Musical fans, Shao Feifei (first left) and her friends donning costumes all tailored by Shao, act dramatically before a performance of Mozart L'Opera Rock in Shanghai in February.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Social connections

Social networking sites are now providing varied means for the fans to connect and communicate with one another. As theater grows popular, Sina Weibo started endorsing bloggers with the verification of "theater bloggers" in 2018.

Before that, many already started their own blogs about musicals, MusicalBot being one of the most popular accounts, with over 205,000 followers on Sina Weibo and called affectionately by followers as Bobo. The affix "bot", abbreviation for "robot", is a type of service account on China's social media sites that collects and publishes messages from fans, providing a platform for followers to share information, in this case information pertaining to musicals.

The operator behind the Musical-Bot account is a university student and a musical lover since 2016. She says: "I started the account a year ago in May 2018. At first, I observed there were not any 'bot' accounts for musicals, so I thought I could try opening one." She posts messages from fans, from ticket transfers to entertaining videos, and sometimes reposts the latest information about musicals.

A low-key person who prefers to be anonymous, she once let slip her identity in a group interview, and as a consequence, musical fans inundated her with all sorts of small gifts she could not refuse to accept.

"The incident in a way reassures me that my efforts are worthwhile," she says. "At first I didn't even expect I could continue doing this for more than three months. Looking back now, it all feels like a dream.

"As a blogger, I can feel that the attention devoted to musicals is increasing. My micro blogs can exert some influence, but I want to help contribute to the industry by working in it," adds the university student.

Since January, Weibo Theater, the official theater account of Sina Weibo, has been releasing the monthly lists of the top 20 most influential theater bloggers based on the amount of posts, views and interaction, and MusicalBot has been ranked first for the past five months.