In late June, a 16-year-old Dalian girl killed herself because her mother refused to buy her a set of Leslie Cheung CDs, fearing that her daughter would get distracted before the final exams.

The suicide note of the die-hard Cheung fan reads: "The mention of Leslie's name would get me excited. Whenever someone finds fault with him, I would feel sad and angry."

"This truly puzzles me. My daughter knew everything about Leslie Cheung, his blood type, his likes and dislikes. I can never understand how this all came about," sighed the mother, who gave her last name as Mou.

"I had reached out to communicate with her, but she was more willing to share her innermost thoughts with her icon than me."

This is the latest in a series of incidents that highlight teenager obsession gone awry.

Last year, a 17-year-old in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, drank poison when he failed to meet Zhao Wei, a popular TV star.

In Sichuan, a 13-year-old girl watched a hit TV drama eight times consecutively because it starred F4, a group of four cute boys.

A couple of Leon Lai fans threatened to kill their idol because he was dating Shu Qi, an actress they did not like.

A national survey shows that half of China's youth generation is "star-struck", with the younger more likely to fall head over heels in "love" with their icons. As many as 60 percent of these "icons" tend to be Hong Kong, Taiwan or foreign entertainers. 

Parental reactions to the idolatry among youngsters range from "no objection" (50 percent), "I hate to see it" (25 percent) to "I don't really care" (25 percent). Teachers' reactions are more evenly distributed.

"Idolatry is a common phenomenon among adolescents. It shows up in different ways among different people, and it changes in form with time," explained Hu Zhenkai, professor of psychology of Liaoning Normal University.

"It should be analyzed in the context of China's education, which puts a lot of pressure on students. Idolatry gives them an outlet for self-expression," said Pan Yihe, professor with International Cultural Institute of Zhejiang University.

"It is rare for kids to kill themselves over their idols, but this should be a warning to us about the need for teenagers' mental health. Our schools have always placed emphasis on political education, but not much on psychology and ethics," said Wang Yunqing, deputy director of Dalian Education Bureau.

Most experts caution against over-indulgence in "adolescent star gazing". Coincidentally, Leslie Cheung edged into a new top 10 list of China's cultural icons for the 20th century, together with Faye Wong, another Hong Kong-based pop singer.

"When you elevate someone with short-term impact to that of cultural icon, you're creating a cultural bubble. If you look back in ten years, you'd laugh that some of them even made the list," wrote a media commentator.

(China Daily July 24, 2003)