Towards a theory of transcultural fandom

. Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 Towards a theory of transcultural fandom Bertha Chin, Independent Scholar Lori Hitchcock Morimoto, Independent Scholar Abstract: In this discussion, we advocate for a broad(er) model of transcultural fandom studies that, in shifting focus to the affective affinities that spark fan interest in transcultural fan objects, is intended as a corrective to nation-centred analyses of border-crossing fandoms. It is our contention that the binary approach to transnational fandom maintained by media globalisation scholars such as Koichi Iwabuchi, writing in the East Asian context, does little to advance our understanding of both why fans engage in cross-border fandoms, and the implications of fannish activity on how we understand the global flow of media texts. In this essay, we consider an alternative approach to transcultural fandoms that is concerned less with nations than with fans themselves. We seek here neither to redeem nor condemn fans, but rather to situate them within their myriad contexts – not only sociopolitical and economic, but equally popular and fan cultural, sexual, gender, and so on. Keywords: transcultural fandom, East Asia, fan studies, fan affect, Harry Potter, Leslie Cheung English-language scholarship of border-crossing fandoms, whether in the geographical or cultural sense, historically have fallen into one of two broad categories: those studies that centre on discrete phenomena1 which seek to understand them in of themselves, and those hi h egi f o the uestio that has o e to ha a te ise t a s atio al fa do studies in the inter-East Asian context: namely, does cross-border fandom have the ability to transcend historical, cultural, and social differences, and to foster greater transnational awareness? Fabienne Darling-Wolf a gues that fe a al ses ha e fo used o te ts produced and/or consumed outside the US. Even fewer have considered the significance of fan culture on an increasingly global scene, fostered in particular by the advent of the Page 92 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 i te et as a tool fo i te ultu al, a d pote tiall o ld ide, fa a ti it : . Where such analyses do occur, it is the nation that (over-)determines fan appropriation and engagement, with the effect of both severely limiting the kinds of questions that are asked, and effectively ghettoising (or even exoticising) cross-border fandoms. In this way, bordercrossing fandoms are relegated to the periphery of fandom studies, and with them the unique insights they offer about the ways that fans interpret and interact with both media and one another in an ever-intensifying global media marketplace. Indeed, questions of both how and why different border-crossing media capture the imaginations of fans, as well as how fans incorporate cross-border media into their own popular cultural contexts and what meanings they attribute to them, have the potential to complexify and contribute nuance to a discipline that, in its English-language iteration, has remained steadfastly Anglo-American in orientation (albeit relatively undifferentiated for all that). Thus, in this essay we advocate a broad framework for the exploration and interrogation of border-crossing fandoms in which the nation is but one in a constellation of contexts that inflect and influence their rise and spread. We argue that, while national identity and transnational historical and socio-political contexts may inform fannish pursuits, this is neither necessarily the case nor the only possible mode of transcultural fan engagement. Based both on our own subjective fan experiences and our research of border-crossing fandoms, we are convinced of the need to take seriously not just the national, but also – especially – the gender, sexual, popular, and fan cultural contexts within which fans consume and create, if we are to comprehend how and why fandoms arise almost regardless of borders both geographical and cultural. Work in English-language fan studies over the course of the past two decades has increasingly and vocally advocated fo a ua ed u de sta di g of ho fa s affe ti e investments in media produce and inform fan culture, and we contend that this is a lens we must train on cross-border fandoms as well. We argue that transcultural fans become fans because of affinities of affect between the fan, in his/her various contexts, and the borderossi g o je t. I so doi g, e es he the te t a s atio al, ith its i pli it p i ilegi g of a national orientation that supersedes other - arguably more salient - subject positions. ‘athe , e fa ou the te t a s ultu al, hi h at o e is fle i le e ough to allo fo a transnational orientation, yet leaves open the possibility of other orientations that may inform, or even drive, cross-border fandom. We both arrive at fandom studies a of a a a-fa o ie tatio the o goi g 2 contestation of the term notwithstanding ) that is informed as much by East Asian as AngloAmerican popular and fan cultures, and it is our separate - but not disparate - experiences of transcultural fandom in this context from which our dissatisfaction with the state of transcultural fandom studies derives. Born and raised in Malaysia, Chin grew up on equal amounts of Hong Kong and North American popular television and films that were shown on Malaysia s ulti-lingual public and commercial TV channels. When she relocated to Australia, her interest in Hong Kong popular culture – an interest which informs and shapes her ethnic cultural identity – was sustained through music, VHS rentals of drama serials and Page 93 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 weekend Chinese movie marathons in an art house cinema, from which comes her sensitivity to the in-betweenness of transcultural fandom. Similarly, Hitchcock Morimoto, born in Texas and raised in Hong Kong, draws on a lifetime of being a fan of the wrong thing (Hollywood blockbusters, Japanese anime, Hong Kong stars) in the wrong place (Hong Kong, the United States, Japan, respectively) for her own understanding of how transcultural fa do s a e o a d e pe ie ed o the g ou d, so to speak. Thus, we have a personal, as well as academic, stake in the ways that transcultural fandom is theorised and discussed, and it is here that we locate the value of an aca-fannish sensibility. We have seen ourselves repeatedly misinterpreted and misrepresented in transcultural fan scholarship and are frankly frustrated that work seeking to explain such phenomena fails to comprehend what it is that ignites them in the first place. In response, we outline below a theoretical framework for the consideration of both how and why fandoms of border-crossing media arise; one that, first and foremost, is popular cultural in orientation. Through this essay, we hope to better define the object of a broadly writ transcultural fandom studies, in order to bring the transcultural fan, often relegated to the periphery into closer conversation with mainstream fan studies as a specific mode of fannish engagement that is yet interrelated with fandom as it is understood in the Englishlanguage context.3 Transcultural Fandom Studies in Context Studies of border-crossing fandoms are as diverse as the phenomena they examine, and they derive from a range of scholarly concerns that have cumulatively made it difficult to ge e alise hat t a s ultu al fa do studies ight a d should e o pass. Thus, while much English-language research of anime and manga otaku (and derivative phenomena) is indebted to, and consistent with the concerns of, mainstream fandom studies, research of more discrete phenomena – B ia La ki s e e pla o k o Nige ia fans of Indian films (2008), for example – often are more anthropological in orientation. In the inter-East Asian o te t, Koi hi I a u hi s4 seminal research of Japanese transnational popular culture flows and fandoms aligns closely with critical cultural studies and media globalisation scholarship that is grounded in the critique of consumer capitalism. Given our own East Asian orientation, we are particularly attuned to certain p o le s ste i g f o the e o ous i flue e of I a u hi s s hola ship of pan-East Asian media circulation and consumption within a still-young body of English language research of East Asian transcultural audiences.5 Particularly insofar as his work reflects the fundamentally oppositional orientation of critical cultural studies that continues to haunt the edges of mainstream fan scholarship, we first want to take the time to interrogate the implications of its resolutely socio-political orientation on transcultural fandom studies. Over twenty years ago, Tania Modleski described critical antipathy towards fe i ised ass ultu e as o e i hi h o e , de ied a ess to pleasu e, hile si ulta eousl ei g s apegoated fo see i g to ep ese t it : -4), have no e ou se ithi a iti al f a e o k ut to a ept a ad e sa ial positio : Page 94 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 to a ds popula ultu e. I deed, pa ti ula l i sofa as o e too ha e ee opp essed the spe ious good : ith hi h e a e asso iated, u h esea h o fe ale fandoms in the intervening years has tacitly accepted this position, ascribing fannish resistances to prescribed sexual identities, gender expectations, and the machinations of increasingly transnational, profit-driven media conglomerates as a prerequisite to taking them seriously. The result is that we are left without a discourse through which to take seriously female fandoms that evince no explicit oppositionality, with the effect that such fandoms are left open to critique primarily on the basis of their perceived complicity with hegemonic state and corporate institutions. It is this attitude that ha a te ises I a u hi s se i al o k o the Japa ese fe ale fa do of Ho g Ko g sta s i the s. As i te p eted hi , these o e s u efle i e, and even deluded, consumption of male Hong Kong stars was pate tl ediated , a isi g ot f o authe ti e gage e t ith Ho g Ko g ultu e, ut athe f o thei desi e to p o e thei odish a d sophisti ated taste : . Withi this al ulus, fa s ight ish to diffe e tiate the sel es f o othe ise mass- ediated ultu al dupes … [But] fo all thei atte pts to dista e the sel es f o the i dless o su e s of the ai st ea , su h fa s a e the sel es a p odu t of that e edia : . He e, esista e to the logics of late capitalism co stitutes a ki d of good fa do , hi h these o e pate tl fail to embody. Yet, I a u hi i ad e te tl e eals Modleski s limits of a ad e sa ial positio (1986: 162, emphasis in original) in his own equivocal analysis of the broader implications of fandom for how we understand the transnational flow and consumption of media. O se i g that these Japa ese fa s see less o e ed ith t a sfo i g thei li es actually leaving Japan or encountering cultural others in the form of non-Japanese men in eal situatio s : , he o etheless otes that o e s fa do of Ho g Ko g sta s has e ou aged so e of these o e to e o e o e iti all a a e of Japa s experience of modernity and its imperialist history. A self-reflexive praxis thus a ks fa s app e iatio of Ho g Ko g s disti ti e ultu al ode it : . I the e d, however, constrained by the very framework of resistance through which he seeks to u de sta d this phe o e o , I a u hi o ludes that e e if the ostalgi gaze on Hong Ko g is epla ed a d fa s see that the a e just as ode as us, just i a diffe e t a , it still cannot be denied that fans are reducing Hong Kong to a convenient and desirable Asian othe i the p o ess : . We raise Iwabuchi s o k o the Japa ese fe ale fa do of Ho g Ko g sta s fo t o easo s: fi st, it is ep ese tati e of issues of the o eptualisatio of o e s popula culture consumption that continue to haunt fandom studies, notwithstanding recent work on the pivotal role of affect in the cultivation and pursuit of fannish activity. As argued by Lynn Zubernis and Katherine Larsen (2012: 228) in their recent book, Fandom at the Crossroads, there is a persistent absence of emotion in fan theory. They observe that, as both scholars and fans, we are hardly immune to the pleasures of the fan object, and yet there remains a level of shame attached to the notion of being a fan, particularly if one is Page 95 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 female, that we must contend with in our scholarship. In the East Asian context, the strength of this shame is such that Chin, declaring her intentions to explore East Asian fandom to Asian academic peers, has been met with trepidation and numerous declarations that fandom is little more than the realm of Japa ese otakus a d Weste fa gi ls, a d thus, e te sio , e otio al a d uncontrollable. Furthermore, this also implies that consideration of East Asian fan phenomena from a fan cultural perspective sullies the seriousness of East Asian critical cultural studies, depoliticising it to an unacceptable degree. Thus, this shame extends to aca-fannish subjectivity, compelling us to apologise for attempting to engage intellectually ith a su je t atte that is see to e t i ial a d f i olous: [We] theo ise a d politi ise our pleasures in order to make them more palatable to a cultural elite that does not need any more encouragement to dismiss what we study as frivolous and meaningless. The very act of justification is of course an indication that we are uncomfortable with the positio (Zubernis and Larsen, 2012: 46). “e o d, I a u hi s a al sis of this fa do , as pa t of his oade esea h of pa East Asian media circulation and consumption, has been enormously influential in the context of both East Asian transnational and global media studies, thus warranting close atte tio . O e e a ple of this is fou d i “u Ju g s o k o hat she te s the pa -East Asia soft as uli it : of “outh Ko ea sta s of the (Korean wave) phenomenon in Japan and East Asia. Identifying its origins in the Japanese (beautiful boy) aesthetic that circulated in South Korea through manga and anime, she a gues that its t a sfo a ilit o fluidit a d its fe i i e appeal to o su e s : . is at the heart of its regional (and, increasingly, global) reach. The transcultural appeal of soft as uli it ide tified Ju g see s a pa ti ula l f uitful a e ue fo the fu the e a i atio of glo al fe ale fa do s of su h soft ale sta s as Boll ood s “hah ukh Kha o Holl ood i o Leo a do DiCap io, i additio to “outh Ko ea s Bae Yo g Joo o Ho g Ko g s Leslie Cheu g. Yet, Ju g fo goes su h o side atio s i fa ou of a a gu e t ased o I a u hi s iti ue of the ultu al odou less ess : . of p oducts circulated transnationally by media conglomerates and governments seeking to capitalise o thei soft po e . “i ila l , he a al sis of Bae s popula it i the Japa ese o te t is e uall i de ted to I a u hi s iti ue of Japa ese fa s ostalgi desire for Hong Kong sta s , th ough hi h she a gues that, i the sa e a , BYJ s polite od e e plifies the nostalgia of the fans where counter- oe alit is e ide t : . Indeed, this socio-political perspective characterises much of the existing English language scholarship of inter-East Asian fandoms. Writing on the rise of the Korean Wave of the late 90s in Japan and other parts of East Asia, Kaori Hayashi and Eun-Jeung Lee examine how its popularity was politicised in the discursive struggle to rationalise the popularity of “outh Ko ea popula ultu e ep ese ted i Ha ashi a d Lee s essa the Ko ea d a a, Winter Sonata) against a backdrop of historical antagonisms between Japan and South Korea. This is a much-needed discussion, particularly insofar as it begins to isolate the many strands of discourse (political, societal, individual, etc.) and consider each within its own Page 96 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 o te ts. Yet, despite the autho s e og itio that the e is a ess a d o fusi g so ial world of actual audiences Ie A g, uoted i Ha ashi a d Lee, , -7), the sociopolitical framework of this discussion precludes their consideration of the pleasure fans derive from watching Winter Sonata. In so doing, the authors miss a critical opportunity to examine the complex intersection of affective investment and national subjectivity, in favour of a discussion that never quite exceeds discussion of the political agendas of KoreanJapanese relations as they play out in subjective media fandom. Cumulatively, such scholarship reinforces the fundamentally trans/national and socio-political orientation of academic research of transcultural fandoms. While arguably satisfying at the level of critique, and absolutely relevant in our understanding of the political implications of transnationally circulating media, the trans/national overdetermination of this perspective ultimately tells us little about what actually attracts and motivates fans; an understanding that, we argue, is absolutely critical to any nuanced discussion of how fandom works across borders. Indeed, as evinced in the ambivalence of I a u hi s iti ue of Japa ese fa s of Ho g Ko g sta s, as ell as i Ha ashi a d Lee s o se atio that o dis ussio oa ds a d ho epages, the alls et ee atio alities - all nationalities - a ish : , eat so io-political critique of trans/national fandom is fu da e tall hau ted the ess o ld of affe t. Towards a (Working) Theory of Transcultural Fandom In his recent (2010: 89) critique of the state of transnational fandom studies, Iwabuchi a gues that hat is at stake is ot the deg adatio o o a ti isatio of fa s, ut a dis ega d fo the o pli ated p o esses of people s edia ultu e o su ptio . Addressing the very real sociopolitical issues that undergird state and corporate deployment of soft po e to ad a e thei o i te ests oth do esti all a d a oad, he st esses the eed fo a esea h age da that takes se iousl fa s a d s hola s o e t a d o e t collusion in this dynamic, observing that as e a e o e te i g the age he states a e getting deeply involved in the neoliberal circulation of media and popular culture by olla o ati g ith edia ultu e i dust ies, othi g ill e politi all eut al . Yet, i making this claim, Iwabuchi continues to replicate the very dichotomy of good/bad that has plagued fa do studies fo de ades, o t asti g good s hola ship of the so iopoliti al i pli atio s of fa do ith ad s hola ship of its affe ti e ea i gs a d pleasu es fo fans. I a u hi s a gu e t is ased i pa t o his u de sta di g a d eje tio of hat He Je ki s has te ed pop os opolita is : a el , the a ilit of oss-border fan activity to engender and advance cross-cultural awareness and understanding (2004: 124130). Yet, Jenkins himself, along with the mainstream of fandom scholars, has moved away from this early attempt to theorise transcultural media flows in favour of looking at how collaborations between the media industry, specifically producers, and fans have o ple ified the elatio ships et ee the , leadi g a a f o Je ki s s i itial o ept of fa s as poa he s to fa s as a ti ists.6 For instance, Jenkins and Shresthova (2012) have Page 97 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 remarked how social organisations such as the Harry Potter Alliance and Racebending mobilise young people – fans – by deploying the same strategies fans use in letter-writing a d “a e the “ho a paig s, thus i spi i g thei suppo te s to o e f o e gage e t within participatory culture to involvement in political life : .p. . This goes beyond merely acknowledging that fans are active producers who collaboratively produce transformative works, be they fan fiction, fan videos, or providing subtitling or translation services to foreign texts. Fans are mobilised as active participants in social and political movements because they are united by a common factor: their o su ptio of popula ultu e. At the sa e ti e, the e uall ha e e o e pa t-time collaborators with official producers seeking to incite and retain dedicated fan audiences, and part-time co-opted word-of- outh a kete s fo elo ed a ds Hills, : , esulti g i the u ious o-existence within fan cultures of both anti-commercial ideologies and commodity- o pletist p a ti es Hills, 2002: 28) that has come to characterise contemporary fan cultures. An insistence on seeing these seemingly contradictory tendencies not as two sides of the same (fannish) coin, but as two separate coins altogethe , effe ti el pit hes us i to the o al dualis Hills, : of esista e discourse, within which fans and fan activities are divided into good/bad practices. The call for the greater contextualisation of studies of transnationally circulating media, in which researchers are exhorted to be more closely attuned to the socio-historical and political economic backdrop of popular culture consumption and consumerism, is a valuable contribution to our attempts to grasp the complexity of such media flows and fandoms. Yet, we would argue that any consideration of the ways in which the contradictory, chaotic forces of globalisation play out in fandom should proceed not only from such contexts, but equally from our informed understanding of fan behaviours, motivations, and processes of meaning-making as driven by affective pleasures and i est e ts. As As i Pu atha eka o se es of I dia fil ultu e, fa o u ities that cohere around various aspects of Indian cinema...tell us that we need to think beyond the atio al as the ost i po ta t s ale of i agi atio a d ide tit o st u tio : . Thus, i app op iati g I a u hi s all fo o e o te tualised a d sophisti ated research of transcultural fans, we would expand the contexts in play to encompass all those that inform, define, and produce its fan subjectivities. Rather than shying away from fan knowledges and taxonomies, we embrace them, not as uncritical reproduction, but as an essential means of comprehending their complexity and implications for the ways we understand both the tra s atio al i ulatio a d o su ptio of edia, as ell as fa s multivalent relationship to it. Specifically, allowing for idiosyncratic differences among individual fandoms, we contend that transcultural fandoms have their genesis in affinities of industrial and/or semiotic practice between two or more popular cultural contexts. In studies of transcultural edia, affi it t pi all has ee u de stood i te s of geog aphi al p o i ities that, as Joseph “t au haa a gues, foste disti t egio al ultu al patte s : . Yet, it is i “t au haa s o elided a k o ledge e t of the i easi gl dispe sed flo of Page 98 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 transnational media outside of regional zones that the limitations of this perspective are discerned, begging the question of how we might account for such phenomena. O e possi ilit is Matt Hills s otio of t a s ultu al ho olog , hi h uilds o Paul Willis s theo of ultu al ho olog as ea s of dis ussi g the s oli fit et ee the alues a d lifest les of a g oup (Hebdige 1979: 113). Hills uses the idea of this symbolic fit to analyse the border-crossing cultural affinities of self-identified Western and Japanese otaku who share, among other things, a common devaluation as fans within their own popular cultural contexts that both operates through and exceeds the intentions of media industries and nation-states (2002: 13). He suggests that homological structures may interpellate fans across cultures in ways that both operate through and exceed the intentions of media i dust ies, a gui g that fa s e a e of a otaku identity is an a k o ledg e t that the te is hege o i all de alued oth i Japa a d the West. The Japanese fan is therefore linked to the non-Japanese fan: fan identity is prioritised over national ide tit : . Whi h is to sa , ithi the otaku identity, devalued like meets like and a common – albeit somewhat differently realised – subjectivity is born, foregrounding the possibility that a fannish orientation may (at times) supersede national, regional and/or geographical boundaries. Writ large, this concept frees fandom from the constraints of national belonging, reinforcing our contention that fans become fans of border-crossing texts or objects not necessarily because of where they are produced, but because they may recognise a subjective moment of affinity regardless of origin. This is not to say that the nation is unimportant, but rather that it is but one of a constellation of possible points of affinity upon which transcultural fandom may be predicated. Nation-based differences or similarities may well appeal to people across borders; but so, too, might affective investments in characters, stories, and even fan subjectivities that exceed any national orientation. Locating Transcultural Fandom What, then, does such a fandom look like? How might we deploy a theory of transcultural homology in the study of transcultural fan phenomena? In what follows, we look at several phenomena that, we believe, suggest the broad applicability of Hills s otio of transcultural homology to the study of transcultural fandoms. The first offers a close textual analysis of a Japanese fan text centring on Hong Kong star Leslie Cheung,7 i hi h Cheu g s see i g Japa isatio ithi fa -produced art and fiction overlays a deceptively nuanced ju tapositio of his fil oles a d sta pe so a ith the a tist/autho s o Japa ese popular cultural context. The second gives a brief overview of ways in which transnational film culture and local reading practices combine to produce a yaoi8 iteration of Harry Potter fa o k that is at o e Japa ese a d, i easi gl , t a s ultu al. Th ough these a d othe brief examples, we hope to demonstrate some of the ways in which attention to the fan cultural contexts of transcultural media circulation and consumption gives us a fuller Page 99 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 understanding of both how and why media texts are adopted and assimilated across cultures. The 2002 Japanese yaoi fa fi tio , Yae ugu a , as featu ed i a fa -produced d j [fanzine] centred on Hong Kong star Leslie Cheung, who enjoyed particular popularity among a subsection of Japanese female fans from the late 1980s through his death in 2003. The story is loosely adapted from the mainstream manga j based on the adventures of a 10th Century diviner and exorcist, Abe no Seimei. In it, Cheung was ast i the ole of a Heia Pe iod -1192) Japanese courtier-cum-demon, his character, Sakurabe no Kokuei, pictured in the frontispiece to the story in Heian robes, peeking slyly f o u de a loak, his lips d a full a d ha a te isti all pout Oh! My God, 2002: 27). On the surface, this drawing resembles nothing so much as a kind of empty auto-exoticism, on par with photo shoots of kimono-clad non-Japanese stars for the pages of popular movie magazines Roadshow and Screen9 and paradoxically intended to foreground difference u de the p ete t of aki g the o e like us i a e pli itl a d o e dete i ed national sense. Cheung, as Sakurabe no Kokuei in the fan-p odu ed dōji shi. Leslie Cheung as Cheng Dieyi in Farewell, My Concubine. Yet he e autho /a tist Azu i A a e t a slates Cheu g ot to a Japa ese ultu al o te t, but specifically to a Japanese fan cultural context. j the manga series from which Yae ugu a de i es, is itself a representative (beautiful boy) text; as Laura Miller o se es of the title ha a te , “ei ei ho featu es p o i e tl i Yae ugu a , In medieval folktales, statues, and paintings, Seimei is presented as a grave middle-aged man exemplary of Heian-era masculinity. He has a chubby face, thin eyes, and a pale complexion. But in the Heisei era (1989-), Seimei has Page 100 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 been re-imagined as a a beautiful young man with huge eyes, flowing locks, and a sculpted face. One cultural change this indicates is the i po ta e of hat e ight te the gi l gaze i popula o su ptio . (2008: 31) No random characterisation, the depiction of Cheung as classical male siren drew from film performances that foregrounded what popular kabuki onnagata fe ale i pe so ato Ba dō Ta asa u ō des i ed, i a Japa ese-p odu ed olu e a out Cheu g, as the sta s deli ate p ese e R u ī, 1999: 119). Specifically, accompanying art for the story suggests that the ha a te is i spi ed Cheu g s po t a al of the androgynously sensual Cheng Die i i Che Kaige s Farewell, My Concubine; yet, in a playful twist, the text of the story itself equally evokes the female ghost of Rouge (Stanley Kwan, 1988), positioning Cheung in the role of the betrayed Fleu A ita Mui , ho has p e eded Cheu g s o aged 12th Young Master in death. Yet, where the eternally young, ghostly Fleur turns sadly away f o the de epit You g Maste , Yae ugu a fi ds a a fo its sta -crossed lovers to achieve reunion: The bamboo blind rose. Behind it sat an old man, his body supported by a ou g gi l. Kokuei… the old a u u ed, holdi g out his ha d. The ha d trembled in the air. Tsu-Tsu utoku! the de o ied out i a lo oi e. Ah, the e s o istaki g ou oi e! Meeti g like this again – even though my eyes no longer see – even though my body no longer moves – I e e e , e e fo gotte ou... o de ful! The old a s u seei g e es e e a ash i tea s. You... a e... a k. I a ted to see ou, so u h. I sailed ack on a fast ship one year, but it was shipwrecked and I was set adrift on the sun-soaked seas. Oh, Tsu utoku! Wh did t ou etu he e? The de o s od t e led violently. Fo a lo g ti e, Lo d Tsu u oku as ithout e o , e plai ed “ei ei. The old a tu ed his fa e i the di e tio of the de o s oi e. Kokuei… when I remembered you, I was no longer young. Even so, I went to the capital i hopes of seei g ou. But I aught i d of a u o that ou had died. Ahhh… I, I e e fo got ou, even to the point that I could not die. If I had died, who would have been left to remember you? Your lovely face...your beautiful od …the elo ed pe so ou e e... ho ould e e e ? “o I ha e li ed, u til I e g o ugl , I e li ed, al a s, al a s e e e i g ou, Kokuei! Ahh...Tsu utoku… Ti idl , the de o s ha d ea hed out i the e pt spa e a d g asped that of the old man. In that moment, a cold, blue fire enveloped them both. Inside the Page 101 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 ightl u i g lue fi e, the de o s od etu ed to the beautiful form of Kokuei. The old a s od t a sfo ed to that of a faithful ou g a . F o within the gentle strum of the biwa and the brightly burning fire, the two young, beautiful men held tight to one another as their bodies ascended to the heavens. (Amane, 2002: 25) Star-centred fan fiction, like that of character-based stories, is pleasurable in part for the inherent challenge of writing true-to-persona while simultaneously imagining scenarios that fall outside a sta s usual ha itus. I this ase, A a e s fa ilia it ith Cheu g s o s ee personae – his sensuality and androgyny, in particular – afforded her the discursive materials through which to read him against a backdrop of popular film, manga, and d j re-imaginings of Japanese historical homoeroticism (Miller, 2008: 33-43), recognising in the one a homological affinity with the other. Thus understood from the perspective of popular, contemporary representations of classical Japanese culture i fo ed a spe ifi gi l gaze, Yae ugu a o stitutes a a ti ulatio of Japa ese a d Chinese popular cultures in which the nation is ancillary to the pleasures of the fan cultural. Japanese d j set within the Harry Potter universe similarly reveal an orientation that is eithe A glophili , pe se, o ho oe oti i the t aditio al Japa ese se se, ut rather grounded in Japanese iterations of transnationally circulating narratives of European boarding school culture. Initial research of English and Japanese language fan works (fan fiction and d j ) based on Harry Potter suggests that while there are notable points of affinity between them, there remain critical differences that cannot be accounted for within a si ple atio al al ulus. I o t ast ith E glish la guage slash fa fi tio , i hi h the two most popular Harry Potter pairings have been Harry/Draco (230k+ stories on fanfiction.net; 4k+ stories on AO3) and Harry/Snape (200k+ stories on fanfiction.net; 2.5k+ stories on AO3), and in which stories are broadly split between Hogwarts-era and postHogwarts timelines, a small sampling of thirty Harry Potter d j suggests that the vast majority of stories take place within a Hogwarts-e a o te t. He e, ho e e , Hog a ts-e a efe s oth to the ti eli e of J. K. ‘o li gs s ooks, as ell as to the ea lie , alluded-to timeline of Snape and the Marauders (James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew) over twenty years prior to the events of the books. Notably, the James/Snape pairing, which is all but non-existent in the English language fan fiction context, enjoys particular popularity among Japanese fans (Noppe, 2010: 119-121), thus begging the question of why such differences exist between seemingly congruent fandoms? In its most homoerotic iteration, Harry Potter reflects nothing so much as the fantasies – and nightmares – of British public school pederasty and fagging, and this plays out both in English language fan fiction and in yaoi d j through stories of nono se sual a d fo idde se that d a o the ha a te s o ple a o i al a ksto ies. Secret relationships, cruel pranks designed to cut to the emotional quick, and fleeting moments of empathy and understanding between ostensible enemies form the broad backdrop of such stories, which seem to draw as much from the schoolyard Anglophilia of Page 102 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 such films as Another Country (Marek Kanievska, 1984) and Maurice (James Ivory, 1987) as the Harry Potter series itself. At the same time, Hogwarts-era Harry Potter d j , as Sharalyn Orbaugh writes, equally exhibit many of the tropes of yaoi manga (2012: 179-180), and it is here that we can locate at least one critical difference between English language slash fan fiction and Japanese o d j within the broader context of Harry Potter fandom. Specifically, while both Harry Potter fan fiction and d j share a common familiarity with the above-mentioned tropes of boarding school sexual liaisons, in the Japanese context these specifically derive from certain seminal works of early commercial yaoi manga. O e su h e a ple is Moto Hagio s -5 serialised manga, T o z Tho as s hea t , set i a Ge a o s oa di g s hool a d e t i g o the Sturm und Drang of (male) adolescent romance, which itself was penned after Hagio saw Jean Dela o s F e h oa di g s hool o a e, Les Amités particulières (Thorn, 2007: .p. . He e, the Eu opea o s oa di g s hool is the ideal setti g fo a sto that is, fi st a d fo e ost, fo ussed o the ki ds of o s lo e elatio ships that e e just egi i g to gain traction within the commercial manga market at the time that T o z was being published. In the same way, Pott d j use Hogwarts as the backdrop for stories that have played out between teenaged boys in the Japanese popular cultural context through countless commercial and amateur manga that draw from such early works. Harry Potter s p epo de a e of pi otal ale ha a te s, a d pa ti ula l thei ideranging interpersonal melodrama, aligns the story so closely with pre-existing manga narratives of homoerotic adolescent angst that amateur artists frequently slip into Japa ese e sio s of Hog a ts, o plete ith att a ti e, e o “ ape a f e ue t featu e of Marauder-era d j ) and Japanese Pocky snacks (KCP, 2011: 26). In this sense, what we find in Harry Potter yaoi d j is less an Anglophilic fetishisation of public school tropes than a mélange of texts ranging from the European art cinematic to the Japanese feminine popular cultural that, together, form the backdrop against which the Harry Potter novels resonate with Japanese fans engaged in transformative fan practices. In the above-mentioned examples of transcultural fandom, fans understand and deploy the objects or texts of another culture through the means they have at their disposal within their own popular cultural contexts. Yet, as media - and, increasingly, fan - texts become implicated in intensifying patterns of distribution and dissemination through both mainstream channels and Internet-based forums such as deviantART and Pixiv, on which fan a t featu es p o i e tl , e fi d that these ati e fa ultu al o te ts a e e o i g increasingly global in scope. It is no coincidence that Japanese terminology (i.e. seme/uke, efe i g to spe ifi ite atio s of top/ otto se ual positio s, o le o , de i i g o igi all from the 1980s adult anime series Cream Lemon and used in reference to sexually explicit fan fiction) is used in the English language fan fiction by young authors whose own popular cultural contexts have been significantly impacted by the plethora of English-language translations – and Internet-based fan scanlations – of Japanese yaoi manga over the past Page 103 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 decade. Which is to say, what goes around comes around, and in ever-tightening circles of influence within an increasingly convergent transcultural context. Similarly, shorter lag time between domestic and international distribution of popular cultural texts, as well as relatively easy access to overseas fan culture afforded by the Internet translates in some cases to transcultural fandoms that are predicated on the same kinds of homological affinities that exist between fan cultures within a homologous national/linguistic context. As Paul Booth a gues, [fa s] use digital te h olog ot o l to create, to change, to appropriate, to poach, or to write, but also to share [across national o de s], to e pe ie e togethe , to e o e ali e ith o u it : . In the fan art of self-described Mainland Chinese fan Zjackt, she discerns specific points of affinity et ee the slash pai i gs of Ha /“ ape a d Joh Watso /“he lo k Hol es Joh lo k of the BBC s Sherlock se ies; spe ifi all , Ha /Joh s a ts of a e o ehalf of Snape/Sherlock Ha s spi ited defe e of “ ape i his fi al o f o tatio ith Volde o t a d Joh s shooti g of the ta i d i e ho th eate s “he lo k s life , a d “ ape/“he lo k s protection of Harry/John from the machinations of evildoers (Zjackt, 2012: n.p.). This is an affi it that, speaki g a e dotall a d, i Hit h o k Mo i oto s ase, holl su je ti el , see s oth o ious a d u e ui o al, a d hi h o ks fo fa s hose affe ti e investment in fictional pairings runs to the romanticisation or sexualisation of the tension between the intuitive and the intellectual, the open and the repressed (cf. Kirk/Spock, Mulder/Scully, etc.). Put differently, through her fan art, exhibited on her personal, Chinabased website, on Japan-based Pixiv.net, and on Tumblr, Zjackt becomes part of a fan discourse with nearly global reach almost independent of her Chinese popular cultural o te t; o e that is t a s ultu al o e fo the a s it spa s spe ifi fa do s th ough a given point of homological affinity than for its non-Western habitus. Conclusion We began this essay by suggesting that there is a far-reaching approach to fan cultural research that only inadequately offers us a way of conducting English-language research of border-crossing fandoms, particular at a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to map out clearly national and/or regional boundaries within the digital world that many fans seem to inhabit; a world that facilitates both fan activity and the dissemination of popular texts across borders. We chose to focus on East Asia-centred transcultural fandoms in part because of our own affinities with it, and in part because it informs our own aca-fannish familiarity with the ways in which such fans are portrayed within English-language scholarly work of East Asian transcultural fandoms. In advocating for an alternative framework within which to better understand how and why fandoms cross borders, we first emphasised the better suitability of the term t a s ultu al o e t a s atio al he talki g a out border-crossing fandoms, arguing that the genesis of transcultural fandom lies in the affinities of industry and/or semiotic practice between two or more popular cultural contexts. In other words, fans become fans not (necessarily) because of any cultural or national differences or similarities, but because Page 104 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 of a moment of affinity between the fan and transcultural object. Further, we employed Matt Hills s theo of t a s ultu al ho olog to egi e plo i g this o ept of transcultural fandom, given that, as the field u e tl sta ds, eithe I a u hi s o Je ki s, et. al. s i itial app oa hes to oss-border fandoms satisfactorily enable us to engage with transcultural fandom without falling into the trappings of transnational media theories that allow us to comprehend only one narrow aspect of transcultural fandom at the expense of the more salient popular cultural contexts that inform it. Our own transcultural backgrounds have attuned us to the present inability of fandom scholarship to produce a thriving fan cultural theory that consistently complexifies fan identity, as well as effectively engages emerging popular cultural content that is becoming more easily accessible via digital modes of dissemination. Franchised brands and popular cultural genres like Harry Potter and anime today have global reach, and texts flow between cultures as they are exchanged by fans in various creative formats, sanctioned or otherwise. Within this popular cultural context, we need a more effective means of accounting for social and cultural differences in fan practices across borders both geog aphi al a d ultu al. We elie e that Hills s otio of t a s ultu al ho olog ette attunes us to the ways in which fans themselves both discern and create meaning from globally circulating fan texts and objects. Moreover, this concept brings non-Western consumption of such popular cultural texts such as Harry Potter, supe he o o i s, o BBC s Sherlock, as well as Western and regional consumption of such East Asian popular cultural texts as anime, Hong Kong cinema or K-pop, into closer conversation with ongoing English-language scholarship of media fandom. Enabling a dialogue between the fan cultural theory we are familiar with and transcultural fandom reminds us that these non-English (often non-Western) fandoms are ot pe iphe al to ai st ea fa ultu e. ‘athe the a e pa t of the t a s ultu al interplay of fandom as much as any other, separated only by barriers of language, distribution and availability that have become eminently surmountable as fandoms have migrated online. Biographical notes: Bertha Chin is an independent scholar who teaches part time at London Metropolitan University, UK. She graduated from Cardiff University with a PhD exploring the notion of community boundaries and construction of the fan celebrity in cult and scifi television fandom. Her research interests also include fan marketing, transcultural fandom and East Asian cinema. Her works appear in the Journal of Science Fiction Film and Television, Social Semiotics and Intensities, with forthcoming pieces in M/C Journal and Celebrity Studies. Contact: [email protected]. Lori Hitchcock Morimoto received her PhD from the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, and she currently teaches film studies at Northern Virginia Co u it College. He disse tatio , e titled “o e of Us A e Looki g at the “ta s: Page 105 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 Japa ese Wo e , Ho g Ko g Fil , a d T a s ultu al Fa do , e a i es the so ial, popular cultural, and historical contexts of the Japanese female fandom of Hong Kong cinema and stars in the 1980s and 1990s. She has also published essays on East Asian transnational co-productions and multiculturalism in Japanese cinema in Scope and Asian Cinema, and she is presently conducting research on the Japanese reception and fandom of BBC's Sherlock. Contact: [email protected]. References A a e, Azu i. Yae ugu a , i Oh! My God [d j ], Vol. 18, 22 February 2002. A ett, “a d a. I agi i g t a s ultu al fa do : a i atio a d glo al edia o u ities , Transcultural Studies, 2, 2011, pp. 164–188. Booth, Paul. Digital Fandom, New York: Peter Lang Publishers, 2010. Darling-Wolf, Fa ie e. Vi tuall multicultural: trans-Asian identity and gender in an international fa o u it , New Media & Society, Vol 6 (4), pp. 507-528. Hayashi, Kaori and Eun-Jeu g Lee. The Pote tial of Fa do a d the Li its of “oft Po e : Media Representations on the Popularity of a Ko ea Melod a a i Japa , Social Science Japan Journal, Vol 10 (2), 2007, pp. 197-216. Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1979. Hills, Matt. Fan Cultures, London: Routledge, 2002. ---. T a s ultu al otaku: Japanese representations of fandom and representations of Japan in a i e/ a ga fa ultu es , Proceedings of MiT2, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. May 10‐ , . ---. Triumph of a Time Lord : regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-first century, London: I.B. Tauris, 2010. Ito, Mizuko. I t odu tio , i Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Oka e, a d Izu i Tsuji eds. , Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in an Connected World, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. I a u hi, Koi hi. U doi g i te ‐ atio al fa do i the age of a d atio alis , Mechademia, 5, , pp. ‐ . ---. Recentering Globalisation: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism, Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. Je ki s, He . Pop os opolita is : appi g ultu al flo s i a age of edia o e ge e , i Ma elo M. “ua ez‐O oz o a d Desi ee Qi ‐Hillia d eds. , Globalisation: Culture and Education in the New Millennium, Berkeley: University of Califo ia P ess, , pp. ‐ . Je ki s, He , a d “a gita “h estho a. Up, up, a d A a ! The Po e a d Pote tial of Fa A ti is . Transformative Works and Cultures 10 (2012): n. pag. [WWW document] URL http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/435/305 [visited 29/11/12]. Jung, Sun. Korean Masculinities and Transnational Consumption, Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 2011. ---. Chogukjeok Pa ‐East Asia “oft Mas uli it : ‘eadi g Bo s O e Flo e s, Coffee P i e, a d “hi h a Fa Fi tio , i Da iel Bla k, “tephe J. Epstei , a d Aliso Tokita eds. , Complicated Currents: Media Flows, Soft Power and East Asia, Melbourne: Monash University ePress, , pp. . ‐. . KCP. Harry Potter Fanbook Marugoto mamedarake [doujinshi], 13 August 2011. Page 106 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 Larkin, Brian. Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria, Durham: Duke University Press, 2008. Mille , Lau a. E t e e akeo e fo a Heia ‐e a iza d , Mechademia, , , pp. ‐ . Modleski, Tania. Loving with a Vengeance: Mass‐produced Fantasies for Women, New York: Routledge, 2008. Mukasa, Ed i a, Bo ed of Co ell pop? T K-pop , The Guardian, 15 Dec. 2011, [WWW document] URL http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/dec/15/cowell-pop-k-pop [visited 01/12/12] Noppe, Nele. Ja es lo es “e e us, ut o l i Japa . Ha Potte i Japa ese a d E glish-language fa o k , i Kao u Oshi a a d Yutaka Ya uta eds. , Japanese Studies between EU and Japan, Osaka: NPC Corporation 2010, pp. 119-140. Nye, Joseph S. Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics, New York: Public Affairs, 2004. O augh, “ha al . Girls reading Harry Potter, girls writing desire: amateur manga and shojo reading p a ti es , i To oko Ao a a a d Ba a a Ha tle eds. , Girl Reading Girl in Japan, London: Routledge 2010, pp. 174-186. Pu atha eka , As i . Bet ee o dies a d asikas: ethi ki g fa a ti it i I dia fil ultu e , in Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington (eds.), Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, Ne Yo k: Ne Yo k U i e sit P ess , pp. ‐ . “a g ō He sh “e t ed. . R u ī R u ī Chan no subete (All About Leslie Cheung), Tok o: “a g ō He sh “e t , . “t au haa , Joseph D. Be o d edia i pe ialis : ass et i al i te depe de e a d ultu al p o i it , Critical Studies in Media Communication, , , pp. ‐ . Thorn, Matt. Hagio Moto: The Co i s Jou al I te ie , [WWW do u e t] U‘L http://www.matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/hagio_interview.php#comments [visited 15/11/12] Wang, Yima . A sta is dead: a lege d is o : p a ti i g Leslie Cheu g's posthu ous fa do , i “u Holmes and Sean A. Redmond (eds.), Stardom and Celebrity: a Reader, London: Sage, 2007, pp. ‐ . Willis, Paul. Profane Culture, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978. Winnicott, Donald W. Playing and Reality, London: Routledge, 2009. Zjackt. untitled fan art [WWW document] URL http://zjackt.blog.163.com/album/#m=2&aid=227174796&pid=7466701849 [visited 08/12/12]. Zubernis, Lynn and Katherine Larsen. Fandom at the Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. Notes: “ee, fo e a ple, “usa Napie , A ime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke ; Leo Hu t a d Leung Wing-Fai , East Asia i e as: E plo i g t a s atio al o e tio s o fil ; Tejas i i Ga ti P odu i g Boll ood: I side the o te po a Hi di fil i dust . 2 “ee, fo e a ple, Flo TV s spe ial issue o ‘e isiti g A a-Fa do ; Ia Bogost , Agai st A a-Fa do ; Louisa “tei , O Not Hosti g the “essio that Killed the Te A afa a d a dis ussio a o g a g oup of s hola s o A afa do a d Be o d hosted He Je ki s o his Co fessio s of a A afa log. 1 Page 107 Volume 10, Issue 1 May 2013 3 Having said that, we want to reiterate we are not suggesting that transcultural fandom across its various cross-regional encounters is either necessarily similar or homogeneous. Rather, we are proposing that it derives from a common moment of affinity between the cultural text/product and the fan, one that is more likely affixed to affective pleasures than transnational or regional contexts. For instance, the rise of the popularity of Korean pop music (K-Pop) in the UK and Europe, has been att i uted to its fu usi , ith a fusio of a ge es . pag dist i uted the glo al ea h of YouTube, according to Mukasa (2011) in an article for the Guardian newspaper, suggesting that it is pleasure and affect that attract fans across the world to a phenomenon like K-Pop. 4 East Asian names are traditionally given in the order of surname, given name (e.g. Iwabuchi Koichi) but for ease of understanding in English-language works, many names are Anglocised, and therefore written as given name, surname. For Japanese names, macrons are used except in the case where a non-macron precedent exists. 5 In the recent edited volume, Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World (2012), Mizuko Ito d a s hea il o I a u hi s o k o t a s atio al East Asia fa do s i esta lishi g the object(s) and pa a ete s of dis ussio featu ed i the ook I t odu tio , : i-xxxi). See also, Yi a Wa g , A “ta is Dead: A Lege d is Bo : P a tisi g Leslie Cheu g s Posthu ous Fa do ; E a Tsai , Caught i the te ai s: a i te -referential inquiry of trans-border sta do a d fa do ; Keeh u g Lee , Mappi g out the ultu al politi s of the Ko ea Wa e i o te po a “outh Ko ea ; ‘o a Pease , Ko ea pop usi i Chi a: Natio alis , authe ti it , a d ge de ; You a Ki , Media consumption and everyday life in Asia; Colette Balmain (2009), Introduction to Japanese horror film; Sun Jung (2011), Korean masculinities and transcultural consumption. 6 See, for example, Matt Hills (2002), Fan Cultures; Christine Scodari (2003), ‘esista e e‐e a i ed ; He Je ki s , Convergence Culture; De ek Joh so , Fa -tagonism: Fa tio s, i stitutio s, a d o stituti e hege o ies of fa do ; Chi , The fa -media producer collaboration: How fan relationships are managed in a post-series X-Files fa do , as ell as a e ti e spe ial issue dedi ated to the the e of fa a ti is i the jou al Transformative Works and Culture. 7 Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing began his career as an entertainer when he placed second in the 1977 Asian Music Contest. His subsequent work in music, television, and film catapulted him to regional stardom, and by the 1990s he was a fixture within Hong Kong cinema, starring in works by such filmmakers as John Woo, Wong Kar-wai, and Peter Chan. Cheung committed suicide on April 1, 2003 after a long struggle with depression. 8 Yaoi is a a o of the ph ase Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi o uildup, o li a , o meaning), signifying works by both professional and amateur female manga artists and writers that centre on male/male romantic and sexual relationships. 9 Entertainment Weekly in the US, and Empire in the UK would be a general equivalent to these magazines. Page 108