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This article analyzes how Ye Xiu's fictional celebrity emerges from media platforms and fan engagement, suggesting new frameworks in celebrity studies.
In contemporary Chinese digital culture, celebrity increasingly exceeds the boundaries of the human. Fictional characters circulate across platforms with recognisable personas, sustained authority, and intense affective investment, functioning as celebrities despite their lack of physical existence. Ye Xiu, the protagonist of the online novelThe King’s Avatar(《全职高手》), exemplifies this shift. First appearing as a professional e-sports player within web-based fiction, Ye Xiu has since become a widely recognised cultural figure through animation, live-action drama, voice performance, gaming discourse, and extensive fan production. The present article approaches Ye Xiu as a case of fictional celebrity, arguing that his celebrity status emerges through an assemblage of media infrastructures, platformed fandom, and affective labour. In doing so, it contributes to ongoing debates in celebrity studies concerning virtuality, relational fame, and the limits of Western star-centric models.
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Jing Lei (2026) studied this question.
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