ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to explore Chinese fans’ online practices in refl exive afterthought writing and their open exhibition and exchange of refl exive thoughts. Undeniably, there must be many reasons Chinese fans love Japanese TV drama. My main argument here is that the rich narrative refl exivity embedded in drama could be a very special attraction for some online Chinese fans, a point that generally goes unnoticed. Thus, I want to reveal the way in which Chinese fans discover narrative refl exivity as a series of specifi c traits, which then draws them on to engage in the activity of generating refl exive thoughts and carrying out implicit therapy on themselves through the practice of online discussions and writing. The Japanese TV drama to which I refer mainly evolved from the “trendy drama,” which emerged in the late 1980s and is still popular today. It features characters and stories in a modern urban setting and is targeted at young Japanese audiences. The name “trendy drama” has its own historical meaning, as it marked a departure from Japanese “home dramas,” which are made for Japanese women in their forties, fi fties, and above (Iwabuchi 2004: 9-10). Tokyo Love Story (1991) may be seen as a landmark in the concept of the trendy drama-it deals with complicated love relationships and captures the rhythm of the city and the working lives of young people in their twenties and thirties.
