TY - JOUR
T1 - Caught in the terrains
T2 - An inter-referential inquiry of trans-border stardom and fandom
AU - Tsai, Eva
N1 - Funding Information:
1. This research was made possible thanks to collaborative funding from NHK under the project title: ‘Public-ness of TV Broadcasting in East Asia’, which ran from April 2005–March 2006. An earlier draft was presented at the workshop, ‘East Asian Pop Culture: Transnational Japanese and Korean TV Dramas’, organized by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, on December 8–9, 2005. I would especially like to thank Chua Beng-huat, Kuan-hsing Chen, Iwabuchi Kom[]oacr¯ichi and Shin Hyun-joon for their insights and encouragement to pursue an inter-referential approach. I would like to thank Rong-Yu (Alice) Chi, Hae Rang (Philip) Noh, Jing-He (Michael) Chuang, and Jing-Hui Feng for their research assistance during different stages of the project. I thank the fans of Chang Hui-mei in China and in Taiwan for their hospitality and their time. I also thank the Taiwanese fans of Song Seung-heon for sharing their experiences and insights. I am solely responsible for any inaccuracies or other problems in this work.
PY - 2007/3
Y1 - 2007/3
N2 - This paper juxtaposes the predicaments of two popular stars in Asia whose mobility in their respective cultural fields became challenged by political sentiments in 2004. Chang Hui-Mei (A-Mei), the aboriginal pop diva from Taiwan, became the target of a protest organized by Chinese 'patriots' before a performance in Hangzhou. The event set off a series of public debates involving high-level Taiwanese politicians, fans, and members of the public that recalled a similar controversy in 2000 when A-Mei was banned in China after singing at the inauguration of President Chen Shui-Bian. Some months later, Korean Wave star Song Seung-Heon became the subject of a draft-dodging investigation while he was shooting a highly anticipated TV drama, Sad Love Story. Support from different configurations of overseas fans poured in and remained strong even after he gave up the project and began his mandatory military service. Using these two parallel cases to reveal how politics and entertainment interact in Asia independent of stars' volition, this paper investigates the affective investment and communication strategies of A-Mei's cross-strait fans and Song's Chinese-Asian fans during these emotion-laden circumstances. The inter-referential approach of this paper not only reveals the importance of considering patriotism as a latent (rather than exceptional) political and popular force in trans-Asian popular culture, but also reconfigures the relationships between the public, popular, and political in inter-Asia cultural traffic.
AB - This paper juxtaposes the predicaments of two popular stars in Asia whose mobility in their respective cultural fields became challenged by political sentiments in 2004. Chang Hui-Mei (A-Mei), the aboriginal pop diva from Taiwan, became the target of a protest organized by Chinese 'patriots' before a performance in Hangzhou. The event set off a series of public debates involving high-level Taiwanese politicians, fans, and members of the public that recalled a similar controversy in 2000 when A-Mei was banned in China after singing at the inauguration of President Chen Shui-Bian. Some months later, Korean Wave star Song Seung-Heon became the subject of a draft-dodging investigation while he was shooting a highly anticipated TV drama, Sad Love Story. Support from different configurations of overseas fans poured in and remained strong even after he gave up the project and began his mandatory military service. Using these two parallel cases to reveal how politics and entertainment interact in Asia independent of stars' volition, this paper investigates the affective investment and communication strategies of A-Mei's cross-strait fans and Song's Chinese-Asian fans during these emotion-laden circumstances. The inter-referential approach of this paper not only reveals the importance of considering patriotism as a latent (rather than exceptional) political and popular force in trans-Asian popular culture, but also reconfigures the relationships between the public, popular, and political in inter-Asia cultural traffic.
KW - A-Mei
KW - Fandom
KW - Korean Wave
KW - Patriotism
KW - Politicization of celebrities
KW - Trans-Asian stardom
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U2 - 10.1080/14649370601119121
DO - 10.1080/14649370601119121
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33847699241
SN - 1464-9373
VL - 8
SP - 135
EP - 154
JO - Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
JF - Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
IS - 1
ER -