The entire field of pop idols, from Elvis to Justin Bieber, is largely fantasy, but the ultimate fantasy pop idols are Hatsune Miku of Japan and Luo Tianyi of China. They are non-existent holograms, one hundred percent fiction. First there was Hatsune Miku. She performed sold-out concerts attended by tens of thousands of screaming fans and opened for Lady Gaga. An avatar created by the Japanese company Crypton Future Media, Hatsune is projected onstage as a dancing hologram. She is the ultimate scantily-clothed pop singer of youthful fantasy with an unrealistically proportioned figure and a hyper-cute, Manga-influenced face. Girls fantasize that they are Hatsune, and boys fantasize that she is their girlfriend. One fan said, “She’s rather more like a goddess: She has human parts, but she transcends human limitations. She’s the great post-human pop star” (“Hatsune Miku: The world’s fakest pop star,” CBNNews, Nov. 9, 2012). Now China has its own superstar avatar named Luo Tianyi with a fan base of millions. The holograph performed before thousands of fans at Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz arena on March 2, 2019, accompanied by world famous Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Tickets to the show cost as much as US$235. “Fans waved blue glow sticks to the rhythm and yelled Luo’s name, with some even bursting into tears” (“China’s virtual idols meet their fans,” South China Morning Post, Mar. 2, 2019). Kit Cheung Jie, a 17-year-old high school student in Hong Kong, said, “She is not a real person so she can be whatever you want her to be. It’s like a customized idol that only belongs to you.” University student Gao Yu shouted, “Tiani, my lover, I love you!” Luo is supposed to be an angel sent to bring happiness to the world by music. Her name is from an ancient river goddess, and she wears a green jade charm with occultic significance. The Chinese government sees the power of these avatars to manipulate the minds of youth. Luo has been recruited by the Chinese Communist Youth League to be its youth ambassador, because she is easier to manage than people, who “make their own decisions” and may choose to contradict the Chinese government (“China programs virtual youth icons to instill correct thinking into millennials,” Global Times, Dec. 7, 2017). The heart and soul of pop idol fantasy is sex, as with pop music as a whole. The boys and girls of idol bands and the virtual idols like Hatsune Miku and Luo Tianyi are carefully crafted to fit within the current definition of cute and sexy, and the unisex aspect appeals both to “straights” and homosexuals. (For more on the theme of technology-driven fantasy, see the free eBook Fantasy Dangers, www.wayoflife.org.) “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). (Friday Church News Notes, March 8, 2019, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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