Culture.

DOI: 10.5220/0013988800004916

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2025), pages 219-223

ISBN: 978-989-758-778-8

219

proportion of girlfriend fans has risen significantly,

while the proportion of mother fans is very low.

In another study, it is mentioned that Chinese

culture emphasizes "harmony above all"; thus, the

cultivating idol selection system in China also lacks a

competitive mechanism (Hao, 2019). Not only that,

in many other related fields such as consumer culture,

the influence of new media, and the moral misconduct

of idols, there are also abundant studies on this

cultural extension.

The predecessors have conducted very thorough

and comprehensive research on the related culture.

However, the development of this culture has been

extremely rapid, and there has been no survey on the

current situation of the fans of the cultivating idol

system for a long time. Compared with the fan

surveys conducted a few years ago, the current

situation of the fan circle has undergone tremendous

changes.

There is a considerable amount of research in the

English academic circle on Japanese cultivating idols,

but little on the culture of cultivating idols in China.

However, considering the current development status

of this culture in China, the idol market in China is

highly worthy of attention as it has brought huge

economic benefits to society. Therefore, this research

conducts an in-depth study of the current state of the

Chinese cultivating idol market and their fan circles.

2 METHODS

This research adopted methods such as in-depth

interviews, questionnaires, and literature collection.

In the in-depth interviews, different types of research

subjects were selected for interviews to obtain

relatively objective information, which was then used

to edit the questionnaires. In this round of interviews,

the interviewees were diverse, including adults and

minors, students and workers, group fans and solo

fans, etc. A total of five interviewees were

interviewed.

This questionnaire survey comprehensively

investigated the current situation of the fan circle.

This questionnaire mainly consists of questions from

four aspects: the basic information of the fans

themselves, their experiences of chasing stars, their

views on the current situation of fan circles, and their

opinions on the market of cultivating idols. This

research collected a total of 212 questionnaires on

social platforms. Due to the significant gender

disparity in this fan circle, male fans accounted for

9.43%, while female fans made up 90.57%.

3 RESULT & REASON ANALYSIS

3.1 The Positive Influence Brought by

Cultivating Idols

First of all, for the fans, cultivating idols is different

from traditional idols. The sense of companionship

they provide is much stronger. Therefore, fans will

gain a greater sense of participation and

companionship, providing them with effective

psychological comfort. And many fans will place

their own inner needs onto their idols, generating an

"identification fantasy", and learn from and imitate

their idols (Liu & Zang, 2021). Because the fans of

the Chinese cultivating idols are generally young and

in the period of shaping their values, and the

positioning of Chinese cultivating idols is usually

"young role models", and they will promote "idol

power", presenting to the public "a teenager striving

for his dream", such a positive attitude will have a

positive impact on the fans. Just as the interviewee

mentioned, "by promoting the culture of cultivating

idols through publicity, the younger generation can

learn the importance of persistently pursuing their

dreams, and it also emphasizes a positive and healthy

entertainment orientation which has a positive impact

on the growth of teenagers."

For society, the training and operation model of

cultivating idols has driven the development of

related cultural industries, such as peripheral

products, concerts, variety shows, films, and

television programs. As part of cultural output, they

can further enhance the soft power of the country and

promote cultural exchanges. Besides these, according

to the current situation of the Chinese market, the

social economic benefits brought by cultivating idols

are also huge. According to the official data, the

anniversary concert held by a cultivating idol group

in China in 2023 brought 416 million yuan in tourism

revenue to the concert venue. The total number of

travel orders in the local area increased by 738% year-

on-year before and after the performance, promoting

the development of local tourism and stimulating the

new development of the cultural and tourism

consumption market (China Newsweek, 2023).

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3.2 The Change of the Proportion of

Various Types of Fans

In this survey, the proportion of girlfriend fans and

CP fans is relatively high, which is different from the

results of previous studies where mom fans were

more numerous. In the questionnaire survey, the

proportion of girlfriend fans was 46.7%, CP fans was

33.96%, and mom fans was 1.89%. (Since this

question was a multiple-choice question, the total

percentage does not add up to 100%.)

In comparison with before, the phenomenon of

younger fans is more obvious, which leads to a certain

degree that more fans are close in age to their idols

and regard them as their fantasy objects, thus

increasing the proportion of girlfriend fans. In

addition, the current company marketing has shifted

from shaping idols as "neighborhood brothers" to

"love objects".

As for the increase in CP fans, the creation of

"idol boy groups through cultivating" has been in line

with the psychology of "fujoshi" since entering the

Chinese market. "Fujoshi" refers to a group of women

who like male homosexual love culture. The close

relationship between the cultivating idols since

childhood has given this group of people a space for

imagination. Therefore, since the cultivating idol

came into the market, the number of CP fans of many

idol groups has increased significantly. And for

economic benefits, the agencies usually secretly

guide the atmosphere between the idols, which is

called "selling fujoshi", thus attracting more CP fans.

According to the results of the questionnaire

survey, the proportion of fans who support the entire

group is 47.17%, while the proportion of fans who

support only one member is 20.28%, and the

proportion of fans who support many members is

16.51%. (Since this question was a multiple-choice

question, the total percentage does not add up to

100%.) As one interviewee put it, "The core of idol

groups developed through the cultivating system lies

in the sense of being a family, which is different from

other idol groups. It is this feeling that attracts fans.

Even though fans may have different favorite idols in

this group, their fans still hope the idols in this group

will stay together forever." Compared with other idol

groups, the cultivating system is more likely to create

the concept of "growing up together as childhood

friends", and thus in people's minds, they are like

family to each other. This perfectly aligns with the

concept of ensemble culture. Nowadays, the term

"ensemble" is frequently mentioned online.

3.3 The Problems of Cultivating an

Idol's Fan Circle

According to the research findings, there are

numerous disputes within the fan circles of

cultivating idols. Based on the results of the

questionnaire survey, when asked "What do you think

of the current situation of the fan circles of cultivating

idols ?", 14.62% of the fans believed that the

atmosphere within the fan circles was harmonious,

while a staggering 85.38% of the fans thought that

disputes occurred frequently within the fan circles.

During the interviews, all three interviewees

mentioned that they felt disputes among fans were

very frequent, the current situation was chaotic and

out of control, and it was prone to lead to many

dangerous behaviors. They all pointed out that "fans

being too young" was the main reason for this

phenomenon. According to the results of the

questionnaire survey, in the age distribution section,

22.64% of the fans were under 15 years old, 43.4%

were between 15 and 20 years old, 25% were between

21 and 25 years old, and 8.96% were over 26 years

old. From this result, it can be seen that the fans are

indeed relatively young.

Regarding the correlation between the low age of

fans and the disputes within the fan circles, where 0

indicates no correlation and 5 indicates extremely

high correlation, the average score for this question

was 3.74, which means 85.38% of the people think

there is a relatively high correlation.

As for the phenomenon of fans being too young,

the young age of the fans themselves makes it easy

for them to post immature comments on the Internet

today, which may lead to conflicts with other fans.

Moreover, the factor of "big fans inciting disputes"

mentioned by two of the interviewees is also closely

related to the low age of fans. The minds of underage

fans are not yet mature, making them easily

influenced by the so-called "big fans" within the fan

circle, thus leading to disputes. Among the

interviewees, there was also a 12-year-old fan who

said that she would read the comments of some big

fans, and most of the time she agreed with them.

When I asked her if she felt that the big fans were

deliberate acts that aim to stir up controversy or

something like that, she said she didn't think so.

Additionally, many idol groups have ranking

systems. Therefore, the solo fans of each idol may

incite disputes with fans of other groups or the

company for reasons such as dissatisfaction with the

resources given to their idols by the company, or to

A Study on the Current Situation of Chinese Native Cultivating Idol Culture

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gain more attention from the company for their idols.

4 DISCUSSION

4.1 The Predicament of the Cultivating

Idol Market

According to the survey results, in the question "How

do you think the Chinese cultivating idol market will

develop in the next few years?", 51.42% of the fans

believe it will face a decline, 27.36% think it will

remain the same, and 21.23% believe it will continue

to expand rapidly.

At present, the development of the Chinese

cultivating system market is still not perfect. People

tend to trust the agencies with a longer history, which

hinders the development of new agencies.

Apart from these, for the cultivating idols

themselves, the resources that the current Chinese

entertainment market can offer to idols are very

limited. Moreover, the positioning of cultivating idols

is all the same, which inevitably makes them

competitors, thus leading to the cultivating idols

getting into a predicament.

4.2 Pay More Attention to the

Cultivating Idols

With the continuous development of entertainment

culture, cultivating idols has become an extremely

important part in promoting the economic

development of the entertainment industry.

Therefore, society needs to pay attention to it.

First, since cultivating idols are usually exposed

to the public at an early age, in China, cultivating

idols typically come into the public eye between the

ages of 10 and 15. Society should provide necessary

protection for minors. Entertainment companies

should reasonably arrange the training and study time

for underage idols, and pay attention to their mental

health. They should also ensure that underage idols

have the right to receive education and try to avoid

wasting their studies due to an early debut. For the

entire industry, the age limit for cultivating idols

should be appropriately raised to avoid excessive

youthfulness. In addition to these, supervision over

agencies should also be strengthened to ensure that

they abide by laws and regulations when signing and

training underage idols.

Second, for the fan circle, both entertainment

companies and the idols themselves should rationally

guide their fans, advocate a healthy star-chasing

culture, and encourage rational consumption to avoid

excessive crazy and blind following. Entertainment

companies should also explicitly prohibit saesang

from following the artists to prevent accidents.

Saesang refers to some overly enthusiastic fans who

usually follow the idols around, take photos of their

private lives without permission, illegally obtain their

private information, frequently call them, and even

break into their private residences, etc (Zhu, 2024).

These behaviors may cause harm to the idols and

others, and entertainment companies should take

certain measures.

5 CONCLUSION

This essay investigates the current status of the fan

groups of cultivating idols, explores the development

of the current cultivating idol market, and presents

four new findings, such as: changes in the fan circles,

problems existing within the fan circles, the positive

impact brought by cultivating idols and the

predicament of the cultivating idol market.

This research, based on the survey results, has put

forward four findings that are different from previous

studies and revealed the current development status

of the cultivating idol culture in China. Regarding the

problems presented in the above findings, the joint

efforts of the agencies, idols, fans, and relevant

departments are still needed to create a better

environment.

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