PUBLISHED ONJanuary 18, 2024 5:27 AMByYeo Shu HuiFans and paparazzi often swarm airports hoping to get a glimpse of popular celebrities or snap their latest photos and airport fashion.
However, this usually result in unnecessary crowds, which could bring inconvenience to other passengers and disrupt airport operations.
In a few viral videos circulating on Weibo recently, Chinese idol Wang Junkai is mobbed by fans as he arrives at an international airport in China in the wee hours of Jan 17, preparing to jet off to Paris for fashion week.
Swarms of female fans and paparazzi gather around the 24-year-old as he is escorted inside the airport with a few security guards and airport staff.
In fan-cam footage released online, people can be heard screaming, "Stop pushing! We can't even see him! Stop pushing him! Can you step aside?"
The staff and security guards, who are pushing through the crowds, can also be heard shouting: "Move forward!"
This chaotic situation reportedly caused people to fall and public property to be pushed over.
Junkai was so angry at the situation that he shouted and pointed at the paparazzi after crossing customs in a rare outburst.
"These paparazzi, can you be held accountable for this? Do you have any morals?" he roared.
In the background of the footage, Junkai's bodyguard reportedly shouted: "You people are too much!"
Junkai is not the only Chinese celebrity who faced this situation.
Last February, as singer-actor Xiao Zhan was preparing to fly to Milan for fashion week, he was similarly mobbed by fans and paparazzi in the airport in the middle of the night.
Amid the chaos, the 32-year-old was pushed by the throng and ended up having to do crowd control himself after the airport staff were unable to get Xiao Zhan and his staff some space to reach the check-in counters.
He said politely but firmly: "Everyone, can you please take a slight step back and maintain some order, please? Thank you very much."
Although it did not seem to work very well with the overenthusiastic crowd, Xiao Zhan and his entourage eventually got to the check-in counters, but more fanatic behaviour lay ahead.
As the airport staff was checking him in, Xiao Zhan realised that someone standing behind the immigration counter was attempting to take a photo of his personal information from the computer screen.
Looking worn out by the situation, he reached over the counter, covered the screen and told the person not to take his information.
And this is not the first time he faced such situations. In October 2019, fans and paparazzi also caused an internal flight to be delayed as Xiao Zhan was unable to get on it. His manager reportedly apologised personally to the passengers on board after that.
Later, his studio released an official statement explaining the matter and apologised to the passengers again for causing the delay.
"Observing public order is one of the basic obligations of citizens… Xiao Zhan and his studio solemnly appeal and do not support or advocate any form of behaviour relating to pick-up or send-off at airports," the statement read.
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