RIP MICHAEL: Chinese media gave extensive coverage to the death of Michael Jackson (CFP)

Although Michael Jackson never performed in China's mainland, his influence here appeared to exceed that of any other foreign musician who did visit the country. This was seen in the nationwide display of grief after news spread that the King of Pop had passed away.

To millions of Jackson's Chinese fans, June 26 was a Black Friday. Hundreds of Jackson's fans in Beijing gathered that evening to mourn their beloved icon. They put Chinese-style candles and paper boats in the Houhai Lake, the area around which is popular among foreign tourists for restaurants, bars and cafes there, to express their grief.

Record and DVD outlets set up special counters for Jackson's albums as demand soared. His death became the top news item in all media broadcasts and his contribution to world pop music was highly praised. The Beijing News, one of the leading news dailies based in Beijing, ran the headline "There Will Be No More Legend That Thrills People on the Earth."

On mjcn.com, a Chinese website said to be recognized by Jackson as his official website in Chinese, a video commemorating the life of Jackson gets extensive broadcast time, with its black and white background superimposed with the words "Good-Bye, We Love You."

In a special report on sina.com, one of the major portals in China, more than 260,000 people responding to an online survey said they felt shocked after hearing the news of Jackson's death, with the majority saying his dancing was what they loved the most about Jackson.

Opening doors

Chinese people first knew of Jackson in the mid-1980s, a time when the country was just opening up to the outside world. The song he co-composed, We Are the World, introduced Chinese to world pop culture.

Many people in music and entertainment circles admitted that they were greatly influenced by Jackson's music. Zhang Yuan, a Chinese director, said that when he produced MTV for Cui Jian, known as the godfather of rock-and-roll on China's mainland, he learned a lot from watching MTV videos of Jackson. "He created modern MTV, and his death is the loss of a genius," Zhang said on sina.com.

But what is more important is the influence of Jackson on numerous young Chinese music lovers. To many who were born in the 1960s and 1970s, Jackson was a symbol of Western pop music.

Zhao Bin, a 37-year-old engineer with an IT company based in Beijing, expressed his regret for the death of the pop king. Zhao was a drummer in a student band when attending university in the early 1990s, the era in which Jackson was at the peak of his career.

"Jackson and Madonna were the only two superstars to admire among youngsters at that time," Zhao told Beijing Review. "I was shocked when first watching the video of Jackson's album Bad on CCTV. I had no idea that a man could sing and dance like that and that audience members could even faint because of their adoration," Zhao said. "It was really an eye-opening moment."

Most boys in Zhao's class tried to imitate Jackson's famous "moon walk." It was in his university days that Zhao followed his passion for pop music. His band played many original songs, but he said Jackson had influenced them.

The pop king's influence even reached the generation born in the 1980s. Zhu Xiaolong, 27, an editor of the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily, told Beijing Review that he also imitated Jackson's dancing in his school days. "Jackson has been imitated all along and never been bettered," Zhu said, adding that he lives on in everyone's heart.

Inspirational

Jackson's success also inspired young Chinese. A netizen named Tomtop wrote in his posting on sina.com that Jackson 's shows the pursuit of an ordinary child for his dream and a better life. "His experience told me that everyone could create a miracle, and I believe it till today. I think a miracle can happen to me one day," the post said.

Even though most of Jackson's songs have not been popular with ordinary Chinese, people seem to just love him anyway. Why was Jackson so welcomed by Chinese, despite the news about his alleged child molestation charges in his later life? The answer seems to be that people believe he was not just a fashionable dancer or singer, but that his music recorded the growing up of a generation.

Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University, said in a program on Phoenix TV Station that compared with what Jackson left people, the negative news about him seemed less meaningful. "To a certain extent, only after the death of Jackson, have people realized what a huge influence he was on them," Zhang said.