In China's social media universe, celebrities are often assumed to set the tone for millions of adoring followers. But a new study led by the University of Michigan shows the dynamic works the other way around: When it comes to online nationalism, fans are the ones leading-and stars are following.
The study, published in Science Advances, analyzed more than 8 million posts and comments on Weibo, China's largest microblogging platform. It found that fans' nationalistic messages consistently predicted an increase in celebrities' patriotic posts, while celebrity messaging had little measurable effect on their audiences.
"We tend to think of influence as flowing from the top down-from elites to ordinary people," said Ji Yeon Hong, U-M associate professor of political science and lead author of the study. "Our findings suggest that, in China's social media environment, the flow can also go upward. Celebrities are responding to what their fans want to hear."
Hong and co-authors Yong Kim of Texas A&M University, Han Zhang of Brown University and Tianzhu Qin of the University of Cambridge examined celebrity-fan interaction in 2019, focusing on the period before and after the onset of the anti- government protests in Hong Kong, when nationalistic expressions surged on Chinese social media.
While many observers have viewed this wave as largely state-driven propaganda, Hong's team found that grassroots enthusiasm among fans played a far more active role: As fan nationalism rose, celebrities followed suit.
"Fans are not passive consumers of celebrity messaging," she said. "They actively shape the tone and language of online nationalism, creating expectations that celebrities feel pressure to meet."
The research also uncovered sharp divisions among user groups. Celebrities and fans were categorized into two political camps: state-conformists, who generally align with official government positions, and nonconformists, who express more independent or pro-democracy leanings.
Within the state-conformist camp, fan nationalism strongly predicted celebrities' future posts, reinforcing patriotic messaging. In the nonconformist camp, however, no relationship existed, suggesting that entertainers with opposite political leanings did not communicate with fans using nationalistic messages.
Cross-camp influence was nearly nonexistent. Messages from state-aligned users did not sway those in nonconformist circles, and vice versa, confirming the "echo-chamber effect," in which social media users mostly interact with like-minded communities, amplifying shared beliefs rather than fostering debate.
The study sheds light on how fan culture-often centered on pop idols, television stars and influencers-has become intertwined with politics in China. Online fan clubs routinely mobilize around causes that blend entertainment with patriotic fervor, from defending Chinese actors criticized abroad to promoting pro-government hashtags.
For instance, when actress Liu Yifei-star of Disney's movie Mulan-posted support for the Hong Kong police during the 2019 protests, her comments triggered significant backlash in Hong Kong and among international audiences, including calls to boycott the Mulan film. On the Chinese mainland, however, her Weibo page quickly filled with praise and encouragement from fans who defended her stance, turning the episode into a flashpoint of nationalist pride.
While the study focuses on China's digital environment, the authors argue that similar fan-driven feedback loops may influence political communication in democratic societies as well. In democracies, where celebrities have greater freedom to speak, fan pressures may lead to a wider range of political expression-with some choosing to stay apolitical while others openly voice opposing political views.
"Bottom-up pressure from fans can shape celebrity behavior in any political system," Hong said. "The difference lies in how much room public figures have to respond-or to resist."
