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1A Chinese virtual idol group called A-Soul, backed by ByteDance, has found itself embroiled in a social debate after it canceled the live stream of a virtual member named Carol, a leading virtual vocalist of the five-member group on May 10th.
By canceling a virtual member, A-Soul inadvertently prompted a debate on the working condition of the often-invisible artists behind virtual idols. Virtual idols are often supported by teams of real human artists who provide voices and dance moves through motion captures and other technology.
In today's program, we invited two guests who have been concerned about the industry for a long time to talk about some thoughts on the event.
Host: Ye Weijia
Guests: Niuniu, General
- 1:50 Introduction of the guests and the virtual idols they are interested in
Niuniu began to follow A-Soul in June 2021; General paid attention to the industry since 2016 and follow A-Soul since May 2021, because one of the A-Soul fans did some re-creations of his favorite esports player.
- 9:50 The difference between virtual idols and live streaming anchors:
One of the key features of virtual idols is the output of their live content- usually, song and dance assisted by 3D motion capture.
- 10:50 The offline performances and the difference from online ones:
The audience can now gather together to watch their idols offline through the big screen, and then there is a camera on the scene, which can transmit a real-time reaction of the audience to the idols and realize the face-to-face communication with virtual idols.
Niuniu expresses that on offline occasions one can feel the gathering fans by his side and realize their same identity as a fan group. for idols and fans, this sense of identity or belonging will be enhanced, and he thinks this is of great significance for offline activities.
- 21:50 The influence of the joining of big companies in the industry
General believes the support from big companies is more progressive and beneficial to the entire virtual idols industry for their strong publicity and training power in the industry.
- 28:00 The reflections on the fan groups
Niuniu thinks the principle of decentralization in fans group sounds good, but it is not feasible in practice. Also, the fan group has always advertised itself as different from the traditional idol fan group, but after this incident, there is a consensus among the fans that there is no essential difference between us and Fan Quan, including virtual idols and traditional live idols may not be much different.
General compares the atmosphere within the fan group before 10th May to the Tower of Babel as everyone works together for the same goals and speaks the same language. But after the incident broke out, the fan groups seem to trap everyone inside an information cocoon where the moderate view will slowly become aggressive; also, in such a small group everyone will become less calm when concerning problems.
- 48:25 Attitude regarding the virtual idol after the actor changed
Niuniu expresses his reflections on the entire virtual idol industry on 3 issues. Firstly, the conflicts between virtual and real people regarding the extent of connections in emotions and identities are hard to resolve. Secondly, about the labor and capital issues- because the real actors are behind the virtual idols, the productivity did not have many breakthroughs. And still, capital dominates and the main profits return to capital owners.
Thirdly, as Immanuel Kant said that rational human beings should be treated as an end in themselves and not as a means to something else. The expectation of fans seeing their idols as "end in themselves" is crashed by the cruel fact that they are treated as means for the benefit of the company.
- 59:30 Will you keep following after the real people actors behind the virtual idols change?
General believes though fans are looking at virtual images of the virtual idols, it is ultimately the soul behind that they trust. it is difficult for the audience to determine whether it is the image or the character behind it that contributes to their admiration for the virtual idols. After the change of Zhongzhiren, the loss of fans can be attributed to the differences of each individual that make it difficult to show a coherent image of the virtual idol.
- 1:10:54 Visions for the future industry
In Niuniu's opinion, there would not be a huge breakthrough in the industry due to the limitations of productivity and the conflict between labor and capital.
For General, he believes that, from the overall point of view, this industry is very young that it only takes six years after the beginning. It would be accepted more by the mass audience as its scales expand.
