Introduction: global queer fandoms of Asian media and celebrities

In this introductory essay to the special issue “Global Queer Fandoms of Asian Media and Celebrities,” I reflect on key issues in existing scholarship and the fresh contributions and connections made by the commentary pieces. I also discuss the history of, current trends related to, and promising research directions for global queer fan studies. I show that examinations of global queer fandom require an urgent recentering of twenty-first-century Asian media and pop culture. By doing so, I propose the concept of a “globalist queer discourse,” which highlights both the norm-disrupting power of globally networked affective communities formed by gender, sexual, ethnic, and geocultural-linguistic minorities and the queer potential and problems of Asian media and celebrity industries during a drastically changing time of globalization and digitization.