Gothic Lolita Unchained: The Appropriation of Japanese Animation Narratives and Aesthetics in Chinese Digital Media Contexts

This research study is a reception study of Japanese animation in Chinese cultures and digital media environments such as social networks, gaming sites, fandom and idol sites, and blogging networks. It will apply ethnographic research methods and develop audio-visual documentation to analyze participatory Internet culture based around the appropriation of Japanese animation based narratives in the Hong Kong context.It will specifically study the cultural dissemination and Chinese adoption of concepts of gender such as the popular figure of “Gothic Lolita.” Gothic Lolita is one of the embodiments of an erotized "pretty/scary girl" who possesses dark powers and who dreams of escape into old-fashioned decadent life-styles. This Japanese figure of femininity is partly inspired by French 18th century court narratives, and to a lesser extent by the Western interpretation of Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) as a lustful teenager who desires older men and as such belies a mixture of innocence and sexuality. In our analysis of the dissemination of the “pretty/scary girl” figure, the researchers will track the transformation of narratives of power and gender from Japanese music and animation culture into Chinese subcultures in both real and virtual contexts.