Chinese sports stars have a wide-ranging fan age group, from elementary students to seniors. On the first day of 2025, lawyer Zhang Ping celebrated at the Shanghai Sports Center during the Chinese Table Tennis Super League, witnessing over 70,000 fans welcoming the New Year—tickets priced between 308 yuan and nearly 2,000 yuan sold out in an hour. Zhang describes her ticket-buying experience as 'lucky'. She began following Sun Yingsha since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

During the recent Super League finals featuring national table tennis champions like Wang Manyu, Fan Zhendong, and others, the event generated ticket sales exceeding 30 million yuan (approx. 4.18 million USD), with reports noting that the venue was packed. Zhang admitted to previously not paying much attention to table tennis, but the emergence of Sun and Wang sparked her interest, leading her to support them with merchandise purchases.

In the hometown of Quan Hongchan, fans and media flocked to the small village, causing distress to her family. The controversies among fans reflected in media reports also attracted official attention.

As sports stars rise, national sentiments are being reignited in Chinese culture. The surge in fan culture has turned athletes into commercial icons, with fans like Zhang proudly supporting their beloved stars.

However, the extreme behaviors associated with fan culture have drawn criticism, with the People's Daily repeatedly condemning these phenomena and emphasizing the need for regulation. The government aims to foster athlete stardom as a crucial strategy for sports development and drive the entire sports industry's evolution through commercialization.