Ahead of Nov. 28, fans also bought billboard ads for Yi at bus and train stations across the world in cities including Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, and London, Chinese media reported (link in Chinese).

Fans taking out ads to celebrate their idols’ birthdays or new album releases is commonplace in South Korea. In China, many of TFBOYS’ fans are recent college graduates, who even compete among each other to see who can spend more on their idols, reported Chinese magazine Vista Story (link in Chinese). On Karry Wang’s 17th birthday in September, his fans even bought a half-page ad in Iceland’s leading newspaper Morgunblaðið, because Wang had mentioned that he wants to travel to the country. An advertising staffer with the newspaper told the Chinese magazine that they had never had such clients before, and said that the act was “just like performance art.”

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