Author: Natsuno
Editor: Ya Ting
When Ling Na Belle's popularity gradually subsided, "Shanghai Disney" appeared on the Weibo hot search list because of the sale.
On December 29, the "2021 Duffy and Friends Christmas Series" inventory was put on sale, and at 3 a.m., thousands of visitors lined up in front of Shanghai Disney. The popularity of these Disney "love beans" does not seem to be affected by the "lower head" storm some time ago.
Looking back at the roller coaster of Lingna Belle's popularity on the Chinese Internet, from September 30, when it became popular, to December 6, there was a large-scale "lower head" incident. In 67 days, many people have not even understood the reason for her popularity, and they have to face all the controversies she has caused.
We are no strangers to this situation, but the protagonist of this hot search has changed from a traffic star in the past to a pink fox.
"Iris" once pointed out the main characteristics of Lingna Belle's three images in a review article: a sweet and cute fox idol, a successful marketing case, and a doll that masked the sweat and blood of laborers. Behind these three images, there are also three important characteristics of Lingna Belle that have aroused public opinion: beautiful appearance, extremely high commercial value, dehumanization and masked labor.
This seems very familiar, and in the idol draft industry, which was abruptly suspended in May this year, we have seen many young people who overlap with these characteristics.
In the era of the barbaric growth of idol drafts, as the draft players began to be exposed on a large scale, for more than two months, the topics and controversies of the contestants always occupied a place on the social media hot search list. Until the next draft horn blows and more young names flock to it, the young people who rose to fame in the previous round will disappear with the heat tide.
Of all the ways the heat recedes, only "passing" can be called a full-body retreat. More people's topic heat will end on issues that symbolize the exit of the world, such as collapsed houses, black history or "lower head". It seems that there is an urgent need for an "idol that will not collapse" in the field of public opinion.
And Lingna Belle came. Even if she doesn't have a stiff expression because of her bad mood, she doesn't have to worry about black history from the past, and it seems that she has no "collapse" troubles caused by conflicts with inappropriate behavior. After 67 days, she still let people "go down".
This makes people wonder why Chinese idols always leave the scene in the form of a head or a collapsed house, and even a seemingly invulnerable doll fox finally has to face this problem?
Our lack of a unified concept and understanding of idols across generations allows us to judge and recognize the standards of action of idols, often later than the real needs.
In The Grooming of the Mind: The Commercialization of Human Emotions, Hawkheeld first pointed out three characteristics of emotional labor: First, the workers who provide emotional labor need to have face-to-face or voice-to-face contact with the public. Second, emotional labor requires the worker to produce an emotional state in other people—gratitude, fear, or affection. Finally, emotional labor requires employers to exercise a degree of control over the emotional activities of workers through training and supervision.
Emotional labor is common in all industries, including the service industry, but in the entertainment industry in East Asia, the most closely related to emotional labor is Japan's long-established idol industry.
Japan's entertainment industry is very mature and detailed, singers, actors, funny artists have a clear classification, "idols" is also a distinct branch of it. Idol artists are also highly self-aware of their identity as "idols".
In her related research, Zhao Jing briefly sorted out the transformation process of Japanese idols: from the 1970s to the 1990s, Japanese idols experienced genre changes from "Flowers of Koryo" to "Neighbor Love Beans". In the early 1990s, Japan's bubble economy collapsed, and society was shrouded in negative emotions, and active artists moved to the pro-people route, bringing psychological comfort to the people. It was also during this period that idols began to have unique character settings, and idols no longer sold their talents, but used stories to seek sympathy and empathy from the audience.
Founded in 1999, the Japanese group ARASHI
In addition to Japan, the development of Korean idols also has a very profound impact on the Chinese entertainment industry. From the 1990s to the present, from H.O.T. to Dongfang Shenqi, Super Junior and Girls' Generation, to EXO, Bigbang and bulletproof youth groups, the changes of Korean idol groups can also be traced in our collective memory. In the Korean entertainment industry, idols also have fairly clear identity labels and independent evaluation systems.
Only in China, "idol artists" do not have the opportunity to have evaluation standards and systems that are recognized by society. Young idol artists, like Lingna Belle, have a highly commercialized, dehumanized "traffic" synonym. The difference is that they are also determined to get rid of the labels of "traffic artist" and "idol".
China's concept of "idols" has undergone a relatively chaotic development process. From the spiritual leaders with political implications in the 1970s to the advanced representatives and ideological models of the 1980s, to the entertainment stars represented by the "Little Tigers" in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1990s, the connotation of "idol" has continuously expanded its connotation with economic development and opening up to the outside world, even if only within the entertainment industry, the meaning of idol has never been clearly recognizable.
The generation of artists closest to the Japanese and Korean idol systems began to develop in the early 21st century, represented by S.H.E, 183Club, Supreme Lihe and other combinations, but at this time, artists with good creative ability such as Jay Chou, Lin Junjie, jolin Tsai were also generally included in the scope of "young idols".
Debuted in S.H.E. in 2001
This classification blurred the boundaries between singers, actors and idols at the beginning of development. At this time, Chinese audiences classified idols into the general scope of young artists, and naturally expected them to have "national degree" and excellent works.
Since 2004's "Super Girl", a number of talent shows have sent many artists who have been active in the Chinese entertainment industry, but they have gained popularity for different reasons. Some people are because of their excellent singing ability, and some people are because of their unique personal temperament and style. In 2014, the popularity of TFBOYS made "cultivating idols" appear in the mainstream vision for the first time, and also triggered various discussions and controversies. After this, the draft idols of the 101 series also have to face the criticism of "no popularity and no works".
To this day, there is still a lack of independent evaluation system for "idols" within China's mainstream values and entertainment circles, and the value of the emotional companionship provided by such idols for fans has never been recognized. To a certain extent, this concept has become an important motivation for fans to "make data" for their own love beans, proving that their idols are "works" and "worthy of being loved".
For China's idol artists themselves, "being an idol" has never been a long-term solution. They themselves hope to participate in better film and television works, create more national songs, obtain recognized "actor" and "singer" status, and get rid of the label of "idol".
Japan's Genius ARASHI debuted in 1999, from the group's inception to the end of 2020 announced the suspension of team activities, they have been active in the Japanese performing arts industry for more than 20 years. But in China, no one would think that idol groups can survive in the entertainment industry for 20 years. Not only are we accustomed to idol groups of "Moon Throw" and "Year Throw", but TFBOYS, who once shouted "Ten Year Covenant", is now difficult to see three people on the same stage.
Debuted at TFBOYS in 2013
Left behind by the "Chinese speed" of the idol industry is not only a layer of young waves, but also an emotional need that is not recognized and respected. To this day, mainstream values still stubbornly believe that artists can only naturally have legitimacy through works that are recognized by mainstream values.
Most people, even artists themselves and fans, are reluctant to admit that even if idols don't have so-called successful works, their stories, unique personalities, and the time they spend with us are enough reasons for us to pay for love.
Disneyland and the "Dream Kingdom" it built are also built by the emotional labor of the entire park staff. For this world-renowned theme park, the most important thing is to provide visitors with an immersive park experience. This places entirely new demands on employees working at Disney — not only employees in their roles, but also employees in other positions who need to join the big, well-coordinated show.
In an interview with Positive Connections, employees who have played dolls at Disneyland mentioned that working at Disney is even more important than the language requirements. This passion means "believing in magic, protecting magic, and merging with the magical world of Disney."
Disneyland is committed to creating the illusion that all exuberant, fairytale-like emotional needs can be met here. Lingna Belle was born under this concept.
Countless sweet and cute short videos together form the perfect image of Lingna Belle's closeness, liveliness and agility, and she seems to have the ability to provide continuous emotional support to all audiences. In those clips that are repeatedly split and edited, she is a beautiful fox full of energy: she will be annoyed and spoiled, and most importantly, she will remember small promises to her fans, responding to their questions and calls with enthusiastic body movements.
The image of Lingna Belle in the minds of the vast majority of viewers is an imitation of the most beautiful fragments in the short video, and behind this image is the mimetic intimacy that fans have built with her through social media.
Viewers and consumers support the popularity of this image with video views, a strong desire to buy, and a high degree of enthusiasm for discussion, while the crisis is also buried in the cracks of the perfect image. Lingna Belle screened out the boredom and only the sweet human setting, laying the fuse for the "lower head" storm that later caused controversy.
For the perfect image constructed by the short video, the rupture is almost inevitable, which is also the root cause of Lingna Belle's "lower head". There is a desire to satisfy an infinite positive emotional need in her, but this need rests on the perfect image of her inevitable rupture. When a rift arises, disappointment becomes a matter of course. This loss usually does not involve real legal or moral issues, but only the gaps and deviations in our cognition through network construction.
On December 6, a visitor came to Shanghai Disneyland on her birthday, and in order to meet her favorite Lingna Belle, she and her friends lined up for two hours, and the final meeting experience was not satisfactory. In the tens of seconds of the tourist's video, Ling Na Belle not only urged her to leave, but also posed angrily as she stomped her feet.
The tourist's garden experience and video eventually fermented into a hot search for "Ling Na Belle's head" on Weibo, and then similar videos appeared on the video website. Not only that, but this video also kicked off the controversy about Lingna Belle. People were surprised to find that the fox doll's fan base had been refined to the extent of distinguishing the actors.
In response to this controversy, some fans who like Lingna Belle called the staff who played the doll "inner tank", believing that this incident was a problem of "inner tank" and had nothing to do with Ling Na Belle. The dehumanized title of "inner tank" has made more people aware of the absurdity of this controversy, and has also brought this controversy to a more far-reaching place.
Shanghai Disneyland Photo/Xiao Luo
In the face of controversy and loss caused by the rupture of the perfect image, we may first see the most intuitive reasons. We will naturally think that we have paid such sincere emotions and paid the consumption we deserve, and we deserve the "response we deserve" in our imagination.
But in fact, the object of the vast majority of the audience's emotions is the perfect image constructed from the short video. After getting used to this only sweet image, we overlook the specific situation that the actor may face as an employee and a laborer.
Corresponding to exuberant emotional needs is endless emotional labor, and the capital that creates this model of labor.
Through video and interaction, countless viewers and tourists have gained the healing power and emotional motivation to support their lives. We should not refuse to acknowledge the importance of this emotional companionship, but we also need to recognize the boundaries of the "dream kingdom" that Disney has constructed. What Disney obscures with pink castles and fireworks, and all that sounds so good, is the myth of consumerism and the value of the emotional labor of the staff.
Capital is always doing everything in its power to create the perfect image that meets the needs, trying to build the illusion that everything from appearance to personality is impeccable. We invest sincere emotions and huge consumption in this image, but when the anti-phagocytosis of the image rupture comes, capital can disappear into invisibility and leave the consequences to a specific staff member.
Such an approach is undoubtedly a contempt for the idol image and fan emotions. When round after round of emotional disillusionment comes, the names of one idol after another disappear with the so-called "lower head" iteration, reflecting the dehumanizing characteristics of the entire idol production system. We, as consumers, have reason to ask them to build a more reliable and reasonable system, rather than just throwing controversy at fans and employees to bear.