ABSTRACT

The question of whether yingshuiji (literal translation: “drinking-water machine”) buzz will help HBO Asia comes with as much cultural baggage as American tourists eager to discover the “real Asia” on their one-week, fivecountry tour. The question is loaded with cultural baggage because it glosses over the myriad complexities that make up the Asia-Pacific market and media landscape, and it assumes in that totalizing American way that people are, basically, the same everywhere and therefore the same marketing techniques will work everywhere in the world.