ABSTRACT
Visual representations of historical events, in particular, tend to engage audiences emotionally and ideologically. This study uses examples of visual media production, namely photography, cinema and online games, to discuss how visual culture has been created, distributed and consumed in Asia, thanks to advances in technology. Easily reproducible and distributable, such images were used by ruling regimes as early as colonial times and are still commonly used tools for the production of historical narratives. Introduced from technologically advanced countries, such visual media production technology has not only taken root in Asian societies and cultures, but also directly impacted their governance. This study investigates examples of visual media production representing historical events in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Movies from South Korea and Hong Kong are conspicuous examples, but even television commercials and online games have been used to deliver messages about the past. There are remarkable examples from Taiwan and Japan too, of how visual media have delivered audiences accounts of the past and shaped their awareness of contemporary politics at the same time. This study questions the mass media’s role in dramatising history and argues that its representations are double-edged.
