(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-28 16:52

Almost all her waking hours Peng Yu is hooked online, putting up Internet postings and chatting endlessly with friends she's never met.

The 16-year-old secondary schooler in Chengdu, southwestern Sichuan Province, attends parties on weekends with complete strangers who end up as close friends. They are brought together by their common idol, a swanky 23-year-old who has chalked up runner-up in China's "Happy Boys" singing contest, the all-male answer to "American Idol".

For more than three months, Peng and her friends expressed their admiration and canvassed support for Su Xing, a champion hopeful from Xi'an. They spent hours persuading friends, parents and men on the street to vote for him.

In the critical stages of the contest when votes received via text messages were counted, aggressive girls even snatched phones from strangers in the street to send messages in support of their idol.

When Su lost the finale last Friday by half a million votes to 26-year-old Chen Chusheng, his fans felt greatly depressed but found comfort in pledging their support with more postings on the Internet and gatherings in his name.

"Happy Boys" was the successor to Hunan Satellite TV's smash hit "Super Girls", whose finale drew one of the largest audiences in Chinese history last year, with an estimated 400 million viewers tuning in.

These reality shows, while enabling many self-made singers to find instant fame, have nurtured a new culture, which features "fen si", the Chinese transliteration for "fans".

For urban youngsters like Peng Yu, to be someone's fan is a way of socializing and getting acquainted with new friends. "Your world becomes bigger when you have an idol," she said. "It's full of fun in a new circle."

The end of a contest does not mean the end of their friendship, says Liu Xiao, who heads a team of Su Xing's supporters in Chengdu.

The 400-member team still chat online daily and some of them manage to meet about once a week. "We have a lot in common and therefore enjoy being together."

Two years after Li Yuchun rocketed to fame by victory in "Super Girls", the slim girl from southwestern Sichuan Province remains a pop icon with her fans.

"We still gather together once or twice a month and chat endlessly about her," said Guangzhou office worker Jiang Linjuan. Among her group of Li's fans are students, teachers, accountants and journalists, aged from 15 to 40, she said.

A sociologist says the "fans culture" represents a new lifestyle. "It's quite natural because these avid fans, often youngsters in cities, are at an idol worshipping age," said Hu Guangwei, a researcher with the Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

He said most of these youngsters are getting tired of the monotonous life between home and school and are eager to have some exciting new experience. Loneliness as the only child at home also prompts them to find new friends.

But idol worship today means more than a buying spree of posters and albums in the 1990s. "Avid fans follow their idols wherever they go," said Hu.

Throughout his contest, "Happy Boys" champion Chen Chusheng was followed by crowds of admirers traveling from every corner of the nation to cheer him up.

"We didn't use to know each other but we feel like old friends when we cheered and applauded for our common hero," said Cao Yongchun, a chief designer of a Beijing advert firm. She flew to Changsha every Friday the past weeks to watch her idol's live performances.

What binds the young fans together is their common pursuit of friendship and recognition, says Prof. Xia Xueluan, a sociologist with Beijing University. "When they find their common hero, they feel this is the small society where they belong to."

Their sunny, talented and confident idols are apparently trend-setters in today's society that encourages open and fair competition, says Wei Wenbin, director of Hunan provincial radio and television bureau.

"When we were growing up in the 1950s, we were told never to talk loudly or to show our teeth when we smiled," he said. "That was incredible for today's Super Girls and Happy Boys."

But some obstinate fans have apparently gone too far.

A 29-year-old woman's obsessive pursuit of Hong Kong movie star Andy Lau ended in tragedy this year after her father committed suicide.

Yang Lijuan, from the northwestern Gansu Province, had been infatuated with Lau since the age of 16 when she dropped out of school to become what she termed a "full-time fan".

Her obsession crippled her family's finances and her father had sold the house and even thought of selling one of his kidneys to fund his daughter's "career".

The tragedy has triggered an outcry from experts and the public over youngsters' idol worship, and critics have questioned the younger generation's faith and objectives in an open and more tolerant society.

A survey among 3,000 primary and secondary schoolers in Gansu Province last year found 98 percent of the respondents worshipped pop singers or film or soccer stars.

Ten years back, Chinese youngsters used to worship statesmen and scientists.