In Asia, amidst its varied levels of economic development and diverse cultural traditions and political regimes, the Internet and mobile communications are increasingly used in every aspect of life. Yet the analytical frames used to understand the impact of digital media on Asia predominantly originate from the Global North, neither rooted in Asia’s rich philosophical traditions, nor reflective of the sociocultural practices of this dynamic region. This volume examines digital phenomena and its impact on Asia by drawing on specifically Asian perspectives. Contributors apply a variety of Asian theoretical frameworks including guanxi, face, qing, dharma and karma. With chapters focusing on emerging digital trends in China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan, the book presents compelling and diverse research on identity and selfhood, spirituality, social networking, corporate image, and national identity as shaped by and articulated through digital communication platforms.

Digital technologies, now ubiquitous around the world, can promote positive values, as well as support those that are less socially acceptable. To better understand such technologies’ impact on ethics and sustainability, this book situates digital technologies within a cultural context, arguing that the technology is received differently in different cultural contexts. The book contains chapters on state-of-the-art digital technologies such as artificial intelligence from various countries including Japan and Sweden to highlight the multifarious ways in how ethical and sustainability issues are being manifested in certain cultural contexts. The book contributes to furthering understandings on the similarities and differences between digital technology implementations in different cultures, promoting a cross-cultural dialogue on desired values and how they are promoted or downplayed by such technologies. The book is divided into two parts: the former focuses on how individuals relate to new digital technologies, and the latter focuses on those who develop digital technologies. The book targets scholars, businesspeople and policymakers interested in the interconnection between digital technologies, ethics and sustainability from various cultural viewpoints. It provides new case studies on a range of digital technologies and discussions about digital technology implementations in cultural contexts.

Media Culture in Transnational Asia: Convergences and Divergences examines contemporary media use within Asia, where over half of the world’s population resides. The book addresses media use and practices by looking at the transnational exchanges of ideas, narratives, images, techniques, and values and how they influence media consumption and production throughout Asia, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran and many others. The book’s contributors are especially interested in investigating media and their intersections with narrative, medium, technologies, and culture through the lenses that are particularly Asian by turning to Asian sociopolitical and cultural milieus as the meaningful interpretive framework to understand media. This timely and cutting-edge research is essential reading for those interested in transnational and global media studies.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of transactional forms of the digital across the Asian region by addressing the platforms and infrastructures that shape the digital experience. Contributors argue that each and every encounter mediated by the digital carries with it a functional exchange, but at the same time each transaction also implies an exchange based on social relationships for the digital age. In capturing the digital revolution through case studies of economic, informational, and social exchanges from across the larger Asian region, the book offers a richly contextualized and comparative account of the pervasive nature of the digital as both a medium for action and a medium of record.

The accessibility of cultural resources via digital platforms is empowering Vietnamese cultural professionals to promote their culture to local and international audiences. This shortform book investigates the significance of digitization in Vietnamese culture, illuminating how cultural professionals are empowered through the process of digitization. The author shows how digitization is not an entirely comprehensive, ethical, or sustainable solution for the cultural sector in Vietnam, as cultural professionals working at nonprofit art spaces and artists experience both opportunities and challenges in digitizing art and culture. Drawing on new interviews with cultural professionals working in the cultural sector in Vietnam, the book will be of interest to scholars and reflective practitioners involved with the cultural and creative industries in South East Asia and globally.

This book examines new forms of representation that have changed our perception and interpretation of the humanities in an Asian, and digital, context. In analyzing written and visual texts, such as the use of digital technology and animation in different works of art originating from Asia, the authors demonstrate how literature, history, and culture are being redefined in spatialized relations amid the trend of digitization. Research studies on Asian animation are in short supply, and so this volume provides new and much needed insights into how art, literature, history, and culture can be presented in innovative ways in the Asian digital world. The first section of this volume focuses on the new conceptualization of the digital humanities in art and film studies, looking at the integration of digital technologies in museum narration and cinematic production. The second section of the volume addresses the importance of framing these discussions within the context of gender issues in the digital world, discussing how women are represented in different forms of social media. The third and final section of the book explores the digital world’s impacts on people’s lives through different forms of digital media, from the electromagnetic unconscious to digital storytelling and digital online games. This book presents a novel contribution to the burgeoning field of the digital humanities by informing new forms of representation and interpretations, and demonstrating how digitization can influence and change cultural practices in Asia, and globally. It will be of interest to students and scholars interested in digitization from the full spectrum of humanities disciplines, including art, literature, film, music, visual culture, media, and animation, gaming, and Internet culture. "This is a well-written book, and I enjoyed reading it. The first impression of the book is that it is very innovative - a down-to-the-earth academic volume that discusses digital culture." - Professor Anthony Fung, Professor, Director, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong "This book has contributed to the existing field of humanities by informing new forms of representation and interpretations, and how digitization may change cultural practices. There is comprehensive information on how the humanities in the digital age can be applied to a wide range of subjects including art, literature, film, pop music, music videos, television, animation, games, and internet culture." - Dr Samuel Chu, Associate Professor, The Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong

Qualitative research is growing in Asia and globally. In an Asian context, this requires an awareness of a completely different set of norms, practices, and expectations than those covered by books from a western perspective. This handbook truly celebrates these differences. Spanning the full research process, from philosophy and ethics to design and methods and through data collection, management, analysis, and dissemination, it focuses specifically on the practicalities needed to conduct effective and culturally responsive research in the Asian context. This handbook extends beyond researchers actually in Asia and also speaks to researchers working with Asian participants, researching in Asian immigrant neighbourhoods, and studying the larger global topics like socioeconomic challenges, climate change, or technological advancement. This is the first book to focus specifically on qualitative research in the Asian context and includes diverse contributors from Asia such as the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, India, Oman, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, and from other continents such as North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. Section 1: Foundations of Qualitative Research in Asia Section 2: Qualitative Research Designs Section 3: Best Practices in Dealing with Qualitative Research Data Section 4: Other Qualitative Research Topics

Humans at Work in the Digital Age explores the roots of twenty-first-century cultures of digital textual labor, mapping the diverse physical and cognitive acts involved, and recovering the invisible workers and work that support digital technologies. Drawing on 14 case studies organized around four sites of work, this book shows how definitions of labor have been influenced by the digital technologies that employees use to produce, interpret, or process text. Incorporating methodology and theory from a range of disciplines and highlighting labor issues related to topics as diverse as census tabulation, market research, electronic games, digital archives, and 3D modeling, contributors uncover the roles played by race, class, gender, sexuality, and national politics in determining how narratives of digital labor are constructed and erased. Because each chapter is centered on the human cost of digital technologies, however, it is individual people immersed in cultures of technology who are the focus of the volume, rather than the technologies themselves. Humans at Work in the Digital Age shows how humanistic inquiry can be a valuable tool in the emerging conversation surrounding digital textual labor. As such, this book will be essential reading for academics and postgraduate students engaged in the study of digital humanities; human-computer interaction; digital culture and social justice; race, class, gender, and sexuality in digital realms; the economics of the internet; and technology in higher education.

This Handbook offers students, researchers and policy-makers a multidisciplinary overview of contemporary scholarship relating to the intersection of the digital economy and the media, cultural, and creative industries.

This edited volume aims to unpack the digitisation of art and media within the dynamics of participatory culture, and how these changes affect the power relations between the production and consumption of these new forms in a globalised Asia. This follows the rise of new art forms and social media platforms in wake of rapid and ongoing digitisation, which has, in turn, produced far-reaching implications for changing media ownership and its role in social, cultural, economic, as well as political activities. New challenges arise every day in relation to digital art and design practices and social media communications, and their respective impact on identity politics. This book showcases a diverse range of interdisciplinary research on these concomitant changes and challenges associated with digital media and technologies within the context of a globalised Asia. The case studies included present perspectives on Asia’s evolving digital humanities landscape from Hong Kong, China, India, Korea and from across Southeast Asia, with topics that tackle organisational digital marketing, brand advertising and design, mobile gaming, interactive art, and the cultural activities of ethnic and sexual minority communities in the region. This book will of interest to scholars in digital humanities focused on new media and cultural studies.