Feeling “Asian” Modernities

Feeling “Asian” Modernities
International Workshop on TV Drama Consumption in East/Southeast Asia

November 23 – 25, 2001
ICU Administration Bld. 206Organized by Institute of Asian Cultural Studies, International Christian University
Supported by
The Japan Foundation, Asia Center
Japan International Christian University Foundation, New York
International Academic Exchange EndowmentInstitute of Asian Cultural Studies of International Christian University (ICU) is organizing a three-day international workshop on youth TV drama consumption in East and South East Asia from 23 to 25 November 2001 in Tokyo. The key concern of the workshop is to explore how (dis)similar Asian modernities and identities (such as gender issues, romance, consumerism, sexuality, urbanization, nationalism, transnationalism etc) are constituted and inter-Asian transnational cultural resonance/asymmetry is articulated under globalizing forces. We are interested in examining how Japanese TV dramas are watched in Asian countries but we’d also like to deal with other transnational TV flows (other Asian and/or American, Mexican, Brazilian dramas) and the consumption of local TV dramas in Asia, particularly where Japanese dramas are not quite well received. We aim to publish the collection of papers presented at the workshop as an edited volume in English but also to translate into other Asian languages.Main questions to be explored (not exclusive):
*What kinds of images and sense of intimacy and distance is perceived through the reception of Japanese and other Asian TV dramas; cultivating some kinds of transnational imagination and self-reflexive views towards one’s own culture and society? How about the case of American drama viewing?*The (re)articulation and reproduction of cultural hierarchy, asymmetry and connection, both nationally and transnationally, through TV drama flows and consumption. How are gender, class, and ethnicity associated with this process?*Cultural significance of TV drama watching for young people in East and Southeast Asia*How, under globalizing forces, various issues and themes of cultural modernities (such as love romance, gender and work, urbanization, ethnicity and nationalism etc) are articulated in both similar and dissimilar ways through the reception and representation of TV drama?

*What kinds of modernities are emerging and formulated in East and Southeast Asia. Is there anything emerging which we can call transnational modernity?(Issues related to Japanese TV dramas)
*How Japanese TV dramas are exported, programmed and consumed in East and Southeast Asian countries (in comparison with local, other Asian and American dramas).

*What is the nature of Japanese cultural power and influence in Asia? How it is similar and different to ‘Americanization’ and other Asian cultural sub-centersNov. 23 (Fri)
Textuality of Japanese TV drama

Welcome from Prof. Koto (Director of IACS)
Discussant: Saeko Ishita (Osaka City University)
1. Mamoru Ito (Waseda University)
“The Presentation of the Feminine in Japanese Television Dramas of the 1990s”
2. Eva Tsai (The University of Iowa)
“Toward Love for Sale: Mapping the Language of Renﾕai dorama (Love Story)”Japanese TV dramas in East Asia
Discussant: Koichi Iwabuchi (International Christian University)
1. Lisa Leung Yuk Ming (Lingnan University, Hong Kong)
“Ganbaru and its transcultural audience: Imaginary and Reality in Japanese TV Dramas”
2. Yu-Fen Ko (National Chengchi University)
“The Desired Form: Japanese Television Melodrama in Taiwan”
3. Cheng Shiowjiuan (University of Tokyo)
“The Formation of Discursive Space in Japanese Dramas in Taiwan”
4. Ming-Tsung Lee (University of Cambridge) (in absentia)
“Traveling with Japanese TV Dramas: Cross-cultural Practice and Formation/Transformation of Taiwanese Youth Identities”

Japanese Popular Culture in Southeast Asia
Discussant: Chua Beng-Huat (National University of Singapore)
1. Chua Geok Lian (National University of Singapore)
“Watching Japanese Television Dramas: Relevance, Cultural Proximity and Asian Modernity”
2. Ubonrat Siriyuvasak (Chuklongkorn University, Thailand)
“Popular Culture and Youth Consumption in Thailand”
3. Wang Lay Kim and Zaharom Nain (Science University of Malaysia)
“Interpreting Asian Values: Malaysian Television, Japanese Dramas, and Audiences”

Special Speech
Mr. Toru Ota (The Supervising Director of Dream Maker, Fuji TV. Producer of many popular TV dramas such as Tokyo Love Story, 101 Proposals and All Under One Roof , etc)
“Why Japanese TV Dramas Attracts Young Viewers in Asia”

Nov. 24 (Sat)

East Asian Dis/similarities
Discussant: Lisa Leung (Lingnan University)
1. Dong-Hoo Lee (Incheon University, South Korea)
“The Cultural Formatin of Korean Trendy Drama: Transnational Program Adaptations and Cultural Identity”
2. Shen Li & Yang Jing (Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group)
“Low Rating, Hot Topic: Japanese and KoreanTV Dramas Consumption in Shanghai”
3. Sae-Kyung Yoo and Kyung-Sook Lee (Ewha Womanﾕs University, South Korea)
“A Comparative Study on the Cultural Similarity of the Television Dramas in East-Asian Countries: Wish upon a Star of Korea, Love Talks of Hong Kong, & Love and Sorrow of China”

VCD: Transnational Cultural Technology
Discussant: Eric Ma (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
1. Hsing-chi Hu, (Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan)
“Japanese VCDs: Chinese Re-makings of Japanese Audio-Visual Products”
2. Darrell Wm. Davis (University of New SouthWales, Australia) and Yeh Yueh-yu (Hong Kong Baptist University)
“Flexible Accumulation, Flexible Consumption: VCD and Class Consciousness in Asia-Pacific”

Transnational and Cross-cultural Mediation
Discussant: Ien Ang (University of Western Sydney)
1. Jung Sun Park (California State University, Dominguez Hills)
“Korean Americans’ Consumption of Korean and Japanese TV Dramas and Its Implications”
2. Ma Luisa T. Reyes and Gary C. Devilles (Ateneo de Manila University)
“Glocalizing Telenovelas in Manila”
3. Amrih Widodo (Australian National University)
“Mediating Family, Romance, and Violence: Cross-cultural Performance, Mediatization and Identity Politics in Indonesian TV Drama”

Japan’s Encounters with ‘Asia’
Discussant: Shin Mizukoshi (University of Tokyo)
1. Hilaria Goessmann (Trier University, Germany)
“The Relationship of Japanese and Other Asians in Popular Japanese TV Dramas”
2. Yoshitaka Mori (Kyushu University）
“Who is ‘Fighting’ with Whom? Reading ‘Fighting Girl'”

Nov. 25 (Sun)
Women in Drama, Drama in Women’s Lives
Discussant: Kazue Sakamoto (Ochanomizu Women’s University)
1. Lisa Drummond (York University, Canada)
“Producing Modern Feminities: Portrayals of Vietnamese Womanhood in Local Television Dramas”
2. Masako Asahara (University of Oregon)
“Reconsidering Gendered Nationalism: The Single Mother in the Home Drama of the ’90s”
3. Hoonsoon Kim and Dong-Sook Park (Ewha Womanﾕs University)
“The Disparity of Women’s lives between the Real World and the Symbolic World of TV Drama: Women Viewers’ Perception and Evaluation”

Lunch Time Forum: Toward Collaborative Projects
Kim Hyun Mee (Yonsei University, South Korea)
Lisa Leung (Lingnan University)

Transbordering ‘Chineseness’
Discussant: Stephen Ching-Kiu Chan (Lingnan University)
1. Eric Ma (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
“Transborder Desire: Fantasizing, Learning and Apprehending a Higher Modernity”
2. Anthony Fung (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
“Border-crossing Televisual Viewing: New Imaginative Categories of Chinese Immigrants in Hong Kong”
3. Jing Zheng (Institute of Sociology in Chinese Academcy of Social Sciences)
“Presentation of Nationalism in the Globalizing China”

Concluding Session
Moderator: Koichi Iwabuchi