Uncovering the Migration of Illicit Cultural Production: a Digital Ethnography of the jav Industry and Fan Communities in China

Abstract While many studies have examined Japan’s cultural industries, including manga, anime, video games, and films, few have focused on the Japanese Adult Video ( jav ) industry. The limited research on pornography represents a critical omission given the widespread popularity of such content among the global youth and the imperative to comprehend the migration patterns of problematic or illicit cultural production across borders. The paper takes the example of the jav industry in China by adopting digital ethnography to illustrate the migration of such cultural production, where a government crackdown on pornography has led to Chinese fans becoming the primary cultural actors responsible for reproducing, distributing, and consuming jav s. The absence of producers and intermediaries in this system implies that the state has eliminated any legitimate channels for producing and distributing adult entertainment content. The circulation of pornography is prohibited in China, which results in related materials being distributed through covert and challenging-to-regulate channels, such as seeds of the Magnet uri scheme and/or BitTorrent. Consequently, a group of enthusiastic pornography fans has surfaced on various platforms to share and exchange their materials. Therefore, this study has decided to start with the fan group to investigate the jav ’s journey in China. By examining the hierarchy of jav fan communities in the Chinese online context, the study suggests that external pressure from government crackdowns on pornographic materials has led to increased solidarity and harmony among Chinese jav fans within their communities through politeness strategies and comradeship, which further weakened the hierarchy of fan communities. Additionally, the analysis of the popularity of Aoi Sora in China as a porn actress provides insight into the intricate mechanisms of cultural production and consumption.