Idolatry is a common phenomenon in society, especially among adolescents. Throughout the process of reform and opening up, pop culture has established itself in China and so idols for Chinese teenagers have been formed.

This new fan culture mainly draws its subjects from the world of entertainment. The worshiping of such figures is easily cultivated as young people are often very impressionable and it is possible that such role models can be used to help establish moral principles.

However, young people's attention needs to be shifted from this narrow perspective of entertainment to broader horizons. Alternative models who reflect the spirit of the times should be admired.

Families, schools and societies should all educate young people to think rationally about the role models they look up to. And effective measures are going to be adopted to resist fan culture being used to exploit people for economic gains.

Utilization of capital on fan culture should be based on comprehensive understanding. In addition, the governance of modernized culture needs to be systematically realized through the scientific and standardized development of networks.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article published in Guangming Daily on November 22)