Comic Fans and Convergence Culture: Community of Readers in The Master of Kung Fu

Authors

  • David Edward Beard Department of Writing Studies, UM Duluth
  • Kate Vo Thi-Beard

Keywords:

Rhetoric, Community, Readership, Convergence Culture, Sense of Community, Comic Books, Asian-American

Abstract

As a member of several fan cultures, I have an interest in the processes that fan audiences use to construct and reconstruct the texts they consume. Additionally, I think of the way (written, oral, and musical) texts construct the individuals who constitute their audiences. Examining Master of Kung Fu provided the perfect combination of these two interests. —David My fascination with representations of Asians in the media began with The Destroyer book series that I read as a teen. While the character Remo at first resisted his fate, he quickly embraced his identity as the next Master of Sinanju. As a Vietnamese American growing up in a small Midwestern town, I have slowly come to my identity as an Asian American. I owe a lot of that to my current life as a Ph.D. student. My research has centered around cultural identity and representations in comics, children's literature, and Asian American magazines. These have fueled my desire to learn more about my own identity. —Kate

Author Biography

David Edward Beard, Department of Writing Studies, UM Duluth

David Beard is Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. His research has centered on modernism and rhetoric. His publications include Advances in the History of Rhetoric (with Richard Enos), and he is currently working on a book project on I. A. Richards. Kate Vo Thi-Beard is a doctoral student in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to her interests in comics and graphic novels, she is researching the role of Asian American magazines in building community and cultural identity.

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Published

2009-04-13

Issue

No. 2 (2009)

Section

In This Issue

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