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STRUCTURE, AUDIENCE AND SOFT POWER IN EAST ASIAN POP CULTURE. TransAsia: Screen Cultures. By Chua Beng Huat. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012. xiii, 183 pp. US$25.00, paper. ISBN 978-988-8139-04-0.
Over the past twenty years academia has seen a burgeoning of new research in the areas of cultural studies, pop culture and visual culture. At the same time, "soft power" has increasingly become a keyword not just in academia, but also in mainstream media. Chua Beng Huat, professor of sociology at National University of Singapore, a scholar who has been at the cutting edge of pop culture studies, offers a fascinating exploration of pop culture and soft power at the crossroads of transnational exchange in East Asia. Structure, Audience and Soft Power in East Asian Pop Culture offers a wide-ranging discussion of pop culture-centreing on television idol dramas and popular music, but also drawing on film, newspapers, websites, social media and other sources-as it challenges national borders and creates new fan-based communities.
The geographical scope of the study includes China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Singapore, offering an overview of how East Asian pop culture crosses borders, charting the regional forms that travel, how these exchanges have shifted over the past few decades and exploring why. While individual...