Fandom in Micronesia
From Fan History Wiki
Fandom in Micronesia By Laura
Is there fandom in Micronesia? If not, why not? In this discussion, I would also toss in parts of Melanesia and Polynesia while excluding Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii in this discussion due to size issues. This is mostly in terms of smaller Pacific Island nations and territories.
From my limited experience, there does not seem to be an active fannish community in the area. All the trappings that would point to one being there just seem absent. If there is one, I'd love to know about it. Point me to it. I suspect I know why it doesn't exist and a lot of it seems obvious but needing to be stated because some areas have large fan bases in non-English speaking countries. Some of this is also speculation and I'm curious as to how on the mark it is.
From what I can gather, a lot of the countries and native cultures in the area don't have a long history of written languages. If they had such a tradition, much of it was adversely effected by the first and second World Wars. Many people prior to the Japanese and American invasions were bi, tri or quad lingual. They were fluent and frequently could write in all languages. This disappeared after the second World War and writing was on the wane. People talked, socialized in their social groups and learned things by word of mouth. There were not as many books. What tended to be left was religious materials, newspapers and comics. This hardly was a platform to help create fandom. There was no science fiction fandom back bone on which to build a lot of modern fandom. There weren't loads of romance novels to encourage reading. Schools lacked books and trained teachers. This probably stagnated fandom from happening because a lot of fandom involved written interaction.
Fandom also seems to be based on television shows and movies. In the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, there is one movie theater for four occupied islands. Getting to this movie theater from the other three islands is not cheap. The movies are not first run. The movie theater is barely getting by. Kids watch television and get MTV but they lack that movie going tradition because, for a lot of America, going to the movies is a community experience. Here, the movie theater is mostly visited by the mainlanders and the immigrant population. It is not something that you get a lot of the native population going to. There are not a lot of ooohs and aaaahs over. The movies are not first run and anticipation over new movies released in the mainland isn't that big because it will take a while for them to get here, if they do. Television shows are run a week late. The local stations don't offer much. The cable is off and on. No satellite dish. Television really didn't seem to hit it big here until the 1980s and a lot of people do with out. The television culture isn't big and planning your life around television shows is considered a bit off. The whole fan clubs built around television wouldn't have permeated here with the same rapidity as it did in other places because of the time issue. The 1960s seemed to be when that happened and television wasn't here then.
When people do watch television, the biggest shows tend to be reality shows. Big Brother Pinoy, American Idol are two of the biggest shows. Kelly Clarkson is one of the most popular musical artists on the island because of that. In English speaking cultures, reality television shows did not seem to be the genesis of large scale fandom.
The Internet is here but people are not really into bit torrents and other bandwidth hogging features. Dial up is king here. You can't really do that on a slow internet connection. And most people do not have internet. Most people do not have computers. There is a sizable part of the community which doesn't even have electricity because, wow, that is super expensive. As a sizable chunk of fandom has moved on-line and Micronesia has large parts of waterless nothing dotted with islands with small populations, the lack of Internet seems like a major hurdle for developing fandom and could help explain its absence.
Zines, like the Internet, are expensive to buy. They are also expensive to make. My laser ink cartridge which costs $70 in the states on the mainland runs me $130 plus shipping from the nearest island. In most parts of this area, the mail works. You can mail materials to the United States but send them a cheap rate like media mail or parcel post here and you're asking for a two to three month wait on one end. Some places take even longer. And $20 is expensive. Many zine publishers charge extra to mail out here even if the postage rate isn't the same because of the customs form involved. Toss in isolation to the mix. If you do want a zine, how are you going to find out about it in order to get it? The only real way, prior to the Internet, would probably involve expats who maintained mail contact with people in other pars of the United States. If that person exists, they'd have to propagate that information to others in order to get some sort of fan base. A lot of mainlanders and immigrants don't seem to socialize in that regard with a lot of the local populace. The interactions have different social connotations. It would be a bit different to give that material to them because of social norms. Passing out zines, especially ones with sexually explicit stuff, by off islanders to islanders just seems like it would be unlikely.
Island life is very social. People get together on a regular basis. They have barbecues. They celebrate important things. There are rituals for some things and turning down invites is considered rude. They eat and they talk. They gossip. Tossed in to this social interaction is religion. Kids go to school to have something to do and more time to socialize with their friends. Television is not a primary topic of conversation. From my own experience, it isn't considered important and too much discussion of it is an indicator of misplaced priorities. It is an example of anti-social behavior which is not to be encouraged. There are not the one hundred and ten shopping and entertainment options here so this socializing is central to their culture. Television, movies and books as a primary source of conversation are an effective way to single yourself out as different and not in a good way.
In Saipan, there are a number of clubs. I would assume, on Guam and other larger population bases in the region, there are other clubs. Sports teams seem to be the biggest club activity but some media clubs exist. They seem to operate on the side, not getting much attention. They seem to have a meeting or two but they do not seem to be a large focus of the limited media or people's discussions. On smaller islands, media based clubs like an Anime Club are non-existent. Clubs are important to fandom. They are the ones that organize fandom gatherings. They help to bring attention to fandom. They bring new people into the fold. With out them, fandom would be hurting. The lack of presence in the region is probably another factor in fandom's absence.
In some cases, fandom could be seen as celebrating a culture other than ones own that could be undermining the local culture which they are actively trying to preserve. It runs counter to it and local culture needs to be preserved. The white man is still the invader and "we" take his money but "we" don't really want him here except for what he can provide us. That attitude seems present to a certain degree. Racism is alive and present on the islands. In place like Chuuk, Chuukese men have been known to deliberately seek out those who are not from there and physically attack them. Getting government jobs can be difficult. In a court case, three young men got off from a manslaughter charge when they accidentally, while drunk, shot their Filipino maid because the maid should have known not be there because of that drunken shooting was part of their culture. Kids take very seriously their dancing, giving up television for dance. They take a lot of pride in their culture, faults and all. They accept parts of other cultures but they do not glorify them.
Most of this is based on my own observations and based on discussions with people who live here. I'm curious to know if anyone has any more thoughts on fandom in the region, knows if it is exists or have other explanations regarding fandom here?
