1. Introduction
[1.1] There seemingly exists an image of China in America where China lacks pop cultural relevancy. One TikTok user (@ninaawang4) put it best in her video (which another user reposted to Twitter on April 11, 2022): "When you think of China, there is no sort of…pop culture phenomenon that is associated with China. The only thing that people ever think about when they think of China is the government" (https://twitter.com/KHAMCHANH/status/1513579138078023681). The user herself is Chinese American, as she identified at the beginning of her video. What this video shows is how little presence Chinese pop culture has in America, and just how out of touch some Chinese American youths are with their parents' culture, believing that a nation with as much political impact as China has little to no significant pop cultural impact. However, what user @ninaawang4 said in her video is not entirely untrue; China is continuing to grow its soft power industry, though it has far fallen behind its East Asian neighbors, South Korea and Japan. Chinese television dramas (C-dramas) such as The Untamed (2019) and its more recent contemporary Word of Honor (2021) have managed to break through national borders. Both dramas were adapted from hugely popular BL (boys' love) web novels that have inspired an abundance of fan-produced works; such enthusiasm has carried through to the web novels' live-action adaptations' fandoms. I argue that Chinese pop cultural media and its subsequent fan productions are increasingly reshaping the identities of Chinese Americans through transnational exchanges across national and cultural boundaries. It is dramas like The Untamed and its plethora of English-language fans that have pushed China further in its current pop cultural boom internationally. The Untamed's continued popularity—even three years after it first aired—with its Asian American audience has proven itself to be a "transnational contact zone" (Morimoto and Chin 2017) where immigrant Chinese Americans find their American and Chinese cultures clashing and reforming.
2. China as global media producer and consumer
[2.1] According to consulting firm PwC's Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2014–2018, China, with its vast population, is currently one of the forerunners in global media consumption alongside the United States, be it Hollywood movies or its own domestically made dramas. Keane (2005) found that "the Chinese viewer watched an average of 56 minutes of television per day in 2004…an increase of 12 percent compared with 2001 and 2002." Outside of China, Chinese dramas have been slowly gaining popularity with the global audience. Especially with the rise in quantity of online viewing platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and even YouTube, more and more people are able to watch previously inaccessible television series. The most popular of China's exported dramas are historical and costume dramas; nearly half of the exported Chinese dramas are historical dramas (Zhang 2007). Just as popular culture is reshaping the market in China, the same media exports are reshaping the identities of Chinese American viewers overseas.
[2.2] Economically, China stands as one of the giants of the world; however, culturally, the exportation of its products lags far behind other countries, such as South Korea and Japan. Even with China playing host to some major events in recent history—the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2010 World Expo, and 2022 Winter Olympics—the nation's popular culture exports have only started garnering global attention in the current decade. All the media productions in China come under the supervision of the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), a ministry-level agency overseen by the publicity department of the Chinese Communist Party. Over the decades, China has produced a variety of television dramas such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1994–95), Dream of the Red Chamber (1987), Journey to the West (1986), and The Water Margin (1998) famously adapted from China's four classic pieces of literature of the same name. More recently, the Chinese entertainment industry has taken to adapting web novels, a popular medium of literature enjoyed by many young adults; one particular genre of web novels is BL—homosexual or homoerotic stories. However, with the government's tight reins on what can and cannot be aired on both television and online entertainment platforms, BL dramas have always been a taboo that is mostly relegated to low-budget productions hidden in the corners of the internet.
[2.3] In the recent decade and a half, Chinese media has seen an increased rise in BL dramas, all of which have been adapted from BL web novels. Even with their immense popularity among audiences both within and without China, the NRTA has relegated BL-related dramas to online platforms rather than air them on television networks. Furthermore, the NRTA has worked to censor any explicit queerness in all adapted BL dramas, causing many storylines to be edited to erase all same-sex content, whether it is to change one of the genders of the main couple or to water down the romantic relationship into a bromantic relationship. Although prior to The Untamed's debut in 2019, there have been more explicitly homosexual dramas, such as Addicted (2016), most of China's BL content have gone through a highly scrutinizing censorship. Yet, bromance is no less romantic when the majority of the viewing audience for BL dramas are at least minimally aware of the original works from which the shows have been adapted.
[2.4] Chinese dramas, like other Asian pop culture productions such as anime and K-pop, work to generate in Asian American fans a deeper connection to their Asian roots through the re-presentation of culture in the original productions as well as fan-created content. It is through watching Chinese television dramas and the active production of fan fiction that Asian American fans create new identities that successfully merge contemporary culture with traditional. As fans and audiences continue to watch and rewatch, listen and relisten, as well as participate in producing and sharing their own stories, a transnational narrative arises, one that is not limited by cultural or physical borders. As fans interact with cultural worlds that promote and facilitate active engagement with both the original productions as well as fan productions, a new, mixed culture takes shape.
3. The Untamed fandom and fan fiction as an example of transculturalism
[3.1] The Untamed speaks to many fans outside of China partly because of the subject of its focus: queer romance (danmei), a taboo subject that is censored in China by the government. The drama is based on a popular online danmei novel by author Moxiang Tongxiu (MXTX) called The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, or Modao Zushi (MDZS), its Chinese title. Due to government censorship, the adapted drama has obscured most of the more overt queer aspects from the original novel, representing the romantic relationship between the two main (male) leads as more bromantic and homosocial. Although the homosexual relationship in the drama has all but been erased, English-language fans have managed to discover the original novel through fan-translated online versions (as well as now official translated versions) where the romantic relationship between the main characters is more explicit.
[3.2] Outside the original novel, fan fiction becomes the medium whereby fans are able to recreate the romance that has been obscured by censorship in the dramatized version of MDZS, better known as The Untamed to international audiences. As the drama rose in popularity in America via its presence on easily accessible platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more, its fandom became more and more active, including the fan fiction side of the fandom. On sites such as Archive of Our Own, the fandom gains nearly three hundred works of fan fiction weekly, some new and some updated continuations that are actively worked on (Archive of Our Own, n.d.). Fan fiction has thus become an undeniably important part of fandom and a rich contact zone for transnationalism as English-language fans seek out more interaction with a Chinese-language pop cultural production.
[3.3] Fan fiction thus becomes an object of cultural memory as it is simultaneously informed by the original product of inspiration and actively reproduced by fans. Rosanne Kennedy contends that though media can easily cross borders, the memories often stay within certain cultural and political boundaries (2016); however, the accessibility created by advancing communicative technologies has increased interfandom interactions, as well as the transnationality of media and the sharing of information among the fan communities. C-dramas can easily be found on paid popular streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, and for free on YouTube. The increased visibility of Asian pop cultural productions on the internet has also led to an increase of fan productions focused on such products as the drama The Untamed. Interfan interactions have also increased as more fans turn to creating and exchanging fan fiction. It is through these interactions that a cross-cultural identity is sustained.
[3.4] With an increase in the role of tradition and culture in pop culture productions, there has also been an increase in the international popularity of period television drama series—Story of Yanxi Palace (2018), The Untamed (2019), Winter Begonia (2020), and The Long Ballad (2021). As more people consume, reproduce, and share through fan fiction, a new collective transnational identity is formed, that of a fan in a community of fans, regardless of any cultural limitations. Fan fiction thus becomes the vehicle in which consumption and production of culture occurs simultaneously; authors of fan fiction actively produce and consume the works of both the original producers and other fan producers. These exchanges are facilitated by fans, who contribute to the reshaping of cultural identities for Chinese Americans because the culture of fandom centers around the communities' shared enjoyment of popular culture, such as books, television series, musical acts, movies, and more. The participatory nature of fan culture, wherein fans become both consumers and producers, creating their own content that is then shared and consumed by more fans, works to bridge the distance that may exist between Chinese Americans and Chinese culture. As a result of being fans of these works, fans are not only consuming the product but also producing new cultural memories that are then attached to these products, which can come in many forms, one of which is fan fiction (Larsen and Zubernis 2012).
[3.5] As Chinese fandoms in online fan fiction communities continue to grow, Chinese American fans are afforded more chances to share and reproduce their newly reshaped memories and identities without the limitations of language, cultural, and geographic barriers. Through this sharing of content, such as fan fiction, a collective fan identity is formed that does not force one to differentiate between Chinese and American cultures. Rather than the limitations posed by the idea of a set national identity, where one's sense of belonging is tied to a particular state or nation, interactions within the fandom of The Untamed work to extend one's identity transculturally by attaching identity to the Asian pop culture productions, their fandoms, and the cultural memories created by the fans. This new transcultural fan identity then becomes the amalgamating force that works to reconcile the dissonance some Chinese American youths may feel in regard to the separate cultures they hold.
[3.6] C-dramas, and the fan fiction inspired from them, become a mode of remembering for the fans/viewers as they continuously construct and reconstruct, present and re-present, the past through their re-creation of Chinese traditions (Erll 2008). Both the dramas and fan-created content work to construct renewed interest in one's origins and promote active participation within the fandoms of C-dramas, as fans create their own interpretations in fan fiction, and shared conversations allow for the memories to transcend national borders. Chinese television dramas work to create a connection between Chinese Americans and Chinese culture through meticulously constructed sceneries, costumes, and storylines to remind Chinese Americans of the culture they often feel disconnected from by virtue of being physically distanced from China. C-dramas, like The Untamed, present to their audiences sleek sets, beautiful wardrobes, and handsome actors, which act as a bridge for those modern generations of diasporic Asians who have found themselves distanced from their lost heritage. Fan fiction further works to bridge this distance between modernity and tradition, new and old, by allowing fans the freedom to recreate their own stories using their favorite drama settings or characters.
[3.7] One such fan fiction that has taken the characters of The Untamed far beyond the extent of the show is MDZS: The Golden Engine by user iffervescent on Archive of Our Own. The author uses her story as an extension of the canon of The Untamed, taking the characters from the ancient world into the modern world through the blending of old and new elements. In The Golden Engine, the main characters Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have become immortals thousands of years after the events of the original story yet are still traveling together ridding the world of its evils, something familiar to the fans of both The Untamed and MDZS. The fan fiction starts not with the characters of The Untamed but with a new character named Zhou Xiaoyi, who has recently been accepted into "the most prestigious cultivation school in the whole world." In this story, Zhou Xiaoyi (ZXY) can be viewed as a proxy for this newly transcultural identity produced through fandom and fan fiction, a blending of old and new, ancient and modern. Like many Chinese Americans who find themselves distanced from their Chinese culture both physically and emotionally, ZXY is initially reluctant to connect with the more traditional aspects of her culture. She is described, by her mother, as having "brought shame on the entire family" for not wanting to be a cultivator despite her acceptance into the best school, an acceptance she rejected. However, a chance encounter with cultivation and cultivators in the form of Lan Wangji (LWJ) and Wei Wuxian (WWX) has ZXY stating she is "going to become a cultivator," closing out the first chapter of The Golden Engine. ZXY is at first unsure of her place in the world, caught between modernity and traditions, not unlike many Chinese Americans who find themselves caught between their dual identities of American and Chinese.
[3.8] Furthermore, the author grounds the connection between ZXY and the new-old world she finds herself in through several details revealed throughout the story. First, while at the airport with her family, ZXY's little sister wanders off into danger; specifically, the author points out the danger as "dark energy," a negative energy that fans of The Untamed will immediately recall being spoken about often in the drama. Right away, the author sets up the connection this modern world has with the more traditional world of the C-drama through these mentions of cultivation and dark energy. Dark energy is something that most people are trained to notice as "everyone in China was given basic awareness training since the sixties," further solidifying the author's purposeful blending of past and present. Then in the last chapter of the fic, the author reveals the "tiny blue lotus symbol on the metal" of ZXY's family sword, which wasn't "normally much good for anything except hanging on the wall as ornamentation." What would have been considered a less-important object, an ornament meant only to momentarily hold one's interest, makes tangible the intangible connection ZXY has with the more traditional aspects of her culture. The small lotus establishes ZXY's connection with WWX by alluding to the fact that the sword once belonged to Jiang Yanli, the long deceased adopted sister of Wei Wuxian. By the end of the fan fiction, ZXY is no longer a girl lost and unsure of her place within the world, caught between modern and traditional. Like the many Chinese American fans of dramas such as The Untamed and more, the ZXY who emerges at the end of the story has started to reconcile both parts of her identity into a new identity in which the old and the new exist in the same space. The Chinese American youths who watched The Untamed as well as read and wrote fan fiction for the series were also pushed to learn and understand the different cultures they possessed.
4. Conclusion
[4.1] With the steady expansion of C-drama fandoms such as that of The Untamed, despite the conclusion of a series, fans are able to sustain the connections they built with the drama, fellow fans, and Chinese culture through actively reading and sharing fan fiction. Therefore, fan fiction becomes mobile memories that are always on the move, keeping Chinese American fans connected, through the inner workings of fandom and fan fiction, to their dual cultural identities. Both writer and reader are given room to further explore and build upon the preexisting traditions reinvigorated by the original creators, all the while adding another layer of interpretation to the original product as they continue to share and reproduce further works and memories (Tamm 2019). Fandoms are then transformed into spaces where cultural memory is collected and cultural identity is formed. The resulting fan fiction produced and shared within fandoms then become the tools used to break the barriers that limited identity within the nation or the individual, instead allowing the formation of a new identity that is transcultural, one not restricted by language, nationality, or geography.
[4.2] As fan fiction's popularity continues to grow both within fandom communities and in more mainstream media, it has become much more than just another part of fandom culture. Fan fiction allows fans to not just experience enjoyment via consumption but to experience such forms of pleasure by being active producers. Whether the fan producers decide to extend and expand on an already existing universe or recraft their own, they can create their own piece of mobile cultural memory that is shared, moving from fan to fan, often spawning its own re-creations by other fans. Additionally, fans come to feel more connected, more endeared to their chosen fandoms, not only encouraging the creation of a stronger relationship between original producers and fans and fan fiction authors and fans (who are consumers of both fan fiction and the original work the fan fiction is based on) but also helping fans build connections within themselves. As long as fans maintain the steady production of fan fiction within Chinese pop culture fandoms, fan fiction will continue to grow a form of mobile cultural memory.