This book observes and analyzes transnational interactions of East Asian pop culture and current cultural practices, comparing them to the production and consumption of Western popular culture and providing a theoretical discussion regarding the specific paradigm of East Asian pop culture. Drawing on innovative theoretical perspectives and grounded empirical research, an international team of authors consider the history of transnational flows within pop culture and then systematically address pop culture,digital technologies, and the media industry. Chapters cover the Hallyu—or Korean Wave—phenomenon, as well as Japanese and Chinese cultural industries. Throughout the book, the authors address the convergence of the once-separated practical, industrial, and business aspects of popular culture under the influence of digital culture. They further coherently synthesize a vast collection of research to examine the specific realities and practices of consumers that exist beyond regional boundaries, shared cultural identities, and historical constructs. This book will be of interest to academic researchers, undergraduates, and graduate students of Asian media, media studies, communication studies, cultural studies, transcultural communication, or sociology.

Transnational East Asian Studies demonstrates how transnationalism as a mode of intellectual enquiry has wide-ranging interdisciplinary potential and has immense value when examining the past, just as much as much as when examining the present. Artificially erected borders, which appear on maps and globes, fail to consider the ways people in diverse regions live and practice their everyday lives, existing beyond boundaries. The people of East Asia have always been on the move, they have never been homogeneous, and have evolved together, not apart. In this sense, people around the globe and also in East Asia have always been involved in a process of change and transformation. Hence, transnationalism is a way to overcome methodological nationalism, not only as a concept of identity and spatiality, but also as a concept temporally situated in the modern, because as a methodology, transnationalism does not take the national as a precondition. It allows us to move beyond and across borders, and to examine how ideas have been used and transformed in different contexts. This book thus underscores the complex interactions in the context of East Asia, past and present, while shaping the future of this complicated region.

Global Popular Music: A Research and Information Guide offers an essential annotated bibliography of scholarship on popular music around the world in a two-volume set. Featuring a broad range of subjects, people, cultures, and geographic areas, and spanning musical genres such as traditional, folk, jazz, rock, reggae, samba, rai, punk, hip-hop, and many more, this guide highlights different approaches and discussions within global popular music research. This research guide is comprehensive in scope, providing a vital resource for scholars and students approaching the vast amount of publications on popular music studies and popular music traditions around the world. Thorough cross-referencing and robust indexes of genres, places, names, and subjects make the guide easy to use. Volume 2, Transnational Discourses of Global Popular Music Studies, covers the geographical areas of North America: United States and Canada; Central America, Caribbean, and South America/Latin America; Europe; Africa and Middle East; Asia; and areas of Oceania: Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, and Pacific Islands. It provides over twenty-four hundred annotated bibliographic entries covering discourses of extensive research that extend beyond the borders of the United States and includes annotated entries to books, book series, book chapters, edited volumes, special documentaries and programming, scholarly journal essays, and other resources that focus on the creative and artistic flows of global popular music.

This book examines the nexus of East Asian media, culture, and digital technologies in the early 21st century from a Global South perspective. Providing an empirically rich analysis of the emergence of Asian culture, histories, texts, and state policies as they relate to both Asian media and global media, the author discusses relevant theoretical frameworks as East Asian popular culture and media have shifted the contours of globalization. After overviewing Western media/cultural theories and histories, the book explores the ways in which East Asia-focused analytical frameworks are able to shift people’s understanding of globalization and media, drawing upon examples from different East Asian countries to illustrate how current cultural flows have influenced and have been influenced by a handful of dimensions. Offering an important contribution to understanding the historical trajectory and recent developments of East Asia media, this book will interest students and scholars of media, communication, popular culture, cultural studies, Asian studies, politics and sociology.

The contributors analyse the subject of Asian pop culture arranged under three headings: 'Television Industry in East Asia', 'Transnational-Crosscultural Receptions of TV Dramas' and 'Nationalistic reactions'.

Dive into the fascinating world of Otaku culture with "The Influence of Otaku Culture"! This book is an in-depth and detailed exploration of how the anime and manga subculture, originating in Japan, is redefining the notion of entertainment and making its mark on global culture. From its humble origins in Japan's postwar era, Otaku culture has evolved into a force driving global trends in art, fashion, and entertainment. This book will take you through the history of Otaku culture, its growth and development, and how it has influenced global society. Discover how Otaku culture has revolutionized the entertainment industry, with anime series such as "Attack on Titans," "Naruto" and "My Hero Academia" gaining worldwide acclaim and becoming part of mainstream entertainment. Learn about how anime has inspired artists from around the world to create original artwork and animations that capture the essence of the Otaku aesthetic. But the influence of Otaku culture goes beyond entertainment. Explore how it has impacted fashion, video games, and even politics. Learn about its contribution to the economy, its influence on art and style, and its relevance in an ever-changing globalized world. "The Influence of Otaku Culture" also examines the criticisms and negative stereotypes associated with Otaku culture and the challenges of integrating it into society. It also discusses its role in education and tourism and explores possible future developments of Otaku culture. This book is a must-read for any fan of anime, manga, and Japanese culture, as well as those interested in the sociology of pop culture. Don't miss this opportunity to understand how Otaku culture changes the world!

Female Masculinity and the Business of Emotions in Tokyo investigates the novel “emotion business” of dansō escorting as a phenomenon emerging between gender performativity and pop-culture, commodified relationships and the wish for self-expression. Fanasca documents the dreams, ambitions and fears of young crossdresser escorts negotiating their identity with and within the Japanese society, as well as those of crossdresser escorts’ clients: women looking for the perfect man and the opportunity to experience emotions. Combining anthropological, sociological and gender studies theories with an ethnographic approach, Fanasca argues that dansō crossdressing is the tool used by a sector of Japanese women to resist the heteronormative and patriarchal society and its expectations, while reinventing themselves and their identities looking for self-actualization. Female Masculinity and the Business of Emotions Tokyo is an interdisciplinary work which will interest both scholars and students of Japanese studies, gender studies, and anthropology.

Over the past several years, the Thai popular culture landscape has radically transformed due to the emergence of “Boys Love” (BL) soap operas which celebrate the love between handsome young men. Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture is the first book length study of this increasingly significant transnational pop culture phenomenon. Drawing upon six years of ethnographic research, the book reveals BL's impacts on depictions of same-sex desire in Thai media culture and the resultant mainstreaming of queer romance through new forms of celebrity and participatory fandom. The author explores how the rise of BL has transformed contemporary Thai consumer culture, leading to heterosexual female fans of male celebrities who perform homoeroticism becoming the main audience to whom Thai pop culture is geared. Through the case study of BL, this book thus also investigates how Thai media is responding to broader regional trends across Asia where the economic potentials of female and queer fans are becoming increasingly important. Baudinette ultimately argues that the center of queer cultural production in Asia has shifted from Japan to Thailand, investigating both the growing international fandom of Thailand's BL series as well as the influence of international investment into the development of these media. The book particularly focuses on specific case studies of the fandom for Thai BL celebrity couples in Thailand, China, the Philippines, and Japan to explore how BL series have transformed each of these national contexts' queer consumer cultures.

This book examines the causes of a growing wave of digital activism across developing countries, arguing that it is driven by social change, rather than technological advancement alone. Beginning with an investigation into the modernization of ‘middle-income countries’ and its ramifications for political culture, the book examines large-scale social media protest during political controversies in Indonesia. The book connects empirical evidence to classic theories of value change and political behaviour. It departs from a narrow ‘digital divide’ framing whereby Internet access produces Internet activism. It introduces the concepts of ‘digital self-expression’ and of ‘middle-class struggles’ to capture the value-stratified nature of political engagement in the online sphere. Drawing on a blend of ‘big-data’ text analyses, representative opinion research, and socioeconomic household analyses, a rich picture of the determinants of digital activism emerges. This truly cross-disciplinary book will appeal particularly to students and scholars in Political Science, Sociology, International Development, and Communication, but also to anyone eager to learn about political activism, social transformation, and new media from a global perspective.