Mainstreams, Mavericks, Misfits, and Amphibians: On the Mainstreaming, Platformisation, and Re-conventionalisation of the Former Home of Chinese ACGN

ABSTRACT: The concept of platformisation has been used throughout contemporary Chinese sociology and media studies to explain the process by which emerging local digital platforms facilitate and revolutionise daily life. Scholars have also examined how fans of ACGN (anime, comics, games, and novels) create heterotopias through the development of virtual communities and the departure of online territory from more conventional cultural and heteronormative norms. This article analyses an often-overlooked subject: the mainstreaming, platformisation, and re-conventionalisation of digital platforms and their impact on creative video production and fandom culture. We investigate Bilibili, a video-sharing social media which can be considered as the former home of Chinese ACGN culture, with a particular focus on the current commercial expansion that has seen it deviate from ACGN’s cultural themes. Howard Becker’s (1982) categorisation of innovative creators (mainstreams, mavericks, misfits) and Jones et al. amphibians are utilised to examine the ways in which the various video creators and former ACGN fans have (or have not) adapted to the platform’s commercialisation, mainstreaming, and re-conventionalisation. KEYWORDS: digital platforms, fandom, ACGN, online ethnography, gender, queer.