Description
Book SynopsisThis book aims to provide comprehensive empirical and theoretical studies of expanding fandom communities in East Asia through the commodification of Japanese, Korean and Chinese popular cultures in the digital era. Using a multidisciplinary approach including political economy, East Asian studies, political science, international relations concepts and history, this book focuses on a few research objectives. In terms of methodology, it is an area studies approach based on interpretative work, observation studies, policy and textual analysis. First, it aims to examine the closely intertwined relationship between the three major stakeholders in the iron triangle of production companies, consumers and states (i.e., role of government in policy promotion). Second, it studies the interpenetration, adaptation, innovation and hybridization of exogenous Western culture with traditional popular cultures in (North) East Asia. Third, it studies the influence of popular cultures and how cultural products resonate with a regional audience through collective consumption, contents reflective of normative values, the emotive and cognitive appeal of familiar images and social learning as well as peer effect found in fan communities. It then examines how consumption contributes to soft cultural influence and how governments leverage on its comparative advantages and cultural assets for commercial success and in the process augment national (cultural) influence. These questions will be discussed and analyzed and contextualized through the case studies of J-pop (Japanese popular culture), K-pop (Korean popular culture or Hallyu) and Chinese popular culture (including Mando-pop and Taiwanese popular culture).
Table of ContentsPreface; Introduction and Background; Historical Memories; Comparative Section; Korea: Korean Popular Culture; Culture War: Korean Wave on the Rise; Mechanics of Popular Culture; Japan: Introduction to the Section on Japan; Particularism within the Context of Universalistic Popular Culture: A Historiographical Survey Approach in the Literature Review of Soft Power in East Asia; Size and Reach of the Japanese Popular Cultural Industry; Centering Akihabara: The Positionality of Tokyo's Pop-cultural Nucleus in Cool Japan Industries and Globalized Fandom Consumption; Observation Studies Fieldwork in Japan from 2011-2015; Spirited Away: Conceptualizing a Film-based Case Study through Comparative Narratives of Japanese Ecological and Environmental Discourses. (subject to application of rights transfer); China: Cultural Factors in Comparative Analysis; Production Methodologies; Aesthetics & Style/Target Audiences; Mechanics of Popular Culture; Comparative Sections (Under Consideration): Comparative case studies of Marvel, DC, and Disney; Conclusion;
