Special previews of the long-awaited Star Wars film in Beijing this week drew just a handful of fans. The 35-year-old Shanghai resident only became curious about the space saga by accident after stumbling across a pre-installed Star Wars game on his first computer. Chen now runs one of China’s biggest online Star Wars fan groups, debating lightsaber physics on the online message board Zhihu and managing a Weibo account with 30,000 followers. He loves the Star Wars world for its vast scale and rich detail that fans can piece together through movies, books and games. A Beijing bar hosted a screening on Tuesday of previous Star Wars films ahead of Friday’s China release — but the special room was mostly empty.
