Serving as a physical space for fans to gather and express affection for cultural productions, the comic convention has long been seen as the pilgrimage site of fandom and companies, which connect both sides to create a better ecology for creation, marketing and cooperation. Apart from the U.S.-style comic con represented by SDCC and the Doujin con led by Comiket, the government-led comic convention in China shows strong ideological and political guidance. To draw a picture of such a comic convention and collect materials for further analysis, this study reaches fans’ impressions of the government-led comic convention using the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET). According to this methodology, in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 fans who had participated in the government-led comic convention more than 3 times. The interview materials were coded using the mixed-approach software MaxQDA. The findings reveal that the government-led comic convention tries to realize its political and ideological goals by providing exclusivity for fans and creating cultural spaces embedded with national symbols and normative values. Fans respond through strategic adaptation, abiding by core regulations to access legitimate participation resources while innovating alternative practices to preserve subcultural authenticity. This dynamic interaction constructs a unique cultural space characterized by the coexistence of state discipline and fan negotiation, reflecting the distinctive logic of state-subculture engagement in China.
Yuxuan Wang (Fri,) studied this question.