‘Only by safeguarding democracy can we freely chase stars’: How Taiwan’s K-pop fans renovated the movement culture

This article bridges two literatures – fandom studies, which emphasises fans’ creative agency, and social movement research, which focuses on their resource contributions – by examining the participation of Taiwan’s K-pop fans in the 2024 Bluebird Action and 2025 Great Recall campaign. This study explores two questions: what drives the pro-democracy orientation of this fan activism, and how their involvement reshapes the wider culture of the movement. Drawing on an online survey and in-depth interviews, it demonstrates how fan protesters introduced novel scripts, articulated new moral vocabularies and deepened the democratic imagination. The case of Taiwan is particularly illuminating: as a vibrant democracy facing the authoritarian pressure from China, fan activists leveraged their participatory support culture for civic engagement. Participation by predominantly young, highly educated women also strengthened the movement’s anti-authoritarian and egalitarian ethos. The article shows how participants bring personal and collective identities into protest, influencing the movement’s cultural and political contours.