On October 19, mainland Chinese actress Bai Lu and Tencent Video WeTV jointly announced the official cancellation of the “WeSpark” (Deer in the Forest) overseas fan meeting scheduled to take place in Bangkok, Thailand on October 25. The decision to cancel the event, just six days before it was set to happen, was made due to multiple cases of Chinese citizens going missing or being lured to the Thailand-Myanmar border after entering Thailand in recent days. Among these cases, there were specifically mentioned scams targeting performers and live streamers, which led to concerns about safety.
Many fans had already booked flights and accommodations for the event and were unable to cancel them for free. In response, Bai Lu’s team announced on October 19 that all actual losses incurred by fans for their Bangkok round-trip flights and local hotel bookings between October 24 and 26 would be fully covered by Bai Lu and her studio.
While the compensation plan received some praise from fans and netizens for the artist’s sense of responsibility, it also sparked intense scrutiny. Fans and bloggers pointed out that the event was an official Tencent Video WeTV project, with the venue, ticketing, and timing all decided by the platform, and Bai Lu was just an invited spokesperson. According to industry norms, travel losses due to event cancellations should be borne by the organizers, not the artists, leading some fans to criticize the platform for making the artists bear the financial burden.
Criticism also arose regarding the safety risks of traveling to Thailand, which had been widely discussed since early October. Hong Kong singer Eason Chan canceled a Bangkok concert scheduled for February this year, following the exposure of a Chinese actor being scammed into a fraud park in Myanmar near the Thailand border. Online rumors suggested that scam groups planned to kidnap a large number of young, wealthy fans at major concerts. To ensure the safety of fans and prevent panic, Eason Chan’s team and the organizers promptly canceled the event after careful evaluation.
Although Bai Lu’s team’s “money for trust” approach set a precedent for compensating for the cancellation of overseas events in the entertainment industry, the criticism leveled at the organizers for hiding behind the scenes in the risk decision-making process has sparked public outcry. On various social platforms like Weibo and Xiaohongshu, Bai Lu’s fans (known as “Lu Rong”) angrily criticized the organizers for “only caring about profiting from commercial interests and overseas popularity, while shifting the most important safety risks and financial losses onto the artists and fans,” calling the situation “fleecing the fans” and “eating off the blood of the people.”