East Asian Popular Culture

Transcription

1 East Asian Popular Culture Series Editors Yasue Kuwahara Department of Communication Northern Kentucky University Highland Heights, Kentucky, USA John A. Lent Temple University, USA School of Communication and Theater Philadelphia, USA

2 Aim of the Series This series focuses on the study of popular culture in East Asia (referring to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan) in order to meet a growing interest in the subject among students as well as scholars of various disciplines. The series examines cultural production in East Asian countries, both individually and collectively, as its popularity extends beyond the region. It continues the scholarly discourse on the recent prominence of East Asian popular culture as well as the give and take between Eastern and Western cultures. More information about this series at

3 Alexis Pulos S. Austin Lee Editors Transnational Contexts of Culture, Gender, Class, and Colonialism in Play Video Games in East Asia

4 Editors Alexis Pulos Department of Communication Northern Kentucky University, USA Highland Heights, Kentucky, USA S. Austin Lee Department of Communication Northern Kentucky University, USA Highland Heights, Kentucky, USA East Asian Popular Culture ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Control Number: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover design by Samantha Johnson Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

5 Contents 1 Introduction 1 Alexis Pulos and S. Austin Lee Part I Gamer Culture 15 2 Bullet Hell: The Globalized Growth of Danmaku Games and the Digital Culture of High Scores and World Records 17 Mark Johnson 3 Content Production Fields and Doujin Game Developers in Japan: Non-economic Rewards as Drivers of Variety in Games 43 Nobushige Hichibe and Ema Tanaka 4 From Pioneering Amateur to Tamed Co-operator: Tamed Desires and Untamed Resistance in the Cosplay Scene in China 81 Anthony Y. H. Fung and Boris L. F. Pun v

6 vi Contents Part II Gender and Class 97 5 Making Masculinity: Articulations of Gender and Japaneseness in Japanese RPGs and Machinima 99 Lucy Glasspool 6 Living the Simple Life: Defining Agricultural Simulation Games Through Empire 127 Fan Zhang and Erika M. Behrmann Part III Colonialism and Transnationalism Virtual Colonialism: Japan s Others in SoulCalibur 155 Rachael Hutchinson 8 A Chinese Cyber-Diaspora: Contact and Identity Negotiation in a Game World 179 Holin Lin and Chuen-Tsai Sun Index 211

7 About the Editors Alexis Pulos currently teaches games and culture, board game design, and video game analysis at Northern Kentucky University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico where he studied rhetoric, new media, digital games, and film. His current work focuses on the ways player agency is structured through the design and social regulation of rule systems. S. Austin Lee received his BA from Seoul National University and MA/ Ph.D. from Michigan State University. His areas of expertise include communication technology and intercultural communication. His scholarly work has been published in top academic journals, including Journal of Applied Psychology. He has also received a top paper award from the National Communication Association. vii

8 Contributor Bios Erika M. Behrmann is an activist-scholar focusing on feminist theory, postfeminism, pedagogy, postcolonialism, and their various intersections and materializations within media and gaming spaces. Her publications can be found in Teaching Media Quarterly (2015) and Films for the Feminist Classroom (2016). Anthony Y. H. Fung is a Director and Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also a Professor in the School of Art and Communication under the Recruitment Program of Global Experts at Beijing Normal University at Beijing and Pearl River Chair Professor at Jinan University at Guangzhou, China. His research interests and teaching focus on popular culture and cultural studies, popular music, gender and youth identity, cultural industries and policy, and new media studies. He published widely in international journals and authored and edited more than ten Chinese and English books. Lucy Glasspool is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Global Communication Strategies at the University of Tokyo. Her research interests include gender and sexuality in Japanese popular culture and transnational fan practices. She is currently completing her Ph.D. on gender and Japaneseness in videogame fan cultures at Nagoya University. ix

9 x Contributor Bios Nobushige Hichibe, Ph.D., is a Senior Researcher of Foundation for MultiMedia Communications and a Visiting Associate Professor of Digital Hollywood University in Japan. He is a qualitative sociologist working in the fields of media studies. He is the author of Yo-Kai Watch Ga 10 Bai Tanoshiku Naru Hon (Game and Animation Studies of Yo-Kai Watch (in Japanese), 2015). Rachael Hutchinson is an Associate Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Delaware, where she teaches Japanese language, literature, film, and videogames. Her work on games appears in Games and Culture and NMEDIAC: Journal of New Media and Culture, as well as Identity Matters: Race, Gender and Sexuality in Video Game Studies (ed. Jennifer Malkowski and TreaAndrea Russworm, University of Indiana Press) and Introduction to Japanese Pop Culture (ed. Alisa Freedman and Toby Slade, Routledge). She has published widely on representation and identity in Japanese literature, film, and manga and is currently working on a book about videogames and Japanese culture. Mark R. Johnson is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Digital Creativity Labs and the Science & Technology Studies Unit at the University of York. His work focuses on professional gaming and esports, and competitive gaming more generally, with strong additional interests in gaming cultures and communities, streaming, game aesthetics and themes, and the intersections between games and real-world political and cultural institutions. Outside academia, he is a former professional poker player, holds the high score world records in multiple games, is an independent game developer, the co-host of the Roguelike Radio podcast, and a freelance games writer. Holin Lin is a Professor of Sociology, National Taiwan University. She has been working in the field of Internet and digital game studies. Her work focuses on the social interaction in massively multiplayer online game communities. Boris L. F. Pun is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests mainly relate to popular culture and subcultural studies, especially in animation, comic, and game (ACG). He is also interested in the issue of cultural identity, cultural industries and policy, and the globalization and transculturation.

10 Contributor Bios xi Chuen-Tsai Sun is an Adjunct Professor of Department of Computer Science and Graduate Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University. He is currently engaged in research and teaching in the areas of digital games, digital learning, and artificial intelligence. Ema Tanaka, Ph.D., is a Chief Researcher of Foundation for MultiMedia Communications and a Visiting Researcher of Waseda Institute for Digital Society in Japan. She has more than 10 years of experience in policy and market research on ICT, media fields, and Internet governance. Fan Zhang is a Ph.D. student with particular interests in intercultural communication, critical rhetoric, gaming, media, and technology at Bowling Green State University. Her publication can be found at International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies (2015).

11 List of Figures Fig. 2.1 Screenshot of Ikaruga (2001). Accessed on 21/5/2015, available from 39 Fig. 2.2 Screenshot of Crimzon Clover (2011). Accessed on 21/5/2015, available from 40 Fig. 3.1 The elements and circular mechanism of the content production field 47 Fig. 3.2 Three game production fields categorized by intents and motivations 49 Fig. 3.3 Conceptual characteristics of three game production fields 50 Fig. 3.4 An example of a dynamic game, Touhou Eiyashou (Team Shanghai Alice) 51 Fig. 3.5 An example of static game, Tsukihime (Type-Moon) 52 Fig. 3.6 List of dynamic game developer interviewees 53 Fig. 3.7 List of static game developer interviewees 55 Fig. 3.8 Developers and users interact at Comic Market, where developers rent small booths and sell games to users directly 57 Fig. 3.9 Packaged doujin games 57 Fig Display racks of a doujin game shop (Sangatsu-Usagi in Akihabara) 58 Fig Comparison between doujin game development and commercial game development 58 Fig. 8.1 History of player migration between Chinese and Taiwanese WoW servers 193 xiii

12 List of Tables Table 6.1 Congregated themes based Weibo answers to Supercell s question: What is your favorite decoration and What are the pros and cons of Monday (n = 817) 141 Table 8.1 Data collection from Taiwanese WoW game forums 187 Table 8.2 Data collection from Chinese WoW game forums 187 xv