CFP Panel themes

Japanese popular culture remains highly salient and influential across East and Southeast Asia, and important to the ways in which many societies conceive of their collective cultural identities. The changing portrayal of Japan as an ‘Other’ in the public and popular cultures of East Asian societies was the subject of an international study coordinated by Paul Morris, Edward Vickers, Naoko Shimazu and Christine Han from 2010 to 2013 (resulting in the 2013 edited volume Reimagining Japan in Postwar East Asia). This session will bring together scholars from across the region and beyond to discuss recent developments in the reception and interpretation of Japanese popular culture, the portrayal of Japan itself in local popular cultures, and implications for identity discourse in Asian societies. For example, we welcome presentations that look comparatively and historically at how Korean identity as expressed through popular culture has incorporated, adapted or reacted against, Japanese images or tropes, and portrayals of Japan as an ‘Other’.

This session will feature discussion of understandings of ‘China’ and ‘Chineseness’ in Asian societies. But rather than focusing solely or primarily on the portrayal of China as an ‘Other’, we also seek presentations that consider how ‘Chineseness’ is constructed through popular culture within as well as beyond the borders of the PRC. This raises especially contentious and interesting issues with regard to societies such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, which have traditionally seen themselves as quintessentially ‘Chinese’, but where the popular culture realm has in recent years witnessed growing challenges to established notions of ‘Chineseness’. A particular focus of this session will therefore be on the diverse, and possibly divergent, ways in which Chinese identity is constructed through popular culture in Taiwan and Hong Kong by comparison with the PRC.

How we define and engage with categories such as ‘male’ or ‘female’ permeate all societies at every level. How gender intersects with other dimensions of identity in any society is crucial to an understanding of its identity politics. This session will bring together scholars who study the gendered aspects of discourses of citizenship in various Asian contexts in order to analyse how official and popular discourses of gender in all its forms, interact, both shaping and reflecting evolving notions of citizenship, subjecthood and identity. We are interested in exploring how more traditional modes of gender and sexuality engage and intertwine with the complexities of modern identity politics, how to interrogate ideas of citizenship and social movement as expressions of local, national, and even international political strategies. How has democracy and freedom been narrated from a gendered perspective? How have those who are often neglected in the literature (LGBT, non-binary, trans, intersex) been vicariously mobilised, villainised, ignored, and represented in the East Asian context. We welcome alternative forms of conference presentation panels to be proposed for this session.

Popular culture is not just a mirror for the reflection or display of discourses of identity, but also a stage on which various actors seek to shape related narratives through their performance. The role and scope of civil society remains highly restricted or problematic in many Asian societies, but nowhere does the state shape identity discourse in a cultural or political vacuum. Presentations in this session will therefore analyse the role and extent of popular agency and civic action in molding a sense of collective selfhood in contemporary Asian societies. We also welcome comparative and historical panels that address popular depictions of politics. Examples of this could include how the CCP was portrayed in Martial Law era Taiwan, the portrayal of the KMT in Maoist and post-Mao China, and comparisons of the portrayal of politicians in nominally democratic Asian countries, such as Japan or the Philippines, with their depictions in more authoritarian societies.

Modernity is generally seen as comprising a new stage of human experience, though what precisely is new or distinct about it remains the subject of fierce debate. A central aim of studies of popular culture has been to examine how modernity (however conceived) has impacted everyday life, and ways in which it is perceived and understood. The aim of this session is to accommodate presentations that address the broad theme of the conference (to do with the role of popular culture in shaping or reflecting identity in modern / contemporary Asian societies), but do not fit neatly into the sessions outlined above. These could encompass topics from the study of religious change to fashion and shopping, sport, martial arts, storytelling, and work. Papers adopting historical and/or comparative perspectives are encouraged.

This panel is specifically designed to bring African and Asian film scholars (as very broadly defined) into conversation with one another, to explore cinematic sources, themes and aesthetics that both link and divide these regions. Contrary to visualising ‘Africa’ and ‘Asia’ as essentialist categories (as they are so often figured in the Euro-American imagination), the idea that inspires this panel is to challenge the homogenisation encouraged through a ‘world cinema’ approach by inviting scholars to explore how East Asian screen worlds engage with the screen worlds of South East Asia, South Asia and Africa. This panel wishes to move away from the Euro-American as the oscillation point around which global cinema operates and instead focus on the narratives, co-production, audiences, aesthetics and histories that exist between Asia and Africa. Geographically we defined these vast regions as inclusively as possible – with Africa as extending from South Africa to the Maghreb, and with Asia including East, South, and South East Asia, as well as the Middle East. Papers can be both contemporary and historical in focus and we welcome practice-based research.

Modern life has brought traditional beliefs about the nature of the universe into contact with the scientific method, modern engineering and new conceptions of man’s relationship with nature that these have ushered in. How have individual beliefs about magic, religion and the supernatural adapted to cope with this? Topics of interest here include contemporary understandings of creatures such as ghosts, monsters and demons; the evolution of practices such as fengshui, astrology or qigong (and popular perceptions of them); the influence of Asian occult practices or beliefs in the West, and of the Western occult in Asia; and the role of religion in politics. The potential for this topic is very large and interested presenters are encouraged to submit abstracts that they think might be related.

What has been the cultural impact of the introduction and spread of modern financial instruments? These could include a wide range of practices from modern adaptations of traditional savings organizations to pyramid schemes and business studies such as leadership, business management connections, pop leadership, business motivation books, and bestselling business programs. It could also include, research on self-help, self-development, and spiritual growth. Researchers interested in presenting papers covering other topics that explore the contemporary consumer and professional lives of people in Asia are encouraged to submit abstracts.