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INTERNET SUPERSTAR

Understanding the obsession with making and breaking online celebrities

一朝受寵名利雙收，不慎隕落罵名滾滾。

究竟是我們消費(fèi)了“網(wǎng)紅”，還是“網(wǎng)紅”消費(fèi)了我們？

IN CHINA, THE WORLD THAT EXISTS ONLINE CAN SOMETIMES SEEM MORE REAL THAN THE WORLD THAT EXISTS AROUND US. THERE, ONE CAN BE WHO THEY LIKE AND EXPRESS WHAT THEY LIKE—FOR A WHILE ANYWAY. AND, IN THIS ODD COMMUNITY OF CYBER CITIZENS, A FEW INDIVIDUALS ARE BUILT INTO STATUES OF INTERNET GODS OF BEAUTY, WIT, AND MORALITY, ONLY TO BE CRUSHED BY THE JUDGMENTS OF THOSE WHO BUILT THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. THIS MODERN PHENOMENON HAS GIVEN RISE TO HOUSEHOLD NAMES, BOOKS, FILMS, AND EVEN AN ECONOMY THAT FLOURISHES WHEN THE FAME BURNS BRIGHT AND LASTS LONG AFTER IT FADES. IN MANY WAYS CHINA’S INTERNET REALM IS UNIQUELY ISOLATED, WHICH MAKES IT AN INTERESTING PLACE TO SEE KINGS AND QUEENS RISE, FLOURISH, AND FALL.