‘Tāfáng’ Culture to Ordinary People

Tafang (塌房) literally means ‘the house collapses’. In recent years, it refers to the real image of a celebrity that is found contradictory with what is shown to the public.

The word Tafang originated from a piece of news, where a woman heard gossip saying there was a house that collapsed, but when she approached, it turned out to be her own residence. Soon after that, the expression ‘Tafang’ was introduced into fan culture. Idol fans idealize the images of the celebrities they are frantic about and when, for example, the secret romantic relationship of the celebrities gets exposed, or they are found cheating on their spouse, fans will cry and accuse the celebrities of ‘Tafang’.

‘Tafang’ culture is quite similar to the cancel culture in the Western world but more extreme. Cancel culture is a broader, more global concept that refers to the collective social process of publicly calling out and boycotting someone (often a public figure or organization) due to behavior or opinions deemed offensive or unacceptable. It generally involves the social or professional consequences of someone’s actions or words. While in the ‘Tafang’ culture, if the person on the topic shows behavior against the ‘setting’, netizens can accuse them of ‘Tafang’, and more severe consequences follow.

With the accelerating development of technology and the booming industry of short video platforms, ordinary people can, too, become the center of the ‘Tafang’ topic. Compared to real celebrities, ordinary people do not have a PR team to evaluate what to post and what to hide. Therefore, it is much easier for them to ‘Tafang’.

The influencer ‘Xiaoying’ is a typical example of ‘Tafang’ for ordinary people.

Xiaoying is an ill-educated woman from a backward rural area in Yunnan. She gained her popularity by posting content that appears to be ‘ugly, underdeveloped but absurd’. She uses laundry detergent to wash ham bitten by rats and covers the stall with cow feces; she accidentally drinks the rice wine that she thinks is water… Everything she does makes people curious. As time went by, manufacturers and vendors started to acknowledge her popularity and embed advertisements in Xiaoying’s lives and posts.

This story sounds so normal and kind of inspiring to me: a poor woman from the countryside using her own effort to change her family’s life. However, several weeks ago, news went out, that ‘Tafang’ befell Xiaoying.

Simply put, the reason why Xiaoying ‘Tafang’ was she became rich.

People soon discovered that under Xiaoying’s name, multiple companies were registered; Xiaoying’s husband claimed that the content of all those posts was made up; villagers proved that the financial status of her family was not that awful, but quite advanced…

With all this seemingly true evidence swarming into netizens’ sight, everyone was blaming Xiaoying for faking the image to the public. Xiaoying officially ‘Tafang’.

I do not browse the internet that much, but I honestly do not understand such a ‘Tafang’ incident. At the very first beginning, Xiaoying first came into public sight by posting vlogs recording life in rural areas. Vlog is never a medium to share absolutely true life. It requires setting the camera in the right direction, finding your most natural pose, and editing the video in a specific order.

The audience of Xiaoying’s videos firmly believed that the life Xiaoying shared on the platform was her real life rather than an internet image. The audience believes it is the truth that Xiaoying is a poor, clumsy, and messy woman and she will always be such a person. Therefore, when finding out Xiaoying is actually rich and she made all her money by making short videos, fans of Xiaoying accuse her of scamming.

I do not approve of this ‘Tafang’ culture as it mixes the concept of ‘image’ and ‘real life’. The sad ending for Xiaoying is that her account got permanently banned by the platform. But I still wish her to live her real life to the fullest.