How I love and hate my idol: Derisive fandom (Ruzhui) and the tug zone of identity, emotion and morality in Chinese fan culture
Wenjun Zhao, Pengfei Fu
European Journal of Cultural Studies2/18/2026·DOI·Read paper
Abstract
This study investigates derisive fandom (
Ruzhui
), an ambivalent practice within Chinese fan culture, in which fans simultaneously deride idols while remaining deeply invested in them. Based on 1 year of participant observation and 28 in-depth interviews, this study explores how these derisive fans negotiate their identities, emotional attachments and moral standpoints in the context of a highly commercialized fan economy and the moral governance of Chinese society. Challenging the dominant binary between fan and anti-fan, this study conceptualizes
Ruzhui
as occupying a ‘
tug zone
’, a suspended affective space where conflicting attachments coexist and resist resolution. Rather than representing a departure from fandom, derisive practices reveal how critique and devotion can emerge from the same emotional investment. By foregrounding this affective ambivalence, the article contributes a new perspective to anti-fan studies, highlighting how contemporary fan identities are shaped not through stable categories but through dynamic negotiations of emotion, consumption and normative regulation.
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