A TV talent show which sees virtual characters singing and dancing in front of a panel of human judges have taken China by storm.
Dozens of computer-generated contestants have impressed millions of viewers - and three of the country's biggest celebrities - since they appeared in the competition, Dimension Nova, from October.
Amy, the lead singer of a cartoon girl band, beat five other candidates in the final on Friday and became the winner of the 10-episode show that has sent the Chinese internet into a frenzy.
Produced and aired by iQiyi, the Chinese equivalent to YouTube, Dimension Nova drafted 31 comic characters developed by various agencies to compete on a real stage introduced by a human presenter.
It features three real-life stars: model and actress Angelababy, actress and singer Yu Shuxin, and rapper and dancer Wang Linkai - all popular with the younger generations of the country.
The digital performers are picked by the judges into their respective team. They are rated by their 'electricity value', which they received from their fans in place of applause during the live-stream.
The show's winner, known as Amy in English or Liu Ge in Chinese, is a red-haired teenage girl leading a virtual band called And2girls. She had been a fictional celebrity in China for a couple of years before making her grand entrance into Dimension Nova.
One of her die-hard fans, Liu Jun, has attended more than 10 of Amy's concerts and fan events.
Speaking of his reason for supporting his idol, the 28-year-old man said: 'You can't see what they are like in real life, so you can have more fantasies about them.
'The virtual idol is indestructible -- as long as the image is still there, she can stay in your heart forever.'
The show's executive producer Liu Jiachao told AFP: 'The idea of making this talent show is to let everyone know that virtual idols can show up in our real world now.'
Although the virtual idol concept originated in Japan, these digital avatars are now stealing airtime in China, where they appear on TV shows, billboards and even news programmes.
They now command growing fanbases -- research from iQiyi estimates an audience of 390million nationwide.
The virtual stars in the show are created by a mixture of computer animation and actors -- Amy's clothes, hairstyle and appearance are created by animators, before her human actor takes on everything else.
Real-time motion capture and rendering technology mean as the human moves it is reflected by the on-screen idol. To prepare for Amy's performances, the actor had to take extra dance training.
But creators avoid all mention of the existence of the actor behind the idol.
'Our logic is that every virtual idol has a real soul,' said Beijing Mizhi Tech chief executive Liu Yong, whose firm created Amy.
'They have their own personality, characteristics and preferences... they really exist in this world,' he told AFP.
Instead of showing the actor, the show runs footage of animators anxiously waiting backstage, as if they were the performer's family.
'I see Amy as my daughter,' said 26-year-old Xu Xingmei, the animator in charge of designing Amy's expressions and motions.
'When I saw Amy show up on the stage, I felt that my daughter had finally grown up.'
Amy belongs to a booming virtual idol industry that is expected to be worth 1.5 billion yuan (£170million, $230million) within the next two years, according to Beijing-based market researcher Newsijie.
Video-sharing website Bilibili reported a 200 per cent increase in viewing hours of its virtual idol live streaming channels in the first ten months of this year.
Some experts worry that if too many companies pile in on the market, the quality could suffer.
'If you really want to join (the industry), you need money, technology and perseverance,' said Cao Pu, chief executive of Shanghai Henian Technology, which created one of China's most successful virtual idols.
Since virtual idols live and die through the strength of their technology, the risk of embarrassing technical failures is high.
In one awkward show appearance, only Amy's cap appeared onstage.
Other performers have disintegrated mid-appearance after technical breakdowns -- including one contestant who froze when he tried to teach the judges kung fu.
'It's so embarrassing that I don't think it's fit for humans to watch,' complained one viewer on social media.
But the show's creators have batted away criticism.
'Many viewers who have followed our show from the beginning will find that there has been a great improvement in our technology,' said Liu, the producer.
'Controversy is inevitable when new things come out.'
This article has been adapted from its original source.
