Transforming Heterotopia : Exploring how Women Danmei Fans Explore Gender, Build Community, and Circumvent Censorship

Abstract: Danmei fandom is a subcultural community of young women in China. In the context of strict online censorship in China, they engage in the practices of writing, sharing, and reading Danmei fanfic, which is fan secondary works that focuses on the romantic relationship between male characters in media content and popular culture productions. This thesis proposes three research questions: 1) What kind of gendered exploration do female fans do through their participation in the reading and writing of Danmei fanfic? 2) How do fans engage in communication in the Danmei fandom online community? and 3) How do fans’ understanding of censorship guide their practices of circumventing censorship? This thesis uses textual poachers, subculture theory, and heterotopia theory to construct a theoretical framework to explore the subcultural practices of female Danmei fans and the tensions between Danmei subculture and mainstream ideology. To better understand Danmei fandom in a specific context, this project adopted the qualitative research methods of in-depth interviews and netnography to collect empirical data. This research discovers that Danmei fanfic can be a tool for female empowerment, providing a space for women to freely explore their sexuality and challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes. This creative space offers an alternative perspective that diverges from mainstream values and norms, allowing for resistance against dominant ideologies. However, Danmei fandom is connected to mainstream society in a broader ideological sense and reproduces hegemonic discourses and systems to some extent. Additionally, Danmei fandom not only makes diverse gender explorations, but also shows resistance to authoritarian censorship. By imagining the procedures and standards of censorship, they develop collective media use strategies and symbolic meaning systems to circumvent censorship. This thesis focuses on Chinese women’s daily leisure activities to understand female youth subcultures in Chinese contexts and broaden the understanding of slash fanfic in non-Western as well as non-English contexts.