A slew of each supportive and hateful on-line feedback over Hong Kong pop singer Keung To’s latest fall into the ocean displays divided public opinion and the social media pressures younger stars face, a psychiatrist and a cultural commentator have mentioned.
Specialists who spoke to the Publish mentioned social media was a “double-edged sword” that allowed younger celebrities to attach with their followers whereas rising their direct publicity to hostility, a problem not confronted by stars within the pre-internet period.
After Keung, a member of widespread Cantopop boy band Mirror, fell into the waters off Sai Wan on Tuesday afternoon, followers flocked to his social media account to depart supportive feedback wishing him a speedy restoration.
However the 26-year-old singer was additionally on the receiving finish of malicious feedback from on-line customers cursing him and mocking his mishap.
Dr Chan Kai-tai, medical skilled marketing consultant on the Chinese language College of Hong Kong’s division of psychiatry, mentioned that with digitalisation, public opinion in the direction of celebrities had turn into extremely polarised, however famous the phenomenon was not distinctive to the town.
Prior to now, Hong Kong’s “4 Heavenly Kings” – Andy Lau Tak-wah, Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, Leon Lai Ming and Aaron Kwok Fu-shing – who dominated the Cantopop world within the Eighties and Nineties, had been extra closely protected against the general public, with their firms and managers performing as a buffer, Chan mentioned.
