Plaridel Journal Call for Papers Extended to September 4: Special Issue on Fan Cultures and Cinephilia in Asian Transmedia Contexts

Written by CMC-ORP posted on Thursday, May 18th, 2017

Responding to the shifting focus from audiences as consumers to their role as cultural producers aided by various technological developments, fan studies have gained significant attention as a sub-field in media and film studies in the early 1990s. Despite extensive works that have shed light on fan practices surrounding Western cultural products, limited accounts have paid attention to transcultural exchanges and fans within a specific regional context. Lori Morimoto and Bertha Chin’s work that put forward a theory of transcultural fandom (2013) points to the need to expand ways of exploring fandom by engaging with alternative models of fan practices across different geographical contexts. This special issue seeks to extend further the discussion on fandom within Asia in relation to other parts of the world. Existing literature on cultural studies have begun to explore how fans in different Asian countries have embraced and appropriated popular cultures, particularly pop music and television series from Japan and South Korea. Meanwhile, festival films from Asia have been discussed as part of the renewed attention on global cinema and cinephilia studies. To address various practices within the increasingly transmedia cultures in the region, this special issue highlights the crossover between fans, cinephiles and other committed audience groups. Therefore, we welcome a wide range of papers that seek to explore fans of various cultural products within the Asian context (i.e. film, music, television drama, video-game, animation and other transmedia content) and fans of different personalities (i.e. film director, producer, star, idol, celebrity). Possible papers can focus on fan activities, as well as textual, aesthetics and performative aspects of fans/cinephiles. Possible topics for main article (but are not limited to):
  • Fan vids/mashups/tributes/video essays and transformative works in relation to Asian transmedia context
  • Fan re-enactments and performances in Asian context
  • Fan meet-ups, fan clubs, cons and festivals in Asia
  • Fan tourism/cinephile pilgrimage in Asia
  • Crowd and fan funding in Asia context
  • Fan subtitling and other activities as part of distribution networks in Asia
  • The relationship between fans and producers/filmmakers/stars/idols within Asia
  • Anti-fans and conflicts within Southeast Asian transmedia cultures
  • Fan activism in Asian context
Other formats
  • Interviews
  • Film, book, & conference reviews
——————————————————- Submission details can be found at https://www.plarideljournal.org/information-for-authors/ Submissions are to be e-mailed to the Issue Editors and the Managing Editor in MS Word format without any identifying information such as author(s) name and institutional affiliations. Authors should also submit a separate title page with the manuscript title, author name(s), institutional affiliation and contact information for the corresponding author. Issue Editors: Authors interested to contribute to the special issue may also get in touch with the Issue Editors to discuss your ideas. For submissions and further inquiries, email: