Introduction

Fan identity recognition is an extensively debated topic within the academic community, lacking a definitive and universally accepted definition. There are different interpretations of being a fan, in terms of fan obsession (Hills, 2002; Lewis, 2002; Fraade-Blanar and Glazer, 2017), self-recognition (Taylor, 2015; Delmar et al., 2020), fan production (Fiske,1992; Jenkins, 1992b; Duffett, 2013), etc. Previous studies have fully explored fan identities in a single cultural territory or Western scenarios (Hills, 2017; Fathallah, 2023; Scott, 2019; Zheng, 2020, Yodovich, 2022) while the research of transcultural fans still adheres to the identifiers of traditional fan studies in the West to a large extent (Chin and Morimoto, 2013, 2015; Han, 2017; McLaren and Jin, 2020; Lynch, 2022), which have not been fully delved into especially across the fluid of media text between the Global South and the Global North. This article thereby pays special attention to transcultural fan identity because of the existing academic gap and deploys BBC’s Sherlock as an example due to its popularity in China (Durrani, 2014; Gilardi et al., 2018).

The rapid proliferation of social media applications and information and communication technologies (ICT) largely facilitate Chinese fans to engage in overseas media texts across borders (Song and Feng, 2022; Gong, 2022), which meanwhile allows us to approach Chinese fans through the digital media sphere for research. This article thus concentrates on the self-disclosure of Chinese Sherlock fans who were recruited from online and offline methods to investigate how they define themselves as a fan and how transcultural factors serve as a barrier that influences the hierarchy/structure of fan communities. This study thereof poses the following research questions:

a). What types of Sherlock fans have emerged in China?

b). To what extent does transcultureness influence the experience of self-identifying as a fan in China?

c). How have other dynamics/factors impacted the identity construction of Chinese Sherlock fans?

To address the above questions, this research deploys a longitudinal study of digital ethnography research from 2017-2019 and 45 qualitative interviews from 2019 to 2022. Interviewees were sampled from major Chinese social media (e.g. Weibo, Douban, Bilibili, WeChat, etc.) through digital ethnography research (Kozinets, 2002; 2010), snowballing strategy (Bertrand and Hughes, 2017) and participant observation from Sherlock Holmes Museum (SHM) while I conducted the interviews via face-to-face, video and voice calls. The empirical research helps to argue that Chinese Sherlock fans have introduced new metrics to recognise their identity while gender dynamics (e.g. men’s masculinist sentiment and women’s homosexuality fantasy), state power (in terms of media surveillance and tendentious heteronormativity), and transculturalness (e.g. fear of fighting against mainstream culture and patriarchal nation-state system) have disciplined and shaped distinctive types of fans that largely expand the spectrum of fandom in the existing studies of fan culture. This research aims to contribute to fan culture studies in three ways. Theoretically, this study introduces intertwined dynamics for identifying new types of fans in the transcultural context, which uncovers the unique intricacies of fan identity construction different from the current research. Empirically, it provides a popular transcultural case to investigate the multi-facets beyond cultural borders that impact the evolvement of fan categories. Practically, even though recent studies gradually focus on transcultural fan studies (Chin, 2010; Chin and Morimoto, 2013; Jung, 2010; Pandes, 2016, 2018a), insufficient research has examined the implications of entanglement for fan identity and hierarchy construction due to the obstacle of transcultureness when delving into media texts transitioning from the Global North to Global South primarily. However, because of the rapid globalisation and decolonisation progress, an increasing number of media texts have flowed across cultural territories (e.g. Hollywood movies, Korean Wave, Japanese animations, etc.). This study has essentially contributed to understanding the nuances of various factors for shaping fan identities, fan types, and fan hierarchy in the transcultural context through an investigation of fans’ self-disclosure.

Literature review

Fan identity, productivity and gender

In the development of fan studies, identity served as a key parameter in the research of fan cultures. Butler (2004, 2009) argued that identity can be understood as something that is not innate but rather continuously constructed through repetitive acts, that is performative identities. In the context of fan cultures, performative identities are the ways in which fans construct, display, and negotiate their sense of self in relation to their fandom. This process also involves self-perception and external perception. Fans use their engagement in fandom as a way to explore and solidify their self-concept (Hills, 2002; Stanfill, 2019; Scott, 2019) and also negotiate how they are perceived by outsiders, including non-fans, creators, and other fan groups for external recognition (Fathallah, 2017; Zheng, 2023; Wang and Ge, 2023). In this article, I focus on fan productivity and its relation to other dynamics to investigate fan identity due to its importance and relevance to our research (Sandvoss, 2005; Stanfill, 2019; Lamerichs, 2018; Fuschillo, 2020). I argue that fan identity is not merely witnessed by explicit acts, but also intertwined with different dynamics that may hinder active productivity.

Fan scholars (Fiske, 1992; Jenkins, 1992b; Hills, 2002; Sandvoss, 2005) proposed, unlike audiences who consume the media text and move on to the next product without active engagement, fans utilise what they have consumed to become producers by creating new forms of media (para)texts to solidify their identities, while fan productivity has become diverse in forms. Fiske (1992: 37) elaborated that,

The ones I propose to use may be called semiotic productivity, enunciative productivity, and textual productivity. All such productivity occurs at the interface between the industrially-produced cultural commodity (narrative, music, star, etc.) and the everyday life of the fan.

Among the three proposed types of fan productivity, the influences of fans’ textual productivity were largely expanded when the industrial text met its fans to reunite and rework their participation so that the 'moment of reception becomes the moment of production in fan culture; (Fiske, 1992: 41). Jenkins (1992b) contended fan culture is a complex subculture that draws on a variety of resources from commercial/popular culture as well as recreating these resources to satisfy fan demand and serve alternative interests such as fan sharing. Fans who served as producers from the original text were, therefore, described by Jenkins (1992b) as textual poachers- they went through their fan objects or texts and engaged with the ones they were interested in from reviews, and comments to fanfics, fanarts, etc.

With the development of digital tools, now fans have access to post audio-video texts online and upload and share their creation with other fans and communities (Pearson, 2010; Booth, 2016). It has dramatically expanded the forms of fan productivity. Fan productivity, meanwhile, has benefits for the surrounding areas such as giving birth to new professionals because of their creation. There have been new areas of fandom by shaping existing professions such as journalism and academia (aca-fan); there also have been new professions emerging such as commemorative writers, bloggers, and video gamers due to their productivity (Jenkins, 2008; Crawford, 2011; Buchsbaum, 2022). The review of fan productivity research benefits this project by offering possible references to target, observe, understand, and identify fans because it details the types of possible fan productivity to discover fans.

Although digital tools facilitated fan productivity for fan identity construction, it has also transformed gendered fan identities and reinforced existing hierarchies. Female fans have dominated transformative fandoms such as fan fiction and fan art (Scott, 2019; De Kosnik, 2021) and they often engage in emotional labour within fan communities, moderating discussions and creating supportive environments. While the rise of social media platforms has amplified female fans, it has also exposed them to increased harassment and gatekeeping (Click et al., 2017; Pande, 2018a). Digital media platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, and Archive of Our Own (AO3) have amplified gendered exclusions- female fans have long been subject to marginalisation, with their fan identities often seen as less legitimate than those of male fans. Female fans are often forced to negotiate their identities within hostile or dismissive spaces (Click et al., 2017). This phenomenon is most evident in male-dominated fandoms, where female fans frequently encounter 'gatekeeping' and accusations of 'not being real fans' (Scott, 2019).

The emergence of female fandoms, on the other hand, has provided alternative spaces for fan productivity and the reimagining of fan identities. Female fans often use fan culture as a space to develop fan production so as to challenge heteronormative media narratives, creating spaces of empowerment and resistance (Pande, 2018a). In this way, fan identity becomes a site for both personal expressions and collective solidarity, where gendered identities are renegotiated and redefined through the act of fan productivity. For instance, female fans are active in fan fiction, fan art, and meta-analysis which contribute to the expansion of media paratexts (De Kosnik, 2019; Pande, 2018a). Their creative and curatorial labour, often seen in communities like AO3 and Tumblr, challenges traditional media hierarchies such as heteronormativity and provides alternative spaces for storytelling and identity exploration (Stanfill, 2011; Click et al., 2017). Scholars (Lopez, 2012; Stanfill, 2020; Wang and Ge, 2023) emphasise that female fans have been increasingly empowered through their participation in fandom while they challenged the dominant patriarchal narratives through fan productivity, collective activism, and usage of state power, etc. Female fans have facilitated greater visibility for diverse and marginalised fan voices, but have also encountered gender exploitation and algorithmic bias (Sveinson and Hoeber, 2016).

Therefore, gender remains a key factor in how fans construct and perform their identities, particularly in the face of exclusionary practices, digital media platforms, and patriarchal society. These dynamics contribute to the ongoing negotiation of fan identities in both online and offline spaces. However, the extent to which male and female fans show differences in fan productivity under the impact of various dynamics remains unclear. The exploration of these dynamics enriches our understanding of fan identity, and this article will examine these to unpack the complexities of constructing and solidifying fan identities in productivity in the case of Chinese Sherlock fans.

Fan identity studies in China

Fan identity studies in China have increasingly garnered scholarly attention due to the unique mediascape of China. Chinese fan studies have evolved significantly over the past few decades, reflecting broader social, technological, and political changes (e.g. Yang, 2009; Fung, 2009c, 2009b; Yang and Xu, 2017; Yin, 2020; Zheng, 2021; Wang and Ge, 2023). Among the development of Chinese fandom scholarship, key themes such as grassroots movements, digitalisation, emotional capitalism, and the interplay between fan identity and state power have been marked as milestones.

Chinese fan studies formally started in the 2000s when local fans were largely noted due to the emergence of the internet and the boom of TV idols, along with the progress of globalisation. The premiere of Super Girl, a phenomenal TV singing contest in 2004, not only turned the contestant singer Yuchun Li into a superstar but also witnessed the commodified power of Li’s fans (namely Corn fandom in China) (Yang, 2009). As a representative of grassroots fans, Corn fans were studied in terms of their collective consumption, powerful sensitivity, and loyal labour (Yang, 2009). Scholars (Hu, 2005; Fung, 2009a; Li, 2009b) also observed the dynamics of local fan culture in the globalised context, impacted by digital technologies, international wave of different cultures (e.g. Japanese anime, Hong Kong celebrities, etc.) and the gender interplay in the first decade of 21st century. The ACG culture and Otaku culture influenced Chinese fan identities to a large extent, which changed fan consumption and formalised the Chinese fan culture (Yin, 2022).

In the second decade of the 21st century, Chinese fan identity studies have been further influenced by nationalism and patriotism (Zheng, 2020; Liu, 2019). The gender dynamics impacted by queer culture studies and #MeToo movements (Xu and Yang, 2013; Yang and Xu, 2017; Zhang and Hjorth, 2019; Zhao, 2020), emotional and digital capitalism in particular (Yin, 2020) trigger the burgeoning phenomenon of data and gendered fandom. The cultural and political forces formed the traditional fan practices into data-driven interactions that directly impact idol careers and the entertainment industry’s economic structures (Zhang and Negus, 2020). Since then, state power and heteronormativity have been placed great emphasis in Chinese fan identity studies. Wang and Ge (2023) provide a critical perspective on fandom within the broader context of digital colonialism and state power in China. They argue that fans are often scapegoated by the state as sources of social disorder and moral decay, which serves to justify increased regulation and control over digital spaces. Their study situates Chinese fan identity within global capitalism and digital colonialism, where state and corporate interests intersect to exploit fan labour and limit fan agency.

The studies on Chinese fan identities reveal a dynamic and multifaceted landscape. From the commodification of emotional labour to the influence of algorithms and state power, the research underscores the complex entanglement of cultural, economic, and political forces shaping contemporary fan identities. As digital technologies continue to evolve, my research is timely to address the implications of these developments for fan identity and community construction in the broader transcultural ecosystem and to what extent transcultureness has either motivated or hindered fans’ active practices.

Fan identity in transcultural fandom

Transcultural fan studies have progressed fan identity research from a single culture to different cultures. It has examined how fan identities traverse and influence different cultural contexts, emphasising the ways in which media, identities, and fan practices move across national and cultural boundaries. I explore key themes and developments in transcultural fan studies, drawing from various scholarly contributions to illustrate the dynamics and complexities of this field.

One of the foundational concepts in transcultural fan studies is transnational media flows, which refers to the circulation of media content across different countries and cultures (Robins and Aksoy, 2005; Li, 2009a). Jenkins (2006b) introduced the idea of 'pop cosmopolitanism', where fans embrace foreign media, fostering a cosmopolitan worldview. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the global spread of Japanese anime and Korean pop music (K-pop), which have garnered massive international fanbases. Iwabuchi (2002) discussed the concept of cultural odorlessness, arguing that Japanese media’s lack of culturally specific markers has facilitated its global appeal. Similarly, Chua and Iwabuchi (2008) explored how East Asian pop culture circulates within and beyond Asia, creating hybrid cultural forms that blend local and global influences. These studies highlight how transcultural fans negotiate and reinterpret media texts within their own cultural contexts, contributing to the cultural hybridity of their practices to solidify their identities.

However, Chin and Morimoto (2013) argued that not only the 'national identity and transnational historical and socio-political context' influence fan identities, but 'the gender, sexual, popular, and fan cultural contexts within which fans consume and create' (p.93) also determines their identities. Chin and Morimoto (2013: 95) argued that fans, as well as scholars, were 'hardly immune to the pleasures of being a fan' and the affect as a pivotal role cultivated the pursuit of fannish activities. Although there were different languages, geographical and cultural barriers in the transcultural transitions, fans were willing to be active participants around the objects of different cultural backgrounds because of the affect. This kind of affect extended from fandom to academics, more (female) acafans in East Asia stood out to theorise and politicise their pleasure 'in order to make them more palatable' (Zubernis and Larsen, 2012: 46) and were accepted by local mainstream culture in which fans were nourished. Over this process, more and more fans devoted their knowledge, expertise, and intelligence to smooth the unevenness of transcultural exchanges and communication with the help of social media in particular, which is marked as one of the most significant features of transcultural fandom.

As transcultural fan studies progressed, scholars such as Rukmini Pande further enriched transcultural fan identities and introduced the intersections of race, colonialism, and nationalism within global media fan identity studies. Pande (2018a, 2018b) highlighted the experiences of fans of colour who are frequently marginalised within these communities. In her book Squee from the Margins: Fandom and Race (2018a), Pande discussed how transcultural fans engage with media texts, negotiating their identities and resisting dominant white-centric narratives. She (2018a, 2018b) also introduced the concept of 'racialised fandom', which refers to the ways in which race and ethnicity influence fan practices and identities. This concept is central to understanding how fandoms are not just sites of shared enthusiasm, but also spaces where power relations based on race and ethnicity are continuously negotiated. Pande’s work underscored the importance of recognising the racial dimensions of fan identities and challenged the notion of fandom as a universally welcoming space. Although Pande (2016, 2018a, 2018b) has examined how the fans interpret and appropriate transnational media texts within their own cultural contexts, challenging the dominant Western-centric understanding of fandom, I cannot disregard the side effects of other transcultural barriers beyond race, ethnicity, colonialism and nationalism that hinders fans’ creative production and negotiation. My research seeks to address the underexplored gaps within transcultural fan identity studies, focusing on the reasons and implications behind fans’ eventual withdrawal following the complex interplay of gender, state, and transcultural tensions.

Methods and data

Digital ethnography for the overall trajectory of fan engagement

Fan studies have evolved for more than three decades (Gray et al., 2017) while scholars have engaged in different ways to understand fans. Before the internet era, fans were mainly studied as a collective community offline (Jenkins, 1992a, 1992b; Jenson, 1992; Bacon-Smith, 1992). However, post-2000s individual fans have been approached through digital tools for varying levels of passion, dedication and engagement based on their personal interests (Busse and Gray, 2011; Booth, 2016). To address my research questions and reach our research objects, I designed our research into two phases. I first applied digital ethnography (netnography) from October 2017 (to September 2019) to initially observe fan practices because of the wide applications of social media for fan activities in China and its possibility to secure potential interviewees (cf. Pullen, 2004; Hine, 2011). From October 2019 to September 2022, I conducted in-depth interviews to understand the specifics of fan engagement from their self-disclosure based on digital ethnography research.

Our featured digital ethnographic observation—regular terms of intensive deep dives at key points—witnessed the turning point of fan liveness (e.g. enthusiasm) of Sherlock due to no new series after 2017. I regularly and frequently observed Chinese social media such as DoubanFootnote 1 and Post Bar for Sherlock-related topics and read online commentaries, adaptations, and videos posted by fans and searched the keywords 'Sherlock' to locate relevant posts. I did not refer to Bertrand and Hughes’ (2017: 68) 'purposive sampling' to narrow down the duration specifically because few online posts from October 2017 could not represent Chinese fans’ engagement with Sherlock. I thereby aimed at the whole Sherlock fandom lifespan from the premiere of Sherlock in 2010 to examine Chinese fans’ developing and fluctuating interests in Sherlock. My regular dives at key points implied Chinese fans’ up-and-down trajectory of online engagement about Sherlock over the past decade from 2010 to 2021, depending on the introduction of new series/episodes to China in 2014, 2016 and 2017, and 10th special anniversary (2020) of the TV show. It illustrated Chinese fans’ intensities of connection with Sherlock, which experienced four peaks of fans’ participation, respectively in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2020.

Qualitative interviews for specifics of fan engagement

As reviewed above, fans always defined their identities through active productions (cf. Hills, 2002; Jenkins, 2006a, 2006b), so our two years’ digital ethnography research helped us to target fans who were active producers that uploaded frequent and/or welcomed posts with the most reviews, clicks, and comments. I sent interview requests to those active producers from my netnography observation and this helped to manage 15 interviewees. Due to the limited sample, I then looked for other fans by sharing fan recruitment posts through fansites on Chinese social media platforms (e.g. Douban, Zhihu, Weibo, QQ, etc.). This helps me to find another 16 interviewees. Although there are 31 interviewees from the aforementioned two manners, the Chinese Sherlock fandom was not only limited to the digital sphere- I then expanded the interview sample through a snowballing strategy (Bertrand and Hughes, 2017). Lots of fan researchers (Zhang and Mao, 2013; Sandvoss and Kearns, 2016) have managed fan interviews through snowballing sampling. I referred to this approach to manage another five interviewees based on existing fan interviewees and our social networks. Among these 36 interviews, around eight of them coincidentally reviewed the Sherlock Holmes Museum (SHM) as a commonly visited site to engage in Sherlock. This inspired us to consider adopting the SHM as a complementary research space. I then conducted participant observation at SHM from 2019 to 2022 and secured another nine interviewees. Thus, a total of 45 fan interviewees have been collected (see Table 1).

Table 1 Profiles of 45 Fan Interviewees.
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As discussed above, fans are usually defined by their productivity in narratives (Fiske, 1992; Jenkins, 1992b; Hills, 2002; Sandvoss, 2005, Duffett, 2013). However, only the first method identified fans through their active participation in Sherlock, while the rest three methods (fan recruitment online, snowballing strategy, and participant observation in the SHM) cannot recognise fans directly through their production. The only prerequisite to partaking in our interviews was to self-profess as a fan, so I elaborately included the preset question in the interview as a benchmark to ensure the interviewees’ fan identity. All interviewees must have a 'yes' answer along with an explanation to the preset questions 'Do you think you are a fan of Sherlock? Why?' to proceed with the whole interview. The interviews are designed into a semi-structured with closed and open questions to test fan identity. To understand fan practices continuously and update fan identification, I carried out longitudinal interviews from November 2019 to May 2022, with an average duration of 58 min. All respondents were informed of the purpose of this research and agreed to take part in the project anonymously. I recorded, transcribed and encoded the interviews (Bryman, 2012) while thematically analysing the data. Among all the interviewees, 21 interviewees came from either first- or second-tier cities in China who were urbanites, 11 of them were men and 34 were women; 37 were students aged between 20–30 years old at the interview time. All interviewees confirmed the same gender identity as their sex assigned at birth (cisgender) while gender is a socially constructed notion determined by the dominant cultural norms (Best and Williams, 2001; Butler, 2004), so I use the gender attributes to describe interviewees in this article. Except for two high school students, the rest were well-educated at or above the bachelor’s level (see Table 1). Based on my careful reading of the transcriptions and analyses of the qualitative data, I notice the strong impact of gender on fans’ active engagement with Sherlock and self-recognition of their identities whereas the relatively weak correlation with educational background. My analysis, therefore, is mainly underpinned by the factor of gender (namely self-defined cisgender male/female fans in this article) to elaborate the recurring patterns and themes identified through the frequently discussed keywords and topics in the interviews- a). a pyramid fandom structure with distinctive fan identifiers underpinned by gender; b). state-power as a deactivated catalyst for fan identity construction; c). transcultureness as a nonconfrontational retreat against fan identifiers.

Findings and analyses

A pyramid fandom hierarchy underpinned by gender

I notice the gender imbalance in the interviews and argue that BBC’s Sherlock cultivated new types of fans and fan hierarchy in China with updated characteristics whilst gender plays a key role in underpinning the construction of Chinese Sherlock fandom in the transcultural context. The female, young and well-educated students dominated in Chinese Sherlock fandom, but they have also restrained their productivity to feature fan identity. Liang and Shen (2016) characterised fans of artists into three types—low, medium and high. This was contended as depending on fan involvement, devotion, and commitment. These criteria for categorising fans are mainly based on fan loyalty and activity, which has been widely applied in recent fan studies (e.g. Chin, 2018; Stanfill, 2020; Wang and Ge, 2023). While fans may have various reasons to determine their degree of commitment to fanned objects, the major issue for Chinese fans to engage in Sherlock was understanding British culture and language (IEFootnote 2s- 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 37, 39, 40 and 41). Our data indicated four reasons that resulted in the lack of Sherlock fan communities as well as active fan production in China: a). long-distance to media text, b). inability to find fans, c). no more TV shows after 2017, d). cultural and language barriers. Among these reasons, cultural and language barriers play the dominant role while this answer is mainly supported by self-defined cisgender female fans (hereafter 'female fans'). Compared to female fans (29/33) who largely acknowledged the importance of active engagement as a symbol of fan identity, those self-defined cisgender male fans (hereafter 'male fans') (10/12) insisted on personal interest as the major reason to identify themselves. Those male fans presented different attitudes when discussing the identification of fans.

I like the TV series (Sherlock), which is a very personal interest. Why should I do something to validate my identity? It shows my self-abasement and inferior status if I have to evidence myself as a fan. In my view, if I’m not active, I’m still a fan. Others’ doubts won’t affect my self-recognition as a fan.

IE-7 [A male fan who was a police officer in China]

IE-7 is not the only male interviewee that highlights the inactivity in fan identity. They feature a strong interplay between masculinity and the inactivity of fans that constructs a masculinist discourse (Peng et al., 2024) in fan identification narratives. Our analysis revealed a highly homogenous response of (fan) identity construction from the interviews with male fans. This uncovers the widespread penetration of masculinist values and sentiments among Chinese male fans. Although female interviewees also mentioned that being a fan is quite private, they acknowledged that implicit engagement such as watching Sherlock at home is not helpful especially for other fan fellows to recognise their identity and find fan peers. However, different from male fans who take personal consumption of Sherlock for granted of being a fan, a large proportion (17/33) of female fans were sensitive about explicit demonstration of Sherlock-related topics, which are usually related to sexuality and Boys’ Love (Anselmo, 2018, Yang and Xu, 2017).

When we think about the spin-offs of Sherlock, we always discuss the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Homosexuality cannot be avoided, which, however, is super sensitive in China. So I chose to enjoy the series by myself without involving in the flame with others.

IE-19 [a female fan who was doing her Master’s studies in the UK]

Female fans have been more interested in Boys’ Love, an underground subculture now as a prominent and influential cultural movement (Yang and Xu, 2017). However, female fans were more deeply impacted and disciplined by the media censorship, and conservative and patriarchal culture in China than men (Fung, 2009b). They have been constructed as chaste, silent, obedient and subordinate. Their resistance to media censorship is much invisible and underprivileged due to the domination of heteronormativity in Chinese patriarchy. Although they featured 'inactive' characteristics as a fan, their motivations were disparate from male fans. It intertwined with sensory pleasure, personal interest and fear of censorship. Their attitudes were apolitical responses to the Chinese media landscape and political context, which can be seen as a safe solution to protect themselves (c.f. Hu et al., 2023). The 18 female interviewees, along with all 11 male interviewees, form the largest base of the pyramid fandom hierarchy, who seldom (less than three times) participated in Sherlock-related activities/practices but only watched/(re)viewed relevant posts/videos about Sherlock- they were defined as inactive fans in this sense (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

The Pyramid Hierarchy of Chinese Sherlock Fans’ Commitment.

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In our interviews, 11 of them (25%) took an active part in fan (re)posts, sharing, and comments when Sherlock was displayed on the screen. However, their participation reduced dramatically once encountered the long production gaps between seasons. Although this particular group of fans did not show further interest in Sherlock once the TV show came to an end, they tended to reactivate once there would be further series, according to fans’ self-disclosure (IEs-2, 3, 4, 12, 14, 17, 22, 26, 33, 37, 43). They were characterised as the dormant fans in our project who shared similar reasons for not engaging in the TV show as those inactive fans.

A certain level of engagement such as reports, sharing and comments will not lead to severe conflict in media surveillance whereas active production (such as fanfic writing) usually tends to be controversial due to the homoerotic hints of Sherlock. When the series was on, we dared to join the discussion regarding sexual fantasy because of the large internet traffic. Once the show finished, we tried to become quiet because the reduced internet traffic made it easy to be spotted under severe media surveillance.

IE-2 [a female fan who was doing her PhD studies]

The liveness of these fans demonstrated a strong interrelation with the show’s time and state power in terms of media censorship. Very few of them played an active role in fan communities due to their intermittent engagement and concern of regulation and governance, let alone committed fan practices such as fanfics, and fanarts. Dormant fans refrained from long-term continuous commitment and formed the middle layer of the pyramid.

The rest five fans maintained their loyalty and passion from their first encounter with Sherlock who continued to invest their time, emotion, energy and money in Sherlock-related activities through a strong relationship and long-term affinity. They constituted the top layer of the pyramid structure, accounting for the smallest proportion of Chinese Sherlock fans. It is worth noting that all of them were female fans whose identification was measured by their positive emotional involvement (e.g. persistence, stickiness, duration of obsession/interests, etc.), physical investment (e.g. time, money, participation in activities, etc.) in Sherlock-related activities, and their self-expression of fan identity from the interviews. They (IEs-5, 9, 19, 25, 42) believed that long-term devotion and active production is a key feature of fans. Among the five female fans, three of them were fan fiction writers, one was a fan artist while the other was a fannish event organiser. Their fan activities reveal evident gender discrepancies in fans’ devotion, self-recognition, and tacit submission to state power. 'I’ve written more than 100,000 words about JohnlockFootnote 3 slash fiction, which, of course, has been shielded because of sensitive words like gay and homoeroticism.' (IE-19). Fans’ sexual fantasies can be seen as a challenge to the traditional heterosexual mindset by gazing at male couples (Hu et al., 2023). The female gaze from Chinese fans has been viewed as a parameter to undermine and deconstruct the legitimacy of heteronormativity and its mainstream representation. These five loyal fans expressed their potential to defy male hegemony, although their misgivings of surveillance from fan whistle-blowing and state power have weakened the resistance. The pyramid thereby illustrates the levels of fan devotion and intensities of connection, and the correlation between gender dynamics and distinctive fan identifiers (inactive, dormant and active fans). I thereby contend the gender-underpinned Sherlock fandom was formulated by male fans’ masculinistic sentiment, female fans’ contradiction between the homosexual fantasy of Boys’ Love and state-power in terms of media surveillance, and weakened feminine discourses to serve the dominant interests of the patriarchal nation-state system (Rai, 2002; Richardson and Wodak, 2009).

State power as the deactivated catalyst for fan identity

The aforementioned three types of Chinese Sherlock fans reveal that the gender-state entanglement (Peng et al., 2024) foregrounds the implications of state power on fan identity. I argue that state power has become a deactivated catalyst for fan identity construction (especially for those loyal fans) and fan self-recognition. On the one hand, the Chinese context has manifested the hegemonic masculinity that advocates the patriarchy of China’s mainstream culture in the socioeconomic infrastructure (Liu, 2019) and downgrades femininity and homosexuality. On the other hand, the media surveillance triggered by heteronormativity and state power largely undermines the activity, creativity and motivations of Sherlock fans who focused on the erotic paratexts, which further demotivates the construction and recognition of fan identity. In 2016, the Cyberspace Administration of China ('CAC') launched a nationwide campaign to purify the media environment online, known as ‘Qinglang Xingdong’ (China National 'Clear' Campaign) (CAC, 2016). They released regulations for content that 'exaggerates the dark side of society' and have deemed homosexuality, extramarital affairs, one-night stands and underage relationships as illegal on screen. In 2020, the CAC paid special attention to fans’ blind idolisation of stars and fans’ conflicts of interest (CAC, 2020), which is the first time that fan conflicts were made a priority in the cultural regulation by the Chinese government (Wang and Ge, 2023). Because of the political governance and media surveillance of fan practices, Chinese Sherlock fans with an interest in either bromance or eroticism narrativity have been greatly suppressed, especially after the introduction of 'Qinglang Xingdong'.

Before 2014, we were allowed to post our writing about porn and gay texts on social media in China. Media surveillance on fanfic writing regarding sexuality has become harsh since 2016, so I had to turn to other platforms outside China for publishing my writing such as AO3. However, AO3 has been banned in China since 2020 due to the 227 incident, so I feel struggling to continue engaging in the paratexts for Sherlock. Undoubtedly, the surveillance has demoralised us to verify ourselves as a fan through fan production.

IE-42 [a female fan who was doing her Master’s studies]

The '227 incident' was triggered on 27 February 2020 when some of Xiao Zhan’s (a Chinese actor) fans reported a piece of fan fiction on the AO3 platform, leading to its subsequent blocking in China. This action sparked widespread debate about fan culture, censorship, and online behaviour in Chinese fandom. Wang (2021) argued Xiao Zhan’s fans utilised Chinese internet surveillance policies to fight against face-threatening acts and navigate interpersonal dynamics within online communities, while Sun (2023) contended that celebrity fandoms in China can transform from apolitical online spaces into politicised entities by analysing the role of platforms governance and fan interactions. It has indicated the implication of state power and the conflicts between fan production, fan identity and state interest. IE-42 was a representative of loyal interviewees who had actively participated in the fanfic writing but gave up their engagement due to the intensified state governance since 2016. These loyal fans expressed their trajectory of fighting against censorship through the ways of 'jumping out of firewalls', that was adopting the external platforms outside China for posting their paratext production. However, it has largely constrained fan autonomy and agency in the Chinese cultural sphere dominated by constant surveillance and intervention of state power, which is concerned by other inactive fans and dormant fans.

I would be so happy to contribute to the fandom if I had not been censored by the media surveillance. Sometimes, you know, you hate yourself being in this circle because others are also scared of expressing themselves freely. If I say something sensitive (e.g. LGBTQ), then my (social media) account will be blocked.

IE-23 [a female fan who was doing her Master’s studies]

State power has become a catalyst to deactivate the construction of fans through positive engagement. Fans have been inclined to conceal their identities under censorship, refraining from participation. Existing studies have explored the different ways of fans to circumvent surveillance in China (Xu and Yang, 2013; Wang and Ge, 2023), whereas most Sherlock fans in my interviews feature a 'sit-up' to 'lie-down' trajectory of engagement over the past decade as they were incapable to fight against increasingly intensified censoring mechanism. As a dormant fan, IE-23 echoed other dormant and inactive fans’ concerns of political capitalism in controlling and governing discourse power among Sherlock fans in the digital sphere. They meanwhile acknowledged that they could also be measured in certain respects as 'active' even if they do not conform to the productivity-defined fandom—in this specific Chinese context, even passive and solitary engagement could count as 'intrinsic active' and 'emotional communal' if I decode their behaviour against the background of political governance and media censorship (CAC, 2016; Romano, 2022). The emergence of invisible fans not only reveals the large proportion of inactive fans, but also refers to the state power as a deactivated catalyst for fan identity, that diversifies the fan spectrum in the globalised and digitalised era (Yin, 2021; Zhang and Negus, 2020).

Transcultureness against fan identifiers

The above sections have examined the importance of gender and state power, which helps to form the transcultural fandom in this case. I investigate transcultureness in fan identifiers in particular that uncovers the evolvement and characteristics of identity construction of Chinese Sherlock fans across the cultural and national boundaries. Because of the aforementioned transcultural dynamics such as gender distinctions, heteronormativity legitimacy, masculinity discourses and state power, fans were unable to overcome these fraises that reinforced existing inequalities and cultural hierarchy (Chin and Morimoto, 2013, Chin, 2018). Transcultureness is therefore argued as a nonconfrontational retreat in the face of ideological hegemony that collapses fan productivity to validate their identities, which, as a result, triggers the creation of alternative types and metrics of fans. From our interview data, active fan practices and creative fan production were scarce in the context of Chinese Sherlock fandom. I counted and concluded the frequent words that 45 interviewees mentioned to compose their fan identity in Table 2 for illustrating their interpretations of being a fan—'love/adore'(41Footnote 4 mentions), 'familiarity' (38 mentions), 'repetitive/frequent viewing' (40 mentions), 'details focused' (26 mentions), 'collected' (28 mentions), 'knowledgeable' (34 mentions), 'longing for connection' (38 mentions). These words were frequently used to explain why they regarded themselves as a fan (see Table 2).

Table 2 Frequenta words that compose fan identity.
Full size table

Table 2 indicates that the interviewees validated their fan identity more from a viewer/consumer’s perspective rather than a producer’s, which was different from scholars’ (Jenkins, 1992b, 2006b; Hills, 2002) understandings of fans as an active producer. From our analysis, dormant fans and inactive fans (that form the largest and second-largest layers of the aforementioned fan hierarchy) all declared their fan identities due to their obsession with Sherlock and their longing to join fan communities. Nevertheless, their obsession has been concealed and marginalised in various ways that are closely related to the transcultural barriers.

I feel helpless as there were fewer and fewer fan translations and interpretative works online after 2016, which made it impossible for me to understand every detail of Sherlock. I was not such good at English so my passion with Sherlock has largely been oppressed.

[IE-18, a male fan who was studying in high school in China]

In this sense, the role of fans as active agents in mediating and transforming media texts, negotiating cultural differences, and fostering cross-cultural understanding (Chin and Morimoto, 2013; Lothian et al., 2007; Pande, 2018a) has been dramatically challenged. On the one hand, the internal constraint of identifying as dormant/inactive fans was the obstacle to understanding the cultural nuances of Sherlock. Although I see different fan practices in the transcultural contexts such as fansubbing and fan translations (Díaz-Cintas and Muñoz Sánchez, 2006; Lee, 2009), recent years of ideological hegemony (Peng et al., 2024) in terms of censoring every word and like in China (Wen, 2022) have terrified fans for creative practices. As a result, even the ordinary fan translations have significantly shrunk and faded away. While the fan translation was always made by elite fans with social and cultural capital (Zheng, 2021), their retreat undermined a positive understanding of the cultural nuances in Sherlock among Chinese fandom. On the other hand, the external obstruction from state power in terms of intensive surveillance and tendentious heteronormativity mediated online and penetrated the everyday fandom have threatened fan productivity, a key indicator of fan identity.

Even though Chinese fans were hindered by transcultureness, they strived to find alternative ways to become a fan—38 out of 45 interviewees expressed their longing to become part of a fan community in the interview. 'Longing of connection' is proposed as a key feature to prove fan identities. Fans’ awakening under nationalistic depression can be viewed as a significant identifier in the transcultural context as they traversed the cultural boundaries by means of joining fan discussions, watching/reading fan productions, and being a participant for a sense of belonging. Our research shows that 26 out of 29 inactive fans, 8 out of 11 dormant fans, and 5 out of 5 loyal fans presented the desire for community connectivity and/or building, along with their self-recognition as a Sherlock fan. Although only 16 fans had ever joined a fan group before, the longing to be part of the fan community was expressed as an invisible indicator to distinguish fan identity from the general audience. It is, nevertheless, noteworthy that most interviewees are interested in being a participant in a fan community instead of a fan leader who organises fan events such as fan societies and meetups. On the one hand, it featured the conservatism culture that Chinese fans were disciplined to internalise their views for political stability and ideology legitimacy (cf. Zhang et al., 2005; Xu, 2021), which has been ingrained in China’s socio-historical infrastructure; on the other, Chinese media landscape, characterised by media surveillance and heteronormativity hegemony, has led to a dearth of resistance among the transcultural fans underpinned by populism that opposes to established institutions and appeals to popular sovereignty.

Discussion and conclusion

According to Gray, Sandvoss, and Harrington (2017), fan studies have evolved into three waves, while fan productivity and active/dedicated participation were usually seen as the key identifiers to define a fan (Jenkins, 1992a, 1992b, 2006a, 2006b; Hills, 2002; Sandvoss, 2005). Those with no/little productivity were usually defined as a non-fan or a general audience in fan studies. This article has introduced new types and metrics to enrich the spectrum of fans, differentiated fans with reduced/little practices from active audiences and underscored the intricacies and entanglement of fan hierarchy construction. I argued that gender dynamics such as men’s masculinist sentiment and women’s internalisation of homosexuality fantasy, state power in terms of media surveillance and tendentious heteronormativity, and transcultureness as the nonconfrontational retreat not fighting against mainstream culture and patriarchal nation-state system cultivated and shaped non-resistant and non-active fans. However, although transcultural factors resulted in the inactivity of fans, it has triggered the creation of alternative types of fans (inactive and dormant fans) who informed of the importance of longing to be part of fan communities/groups as a key indicator to prove their identity. Previous scholars (e.g. Zubernis and Larsen, 2012; Taylor, 2015; Delmar et al., 2020) all asserted the difficulties of referring to a fan by their universal behaviour or mere consumption whilst most fans showed similarities of 'repeated viewing or reading of fan texts and discussing the texts with others' (Taylor, 2015: 184). My research indicates the invisibility of fans through which they firmly self-declared as a fan of Sherlock due to their self-disclosure of longing for connection. Even though most fan interviewees from our research did not contribute to Sherlock fandom in an explicit and productive manner, their subjective consciousness to join in fan communities has developed the existing scholarship to understand and define a fan in terms of fans’ internalised sentiment for connection. The internalised but strong desire signified Chinese fans’ intrinsic motivation to become part of Sherlock fandom in the transcultural context.

Different from previous transcultural fandom studies that either focused on the intersections of race, colonialism, and nationalism within global media fandoms (Pande, 2016, 2018a, 2018b), or paid special attention to the role of fans as active agents in mediating and transforming media texts, negotiating cultural differences, and fostering cross-cultural understanding (Chin and Morimoto, 2013; Chin, 2018), my research identified inactive or dormant fans under the transcultural conditions and explored the underlying motivations and intertwined dynamics for their inactivity. From the empirical research, fans have featured an up-and-down trajectory of engagement from 2010 to 2022. The trajectory pinpointed 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2020 as the peak times for fan practices because of the premiere of Sherlock in China, the introduction of a new series and the special 10th anniversary of this show. Over the fan lifespan, three factors have played a crucial role in forming the hierarchical Sherlock fandom. First, gender is underlined because men and women manifested different interpretations of identity recognition as a fan. Although they all expressed their strong obsession with this series, male fans featured a masculinist sentiment and confidence not to validate their identities whereas female fans were constrained by mainstream culture such as the legitimacy of heteronormativity and patriarchy to conceal their identities. Thus, women have internalised paratext production regarding the narrative of homosexuality (Boys’ Love in this case). Second, the permeation of state power in the forms of fan regulation and media surveillance especially after 2016 served as a deactivated catalyst for fans’ free productivity of personal creativity and innovation. They have been oppressed and marginalised as a community manifested through the lens of inactivity and non-participation. Third, transcultureness, including the aforementioned dynamics, has been defined as a nonconfrontational retreat in the face of ideological hegemony that collapses fan productivity to validate their identity. All, in return, facilitated the alternative creation of new types of fans (namely dormant and inactive fans), followed by a multi-layered pyramid structure of Chinese Sherlock fandom.

This research provides academic value to re-examine and re-contextualise fans under transcultural conditions. It is undeniable that Chinese Sherlock fans have passively taken shape a unique conservative subculture among others, in which they protected themselves by lurking in the fan communities/circles but hoped to be motivated and networked by other fellow fans/leader fans who were able to set up fan communities and unite them as a group/team. The findings have deconstructed fan identity by shifting the focus away from productivity as a key identifier. Fan identity is now understood in relation to the complex interplay of factors by which fans have been predominantly shaped and disciplined. Transcultural barriers, including gender, state power and other cultural factors (e.g. heteronormativity, patriarchal nation-state system), were interpreted as a series of obstructions that fans had to circumvent so as to traverse cultural boundaries. It is distinguished from the other transcultural fan studies that highlighted transcultureness as a stimulus for fans’ active engagement and inclusion of transnational media objects by exploring cultural nuances and identities (Jung, 2010; Chin and Morimoto, 2013; Pande, 2018a, 2018b), navigating cultural differences and negotiating their fan practices (Napier, 2007), fostering a sense of global belonging and cultural exchange (Jung, 2010; Pande, 2016). In this context, transcultureness acted as a strategy of self-protective camouflage, enabling the implicit representation of fan identity amid the state power (CAC, 2016, 2020) that cracks down on fan communities in China.

The findings of this research contribute to the academic studies of transcultural fans as they unveil new characteristics for fandom and shed light on new metrics of self-identifying as fans in the special media landscape. Nevertheless, it is still essential to acknowledge the constraints of this study. Given the absence of a new series, the level of fan engagement with the TV show remained relatively low during our formal empirical research, which made it difficult to include as many active fans as possible. Although the case study cannot comprehensively present an overall profile of transcultural fan identity in China, it reveals the intricate relations between fans from the Global South and fanned objects from the Global North, along with the dynamics of fans and the media landscape in which they were disciplined and shaped. I thus strongly suggest that future research could explore additional indicators that shape fan identities and the corresponding impacts from internal and external factors in different cultural and social territories.