Equality and Hierarchy in K-pop Fandom: A Network Analysis of Chinese Online Communities

• In Event: Structure and Meaning: Linking Social Networks and Cultural Life

Abstract

While digital culture scholarship has long framed fandom as a paradigmatic site of horizontal participatory culture , recent research documents persistent center-periphery hierarchies within these networks. To explain the conditions under which fandom networks become more hierarchical or more horizontal , this study empirically applies a culturally-embedded network perspective. We argue that network structures are not fully determined by platform architecture or individual-level capital ; rather, they are shaped by "interaction purposes" acting as institutionalized cultural scripts that define actors' relational expectations. Empirically, we leverage the natural functional segregation of K-pop fandoms on Sina Weibo to quantitatively compare 40 information sharing and merchandise exchange networks—comprising approximately 5.77 million interaction records—across 20 idol groups. Combining Graph2Vec topological embeddings with Idol Fixed Effects models , our results demonstrate that driven by the scripts of "operative efficiency" and system survival, information sharing networks form highly centralized, low-reciprocity hierarchical structures. Conversely, guided by the logic of "dyadic matching," merchandise exchange networks develop distributed and highly reciprocal configurations. Moreover, these two cultural scripts exhibit differential scale sensitivity: merchandise networks become increasingly stratified as they expand, whereas information networks maintain comparatively stable hierarchical configurations. Through large-scale network analysis, this study demonstrates that the emergence of digital network structures is highly contingent on culturally institutionalized interaction purposes, thereby advancing a meso-level sociological explanation for digital tie-formation

Authors

• Jiamu Su, Sungkyunkwan University

• Jeong-Woo Koo, Sungkyunkwan University

• Chan S. Suh, Chung-Ang University