Globalization, Consumption and Popular Culture in East Asia

The following sections is included:

• Contents

In the era of globalization, popular cultures originating from different localities worldwide are able to reference the universalistic influences from the US, aspects of which are hybridized with local cultures. In this process of interpenetration and adaptation of exogenous Western culture, the polycentric dispersions of the Japanese, Korean and Chinese popular cultures provide fertile materials for studying production and fandom consumption in the region. The different production centers in these three countries transcend national and traditional cultural boundaries, facilitating cultural hybridity. Through the mechanics of globalization, popular cultures originating from different countries are reinforced by the universalistic global trends from the US, and then intermediated, reinterpreted or hybridized with local cultures to attain cultural resonance with regional audiences…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction — Universalism and Particularism
• Popular Culture in East Asia — Examples
• Consumption and Production
• Conclusion
• Concluding Remarks and Trends: Soft Power?

In conceptualizing this section on Japan, I kept in mind the limitations of my writing. Throughout the narratives, I maintain the important caveat that Japanese popular culture is not necessarily universalistic and maintains its international, regional and local popularity through translation, dubbing and marketing intermediation that makes Japanese cultural products acceptable to children and consumers in its major destination markets. For the regional and local consumers, the element of resonance is equally important in enhancing the products emotive and cognitive connections with its audience. Japanese popular cultural products are attractive because they can strike a chord with the consumers in East Asia through cultural symbolisms and content-based aesthetics that appeal to viewers from a particular cultural region. The resonance factor is in addition to slick and effective marketing techniques…

One of the first things I set out to do when writing this publication's section on Japanese popular culture was to determine the size and reach of the industries and stakeholders involved. The challenge encountered was that there is no universal standard way to determine the size of the Japanese popular cultural industry. I then relied on secondary literature review to determine how other scholars or industry watchers measured the size of the Japanese popular cultural industry or its reach. I reviewed a combination of academic literature as well as media sources. The reasons for understanding how other scholars measure the size of the Japanese popular cultural industry is three-folds: (1) knowing its size would reveal the significance of studying this industry and its contribution to the Japanese economy; (2) accurate assessments of the importance of this industry could also facilitate comparative work, e.g. understanding the relative importance of J-pop vis-à-vis K-pop; (3) understanding how different stakeholders in the industry define the popular culture, creative industries, leisure and entertainment industries in Japan…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Historical Background
• Methodology
• Significance
• Spin-offs Related to the ACG
• The Creative Ecology
• Literature Review
• Polycentrism and Cross-pollination
• The Cyberspace Future
• Akihabara as a Constant Reference Point

This chapter is based on my observation studies in Japan from 2012 to 2015 to provide a qualitative rather than a quantitative study of how Japanese popular culture is consumed in the cities of Tokyo and Fukuoka. The observations are random and unstructured to accentuate width and span of activities, physical locations, cultural rituals and lifestyles covered. The observations do not pretend to be comprehensive but rather provide a glimpse into how Japanese popular culture is consumed in everyday settings. Some of these observations are supported by visual materials. I selected three major angles for my observation fieldwork. I paid special attention to several activities and agencies in the ecology of creative production: marketing strategies and concepts utilized by creative producers as well as the role of the state and retailers in promoting popular cultural products; soft power harnessed by the state and local authorities in social campaigns/policies utilizing popular culture; and the pre sence of popular cultural products in daily life routines exposing, socializing and familiarizing young Japanese and other consumers of Japanese society with the stylized features and aesthetics of Japanese popular culture. These three areas make up the three major sections in this chapter. The chapter will then end off with a limitations section and some concluding remarks.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Korean Wave: From a Regional to Global Phenomenon
• Increased Export of South Korean TV Programs
• K-Pop Sweeping Across and Beyond Asian Markets
• Exports of Korean Games
• The Korean Wave Generates Positive Spill-over Effects
• The South Korean Entertainment Industry and Their Social Media Strategy
• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• An Overview of Korea's Cultural Policies
• Background
• The Paradigm Shift of the Korean Government Approach
• Regulations and Supporting Policies of the Broadcasting Industry
• Institutional Setting and Coordinated Efforts to Support Korean Wave
• Implications and Prospects of the Korean Wave
• Concluding Remarks

The Korean wave — “Hallyu” in Korean — refers to a surge in the international visibility of Korean culture, beginning in East Asia in the 1990s and continuing more recently in the North America, Latin America, the Middle East, and parts of Europe. Many East Asian countries have absorbed Korean popular culture and several Korean cultural genres in this period, including television programs and films. (See Annex A for table on export of Korean TV programs, for example, to other countries/regions in East Asia and Annex B on the number of viewership hits in the East Asian region and beyond for K-pop videos hosted on Youtube.) The Korean Wave has swept across the globe, elevating South Korea's international image and generating positive economic implications to South Korea's economy. The South Korean government has recognized the advantage of this national phenomenon and is eager to capitalize on the success of the Korean Wave by providing public funds as well as implementing relevant policies in facilitating the development of the industry.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Reality TV Shows in China
• Reality TV Shows Portray Reality in China

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Reviews of Chinese-language Publicly Available Textual Documents and Literatures
• Fieldwork Interviews and the Study of Animation and Manga Otakus

In the previous chapter, Anna Lin's study has indicated three very important aspects of Chinese otakus. First, she considers the word “otaku” as a vague self-originated identity and a descriptive term originating from the otaku community itself. She then argues that, though the definition of “otaku” is not universally accepted in the same way by scholars and researchers of the popular culture field in both Japan and other English-speaking countries, most definitions generally agree that the enjoyment gained from consuming the products is important or even essential to otaku identity. Second, Lin and most writers agree on a common point related to hardcore fans of popular culture. Through active participation in consuming and creating derivative works, otakus are empowered to establish their own value and worldview as a community…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• A Brief History of Cantopop Prior to the 1980s
• The Origin of Cantopop Fandom: Rise of Fan Clubs in the 1980s
• Characteristics of Hong Kong Fandom in the 1980s
• Concluding Remarks

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Fandom — From Participants to Providers
• A Fan Community in Hong Kong — K-club
• Globalization and Localization of K-pop Fandom Culture in Hong Kong
• Groupism or Individualism?
• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• Identities: What and Why
• The Identity Formation of Taiwan: Going Beyond the Political Sphere
• Rejuvenation of a Taiwanese Identity: A Discursive Course
• Conclusion

In working on this volume, we discovered commonalities across all the country-specific case studies in the volume. It goes to show that, alongside local features, there are detectable and discernible patterns of similarities that characterize all case studies covered in this volume. Some of the major commonalities that we detected are discussed below.

The following sections is included:

• Index