An anthropological study of Arashi fans in Hong Kong

Abstract

A number of scholars in the past decades have addressed the importance of conducting researches on audiences. They have examined fan identities, fan behaviours, fan communities, fandom, fan consumption patterns and anti--‐‑fans with different methods such as applying sociological, psychological, economical, and cultural approaches. Many of these studies have made conclusions on fans in general and some have generated behavioural patterns into theories, but they have rarely explored the affections of individual enthusiasts with participating in fan activities as well as understanding fans’ daily livings as an in--‐‑depth investigation.

This dissertation mainly focuses on drafting portraits of a group of Hong Kong fans who are supporting a Japanese boy band called Arashi. In order to discuss their subconscious identities, motivations, fan activities and unauthorised fan groups organisations, this research has been carried out grounding on an anthropological approach that ethnographic participant‐observations and interviews were applied to form case studies. To depict these cases, daily livings of individual Hong Kong Arashi admirers, events organised by unofficially formed fan groups, and researcher’s experiences of attending Arashi’s live concerts were documented and analysed. At last, a summary is drawn to illustrate the significant of these Hong Kong fans.

The key implication of this thesis is to provide a new perspective on studying individual fans and fandom as an aca-fan. There are also case studies to unfold fans’ inner mechanisms on choosing and ranking idols as well as how do they interpret their idols into new meanings. This paper is not a generalisation of Hong Kong fans of popular music but an attempt to demonstrate different representations from cases of Arashi’s fans in Hong Kong by means of ethnography documentations.