Over the course of 2021, numerous brands have found themselves embroiled in a contentious new era in China, reports Jing Daily. For luxury and fashion brands that now see China as crucial to their post-COVID recovery, 2021 has been a particularly challenging year, as government regulators turned their attention from tech and business towards cracking down on China’s flourishing celebrity culture and enthusiastic fan economy. In recent years, Chinese celebrities have become tremendously influential thanks to the rise of domestic social media and content platforms such as Weibo, Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese counterpart), and Bilibili. Chinese government regulators were bound to step in at some point. As a result, China’s vibrant and sometimes unruly fan culture, coupled with a spate of celebrity scandals, have provided Beijing with an opportunity to take a more forceful approach than in years past. Since spring 2021, government regulators have intensified their crackdown on celebrities deemed controversial, as well as fan clubs and celebrity agencies, culminating in a ban on all celebrity ranking lists on social media and multiple celebrity scandals that saw actress Zheng Shuang hit with a US$46 million fine for tax evasion and other performers detained or forced to apologise for activities deemed controversial by authorities.