Fanquan
| Synonyms: | fan circle |
| See also: | Stan, C-Pop Idol |
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Fanquan (饭圈) is a Chinese idol fandom term sometimes translated as "fandom". Literally translated, it means "fan circle" and refers to the network of fans of a celebrity, usually operating through Chinese social media in an organized fashion to boost the popularity of their favorite idol. Fanquan activities include coordinated buying of the celebrity's music or products endorsed by them, as well as upvoting anything related to them online, mass commenting on weibo posts, and fighting with anti-fans. Fanquan have also run charity drives. The fan leaders (dà fěn 大粉) at the very top of the hierarchy are often paid by the idol's PR team and coordinate with them.
The "fan" in fanquan is a transliteration of the English word fan. 饭 fàn means "rice" or "meal". Occasionally 粉圈 is used: 粉 fěn means "pink" or "powder". See Jikipedia, which has one person's definition of 粉圈, Archived version and an entire tag for 饭圈, Archived version.
A video interview with American academic Henry Jenkins on bilibili in 2020 had fans discussing in the comments how a mistranslation of fanquan as "fandom" affected Jenkins' answers. One fan commented to say that there was no equivalent word in other languages.[1][2]
In Chinese online spaces there has been a growing critique of fanquan culture being out of control, expressed by regular netizens and also published in state-run publications. Fanquan activity started causing a lot of high profile incidents (see Blocking of AO3 in China). In August 2021 the Chinese government announced a number of new restrictions ostensibly to curb the excesses of fanquan, including banning social media ranked lists of individual celebrities and RPF ships aka CPs and requiring idols' PR teams to be responsible for fan clubs' behavior and banning unofficial fan club accounts. Although some aspects of fanquan culture have become a genuine public nuisance, commentators have observed that the CCP also likely considers fanquan as a threat to its monopoly on power.[3]
Links
- Baidu: 饭圈 （网络用语）, Archived version
- Wu, Xueyin. 2021. "Fan Leaders' Control on Xiao Zhan's Chinese Fan Community." Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 36. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2021.2053.
- radiichina.com: Idol Hands: How China's Super Fan Groups Make and Break Stars Via the Multi-Million Dollar "Fan Economy", Archived version by Fan Shuhong, 7 January 2019
- Youtube: #7 Live Stream - Stay Home Stay Safe/Chinese Fandom + Xiao Zhan Situation/March C Dramas by AvenueX, 19 March 2020
- Cyberspace Administration of China: 关于进一步加强“饭圈”乱象治理的通知 (Notice on Further Strengthening the Control of Chaos in the "Fan Circle"), Archived version, 27 August 2021
- Confessions of an Aca-Fan: Some discussion of fan circle culture included in Global Fandom: Yiyi Yin (China), Archived version, 9 February 2022 and Global Fandom Jamboree Conversation: Yiyi Yin and Susan Noh (Part Two), Archived version, 11 February 2022
References
- ^ 肖战粉丝事件名扬海外，国际大神扒饭圈文化 (The Xiao Zhan fan incident is famous overseas), Archived version, posted on bilibili, 12 April 2020.
- ^ going to the source!... and mistranslating it (what I am doing here no doubt), Archived version, dreamwidth post by user:aethel, 18 April 2020. See also the non-MTL translation in the comments.
- ^ "However, experts said the fan groups' propensity for organisation and effective social action is the chief concern for Xi's administration as China embarks on a sweeping reassertion of party and state control across the country's technological, business and cultural landscape. 'They see the potential to organise, to mobilise. For the government, that is a very big concern,' said Yun Jiang, a China expert and former policy adviser to the Australian government now with the Australian National University." China’s Xi Jinping faces off against fan armies in crackdown on celebrity culture - Financial Times, Archived version