ABSTRACT
Production, circulation and consumption of “East Asian” media products-fi lms, pop music and television dramas and other programs-within the region including the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore (by virtue of its 78 percent ethnic Chinese majority population), are increasingly integrated into a loosely organized cultural economy, which can be substantively and discursively designated as “East Asian pop culture.” In the Chinese-dominated locations of the PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, which can be designated as a “Pop Culture China” sphere (Chua 2001), the history of pop culture fl ows, exchanges and consumption began as far back as 1930s, if not earlier, depending on the medium. To this established Chinese-languages pop culture media network were added Japanese pop culture in the early 1990s and, subsequently, Korean pop culture in late 1990s. The emergence of an East Asian pop culture stands signifi cantly in the way of complete hegemony of the US media culture, which undoubtedly continues to dominate entertainment media globally. Indeed, at the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century, discussions about media in East Asia have displaced concern over “cultural imperialism” of the West, namely of the United States, and focus on celebration of the “arrival” of East Asian pop cultures in the global entertainment market.
