Fangirl culture in the Chinese rock music scene

In the summer of 2019, a TV variety show about indie/rock bands became popular in China. Since then, these so-called 'underground' bands have experienced idolization and were moved to a mainstream stage. This also brought a large group of fangirls into the Chinese rock music scene. Such a large-scale invasion of female fans poses a challenge for the rock culture scene which is usually considered to be ‘masculine’. In this project, I explore how the participation of female fans challenge the gender norms constructed in the discourse of Chinese rock and bring changes to the Chinese rock music scene.