*CFP* "GLOBAL QUEER FANDOMS OF ASIAN MEDIA AND CELEBRITIES", 21.6 ISSUE, COMMENTARY AND CRITICISM SECTION, FEMINIST MEDIA STUDIES JOURNAL

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@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.