MDL Articles Revisited: From Fans with Love

So you, my dear readers, are Sheriff Woody, and I, the writer, am Buzz Lightyear. Like in the meme, I will show you that there are “stars… stars everywhere” in this article.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Last year, I wrote an MDL Articles Revisited article compiling love-themed articles here. This year, I’m back with another Valentine article, compiling a different type of love-themed article in the form of Ultra Fan Guides, formerly Stalker’s Guides. 

What is an Ultra Fan Guide article?

According to MDL Article Guide 2021, an Ultra Fan Guide (furthermore referred to as UFG) article discusses the overall career of an actor or actress and recommends some of their works. It is possible for an actor/actress to have more than one UFG article written about them over the years, as you will see in some examples on the article list. This is because the predecessing article was written years ago and there is a lot more updated information about the actor/actress. Another reason is if you want to add a different perspective to exploring the life and works of the actor/actress. 

How do I know if there is a UFG article about my favorite actor/actress?

Let’s say, you just watched a drama/movie, you’re totally falling for a certain actor/actress, and you want to find more info on them. Or, you’re a fan of an actor/actress and you want the MDL community to know about them. You want to look for a UFG article on them. Since at this moment you’re reading this article, you can easily find them by checking on the list I compiled below. But I will show you a tip for future searches when more and more UFG articles are written after this list. I will give you an example with one of the top Japanese actors on MDL, Yamazaki Kento, who is also my favorite. See these pictures below. If you go to his page, you will see the “Related Articles” (left picture: red arrow) next to the “Details”. When you click on it, you will only see the result of 15 articles. Unfortunately, none of them is a UFG article and some are not even related to the actor! The more popular the person, show, genre, or country, the more likely you will not find a UFG article on them using that method! So you need to use the Advanced Search feature (right picture). Choose “Articles” (1), type in his name (2), then click on “Editorials” (3). Voila… there is one UFG article on the actor!

About the article list and disclaimer

The list contains UFG articles published from 2012 to December 31, 2021. It’s divided by nationality, actor and actress groups, alphabetical, then chronological. As of December 31, 2021, there are about 102 main writers who wrote around 230 UFG articles on 209 actors. This article doesn’t cover non-actors (for example: directors, OST singers), non-editorials, actor compilations, actor spotlights, and only used the search words “Ultra Fan Guide” or “Stalker Guide”. Therefore, I apologize if there is any UFG article missing. I contacted every writer for consent and missing images/links. However, some writers are inactive or semi-active and therefore, did not replace them. I am not responsible for the content of each article, as I trust the editing/screening process by the MDL team before each article was published. 

Before you go stargazing, let’s play a little game first!

Below are 8 actors/actresses who are super famous in their country’s origins. Some have played in top dramas/movies, and some are also very popular on MDL. Which ones of them have UFG articles? If you don’t know, just guess. No need to cheat, this is just for fun! After you make a guess, you can try to look them up in the super long list below. I put the game answer after the list. Enjoy!

From top left to right:
Jo Jung Suk (South Korea)
Dilraba Dilmurat (China)
Daniel Padilla (Philippines)
Kim Yoo Jung (South Korea)

From bottom left to right:
Tsuchiya Tao (Japan)
Xiao Zhan (China)
Ko Chia Yen /Alice Ke (Taiwan)
James Jirayu Tangsrisuk (Thailand)

    Thailand    

1. There are FAR more UFG articles written for actors than actresses.
2. Most UFG articles written are about South Korean actors/actresses, the second most are about Japanese actors/actresses.
3. Although there are a lot of MDLers who are fans of Chinese dramas/movies, surprisingly, there are very few UFG articles written for Chinese actors/actresses (including the ones from other nationalities who acted in Chinese shows).
4. Writer DreamingKoreanBallad wrote the most UFG articles, about 38 (16.5 %) of them.
5. Most UFG article written for a single actor is for Korean actor Yoo Seung Ho (3 articles).
6. There is no UFG article written for Xiao Zhan, the second most popular Chinese actor on MDL, who is my ultimate favorite actor!

This GIF shows Xiao Zhan’s reaction to his fans’ support after the 227 or AO3 Incident. If you’re not familiar with what happened to the actor in 2020, you can read about it here and here. The incident culminated in the cyber-bullying of Xiao Zhan, losing numerous brand endorsements, cancelling/holding back his shows, and him being forced to issue an apology for the actions of his fans. He had to lay low for about a year, while quietly filming Ace Troops (2021) with his best acting performance in my opinion. On 19th December 2020, the actor made his first live performance after the incident on Tencent Video All-Star Night Show. Although unknown if Xiao Zhan would attend the show or not, his fans brought light signages to show their support. When he started singing, they lighted up the signages known as the “Red Ocean”, similar to the one shown in the feature image. Red is his fandom color. His reaction is a mix of surprise, sentiment, relief, and gratefulness.

Do you support your favorite actors/actresses wholeheartedly?

Thank you for reading,  happy star-gazing, and I hope you have your nice and sweet company  to celebrate  the Valentine’s Day with!

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Acknowledgement and credits: Big shout-out to the editors who edited this article. I do not own any of the images; credits go to their respective owners. Meme source: makeameme.org. Gif is self-made from twitter. Other images are from internet searches.

Edited by : SumiTheCat (1st editor), devitto (2nd editor)