FEATURE - Chinese Fans Trap Russian Contestant Lelush In Talent Show: Experience Our Sacrifice

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th April, 2021) Wang Xi, a 24-year-old girl from Nanning in southwestern China's Guangxi province, works as a receptionist at a local company in her city. As with many other young college graduates in China, her gruesome schedule at work only allows her to take one day off each week that translates into four days off per month.

When she heard of the opportunity to visit the studio of the popular Chinese talent show called Chuang 2021 and see her favorite idol Lelush, a Russian contestant in the show, Wang did not hesitate to spend all of her four off-days in April for a trip to the Sea Flower Island that hosted the program.

"I could only wait outside of the venue of the talent show and chant his name when Lelush arrived or when he left after the show. He would just glance at me once. That was the closest I got to him, as there were fences and security guards between us," Wang told Sputnik.

But for this feverish Chinese fan of Lelush, such "intimate contact" with her idol was definitely worth spending all of her off-days in April for a four-day trip and having to share a hotel room with a stranger, a fellow Lelush fan, to keep the cost down.

The overnight fame of Lelush, thanks to his "reluctant performance" at the Chuang 2021 talent show, became one of the most intriguing stories in the Chinese entertainment industry in the past two months.

Before becoming a celebrity in China with almost two million followers on social media Weibo, Lelush, whose real name is Vladislav Sidorov, was studying fashion design at Fudan University in Shanghai. The 27-year-old student came from the Russian coastal city of Vladivostok, which neighbors China.

Taking advantage of his Chinese language skills, Lelush initially got involved in the talent show as a translator for two Japanese contestants. Lelush's presence at the boot camp for contestants attracted attention from staff members of Tencent, the Chinese company that runs the talent show.

Under persuasion of Tencent staff members, Lelush agreed to join the talent show as a contestant and sign a contract with the program. But the young Russian regretted this decision almost instantly when he realized he had to be isolated on the Sea Flower Island with other 90 contestants for almost four months, even without access to his smartphone.

If he left the talent show midway, Lelush would face steep financial punishment under the signed contract.

As a result, Lelush tried to put on lackluster performances during the talent show in the hope of being "voted out of the show by fans" early on as an exit strategy. He even went as far as openly expressing his unwillingness to continue on the program during live broadcasts of the show.

When other contestants tried their best with their singing and dance moves to advance further in the competition, Lelush became the only one who tried to perform as bad as he could in order to be voted out of the show.

When he performed a Russian rap song named "Jackpot" on the talent show, his singing was so out of tune that it almost sounded nothing like the original rendition of the song by Russian artist Mr Lambo.

However, Lelush's lackluster performance triggered the exact opposite reaction he had hoped for from Chinese fans of the talent show.

Instead of voting him off the show, the Chinese fans voted for him intentionally to keep him advancing in the competition.

Wang, the fan from Naning, described how Lelush caught her attention and why she wanted to vote to keep him in the show.

"I was scrolling through TikTok around March 22, when I came across a video about Lelush who said he wanted to 'get off work' [leave the show]. When I looked for more videos of his performance, I found out that he was a very interesting person. We [the fans] also just want to have fun. That's why the more he wanted to leave the island, the more we wanted to keep him in the show," she said.

Wang explained that Chinese fans probably wanted to keep Lelush in the show, because many of them also could not "get off work" so easily even if they wanted to.

For Wang, she only had one day off every week and had to sacrifice her four off-days in April for a trip to see Lelush in person.

Despite Lelush's uninspiring performance in the show, Wang decided to join a dedicated fan club called "the Lelush Official Support Group" to rally other fans for him.

The fan club even went as far as paying for big billboards outside major shopping malls in a number of Chinese cities to display huge posters of Lelush. According to Wang, who happens to be in charge of purchasing those commercials, the fan club spent 100,000 Yuan (about $15,460) on those outdoor commercials.

At the same time, the fan club collected almost one million yuan in donations from Lelush fans to pay for additional chances to vote for him and keep him in the talent show.

The surprising support from Chinese fans helped Lelush advance to become one of the last 10 contests in the talent show, while a small group of Twitter users started a #freelelush hashtag as part of their efforts to set him free.

When Lelush became visibly upset after being voted into the top 10 contestants of the show and made another sincere plea to his Chinese fans to stop voting for him, "the Lelush Official Support Group" finally relented and asked other fans to honor his wishes by stopping voting for him.

Eventually, Lelush was voted off the show on Sunday and even the Russian Embassy in China congratulated him on finally being able to "get off work" while wishing him to have good rest.

After living without his smartphone for more than four months, Lelush posted two pictures on his Instagram account on Thursday as he finally became free again.

"[By the way] after 4 month in the show with no phone I lost my skills to take good selfies now," he wrote in the post on Instagram.

Nevertheless, Wang said many Chinese fans of Lelush would definitely continue to support him, after he completed his surprising journey in the talent show.

The Weibo account of "the Lelush Official Support Group" continued to post all the latest update about Lelush, including new interviews he did with Chinese media.

Lelush's fans in China even coined a name for themselves as "bamboo shoots," which sounded like "naughty fans" in Chinese.

As a loyal fan of Lelush, Wang said she would love to learn more about Russian culture and visit the city where her idol grew up in.

"I want to work hard and make money. When there's a chance in the future, I'll definitely visit Russia and check out Lelush's hometown. I want to see the places where he lived and try to understand Russian culture better," she said.

Wang used to be fans of K-pop groups before becoming fascinated with Lelush. She said she was too busy with following Lelush's every move that she had no time to find a boyfriend.

"I feel dating is very tiresome. Chasing an idol requires a lot of efforts, as I need to handle different issues with the fan club. If I begin dating, I need to spare time to spend with my boyfriend and worry about his feelings. We can be upset ourselves sometimes, why do I need to worry about someone else's feelings?" she said.

But when she saw other female fans traveled to talent show with their boyfriends, who supported their obsession about Lelush, Wang said she hoped to find a boyfriend in the future who can be as supportive of her fandom.

"First, he [her future boyfriend] can't be against me chasing my idols. It would be best if he could join me. When I saw those fans who came with their supportive boyfriends, I kind of envied them," she said.

Wang argued that her fandom is similar to the hobbies many men have.

"My fandom about Lelush is not different from the hobbies many guys have such as playing video games or idolizing sports stars. As girls, we also support our boyfriends in those hobbies," she said.

Wang added that she would focus on supporting Lelush first and make visiting his hometown of Vladivostok her short-term goal.