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Why Rui En needs a fan club

SINGAPORE — If all 584,000 of actress Rui En’s Facebook followers decided to form a nation of their own, its population would be bigger than those of Iceland, Greenland and the Seychelles combined.

SINGAPORE — If all 584,000 of actress Rui En’s Facebook followers decided to form a nation of their own, its population would be bigger than those of Iceland, Greenland and the Seychelles combined.

Does it necessarily follow that Rui En is excellent at her job? Or should the credit go to her fan club?

Fan clubs are seen as a star’s personal army, or volunteer corps, if you will, with the most effective ones working systematically to boost their favourite stars’ power and popularity.

They do this by tweeting, giving out flyers and banners at fan meets, or by turning up and cheering for their idol at concerts or road shows. And in a business as competitive as the entertainment industry, every single scream can help an artiste’s career.

Take Rui En’s fan club called RBKD. It was formed in 2008 during a “lull” in the actress’ career, with the express purpose of “adding value to her career”. Helming the club is 27-year-old club president Peh Xinyi, who leads the club’s 80 to 100 members in its day-to-day activities. These includes cheering at Rui En’s events, organising orientation sessions and fan gatherings, as well as updating its social media pages with photos and news clippings of the actress for the supporters not in the club — even though Rui En herself does not use social media.

And RBKD (it stands for “rui bu ke dang”, or “the unstoppable Rui”) is incredibly organised. It has developed a system to make any tweet about the actress trend on Twitter and is only one of two fan clubs for a MediaCorp artiste registered officially under Singapore’s Registry of Societies. (The other belongs to Fann Wong’s Fannatic Fan Club.) Mind you, Peh doesn’t have direct access to Rui En and isn’t paid for her efforts. So why do this?

“I think we have this affinity,” she explained. “There are many actors and actresses out there who can act — but she is the one who connected with us. To me, that is the difference.

“What I appreciate about RBKD’s members is that they see coming into the fan club as a means by which they can contribute (to her career).”

A year after RBKD formed, Rui En won the Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste award at the Star Awards and has done so every year. Coincidence?

ARE FAN CLUBS STILL RELEVANT?

But even an established fan club like RBKD has to struggle with the perennial question of its existence, particularly with the advent of social media.

“Social media is very immediate,” said actress and director Michelle Chong, who added that she does not have a fan club because she is “over that age group”. “For example, if I were doing a TV show or variety show, my fans would only get to know about it when it comes out weeks or months later. But (with social media), I can get reactions right away. If I post a movie trailer, I can (tell) whether people like it or not,” she said.

“The fans must be relatively young to have the time to get together to do stuff for their idols,” she added. “I think my fans are from all walks of life and the way they support me is by watching my movies or television shows.”

However, some younger stars disagree. Shane Pow, who began his career as an actor at MediaCorp in 2012, believes that fan clubs are important for one’s career.

“Your relationship with your fan club is really important, because your fans are the ones giving you the support,” he said. “During the Star Awards, for example, I saw that even newer artistes had very strong support. (The) enthusiasm and support really help to boost our confidence and how we feel about ourselves.”

Pow said he is consciously working harder to be closer to his fan club, Shanethics, which has between 20 and 40 members, and to build a larger social media presence after witnessing first-hand how his celebrity friends’ fan clubs have improved their careers. After all, as the actor so astutely pointed out, it is often the perception of popularity that makes the star.

“A lot of people judge you based on the size of your fan club. It’s what they see. So it’s still important to have that number of people who support you on a regular basis. People see and judge these small things,” he said.

Jacki Ng, CEO of Noon Talk Media, which manages artistes like Aloysius Pang, Xu Bin and Kimberly Chia, agreed.

“Our company puts in effort to make sure the fan clubs are actively managed, because we do think it’s important,” said Ng. “Fans can help to publicise new works and events through word-of-mouth. They will tell the rest of the world about that event.”

Still, Pow said it is not fair to judge a star’s popularity based on the size of his or her fan club.

“All the uncles and aunties I meet are very nice to me. It’s very heart-warming when they tell me they watch our shows, or when they come up and talk to me when I eat at the coffee shop. But they obviously won’t join my fan club!” he laughed.

“The age range of people who are in fan clubs right now are between about 13 and 25. This range is not enough to justify how popular an artiste is.”

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Fans give their support, and artistes need to give their fans what they ultimately want: Engagement. For stars who run their own fan clubs, though, there is the tricky business of managing their fans’ enthusiasm without incurring their wrath.

“It’s all about communication,” said actress Sora Ma, who has about “40 to 50 fans in her fan club, Sorarity. There was an incident once, she recounted, when she had to deal with one of her fans who signed up to be an extra in a drama she was in — just so she could talk to and take photos of Ma while on set. While some might find this intrusive, Ma felt that such situations should be dealt with delicately.

“Our fans really support us from the bottom of their hearts. It’s not a paid job and we are not related, so why are they helping us with so much energy without asking for anything in return?” said Ma. “When you think about this, you won’t feel like scolding them or being harsh, because you really appreciate their help.”

“There is a very, very thin line between treating them like friends and fan-friends,” said Pow. “I am very close to my three administrators, but when it comes to very close personal information like phone numbers, I am very careful. It’s very hard to manage this kind of relationship.”

Realistically speaking, the idol-fan relationship is tenuous at best and relies on little more than inspiration and “affinity”. And, as with most fan clubs, Shanethics, Sorarity and even RBKD will likely become less active eventually — or even stop functioning altogether.

Peh confessed: “Sometimes, we ask ourselves, ‘Why can’t I just be a normal fan — just switch on the TV and watch her show?’ But we must remember why we agreed to be on this journey. We started something because we want to do something for Rui En, so we should derive satisfaction or even happiness from that itself. When people outside the fan club show their appreciation for us, for example, it’s really nice.”

Will Rui En’s future popularity really be determined by what Peh and RBKD decide to do? Perhaps, or perhaps not. At any rate, it might do Rui En well to just start her own Instagram account.

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