Research on the Multiple Exclusion Phenomenon in the Chinese “Core Weeaboo” Group

Abstract

Among the subcultures that have developed rapidly in recent years, weeaboo culture covers a growing number of people. Meanwhile, corresponding differentiation has taken place among the weeaboos, typically including “core weeaboo” group and “pan weeaboo” group. Generally, “core weeaboos” refer to a group of people who are deeply involved in the weeaboo culture. On one hand, in the online community, “core weeaboos” tend to reject normal interaction with “pan weeaboos”, who they think are not deeply involved in the culture; on the other hand, due to the long-term prejudice of the mainstream culture against the weeaboos, the “core weeaboo” group has also suffered from the exclusion from the mainstream culture for a long time, thus forming a unique chain of “multiple exclusion”. With the “core weeaboo” group as the research object, this paper conducts online and field research on the phenomenon of “multiple exclusion” in the relevant groups by means of questionnaire and interview. It is found that the phenomenon of “multiple exclusion” in essence can be considered a two-way interaction between the “core weeaboo” group and the mainstream culture. In order to alleviate this phenomenon, this paper advocates that mainstream culture should increase its understanding of subcultural groups, and actively encourage high-quality “fusion”, so as to reduce the adverse effects on corresponding subcultural groups.