For celebrities working in China’s fast-paced entertainment industry, fame can be a double-edged sword that elevates careers one moment and brings them crashing down the next. Veteran Chinese television host Xie Na learned this harsh lesson recently, when her highly anticipated first nationwide singing tour was derailed by widespread public backlash and official criticism, resulting in the abrupt cancellation of its opening Beijing show.
Xie Na has been a household name in Chinese entertainment for more than 20 years, best known for her two-decade run as a core cast member of *Happy Camp*, one of China’s most beloved long-running variety shows. After starting her career with small acting roles, her outgoing, energetic personality and sharp comedic timing turned her into one of the country’s most recognizable media personalities. But for years, she held an unfulfilled personal goal: to build a career as a professional singer.
In April, she made that dream public in a post on Chinese social platform Weibo, announcing her first run of solo concerts would kick off in Chengdu, the booming cultural hub of southwest China. “This year, I finally get the chance to chase this dream seriously,” she wrote. When tickets went on sale shortly after the announcement, thousands of seats sold out within minutes, a result that even caught Xie by surprise. Eight minutes after sales opened, she shared on Weibo: “My hands are still trembling, the tickets are all gone.”
The two Chengdu shows, held in May, drew enthusiastic support from her loyal fanbase, with special nostalgic guest appearances from Xie’s celebrity friends that boosted her confidence. After the performances ended, a giddy Xie shared her surprise at her own vocal performance during a livestream with fans. “By the final song, I wasn’t even out of breath,” she joked, adding that she could have been a “pop queen” before asking her audience: “Do you think I can pull off a whole national tour?”
Buoyed by the warm reception in Chengdu, Xie and her team quickly moved forward with plans for a multi-city national tour, opening with a stop in Beijing. Tickets were priced between 380 and 1,180 yuan (equivalent to $52 to $174 USD). But almost immediately after the tour announcement, public opinion began to shift dramatically against the project.
Online critics questioned whether Xie had the vocal talent to justify a full concert tour, with many arguing she was leaning on the star power of her celebrity friends to draw crowds rather than standing on her own musical merit. Others went further, accusing her of launching the tour solely to cash in on her existing fame for quick profits. As discontent grew, some social media users claimed they had filed official complaints alleging the tour had not secured proper regulatory permits, and a viral screenshot showed an unsolicited message sent to Xie’s husband Zhang Jie, a well-known professional singer, urging him to “control your wife.”
What might have stayed just online chatter gained new weight when Chinese state media and official outlets joined the criticism, issuing sharp public rebukes. An opinion piece published last month by a department of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee argued that Xie’s tour raised suspicions that she was chasing profits rather than fulfilling a personal artistic dream. The piece framed the controversy as a warning: “Shallow, superficial popularity cannot generate sustainable profit, and it will also lead to an overall loss of cultural refinement.”
Shortly after that commentary ran, China’s official state newspaper *People’s Daily* published another editorial criticizing an unnamed “popular host with no well-known original musical works,” warning that while genuine excellence earns long-term public recognition, “those who gain fame without real skill will eventually run into trouble.”
The mounting public and official pressure ultimately forced the tour’s cancellation. Over the weekend, Xie’s event organizer announced the opening Beijing show would be scrapped, and all purchased tickets would be fully refunded. It remains unclear whether the cancellation came as a direct government order; Xie herself has not issued any public comment on the controversy to date.
Industry analysts note the backlash is not an isolated incident, but a reflection of growing shifts in public attitudes toward celebrity culture in China. Dr. Jian Xu, an associate professor specializing in Chinese internet and pop culture at Australia’s Deakin University, suggests the cancellation may have been a calculated risk management move by Xie’s team and event organizers, rather than a forced cancellation. He adds that the public anger toward Xie reflects widespread growing resentment toward celebrities seen as cashing in on their social media fame without delivering equivalent skill or value.
Xie is far from the only celebrity to face this kind of backlash recently. Just weeks before her controversy, acclaimed Chinese singer Han Hong faced public anger after she promoted a new spy thriller film and urged fans to “give me some face” to support the movie, leading to accusations of emotional manipulation that forced her to issue a public apology.
Xu also argues that the outrage over Xie’s tour has become an outlet for broader social and economic frustrations among young Chinese people. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of young people in China have faced soaring youth unemployment, stagnant wage growth, and broader economic uncertainty. Against that backdrop, celebrities who appear to earn large sums of money easily through their fame have become a natural target for public anger.
In recent years, Chinese social media has increasingly targeted public figures perceived to hold unfair privilege. Last year, a rising young actress had her name removed from the credits of an upcoming drama after online users accused her of using her mother’s industry connections to secure a spot at a top drama school. Just a month before that, another actress faced widespread online backlash after being photographed wearing luxury earrings reportedly worth more than the average Chinese worker’s annual salary.
Zichen Wang, founder of the *Pekingnology* newsletter, notes that criticism of celebrities has become one of the safest outlets for public frustration in China. “It allows people to voice their anger over questions of competence, privilege, wealth and social fairness without directly addressing more sensitive political topics,” he explained in an interview with the BBC. “It lets people direct their anger at a target that is not in the seat of power.”
But Wang also raises important questions about where the line between public criticism and public cancellation should lie. “A society is allowed to have strong opinions about personal taste, but taste should not be turned into administrative power, or an excuse to use it,” he said. “Personal dislike should not translate into the power to cancel someone entirely.”
That debate has already emerged among Chinese social media users discussing Xie’s controversy. “If you don’t like it, just don’t buy a ticket and don’t follow it, why do you get to control what other people spend their money on?” one user wrote on Weibo. Another commented: “If her singing is bad and she holds a concert, she should face the consequences of the market, not public humiliation and a total cancellation.”