ABSTRACT
The accelerated mobility of capital, people, and commodities in the last two decades has enhanced media and cultural globalization in non-Western regions. The growth of digital communication technologies, transnational markets and industries, and cultural production capacity has animated many trajectories of popular culture circulation. The power of Western media content and infrastructures can still be felt globally. But outside of the United States, East Asia is already a productive network of media capitals (Curtin 2003) and communities, actively generating and consuming regionally produced shows, goods, and images. Iconic examples such as Hong Kong film, Japanese animation, Mandarin pop music, and Korean TV dramas have found unprecedented approval in the region. They invite material and social connections among people and businesses. These developments are the context that has made East Asian popular culture into a major site of research in the study of media and cultural globalization.
