TY - JOUR
T1 - The power of circulation
T2 - Digital technologies and the online Chinese fans of Japanese TV drama
AU - Hu, Kelly
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper was sponsored by National Science Council in Taiwan. The topic of this project is “Japanese TV and Chinese fans’ transnational cultural production: the significance of reflexivity and narrative of the self”. The project number is: NSC 92-2412-H-194-011-, August 2003 - July 2004. The author especially thanks her research assistant, Gingwen Cheung, for help in collecting fan website materials and Japanese language translations.
PY - 2005/6
Y1 - 2005/6
N2 - Focusing on the online Chinese fans of Japanese TV drama, this paper explores the way in which the fan subculture, in connection with digital technologies, has carved out alternative practices in the circulation, production and consumption of Japanese TV drama. As 'minority audiences' who are not targeted as the objects of capitalist interests, online Chinese fans invent spaces for Chinese transnational networking with self-help and sharing, as a way of resisting the aloofness from marketing strategies of Japanese TV distributors in Asia. This case study reveals that the online Chinese fan clubs, the websites for downloads, pirated VCD markets, digital file conversion, and private VCD burning -all of these have linked endless networks for the digitalized circulation and consumption of Japanese TV drama. The online Chinese fans are guerrilla fighters in the politics of autonomy, network and low-cost digital technology; they are attempting to break down time-space constraints and the official distribution hierarchy. Such fan practices shed light on the new trends of audio-visual consumption via digitalization.
AB - Focusing on the online Chinese fans of Japanese TV drama, this paper explores the way in which the fan subculture, in connection with digital technologies, has carved out alternative practices in the circulation, production and consumption of Japanese TV drama. As 'minority audiences' who are not targeted as the objects of capitalist interests, online Chinese fans invent spaces for Chinese transnational networking with self-help and sharing, as a way of resisting the aloofness from marketing strategies of Japanese TV distributors in Asia. This case study reveals that the online Chinese fan clubs, the websites for downloads, pirated VCD markets, digital file conversion, and private VCD burning -all of these have linked endless networks for the digitalized circulation and consumption of Japanese TV drama. The online Chinese fans are guerrilla fighters in the politics of autonomy, network and low-cost digital technology; they are attempting to break down time-space constraints and the official distribution hierarchy. Such fan practices shed light on the new trends of audio-visual consumption via digitalization.
KW - Circulation
KW - Digital technology
KW - Online Chinese fans
KW - Resistance and network
KW - Self-help
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U2 - 10.1080/14649370500065896
DO - 10.1080/14649370500065896
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33746237407
SN - 1464-9373
VL - 6
SP - 171
EP - 186
JO - Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
JF - Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
IS - 2
ER -