Conversation with a buddy who stans Z with me. Z is an artist with a lot of fan problems.
Me: Wang Kai did x, y, z as soon as he was famous to tell fans what he wants from them without having fans lose face.
Buddy: How can you even stand fanning Z after stanning someone as impressive as Wang Kai?

The more I fan other artists and hear about how fans can be setbacks to the artists, the more I’m impressed by everything that Wang Kai has done to guide his fans on the path he wants, so here’s a list of actions Wang Kai executed masterfully in his first year of fame to tell his fans exactly what he wants out of them. If you follow gossip sites, all this was done while Wang Kai was dealing with a huge smear campaign in November.

Obviously, because so many of these actions have become embedded in fan culture and the scalping business, it’s both difficult and costly for any artist to try and refuse them. I don’t really hold it against artists for not being able to do what Wang Kai has done (also I would have to unfan a bunch of people if did, and I need internal consistency), but I have mad respect for Wang Kai for sticking with his own rules and actually reinforcing them in the nicest way possible.