The “shadow cultural economy” of French K-pop Fan-intermediaries in the Digital Age - From Recruitment to Financing

This study analyzes the cultural practices of French K-pop cultural intermediaries, who fill the gap in vertical mediation in the K-pop industry, through “textual productivity,” from the perspective of “production” rather than “consumption” to understand how their “shadow cultural economy” is organized, functions, and develops. To this end, we conducted semi-directive interviews with fan- intermediaries playing an important role in French K-pop fandom to learn about their systems of recruitment, production, distribution and financing. The practices of these intermediaries, like those of professional cultural workers, are guided by their own rules and practices, from recruitment processes to financing methods. First, consistent with the characteristics of fan productions, they organize their members primarily through personal networks. However, despite this relatively free human composition system, a clear division of labor among them was observed. They formed also promotional networks through digital “sharing” with other fan-intermediaries, thus demonstrating their strong solidarity. They had a variety of social and economic reward systems at their disposal, depending on the level of popularity they had acquired on digital platforms. These systems included crowdfunding, invitations to East Asian cultural events, visibility contracts with K-POP related retailers, and the provision of dance lessons. This clearly demonstrates that a “hybrid economy” within fan culture is already in practice.