Introduction to EAPCA

The Second East Asian Popular Culture Association Conference (2021) will be held in collaboration with the International Taiwan Studies center at NTNU. The role of the International Taiwan Studies center at NTNU in organizing this conference has the close connection with the East Asian Association of Popular Culture (EAPCA). The first International Conference of the East Asian Association of Popular Culture (EAPCA) was held in September 2010 in Taipei. Participants drew from all over the world and a number of the presentations were published in specialized journals later on. One of the main outcomes of the First International Conference of the East Asian Association of Popular Culture (EAPCA) were the preliminary discussions with the Publisher Intellect (UK), also present at the conference for establishing the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture (EAJPC). Talks continued at the EUPOP conference in London (2012) and were concluded by 2014, when year first issue rolled off the press. Recently, Edward Vickers (Kyushu University) has joined the editors-in-chief team (2018 onwards).

The international conference will strengthen relationships with partners in the Asia-Pacific – especially in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Australia. The main purpose is to enhance the collaboration with the Taiwan Studies program Kyushu University through academic activities organized by the International Center for Taiwan Studies and the Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature at NTNU as one of the major partner universities with Kyushu University.

The East Asian Popular Culture Association (EAPCA) is the front-runner on the academic study of East Asian trends in popular culture, all while examining their dynamic relationships with issues of social, historiographical, political and cultural importance. The idea of EAPCA was first conceived in the 2009 International Popular Culture Conference in Finland. Dr. Yin C. Chuang from Taipei, Taiwan and Prof Masashi Ichiki from Fukuoka, Japan were requested by Prof. John Bratzel, the Executive Director of the Popular Culture Association (PCA), to form EAPCA. While the board of EAPCA is based in Taiwan and Japan, the Association ideally covers popular culture relevant to the entire region of East Asia, also including the People's Republic of China and its administered territories, Mongolia, South Korea and North Korea. The EAPCA Inaugural Conference was held in Taipei in September 2011. The second EAPCA conference will be partially held in Fukuoka in January 2021, with discussion panels taking place online as well.