PhD defence

Jade from the Other Mountain: Chinese Fan Fiction Based on English Source Texts

• Y. Jiang

Date

Friday 22 November 2024

Time

11:30 - 12:30 hour

Address

Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden

Supervisor(s)

• Prof.dr. M. van Crevel
• Prof.dr. I.B. Smits

Summary

How does Chinese fan fiction re-create foreign (in this case, Anglophone) source texts, and how does such re-creation contribute to fans’ subjectivity construction? This thesis underlines fan fiction’s nature as (literary) text, with the imagination at work through language that is used within specific socio-cultural contexts. I use a combination of digital and self-ethnography (for data collection) and close reading (for data analysis). I show that Chinese fan fiction provides an important channel for self-articulation and for fans to complicate, parody, negotiate, and challenge socio-cultural discourses, demonstrating their agency and contributing to the construction of their subjectivity.

My four core chapters examine four types of identification, in the areas of cultural positioning, social class, gender, and intracultural positioning. They are informed by textual elements including character development and plot, language, a key trope, and narrative techniques. Close reading is my central method. By delving into textual nuances and their socio-cultural context, I reveal a productive tension between the 'restoration' of Anglophone source elements and an ineluctable 'acclimatization' in the Chinese context, which enables fans to creatively navigate both the foreign source texts and local socio-cultural discourses.

Therefore, this thesis captures fascinating examples of what Raymond Williams has called structures of feeling, from a transcultural perspective, and uncovers the complexity of texts that form a significant part of the Chinese popular culture landscape today.

PhD dissertations

Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.

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