Choose one of the following question and answer with reference to specific case studies from one or two countries or regions. Your essay should be about 3500 words long, should include a list of references, and will count for 50% of the overall mark. You may write on a similar topic to your presentation and report.
What is the role of popular culture in creating identification and connections between peoples of different countries or parts of Asia? How is this sense of connection affected by social, economic and/or political conditions and forces? Illustrate your answer by using examples from at least two different countries/cultural regions and two popular culture forms.
In what ways does Asian popular culture have a political function; does it subvert or reinforce existing power structures? Is ‘soft power’ a relevant concept for understanding the functions of popular culture? Is pop culture a product of the mainstream elite exploited to pacify the masses and contain dissent, as the Frankfurt School would argue, or do the masses have agency? Your answer should include at least two examples.
How does audience reception and fandom produce popular culture? What aspects of Asian popular culture blur boundaries between production and consumption? What are the social and cultural implications of consumer participation
Essays do not use headings/subheadings and are written in continuous prose.
Readings:
Yano, Christine R. (2006), ‘Flipping Kitty: Transnational transgressions of Japanese cute’, in Holden, Todd Joseph Miles and Scrase, Timothy J. (eds), Medi@sia: Global media/tion in and out of context, London and New York, Routledge, pp.207-223.
Kuan-Hsing Chen. Asia as Method: Towards Deimperialization. Durham: Duke University press, 2010.
Prasenjit Duara. “Asia Redux: Conceptualizing a Region for Our Times.” The Journal of Asian Studies 69: 4 (2010), pp. 963-983.
Beng Huat Chua. “Inter-Asia referencing and shifting frames of comparison.” In Carol Johnson, Vera Mackie and Tessa Morris-Suzuki, eds. The Social Sciences in the Asian Century. Canberra: ANU Press, 2015, pp. 67-80.
Henry Jenkins. His work has provoked a variety of reactions in China: http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2020/3/24/an-archive-…
Appadurai, A. (2003), ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’, in J. E. Braziel and A. Mannur (eds), Theorizing Diaspora, Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 25-48.
Berry, C., Liscutin, N., and Mackintosh, J. D. (2009), Cultural Studies and Cultural Industries in North East Asia: What a difference a region makes, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press.
Chua, B. H. (2000), ‘Consuming Asians: Ideas and issues’, in Chua Beng Huat (ed.), Consumption in Asia, London, Rutledge, pp. 1-34.
Iwabuchi, Koichi (2002), ‘Nostalgia for a (Different) Asian Modernity: Media consumption of “Asia” in Japan’, Positions Vol. 10 (3), pp. 547-73.
For the first topic, prof suggested that we choose two case studies in two countries, like K-pop in Korea and Mandopop in China, which you can find connection between them, and research and analyze their own features connectionsand common. And for the topic 2 and 3, you can choose one case study in one country or one case study in two counties.
For the theoretical frameworks, it includes soft power, Frankfurt School, flow and contra flow, …, etc. The topic choose is based on case studies and theoretical framework.
Also, the references lists and in-text references should not exceed 30% of whole essay.
