Nisu reconfiguration: establishing gender-reversed fan-celebrity fantasies in Chinese society

Millions of Chinese celebrity fans online increasingly engage in nisu queer fandom—female fans imagining cisgender male celebrities as their girlfriends, wives, etc.—in a male-female gender binary social context. Based on unobtrusive observation and semi-structured interviews among nisu fans of four Chinese actors, this article foregrounds fans' own perspectives to analyze how their gender awareness shapes their formation of gender-reversed fan-celebrity fantasies and thus their confrontations with mainstream gender ideologies. Findings are presented in two parts. First, nisu fans build three types of fan-celebrity connections: 1) praising actor(s) for performing feminine qualities, 2) gazing at actor(s) from a dominant position, and 3) appreciating actor(s)' potential gender non-binary charisma. Second, nisu fans understand both how their emerging awareness and expressions of gender beliefs challenge traditional gender norms and how their practices remain intuitive and implicit rather than political. I conclude that nisu fans' playful gender reconfiguration with fandom ultimately inspires meaningful developments of gender discourses in broader Chinese society.