Hilton's sweet tweets attract Chinese fans

Updated: 2012-09-01 02:26

By Gan Tian (China Daily)

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Cocktails clinked, well-dressed fashionistas hugged and chatted, the DJ dropped the beats ... like a party from Everyone Worth Knowing.

And the one everyone came to the private party in Shanghai to know was American socialite Paris Hilton.

She had been tweeting about it on Sina Weibo for the past two months.

She opened the micro blog account, especially for China. On June 19 — one day after the Shenzhou IX spacecraft sent China’s first female astronaut Liu Yang into space.

"Congrats to the first female astronaut in China to be launched into space! Girl power!" she wrote.

She came to Shanghai to launch her private party on Friday, inviting her own Chinese fans.

What made this party girl pay attention to China?

Adam Roseman knows.

The 34-year-old American, who lives in Shanghai, is the founder of China Branding Group, which launched website fanstang.com in June.

The site publishes tweets from Hollywood stars and NBA athletes, especially for their Chinese fans — and Hilton is one of his most important clients.

"We focus very heavily on working with celebrities that have a strong interest in China," Roseman said.

"They have an eye on the Chinese market, absolutely. They want to respond to their Chinese fans, and do as much as they can to raise their profile here."

Take a look at his celebrity list: Justin Timberlake, Avril Lavigne, Maggie Q, Paris Hilton, Linkin Park, Maroon 5, Katy Perry and NBA player Dwyane Wade. These A-listers have all opened social networking accounts for their Chinese fans.

Roseman has a large team in Los Angeles working with celebrities, telling them about what is going on in China, and helping them write posts that are specific to China.

Hilton might be a very good example. She is quite interested in this country, and is enjoying her third trip to Shanghai.

Now she has more than 600,000 followers on Sina Weibo, and publishes tweets there every day, with a translation from Roseman’s team.

Roseman got the idea when he came to Shanghai in 2006. Prior to that, he was an investment banker at Barrington Associates and Lehman Brothers.

In 2006, he was introduced to the city by a Chinese friend who wanted him to do transactions for a solar company in Shanghai. When he arrived, he fell in love with everything here.

Having been living in Los Angeles for more than a decade, Roseman has a many connections in Hollywood, and wanted to start his own business in China.

"I saw the growth and demand from Chinese consumers to directly engage with Hollywood stars and athletes. I think it is a very interesting opportunity to create a business out of that demand," he said.

"I always wanted to create something. When you are an investment banker, you are doing deal after deal, but you are not creating anything," he added.

It was easy for him to start the showbiz business, as most of his friends and family are in the Los Angeles entertainment industry. According to Roseman, when a young businessman like him lives in that city, he ends up going to the same restaurants, the same cafes, and getting to know the celebrities.

But bringing that business to China is another thing. When he approached some Hollywood stars and talked about his plans, many of them, who Roseman kindly refused to name, were not interested.

He believes it is not because they don’t like China. It’s because they don’t understand it.

"Take me myself as an example. I came to China for the first time about five and a half years ago. Before that, I did not know anything about China," he said.

There are moments when he feels really inspired. At the beginning of this month, when typhoon Haikui landed south of Shanghai, Roseman sent e-mails to his Hollywood friends, telling them about it. To his surprise, Avril Lavigne, Chace Crawford and Maggie Q tweeted, sending their regards to their Chinese fans.

Among these stars, Maggie Q is Roseman’s favorite, because he finds that the Nikita star really loves her Chinese fans, and is eager to know more about them.

Now, he sends e-mails to Maggie Q every day. In the coming months, Roseman will help some of her Chinese fans go to Hollywood to see her acting in Nikita’s next season.

The Californian is also considering launching more activities for Chinese fans to interact with celebrities. He will also fly to the United States to record, for example, Hollywood star interviews about the Chinese market.

This is only the first step of Roseman’s business. Within three to five years, he hopes he will have already built a platform for Chinese consumers to have a bridge to Hollywood, and also for Chinese celebrities to US consumers.

"There are a lot of opportunities in China," he said.

Having been involved in the showbiz industry for such a long time, Roseman could not help comparing those in both China and the US.

"They are two different cultures. China is more traditional, but Hollywood is much newer, in terms of interests, creativity, technology and animation ... but what happened in New York 50 years ago is happening here," he said.

"These two sectors are different, but they are coming together. Though it is quite slow, it will come," he said.

Emerged in this fabulous and fast-consuming showbiz industry, Roseman is very peaceful. During the interview, he ordered a bottle of green tea in the noisy bar where everybody else was drinking cocktails.

"I love martial arts. I do Thai boxing and Brazilian jujitsu. They actually keep me very calm."

gantian@chinadaily.com.cn

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