Non-Human Celebrities in Digital East Asia
Special Issue of Celebrity Studies–Call for Papers
We are seeking proposals for articles to be included in a special issue on non-human celebrities in East Asia. Celebrity Studies has expressed interest in publishing the special issue.
This proposed special issue explores the phenomenon of non-human celebrities in East Asia in the digital age. Non-human celebrities refer to prominent figures that are not human beings but have nonetheless achieved celebrity status in media, culture, and public life. These include animals, fictional characters, mascots, computer-generated personalities, and even personified objects. With the advent of AI-generated figures, some virtual entities are now designed to be virtually indistinguishable from real humans in both appearance and behaviour, further complicating ontological distinctions and challenging the very definition of celebrity.
While existing scholarship has addressed some of these figures, key gaps remain. As John Blewitt (2013) observes, non-human celebrities, particularly animal stars, are “a human construct,” and their popularity often reflects human desires, anxieties, or ideals. This perspective becomes even more relevant in the context of today’s platform-driven media environments, which amplify the visibility and marketability of non-human figures. However, most studies to date have taken a predominantly anthropocentric and Western-centric view. There is thus a need to reconceptualise non-human celebrities from a posthuman perspective, while also examining how the phenomenon is shaped by the specific cultural, technological, and social conditions of non-Western contexts. Continue reading Non-human celebrities–cfp