Olympics: Behave yourselves, China tells its sports fans

This is the latest in Beijing’s crackdown on what it calls “toxic” celebrity culture.

Previously, China has seen the banning of celebrity rankings, the restructuring of fan clubs, and the regular scrubbing of “harmful” content from fan pages.

In the last few days, the state-run Global Times newspaper published several articles denouncing “fan culture” in sports.

One of its reports said “numerous Chinese people” were now worried about “the visibly aggressive fan culture that threatens to erode the sporting world”.

In addition to inflammatory comments directed at sporting personalities, authorities have also criticised fans who cheer loudly or use flash photography during matches, and those who profit by selling memorabilia signed by athletes.

“The [fan culture] not only affects the training and competition of Chinese athletes, but also seriously affects the reputation of Chinese sports,” state news agency Xinhua said in a video report on Wednesday.

Shanghai Daily published a commentary urging social media platforms to “enforce strict policies against malicious behaviours” and sporting organisations to “take a firm stance against… fan mania”.

Chinese authorities had warned against “fan culture” even before the Paris Olympics.

Late last year, the Chinese Olympic Committee and General Administration of Sport of China told fans off after repeated incidents of them filming and following athletes.

“It seems that these ‘low-level fans’ are driven by their love for idols and impulsively make irrational actions that endanger the normal order of events, public order and good customs, sportsmanship and social morality,” they had said in a joint statement.

Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the committee warned Chinese Olympians not to get involved in fan clubs, adding that it wants to “resolutely put an end to the spread of the chaos of fan culture to the field of sports”.

The athletes themselves have said they want to be treated with “respect”. Veteran table tennis player Deng Yaping, for instance, had urged fans to “express our preferences without attacking others”.

She added: “We must respect each other and leave space for everyone.”

Additional reporting by Ian Tang