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Armed police and soldiers quickly restored order and blocked the entrance. Some girls, who wanted to break through the blockade, created a disturbance by ripping off their own shirts and crying rape.

A Korean star Nichkhun.[File photo]

Online wars frequently break out between fans of different stars. They frequently malign each other's idols. Some idols even join in. Taiwanese pop singer Selina Jen once singled out and highlighted a critical comment about her on her weibo microblog. The "offensive" remark said she was spoiled and pampered.

Indignant fans immediately deployed what's called a "human flesh search engine" and ferreted out the young woman's full name, address and phone number and harassed her relentlessly. The poor woman deleted her critical comment and apologized.

Last year a Korean star Nichkhun was detained for drunk driving. His fans supported him and made comments on his fan site such as "No big deal" and "Whatever you do, you are always right!"

Jenny Xu, 28, is a Shanghai fan of a Japanese singer, and after eight years she has reached a senior level in the fan club. She didn't want to name her hero.

"We call those young fans, usually students, 'sakura'," she says. "To put it mildly, they are brainless and irrational."

She says that once two young girls, both fans of a Japanese boy band, knelt down on the street in front of a poster of their idols. "It's too much," Xu says.

She says one Japanese girl group is so popular that their fans are all required to kneel down to welcome them.

"The benefits for fans are often decided by how much money they spend on their idol," Xu says. "They also have a very complicated scoring system to record every fan's spending."

A senior fan is kind of a club leader because she (it's mostly women) has spent more money on the idol and has received special attention.

"At the airport, I saw a senior fan slapping and scolding two sakuras who might violate regulations and disrupt the event," Xu says. "The girls were just crying, not daring to fight back."

A ticket to a fans meeting or a concert by their idol is usually 500 yuan. Tickets are limited and fans are required to join a lucky draw to win the right to buy a ticket. The 500 yuan is for a seat. It could be in the front or the back, it depends on luck, Xu says.

"Some lucky fans who get tickets will sell them - clearly they're not real fans. Prices can soar to 15,000 yuan and they are hot."

Xu has bought many products related to her idol, including CDs, shirts, key rings, bags, hats and other items. She flew to Japan for a concert.

"It's been part of my life and it hasn't had any negative impact on my life or work," she says. "I might love him for my whole life, or I might stop loving him tomorrow. Who knows?"

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