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In this discussion, we advocate for a broad(er) model of transcultural fandom studies that, in shifting focus to the affective affinities that spark fan interest in transcultural fan objects, is intended as a corrective to nation-centred analyses of border-crossing fandoms. It is our contention that the binary approach to transnational fandom maintained by media globalisation scholars such as Koichi Iwabuchi, writing in the East Asian context, does little to advance our understanding of both why fans engage in cross-border fandoms, and the implications of fannish activity on how we understand the global flow of media texts. In this essay, we consider an alternative approach to transcultural fandoms that is concerned less with nations than with fans themselves. We seek here neither to redeem nor condemn fans, but rather to situate them within their myriad contexts – not only sociopolitical and economic, but equally popular and fan cultural, sexual, gender, and so on.
Chin et al. (Tue,) studied this question.