[Commlist] CFP: Global queer fandoms of Asian media and celebrities

Call for submissions

*/FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES /*

Commentary and Criticism

*21.6 Global queer fandoms of Asian media and celebrities *

Since the 2010s, K-pop music groups, Chinese, South Korean, and Thai TV 
dramas, Japanese ACG (anime, cosplay, and gaming) cultures, and Hong 
Kong, Taiwanese, and Singaporean films have continued to grow in 
popularity on a trans-geocultural scale. With little doubt, global flows 
of Asian entertainment media and pop culture have been paving the way 
for a decentering of the Western-dominated global mediascape. Certainly, 
due to the increasingly close and frequent collaborations between media 
industries in diverse geolocales, the too-often essentialized notion of 
“Asianness” and the problematic theoretical binarisms of East/West, 
global/local, and center/periphery need urgent contestation. It is also 
hard to ignore the central role played by androgynous personas, 
homosocial and homoerotic narratives, and norm-defying performances in 
the worldwide prominence of Asian media and celebrity cultures, as well 
as their flourishing queer fan communities in inter-Asian and Anglophone 
contexts.

This special Commentary and Criticism section aims to re-center Asia 
within fan studies through a combined global feminist and queer lens. It 
highlights the multivalent potential of queer in forming disruption and 
alternation to established meanings, identities, and norms in global 
media flows and fannish spaces devoted to Asian media and celebrities. 
It thus invites contributions that bridge global media studies, Asian 
pop culture studies, LGBTQ media and audience studies, and queer fan 
studies to identify promises and problems rooted in or emerging from 
transcultural, cross-linguistic, multi-ethnic, and (de-)globalist settings.

The following are some of the questions this special section considers: 
How and why do queer sentiments, narratives, and images contribute to 
the global impact of Asian media and celebrities and appeal to a global 
fan community? In what ways do global queer fans of Asian media and 
celebrities negotiate norms and ideals surrounding gender, sexuality, 
class, ethnicity, nationality, and other sociocultural registers? What 
roles do traditional values, shared cultural roots, or racial and 
linguistic proximities play in the global popularity of Asian 
entertainment? How have contemporary international economic-political 
situations and local technological affordances complicated queer fans’ 
transcultural consumption, interpretation, and circulation of Asian pop 
culture?

Short contributions of no more than 1500 words from a wide range of 
disciplines and theoretical approaches are encouraged. The editor 
especially welcomes entries concerning queer fandoms in inter-Asian 
contexts and based in non-English-speaking locales and digital spaces.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, topics such as:

·Ethno-nationalistic sentiments and racial conflicts in transcultural 
queer fandoms of Asian media and celebrities

·The role of queerbaiting in expanding the global fandom of Asian 
entertainment

·Asian pop cover dance involving cross-gender or cross-dressing performances

·Anglophone fandoms of Asian boys’ love (BL) or girls’ love (GL) media

·Cross-dressing, inter-ethnic anime, cosplay, and gaming(ACG) cultures

·Fan communities dedicated to Asian media and celebrities as global 
LGBTQ spaces

·The role of social media in forming global queer fandoms of Asian pop 
culture

·Fansubbing (fan subtitling/translation), fanvidding (fan video-making), 
and fan gossiping practices for queer readings of Asian media and 
celebrities

·Cross-cultural imaginations and stereotyping in queer fan productions 
concerning Asian media and celebrities

The Commentary and Criticism section of /Feminist Media Studies/ aims to 
publish brief (~1000 words), timely responses to current issues in 
feminist media culture, for an international readership. Submissions may 
pose a provocation, describe work in progress, or propose areas for 
future study. We will also consider book and event reviews, as well as 
contributions that depart from traditional academic formats. We 
encourage all submissions to strategically mobilize critique to also 
offer a productive contribution to both feminist politics and media 
studies. Submissions must go beyond mere description in order to be 
considered for publication in Commentary and Criticism.

*Please submit contributions by Thursday 1 April 2021, via email to 
Jamie J. Zhao (**(jingjamiezhao /at/ gmail.com)**). *Questions and expressions 
of interest can also be addressed to Dr. Zhao in advance of the deadline.

Please note that submissions for Commentary and Criticism will not be 
correctly processed if submitted through via the /Feminist Media 
Studies/ website, and should be emailed directly to Dr. Zhao using the 
email address above.

Please be sure to follow the /Feminist Media Studies/ style and 
referencing guides, which can be found here.


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