Fan Economy and Consumption

Q Zhang, AY Fung�- The Korean wave: Evolution, fandom, and�…, 2017 - books.google.com
The Korean wave: Evolution, fandom, and transnationality, 2017books.google.com
This chapter documents and analyzes the fan economy in relation to Korean idolatry and
consumption in China. Given that the Chinese Internet is guarded by the “Chinese Great
Firewall” and that the circulation of Korean content on mass media in China is much
controlled, there emerges a unique financial and organizational structure in which Chinese
fans (or what Chinese call fensi) are connected to their idols in Korea. It also engenders the
formation of a kind of fan economy or circle of fandom in which a few “big fans”(dafen in�…
This chapter documents and analyzes the fan economy in relation to Korean idolatry and consumption in China. Given that the Chinese Internet is guarded by the “Chinese Great Firewall” and that the circulation of Korean content on mass media in China is much controlled, there emerges a unique financial and organizational structure in which Chinese fans (or what Chinese call fensi) are connected to their idols in Korea. It also engenders the formation of a kind of fan economy or circle of fandom in which a few “big fans”(dafen in Chinese) dominate the transactions in relation to consumption of idols’ cultural and material products (eg, CDs and sponsored products) between ordinary fans and the entertainment companies which brand and market their idols. These big fans in essence constitute a cultural nexus through which both economic transaction and political controls can be made possible. Such cultural nexus takes the form of a VIP account on major social media platforms such as Weibo (Chinese Twitter), and to a certain extent it shapes the cultural image of these Korean idols in the eyes of the Chinese fans.
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