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Fan labour as mnemonic labour: Theorising memory work and queer world-making

Eva Cheuk-Yin Li

Feminist Review2026https://doi.org/10.1177/01417789261424722article
AJG 2
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

When queer characters are erased or denied closure on screen, fans mobilise not only for representation but to reconfigure memory and rehearse queer world‑making. This article develops the concept of mnemonic fan labour, theorising it as queer fan practices through which grief, endurance and creativity contest heteronormative rhythms of media storytelling, as exemplified by collective activist interventions. Drawing on memory studies, queer theory and fan studies scholarship, I foreground queer fandom as a potent site of vernacular memory‑making. A tripartite framework is developed to theorise queer fandom as mnemonic labour: (1) chrono‑affective labour, manifested through collective endurance in waiting rituals that anchor fans in global queer histories of resilience; (2) transmedia‑memetic labour, exemplifying remediation as fans remix tropes and circulate hybrid archives of memory across platforms and cultures; and (3) speculative labour, exemplifying pre-mediation, as fan‑made alternative endings and utopian world‑making rehearse futures beyond unsatisfying narrative closures. These modalities are exemplified in the ‘YaoTing’ fandom of the long-running Taigi soap opera Sè-kan-tsîng (世間情; 2013–2015). Through a digital ethnography and qualitative analysis of 3199 fan‑generated threads posted between 2014 and 2015 on PTT, Taiwan’s largest online forum, the article traces how audiences enact mnemonic practices to resist queer erasure and forge new queer memories. Therefore, theorising fan labour as mnemonic labour opens imaginative pathways towards queer belonging and futures. The article theorises that fans’ mnemonic labour emerges as radical world‑making: a queer memory practice reclaiming time, remaking genre and rendering queer life liveable, again and anew.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/01417789261424722

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@article{eva2026,
  title        = {{Fan labour as mnemonic labour: Theorising memory work and queer world-making}},
  author       = {Eva Cheuk-Yin Li},
  journal      = {Feminist Review},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/01417789261424722},
}

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Fan labour as mnemonic labour: Theorising memory work and queer world-making

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.