WHA Annual Meeting: Korea 2026

In 2007 “Hatsune Miku,” a virtual singer to be used within Vocaloid voce synthesis software was launched, catalysing the development software UTAU and Synthesizer V which alongside Vocaloid can be broadly referred to as "vocal synth." Formed in the wake of the digitisation of Japanese popular culture, vocal synth engages with themes of globalisation in two major aspects: the influence of "idol" entertainers in Japan's soft power strategy within East Asia (Iwabuchi 2002); and the internet as a networked space that crosses national boundaries.2 However, as has been noted by Galbraith (2018), idol discourse contributes to the inherently contradictory paradigm of the global in which "Japan" means different things to different people at different times, undermining the status of both Japan and global. Similarly, a global "world wide web" glosses over the inequalities of access or choice of how to use the internet due to geographies, political oppression, or financial autonomy, among other reasons. In my paper, I argue that vocal synth culture demonstrates the internet and its users as a digital diaspora, as networked representations of identity online materialise relations between dispersed communities. Using digital ethnography to explore how vocal synth fans engage with online communities, I show how it is a considered a fringe subculture inhabiting digital locales whilst exerting transnational reach in both aesthetics and following. By adopting the framework of diaspora, I engage with broader conversations about the coloniality of digital space, highlighting how grassroots creative practices in vocal synth contest a stable "global" identity.