[KS] Call for Papers: "Three Asias"

Stephen Epstein Stephen.Epstein at vuw.ac.nz
Sat Mar 14 18:12:38 EDT 2009


Dear colleagues,

Please see the below Call for Papers.

Cheers, Stephen

---------

CFP for "Three Asias -- Japan, South Korea, China"

In the wake of globalization, popular culture travels faster across
national boundaries than ever before. In this emerging global
culture, Asian countries play an increasingly important role,
challenging the predominance of the American entertainment industry.
  From anime and soap opera to pop music and online gaming communities,
popular culture exports from three nations in particular--Japan,
South Korea, and China--are capturing the attention of audiences
everywhere.

Emerging from these lively exchanges is a new political, economic,
and cultural sphere that cuts across the old geographic boundary of
the Pacific Ocean, the divide between Asia and America, and the older
categorical distinction between East and West. Just as cultural
studies has largely abandoned the concept of "America" in favor of
"the Americas," so this new transpacific space poses challenges to
scholars and thinkers to re-imagine global spaces and their cultures.

However, defining China, South Korea, and Japan and their respective
popular cultures exclusively in relationship to "the West" falls
short of the complexity of the new global culture; each of these
cultures also provides an insight into different stages or models of
modernization. Japan has long been regarded as, in the words of
William Gibson, "a future we can do business with," while China, as
the gradually but inevitably emerging superpower of the 21st century,
is providing fascinating glimpses into what seems like a history of
popular culture unfolding before our eyes. South Korea, meanwhile,
remains located ambiguously somewhere in the unexplored territory in
between, with a low cultural profile, as it is seen in the West, that
is growing increasingly irreconcilable with its expanding global
economic and technological reach.

In order to explore the popular cultures of Japan, South Korea, and
China individually, as well as their interrelations with each other
and/or with the West, Paradoxa invites essays, reviews, and
interviews for a Special Topics issue entitled "Three Asias." We are
particularly interested in current and recent developments in new and
largely unexplored areas. In all cases, however, editorial emphasis
is on the popular culture -- literature, film, television, digital
culture, etc. -- of Japan, China, and South Korea.

The issue will be divided into three sections, each devoted to one of
the three countries, overseen by a section editor invited
specifically for this issue. Each section will accommodate work on
aspects of popular culture within the respective country, but also on
work that explores the flow of cultural production across national
boundaries. Especially encouraged is also work that explores
specifically Western perceptions of, as well as critical and creative
responses to, Asian popular culture, and vice versa.

China section co-editor: Zhen Zhang, New York University <zz6 at nyu.edu>
S. Korea section co-editor: Jina Kim, Smith College <jkim at email.smith.edu>
Japan section co-editor: Takayuki Tatsumi, Keio University <CXQ04644 at nifty.com>
Paradoxa publisher: David Willingham <info at paradoxa.com>

For more information about Paradoxa, go to <www.paradoxa.com>



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