The Bounded Embodiment of Fandom in China - Recovering Shifting Media Experiences and Fan Participation Through an Oral History of Animation-Comics-Games Lovers

Aug 24, 2026

Upload by Oliver

Research examines how fan participation, understood as the construction of fan–object relationships, evolves as a sociohistorical practice in China from the 1990s onward. Using oral history and autobiography from animation-comics-games (ACG) lovers, it tracks changes in media practices, participation, and identification. The study argues mass media does not simply create new fan practices or relationships; instead it reshapes the forms and meanings of embodiment and affective engagement within fandom, yielding situated experiences and shifting priorities of meaning over time.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Research questions and framing

Key concepts: fan participation as sociohistorical practice

Method and scope

Oral history and autobiography of ACG lovers

Longitudinal changes since the 1990s

Literature review

Fan participation as a sociohistorical practice

The Bounded Embodiment of Fandom in China: Recovering Shifting Media Experiences and Fan Participation Through an Oral History of Animation-Comics-Games Lovers YIN YIYI XIE ZHUOXIAO The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China The synchronic patterns and outcomes of relationship building between fans and fan objects have received much attention in fan studies. Instead of taking an overly presentist view, as historical research on fandom often has done, this research treats fan participation—the construction of fan–object relationships—as a sociohistorical practice, highlighting the longitudinal transformations of fandom in specific social contexts . Drawing on oral history and autobiography among animation-comics-games (ACG) lovers, we examine changes in media practices, participation, and identification since the 1990s in a Chinese context. We argue that in the evolution of ACG fandom, the significance of mass media has not resided in forming new fan practices or fan–object relationships. Rather, mass media have played a role in changing the forms and meanings of the embodiment of the imaginary and the affective relationships between fan and object. The shifting embodiments provide fans with hints of situated experiences and priority of meanings regarding being-in-the-fandom. Keywords: fan culture, fan participation, media practice, embodiment of object relation, ACG culture, fandom history, Chinese context Many studies have investigated the synchronic patterns or outcomes of fan culture in the digital era, but the crucial questions of how, why, and whether fandom has been changed by digitalization have been inadequately answered. The concept of fandom is commonly understood on the basis of where the relationship between fans and fan objects is located on the spectrum of consumption and production (see Booth, 2010; Fiske, 1992; Jenkins, 1992, 2006), from idiosyncratic projection to affective sensibility (see Abercrombie & Longhurst, 1998; Grossberg, 1992; Harris, 1998; Jancovich, 2002; Sandvoss, 2005), and from readership to cult fandom (see Hills, 2002) . Although existing work has focused mainly on synchronic patterns or outcomes of such fandom relationships (see Gray, Harrington, & Sandvoss, 2007; Hills, 2002; Jenkins, 1992; Sandvoss, 2005), scholars have rarely explicated how certain fan-like relationships have evolved and shifted in specific contexts or whether they have appeared to be identical with forms of consumption, readership, or affection over time . Yiyi Yin: [yiyiyin@link.cuhk.edu.hk](yiyiyin@link.cuhk.edu.hk) Xie Zhuoxiao: [xiezhuoxiao@link.cuhk.edu.hk](xiezhuoxiao@link.cuhk.edu.hk) [Date submitted: 2018](Date submitted: 2018)‒[04](04)‒[11](11) Copyright © 2018 (Yiyi Yin and Xie Zhuoxiao ) . Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at [http://ijoc.org](http://ijoc.org). 2 Yiyi Yin and Xie Zhuoxiao International Journal of Communication 12(2018) This study aims to understand whether, how, and why fandom has changed with digitalization in the Chinese context, where the acceleration of the process of globalization has led to a sweeping transformation of fan culture (Fung, 2013; Ito, Okabe, & Tsuji; 2012; Iwabuchi, 2010; Kustritz, 2015) . Fan culture has emerged from a largely underground development and community-based activity to become a vibrant social platform operating on the Internet. Taking a practical approach, we investigate the longitudinal processes of relationship building between fans and fan objects as a sociohistorical practice . Practices constitute the key elements of social life (Schatzki, 1996) and refer to the “temporal and spatially dispersed nexus of doings and sayings” (Schatzki, 1996 ; in Pantzar, Shove, & Watson, 2012, p. 7) . At an analytical level,“practices are composed of elements and people who are usefully understood as the carriers of practice figure” (Pantzar et al., 2012, p. 8) . Accordingly, fan pract

FAQs

本研究如何理解“粉丝参与”？

研究将粉丝参与视为一种社会历史实践，重点在于粉丝与粉丝对象关系的建构与变化，而不是仅从消费生产光谱理解。

研究使用了什么材料来追踪粉丝经验的变化？

研究基于动画-漫画-游戏（ACG）爱好者的口述史与自传材料，考察1990年代以来媒体实践与参与方式的变化。

研究的核心观点是什么：大众媒体是否会改变粉丝实践？

研究认为大众媒体的重要性不在于直接形成新的粉丝实践或关系，而在于改变粉丝与对象之间想象性与情感关系的具体体现形式与意义。

Aug 24, 2026

Upload by Oliver