By Star Chang, posted Jan 5, 2013 at 3:48 AM, 429 views,

PSY Becomes Number One Celebrity on Chinese Social Network

South Korea’s pop sensation PSY was named the No. 1 celebrity on SINA weibo, China’s own Twitter-like social network service, reflecting his popularity even in China. PSY was the most talked about by users on the popular microblog service in 2012, garnering 109 million mentions. He is called “Uncle Bird” by Chinese fans, and became the distinctive leader on the list of 2012 weibo Celebrities chart. “Gangnam Style” ranked No. 1 on the music search service of China’s largest search engine, Baidu. It also spawned numerous copycat videos and parodies among Chinese Internet users …

“Gangnam Style” has caught on with fans in China after Psy’s popularity spread from the United States, where the single first went viral, to Europe and Latin America. According to SINA, “Gangnam Style” ranked No. 3 on the 2012 weibo hot topics. The 34-year-old Korean singer and rapper opened his personal account on Sina Weibo in early November. His Weibo account had nearly 150,000 followers in less than one day and the number has now increased to 5.1 million (latest figures). PSY has performed only in Macau and Hong Kong, he has expressed his intentions to go to mainland China and showcase his hallmark horse-riding dance.

SOURCE: gzdaily (Chinese content), yonhapnews.co.kr