This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account: Huayi Brothers Research Institute (ID: HB Research), original title: "On China’s "Rice Circle Culture" (I)》, the first picture comes from: IC photo
Recently, whether fans have aroused conflicts with their peers by reporting the fan fiction database website-AO3, or fans of the draft variety "Creation Camp 2020" and fans of the same type "Youth has You 2" have begun to "break their heads".(battle)The "rice circle" caused quite a stir on the Internet, and many idols were forced to "go out of the circle". However, why do fans always have fierce contradictions? Can fan culture be compatible with popular culture? Where did the original "rice circle" culture come from?
In order to answer a series of questions about "rice circle culture", Huayi Brothers Research Institute deeply explored the fan culture. This paper will focus on the origin, development process and characteristics of fan culture, and deeply analyze the circle and structure of entertainment rice circle culture in the mainland.
Origin: Influenced by the cultural circles of East Asia and Europe and America, China’s "fan culture" has taken shape.
The worship and pursuit of idols are rooted in human nature, but the formation of fan culture is not only based on feelings, but also influenced by social, economic and cultural aspects. Internationally, the prevalence of consumerism in the 1980s provided a fertile ground for the outbreak of the fan community, which also attracted academic attention to this cultural phenomenon. From text deconstruction and reconstruction, to field and social class, to emotional pursuit and psychoanalysis, the relationship between fan culture and many key fields has gradually become clear.Numerous studies of fan culture in the context of mass culture, media communication and economic power show the integration of fan culture and the complexity of its internal mechanism.
Due to the different basic economic environment and media preference, foreign fan studies can not fully explain the current situation of domestic fan culture. However, it is undeniable that China’s fan culture was really influenced by the East Asian cultural circle in its early days. Even today, China’s fan culture still contains a series of fan behaviors such as Japanese "house" culture and Korean idol culture, such as "calling", "playing the list" and "supporting". With the acceleration of internationalization, the frequency of the word "European and American circle" in fan culture has gradually increased, and the new fan culture has impacted and changed the original domestic fan culture. AO3(Archive of Our Own)And other more open fan creation websites have therefore entered the field of vision of domestic fans and become a gathering place for some domestic fans.
▲ Source: Yien & Huace Film and Television "I am willing to be the shadow, protect you as the king-fan economy research report"
Change: from "groupies" to the establishment of "rice circle"
China’s modern fan culture took shape in the middle and late 20th century. Teresa Teng, Little Tiger, Chow Yun Fat and other Hong Kong and Taiwan stars had a large number of fans, and the appearance of Cui Jian and other rock stars also met the spiritual needs of young people at that time. However, during this period, fans’ idolatry was confined to the mechanism of one-way communication, and fans’ behavior was mainly to receive information. The term "groupie" also came into people’s field of vision.
In 2005, Super Girl’s program exploded, driving fans to become a unique social group and cultural phenomenon into the mainstream. Groups such as "corn", "bean jelly" and "box lunch" have entered people’s field of vision with an unprecedented speed and high-profile posture, breaking the traditional impression of groupies in the past. They not only went to the show site to hold up light signs and shout uniform slogans to cheer for the players they supported, but also expressed their attitudes through SMS voting and even called for more people to vote through a large number of promotional materials. Not only did it help your favorite players to "get through the customs" round after round, but it also made the talent show a carnival of "participation by the whole people".①
▲ "Super Girl" stills Source: Network
Since then,With the development of new media environment, fan culture has also undergone a new transformation: the original one-way communication between fans and idols has changed into two-way communication, and virtual communities have improved the scale and organization of fan groups.Weibo has become a gathering place of fan culture because it provides a platform for direct communication between fans and idols, which satisfies the imagination that fans can contact idol life and have direct dialogue with idols. Even to some extent, this kind of imagination is built to satisfy the psychology of fans.Pseudo interactive relationship, and thus produced some discordant sounds. On the other hand, the network has further increased the scale of the fan base, becoming a so-called "rice circle" and creating its own discourse system and power system. Fans can quickly locate their peers with the same hobbies through the internet, and fan activities are more organized through the internet. At the same time, the emergence of professional websites and apps in idolize has further promoted the commercialization of fan culture and spawned more diverse fan activities.
Driven by the trend of consumer culture, the society has changed from production-oriented to consumption-oriented, and the fan economy has flourished with the popularization of fan culture.Fans are not only the main body of culture, but also the main body of economy, playing a huge role in the consumer society.Therefore, the emergence of "professional fans" is logical. Professional fans either earn money through fan activities, or cooperate with brokerage companies and cultural companies to operate fans to get paid. While the commercial value of fans is improving, the guidance of relatively negative economic demand to excessive behavior is also emerging at this time.
From the changes of fan culture, it is not difficult to find that the balance of power between fans and idols is unconsciously tilted. With the advent of the era of "star-making" fans, "flow" has become the lifeblood of grasping the idol cause, and the power of fans has been further enhanced, even reversing beyond the idol itself.The industrialization of idols has caused a sharp increase in the number of idols, an increase in the mobility of fans, a change in the buyer’s market position, and fans have more right to speak and decide.However, the strong capital in the layout of big entertainment has come to an end, and a new party has been added to the idol-fan system, and the game is more complicated and intense. The "rice circle" of social network platform has expanded the application field of fan culture, and more and more people have noticed the strong emotional connection and high user viscosity of fan culture. As a unique community structure, fan culture is highly involved in today’s social structure and activities.
Ecological characteristics of Chinese vermicelli
Refined fan operation: strict organization
Under the great influence of the fan economy, the fan ecology of fans is no longer an initial "atomic" individual activity, but an organized and distributed collective activity. Fan operation is no longer an industry secret, as long as you mix for a while, "solid powder"(Maintain existing fans by communicating with them more), "powder abuse"(Stimulate fans’ desire for protection by shaping the image of idols being bullied, so as to strengthen emotional ties), "purification"(Cut off the relationship between the two idols who used to be "cp" in film and television works, and convert the double fans into single fans, that is, "only fans")"explosion-proof"(prevent the same type of idol from exploding)Waiting for the routine, even if it is "loose powder"(Fans who have not participated in any support meetings and fan groups)And I know it.
The refinement and specialization of fan operation is inevitable. First, spontaneous fan behavior is prone to irregular behavior because of emotional and irregular behavior, which has a negative impact on idols, so it needs correct guidance; Second, the subjects associated with the idol industry are becoming more and more diverse, and the cooperation between brokerage companies, content production companies, brands and video platforms requires the guidance of professional teams to maximize benefits; Third, the internal attributes of fans are different, and their preferences and activities are different. Professional teams can allocate resources more reasonably to meet the psychological needs of all parties.
In terms of organizational structure, the management of all fans consists of three parts, namely, the internal class management of fan organizations, the fan management with the brokerage company as the core and the commercial value of idols as the guide, and the professional fan companies that focus on the operation of fans as a whole rather than a specific idol fan group, such as Super Star Rice Ball.
Every fan activity, the brokerage company guides the "big powder"(Opinion leaders among fans), "job powder" and the management of the support club, disclose the information and the purpose of the support activities in advance, and these fans will pass the information to the fan group. The activities within the fan group are carried out in the form of "multi-point gathering", with "big fans", individual stations and support clubs in different regions as the multi-point core, and ordinary fans are gathered for large-scale support. In this process, professional fan companies not only play an auxiliary role, but also may be the purpose of some kind of fan activities, such as learning about idol dynamics through fan apps or playing on fan apps.
▲ Source: Yi En & Landu, "New Insights of Rice Circles and Advanced Raiders of Fan Operation"
"Heterotopia" in Rice Circles: Community and Exclusion
heterotopias co., ltd creativity | plan | dissemination(heterotopias)It’s Foucault.(Michel Foucault)A kind of observation of society proposed is different from a fictional utopia. Heterotopia is connected with the real place, but it is different from the ordinary cultural space.The virtual space "rice circle" formed by fan culture conforms to the characteristics of "different countries";The tendency of the population, its role in society, its juxtaposition in space, its combination with the fragments of time, and its opening and closing system.
"Fanhuan" is a collection of groups, which has crossed the barriers of time and space, has rules and thinking different from the actual rules, and has a certain threshold to enter Fanhuan.
Promoting fans from individuals to relatively stable communities is a variety of fan activities in the multimedia channel environment. Collective labor, such as hitting the list and rushing sales, has stimulated the emotional connection of the group, such as successfully helping their idols get the first place in the list, which has increased the individual’s recognition of the community. In order to prevent the loss of fans, fan activities are usually regular or frequent. In this case, the community can maintain relative stability. At the same time, more and more communication channels, including Weibo fan groups, WeChat groups and QQ groups, provide the foundation for closer and personal contact, and the doping of personal emotional contact increases the stickiness of the community.
As an independent group, "rice circle" has its own independent discourse system and rules, and its representation is often called "rice circle language" and "rice circle thinking".Abbreviations often seen in Weibo are typical of rice circle language: behind the abbreviations of people’s names is the logic of rice circle to prevent fans from searching the square for comments and attacks; y1s1(there is a saying)、dw(poison only means extreme powder only)、bp(Bai Piao, a fan who doesn’t spend money on idols)These words, which can be understood by internal members and confused by non-rice circle people, not only establish a barrier between rice circle and the outside, but also consolidate the sense of group identity within the community.
However, the "alien state" of rice circles is in contact with the mainstream culture, and it is not completely independent, so there is also a conflict between the unique thinking and universal values of rice circles.In the context of rice circles, "powder is black" and "comparison is stepping on" is somewhat mismatched under the dualistic popular culture that does not agree with "black is white". However, the rice circle culture really affects the language form of Chinese network and the thinking logic behind it, so it is often criticized.
Fans are extremely exclusive, which may be due to the fierce competition in the idol industry.At present, among the top idols, basically every one has had a fierce fan struggle with several others. The reasons are nothing more than fighting for the first place, for endorsement resources, and for traffic. For example, because of similar fame paths.(Acted in a beautiful drama, and became popular because of his outstanding acting skills)And similar images, fans of Sean Xiao and Zhu Yilong once attacked each other. Even because of the different attributes of fans, "only powder"(fans who only like one idol)"Tuanfen"(Like a fan of an idol group), "cp powder"(fans who like a real couple or an imaginary couple)There are also conflicts between them. Idol groups debuting in the recent draft, such as Rocket Girl and NINE PERCENT, often have conflicts with individual fans because of different interests.
▲NINE PERCENT
The exclusiveness of fan culture is not only reflected in external disputes, but also caused by the strict institutional class at home.Although only gathered for the same hobby.Interest groupHowever, there is a hierarchical difference in the right to speak among fans. In fan organizations, it is common for the management to hold a group. When the upper level agrees, fans with different views will be kicked out of the support club or support group to ensure the "harmony" of the organization. "big powder"(opinion leaders among fans, often UGC creators, paragraph players or professional fans)Our views affect the wind direction of the whole fan community. Once there is an abnormal sound, it is either ignored because the sound volume is too small or destroyed because of the attack of "big fans". Although rice circles have begun to realize the negative impact of "big powder", it is unrealistic to put an end to the impact of "big powder" because of its strong functionality in the current fan community structure.
Conclusion:
With the development of Internet, the development of entertainment industry and the changes in the way stars debut, China’s fan organizations have evolved from the "groupie" period to the "rice circle" era, and the rigor and organization of this organization have also been significantly enhanced, and its influence has gradually expanded, becoming a large group organization that cannot be ignored in today’s society.
Citations and references:
Hu Cencen. "From’ groupies’ to’ rice circles’-‘change’ and’ unchanged’ of Chinese fan organizations". China Youth Research.2020 (02).
② Yin Yiyi. "Evolution of Fan Studies: Subjectivity, Theoretical Problems and Research Paths". Journal of Global Media .2020 (01).
③ Jiang Ming. "Three’ Historical Transformations’ of Fan Culture after Reform and Opening-up". Literature and Art Contests .2018 (01).
④ Hu Cencen. "Online community, fanatical consumption and free labor-the recent trend of fan culture research". China Youth Research.2018 (06).
⑤ "Sina Weibo Fan Culture: Misfortune and Happiness"
http://dwz.date/aFfc
This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account: Huayi Brothers Research Institute (ID: HB Research)