They don’t exist. They can’t love us back. And yet, fictional characters hold a strange power over us that real people often don’t. We laugh with them, cry for them, and fiercely defend them in online debates as if they were of flesh and blood.
The attempt to control fandom culture is part of the matrix of supressing youth entertainment in China, including severe restrictions on online gaming. Some like David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project partnered by the University of Hong Kong, say all this talk of rescuing Chinese youth from their own appetites is in fact a smokescreen for a far more serious purpose.
