which emerges in the context of debates on globalization and in connection to the Anglo-Saxon bias of fan-studies, inspiring research that is more sensitive towards the specific cultural context of fan cultures (Chow and De Kloet, 2005; Meers, 2006). Before embarking upon this journey into fan-studies, in which we move from the cultural to the performative and finally local dimension, it makes sense – despite our hesitations – to briefly explore which definitional notions of the fan have been proposed, and point at the complications we meet when we try to define fandom.