When Song sent me the video it was in the middle of a flood of messages about everything and mostly nothing and I almost ignored it. Recorded more than a decade ago, it showed him performing at art school in a musical that he wrote, directed and choreographed himself, also playing the leading role.
Set in the 1980s, the show featured music from the period and Song was singing Winter Fire, a Chinese adaptation of Sexy Music by the Nolans, which was a hit in China in 1987. Backed by six dancers dutifully going through their steps, he was in a different league as a performer, his singing pitch perfect and his dance moves full of energy and verve.
“You are such a star,” I told him, and the screaming from the audience in the video suggested that they thought so too.
Song loves praise and my compliment prompted him to look for more by posting the video on WeChat on Sunday night, picking up a few likes from his closest friends. An hour later, he received a message from the social media platform saying they had selected his video for promotion and within a few hours it was viewed 600,000 times.
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By the time we met for breakfast on Tuesday morning, the video had notched up more than five million views and Song was so excited that he was unable to eat. When he told me he now had 82,000 followers on his WeChat channel, I asked him how many there had been on Sunday.
“Forty-nine. Just my parents really, a few old friends and you,” he said.
An analysis of the viewers showed that the greatest number were over 60 and the comments showed that most thought the video dated from the 1980s and that Song himself must be their age by now.
“They say I’m better than anyone who was in the Chinese New Year gala on television this year and that none of the performers today have any personality,” he said.
“The haters are there too saying I’m ugly but I don’t care.”
Song’s overnight social media success was shared among my friends in Beijing, a number of whom spend hours each week crafting elaborate videos that struggle to reach triple figures in views. But it came at the same time as the downfall of actor Li Mingde offered a reminder of the perils of social media stardom.
Li announced last month that he was quitting the entertainment industry after a studio representing another actor, Ma Tianyu, sued him for defamation.
Li had accused the team behind his new television drama, The Triple Echo of Time, of discriminating against him and forcing him out of the show because he was outshining Ma.
“From today onwards, I will no longer post anything about the crew. I will leave it to the law. I shall bear all the consequences alone,” he said in a statement.
“Moreover: I just want to return to the life of an ordinary person, be an ordinary person and support myself with my own hard work. Don’t criticise me any more. I also need to survive. I’m no longer a ‘star’. I am now migrant worker little Li in Beijing. Just to let you know.”
The controversy caught fire on social media and public sympathy was initially with Li, who portrayed himself as a penniless underdog battling against powerful figures in the industry who were living the high life. He asserted that he had only RMB186.63 (€24.50) in his bank account but said he had bought coffee for the show’s crew out of his own pocket.
“I’m barefoot while you’re wearing shoes,” he said, suggesting that he would fight back against those he claimed were trying to sabotage his career.
The story topped Weibo’s hot search list 99 times in two days and Li gained more than 10 million followers on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, as he presented himself as “a lone fighter against capital”.
It all started to go wrong when he broadcast a live stream on Douyin, claiming that he didn’t want to accept money but neglecting to switch off the reward function so that he earned RMB328,000 (€43,000).
Social media users dug up evidence that he had worn expensive clothes and had once driven a luxury car and the crew from the television show claimed that he was often late and had damaged hotel property. On Monday, after social media had comprehensively turned against Li, his ex-girlfriend said he had hit cats and dogs and been abusive to staff and suggested that he had “persecution delusions”.
On Thursday, police in Beijing said that Li had been placed under criminal detention for allegedly damaging a car that was parked in the wrong place by kicking the doors and smashing side mirrors while under the influence of alcohol.
