Abstract
It is not surprising that more and more people are becoming fans of something. Creating various kinds of works in light of what they like strengthens their bonds with each other. This kind of relationship, which developed from the gift economy, works with the popularity of new media so that fans can build their community on a couple of online platforms. In China, Bilibili is one of the most famous video-sharing websites built to attract many fans of animation, comics, or games, but it now welcomes more users of different fan identities. Once a unique place for animation amateurs to communicate freely has evolved into a public square with many rules. Moreover, other social media like Weibo, a Chinese Twitter, now operate strictly and put forward some fan-targeted regulations against fans’ posts. This study discusses what kind of online environment is provided for fan productions in China and what factors of Chinese society result in this situation. Through interviews with fan artists and content analysis of related regulations, Field Theory is applied to explain it. It is concluded that as a kind of subculture, as more non-fan members join the online platform where the boundary of fan community has broken down, the space of fan works is becoming smaller. This kind of research has rarely been done in China. Also, the findings may be helpful to scholars who are interested in Chinese studies or fandom studies.
Presenters
Yue ZhaoStudent, Ph. D Candidate, Graduate School of Asia- Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Japan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Fan behavior; Fan production; New Media; Online Fan Community
