Journal of Popular Romance Studies (Mar 2020)
Time-Travel to P&P: Web-based Chinese Fanfic of Jane Austen
Abstract
The fan fiction (fanfic) works of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (P & P) on the Chinese web unanimously deploy time-travel to insert Chinese men or women into the canon universe. The protagonists can take up any original roles, or they become newly created characters. They can maintain the original romantic pairing, choose different partners, or even enter into homoerotic relationships. Yet they all accomplish great feats not only in romantic relationships, but also in establishing careers and accumulating fortunes. Fanfic allows fans to appropriate existing cultural products to hone creative skills and to benefit from the original’s cultural cachet. Chinese P & P fanfic also serves specific personal and political ends. Some rewrite the fate of the “wronged woman,” whose victimization in the canon universe has roused indignation and generated a tale of redemption. Others use fanfic to recast ideal masculinity and femininity. Finally, reworking this Western classic helps them re-imagine Sino-British relation and position themselves in today’s complex world. Discussing, reinterpreting, and refashioning the source text alongside like-minded insiders produce explanation and validation of Chinese women’s lives. Ultimately, these works provide examples of the “open canon” that fanfic can create, while querying the dynamics between cultural globalization and localization.
