Creating the sacred places of pop culture in the age of mobility: fan pilgrimages and authenticity through performance

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper clarifies the nature of Korean fans’ sacred meaning-making in popular culture pilgrimages. Travel to locations which have significance in pop culture has become a trend among fans. Interestingly, many fans do performances, sometimes ritual-like, at the destinations to express the value of the pop culture. Such ritual-like performances cross national borders in the age of mobility. Based on anthropological research, the paper analyses how a sacred place is created by fandom. The specific popular culture work chosen after five years of participatory research in Japanese popular culture-related events and festivals was an event related to the Japanese mixed-media work, Love Live! School Idol Project (Love Live!). First, the article reviews the research on how fans create a sacred place. Next, with a focus on the concepts of authentication and performance, the article analyses how fans authenticate the fan-made sacred places. Then, based on a qualitative survey of two sacred places created by Love Live! fans, the article traces the process of creating, authenticating, and maintaining a sacred place.