TRANSLATING CULTURE: PROCESSES OF FAN AUTHENTICATION THROUGH CONSTRUCTING LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL AUTHENTICITY AMONG SINGAPOREAN DANMEI FANS

Abstract

Discourses about the type of fan who can provide accurate information are usually salient in anglophone fandoms surrounding non-English material. In the international danmei (??) fandom, where the original source material is in Chinese, fans recognise and authenticate the ‘right type of fan’ who can provide information—but what does this entail, and according to who? Using Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) research on relational work, in particular the tactics of intersubjectivity, this thesis examines the processes of authenticating and deauthenticating the ‘right type of fan’. Singapore, young anglophone Chinese Singaporeans have been subject to various national discourses of ‘Chineseness’ and ‘losing Chineseness’. Through a survey and interviews with fans, Singaporean danmei fan attitudes and ideologies about culture and language are collected. From this, I analyse the various ways in which such fans invoke such resources in constructing their identities as fans and translators within the anglophone fandom. Despite orienting to the same ideologies and using the same resources, fans choose to authenticate themselves differently and establish themselves as competent bilinguals who can access the ‘true’ meanings of texts and the background culture.