The production of locality in global pop: a comparative study of pop fans in the Netherlands and Hong Kong

Studies on fandom show an Anglo-Saxon bias and most of them take gender, age, sexuality and class as the key to understand fandom. Following globalisation theory, this study argues for the importance to include locality as an explanatory category. Comparing fans of local stars - Hong Kong pop star Leon Lai and his Dutch counterpart Marco Borsato - this study finds striking differences. In general, while the Dutch fans see Marco as an ordinary human being, the Hong Kong fans characterise Leon as an extraordinary worker. The different characterisations, the authors argue, are informed by the dominant discourse on being ordinary, emotionally honest and humanitarian in the Dutch society at large, as well as that on being more than ordinary, hardworking and proud in the Hong Kong context. Music fandom is interpreted as a way to produce locality, to provide a sense of home.