When singer Xu Weizhou (more popularly known as Timmy Xu) arrived at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, he was astonished to see a frenzied mob of local fans screaming his name in Mandarin.

The pandemonium occurred a couple of days before Xu's Thailand concert, part of his First Light Asia Tour 2016 in July last year.

"I felt a bit scared and confused. So many fans were waiting outside the airport. I only have two English songs. The rest are all in Chinese," Xu said in Beijing last week.