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O Mighty Flist (and beyond), I seek your assistance!
As you may or may not know, I’m currently working on my MA in Critical Media and Cultural Studies at University of London, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). For my thesis, I’m delving into the question of how culture, one’s own, as well as that of the source material one is fanning on, affects how fans identify and interact with said media and the fandoms surrounding them.
I am very aware that academic scrutiny of fandom has at times been…less than pleasant, shall we say. With that in mind, I’d like to make clear that it is not my intent to place fen or fandom under the microscope, but rather to use them as one concrete example in the broader investigation of culture’s impact on the field of media studies.
The following questions I’ve split into two sections, one focused on the media itself, the other on fandom as a whole. These are just a jumping-off point; feel free to answer as many/as few of the questions as you’d like, in as much/little detail as you feel comfortable. If you’d prefer to comment anonymously or email me directly at gnine AT livejournal DOT com, that’s fine, too.
Media Questions:
How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?
How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?
Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?
If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)
Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?
The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ?
Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?
Fandom Questions:
At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?
Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?
If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions?
Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences?
Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings?
Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture?
Additionally, there are a few details that’d be helpful for everyone to include, if they could:
Nationality:
Native language(s):
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in):
Gender (that you're most comfortable identify yourself as):
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper:
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc):
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.?
Beyond that, if there are any other details, personal experiences, general trends you’ve observed, feel free to expound. Further discussion/questions in the comments is also very welcome.
If anyone's willing to link this in their journals, I’d be grateful, as the more responses the more expansive the research.
Thanks for your help!
I am very aware that academic scrutiny of fandom has at times been…less than pleasant, shall we say. With that in mind, I’d like to make clear that it is not my intent to place fen or fandom under the microscope, but rather to use them as one concrete example in the broader investigation of culture’s impact on the field of media studies.
The following questions I’ve split into two sections, one focused on the media itself, the other on fandom as a whole. These are just a jumping-off point; feel free to answer as many/as few of the questions as you’d like, in as much/little detail as you feel comfortable. If you’d prefer to comment anonymously or email me directly at gnine AT livejournal DOT com, that’s fine, too.
Media Questions:
How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?
How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?
Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?
If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)
Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?
The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ?
Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?
Fandom Questions:
At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?
Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?
If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions?
Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences?
Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings?
Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture?
Additionally, there are a few details that’d be helpful for everyone to include, if they could:
Nationality:
Native language(s):
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in):
Gender (that you're most comfortable identify yourself as):
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper:
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc):
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.?
Beyond that, if there are any other details, personal experiences, general trends you’ve observed, feel free to expound. Further discussion/questions in the comments is also very welcome.
If anyone's willing to link this in their journals, I’d be grateful, as the more responses the more expansive the research.
Thanks for your help!
Hi there! Linked here via friendsfriends
Media Questions:
-How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?
A small percentage. I'm from the U.S., and in the past I have had fandoms that were produced for the U.S./North American market (like Stargate:Atlantis or Star Trek franchise), but currently just about 99.9% of what I'm into is Asian.
-How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?
Currently, technically, none of it. I speak English and Cantonese, and learned Mandarin (fluent but not natively) so even if I watch Chinese shows, I'm not entirely sure that counts? At the moment everything I fan is in Japanese, Korean or Chinese. I live off of English and Chinese subtitles, hehe. However, the fandom-produced material (i.e. fanfiction, picspams, etc.) that I consume are all in English.
-Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?
Yes. I started out being in anime fandoms, so I had a mix of dubbed and subbed material and interacted with English-language fandom. Spent some time in Harry Potter and then U.S. media fandoms for a brief period, again English-language fandom, and now that I'm jpop and kpop fandom and dramas, I'm once more in Japanese and Korean canon, English-language fandom.
-If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)
Manga is going to be scanlations, dramas I will wait for subtitles because plot depends on understanding what's going on! Variety shows I will occasionally muddle through the raws because if the focus is more physical humor that translates all right, and I have just enough basic Japanese to guess what's happening
-Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?
I'm definitely drawn to Japanese and now Korean culture. The main draws are anime, manga and dramas. I've found that for me, the story lines and arcs are more compelling because it's easier to find ones that I enjoy, where character development happens, many stories are slice-of-life, there is emotional depth and stories go into personal interactions, there are fun family and friendship stories and growing up stories, and romance. I find characters I can relate to and situations that are entertaining, funny or sympathetic.
Also I think because there is a bit of cultural distance, there are different issues that bug me versus the issues that tend to bug me over and over when I used to try to watch U.S./North American tv, so it's fresh, I suppose. I keep getting thrown out of US/NA tv over race/gender/class/etc fail, it harshes my buzz so I can't enjoy as much. J- and k-drama have their own issues, but one of my favorite things is that there are so many unabashedly awesome female characters. They come in so many personalities and character types. I could go on if you asked. :P
-The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ?
*laughs* Man, my first foray into manga was definitely an experience! It always makes me so happy when translators and subbers put cultural notes in. And it's interesting to me how complex the conventions and visual shorthand involved in manga can be, how a couple symbols can represent an emotion or state of mind or an action, and how I'm so used to it now that it actually threw me for a loop when I tried to get one of my friends to read manga and she was having trouble with pacing, with reading panels right to left and figuring out the proper direction to read in, figuring out the convention of deforming a character meant a humorous interlude, etc.
I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 2/?
Getting into Korean dramas I had some interesting adjustment issues. Mostly it was the romance thing in romcoms, where it seemed that if a woman was the lead, there was usually a guy to match her, and a Secondary Guy, and a Secondary Girl to get in the way and I couldn't figure out why Secondary Girl was often made out to be such a psycho.
I always associate the accidental fall-on-top-of-each-other-kiss as an East Asian thing, because I've seen it in j-, k- Chinese and Taiwan-dramas. And if a drama or anime/manga includes an appearance of a foreign (esp. white or black) character I always get ready to duck because the treatment is usually wince-worthy, though it's slightly understandable because those cultures are relatively homogeneous.
I notice US/NA stuff tends to go in for the buddy cop trope. Can't say much more because I've been out of those fandom circles for a long time. >.>
Fandom Questions:
-At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?
Currently, definitely not. I'm from the U.S., and in my jpop and kpop fandom, the appeal is definitely worldwide. I've got friends in Germany, Canada, Singapore, Japan, I think Brazil, China, Korea, Philippines, Australia, alllll over. But it's so strange, because I'll go on some LJ comms, and because a lot of LJ are from the US, and there'll be discussions and the US kids will post with the assumption that US culture is the base culture to be comparing Japanese culture with. I don't see it that often, but it throws me for such a loop sometimes because most of the rest of the fandom I hang out with is so international.
-Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?
Oh definitely! Part of it is access, and I suppose part of it is appeal, like what kind of stories and characters and elements of 'canon' draw people in. When I was in Stargate: Atlantis fandom I think everybody I knew or knew of in it was from the U.S. But I find that with the dramas and anime, several of them have been rebroadcasted in other parts of Asia either dubbed or subbed or even remade with local cast, so there's a lot of cultural cross-pollination going on.
With the J- and k-pop, that's idols and other entertainers, and Asian entertainer do a lot of crazy stuff and variety shows and are just everywhere, compared to the celebrities/musicians/etc that I know of in the US. So I would guess with greater exposure and material for fans to get into, that's also a draw.
I don't go to conventions, so skipping those questions~
-Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings?
Mmm, I've observed but not been involved in things. Since my current fandom has such an international make-up, but the medium of fannish communication is largely in English, I've periodically seen wank involving language use and fluency, some people demanding better usage and other people going, "lighten up, English is not a lot of people's first language". Toss in the usual fangirl-Japanese thing.
It's interesting to me to see so many people start a conversation in English, and shift back and forth with another one in the middle.
Also I think anime, jpop and kpop fandom is on average a younger fandom, probably as young as 13 or 14, though it skews because I've conversed with fans into their 60s, and I'm 26 myself. Most of my friends are college-age and into working years, I'd say late teens into mid 30s. Though because the average is lower, that does mean the conversation level and social skills ability in the comms is still maturing. ^^;;
When I was in Harry Potter fandom, the age range was also pretty wide, but the section of fandom I was in was heavily skewed towards early to mid 20s, mostly college students. Same for Stargate: Atlantis and Lord of the Rings.
Re: I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 3/3
Yes! Anime and manga I'm used to seen lots of beautiful fanart, and fanfic, and fanvids (that are usually either funny and completely ridiculous or dramatic and beautiful, set to 90's US pop music. XD).
Western tv has led me to expect lots of fanfic, fanvids out the wazoo and the occasional comic or fanart.
Jpop and kpop, having canon that is anchored in actual entertainers with ongoing activities and not a closed fictional canon, tends to lend itself to vignette and one-shot fics. There are so few long fics compared to the fiction-based fandoms. Also there is no shortage of vids pulling out footage from idols doing silly things on variety shows. :D Also, because the idols are doing things like twitter and webpages, fic can have sections using those formats.
A random thing: every so often I've dipped a toe back into the Western media fandom side of things. It's definitely interesting to hear the different discourses compared to in East Asian media. Western media is so US-centered, in terms of cultural foundation, how things like race/class/gender/sexuality/etc. are discussions and what terms are used. In my East Asian fandoms, the cultural bases of both the source and all the many fans are different.
I remember in Western fandom there was a big thing over the creation of Archive of Our Own and legality of fanfic and whether to include (Western) bandom and there was a long of arguing and wankery. And that entire conversation didn't even touch the are of jpop fandom I was in, except through the few people like me who kept a toe in each sandbox. Probably because writing fanfic doesn't really...violate copyright on real people. There's a different mess instead involving subbing and sharing media with other fans, because videos, on the other hand...
Occasionally I encounter an interesting blanket acceptance of the quirks and issues of Japanese or Korean culture, and then there's some dust-up and then posters come out of the woodwork and things seesaw between calls for cultural relativism versus 'oh that's horrible! Here in the US etc etc' and I just facepalm all over the place.
Oh man, tl;dr. XDDD;;; I should add that being part of jpop fandoms have changed the way I use emoticons, in that I picked up a new vocabulary of them and have a sad tendency to tack them on the end of all my sentences, because it's like the way I speak Cantonese and there are mood markers that you can place on the end of a sentence to nuance it. Also because it's so hard to tell someone's tone of voice/intention from text sometimes. I didn't used to do this when I was just in anime/manga fandoms though!
Last thing! You can call me rhythmia, I'm from the US, fan in English, though I speak English and Cantonese natively and read English much better than I can read Chinese. Go right ahead about using my input and please ask me to expand. If there are more topics you're interested in, just ask, because I'm sure I have lots of thoughts, but I need questions to tease them out, hehe. I hope this helps! ^_^
Re: I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 3/3
Re: I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 3/3
Re: I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 3/3
Re: I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 3/3
In what ways (if any), for you personally, do your fannish practices change depending on the source culture of the material you're fanning on? (e.g. do you watch more music vids for anime, do you read/write particular kinds of fic for western shows, do you seek out cons for only certain types of fandoms, etc.) The more specific the examples, the better.
Semi-related to the above question, in what ways, if any, has your fannish practices changed over your time in fandom? (both in general over the years you've been in fandom and in specific fandoms. ) And have these changes at all coincided with differences in source culture? (eg for western fandoms, you've always just watched/read fic w/out much change over time but with Japanese fandom, you started watching anime then moved on to music vids then progressed to
helping scanlate manga because you went on to learn Japanese, etc.)
And one or two questions on one topic I might be exploring in a bit more detail, so:
Are you interested in/have any experience with/in slash/Boys Love/yaoi/ m/m etc.? If yes, do you notice a difference in how it is approached/explored depending on the source culture of the material? Examples/details appreciated.
Do you personally approach it differently/have different expectations for how it's depicted in fan works depending on the culture? If so, in what ways?
Oh, also, if I don't already know it (ie know you in person) and you're comfortable sharing it, what gender do you identify yourself as?
Again, thanks for your time, any details you have already or can additionally provide are a big big help! ^_____^