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panel
Imaginaries and Desires of Fandom: Immersion, Conflicts, and Mutual Understanding in Contents Tourism
keywords:
popular culture
eastern asia
tourism
This session focuses on various “desires” of pop-culture fandom community in East Asia, where the transnational consumption of content and the formation of fandom are rapidly proceeding. Since the movement of people and information across borders has become increasingly prevalent in East Asia, the opportunities for people from different cultural and historical backgrounds to contact with one another are also increasing rapidly. In this situation, at first glance, it can be seen that people are consuming the same content; however, there are a variety of conflicts and misunderstandings inherent among them. On the other hand, it is certain that sharing the same content can encourage people to engage in dialogues with each other and advance mutual understanding. From such a viewpoint, this panel will focus on the practices of fandom caused by individuals’ desires in the transnational consumption of content, such as through contents tourism practices, and will, through case studies from various perspectives, discuss how those practices can encourage or control conflicts and mutual understanding. Specifically, we, researchers from three different countries (Japan, Korea, China), attempt to clarify the following three points through several case studies on different countries/areas, content, and fandom. First, which desires or appetites can be observed among East Asian fandoms? Second, how can narrative worlds related to conflict or mutual understanding cause desires or appetites and how can they be consumed transnationally? Third, what kind of passionate practices are caused by these desires of fandom, and consequently, what kind of conflicts or dialogue can be created transnationally in fandom?