Popular Culture Transcending National Borders and Genres in East Asia

Abstract

Using highly advanced media technology, Asian cultural exchanges became very active since the latter half of the 1990s. Firstly, Japanese "trendy dramas" were favorably welcomed in Asia because they could show young people's problems in an Asian context against the background of a modernized city. These dramas have projected an image of Japan as an idealistically westernized country. Due to the popularity of Japanese culture such as manga, TV dramas, and movies, there seems to have risen a fear that it might be too influential in Asia. However, Japan is based on Western-style modernization, and originally Japanese media companies had the intention of exporting program-making formats to Asian countries rather than the cultural products themselves. A Taiwanese TV drama, Meteor Garden, based on a Japanese manga story was imported back to Japan and soon created a boom here. Also, Korean dramas have been received with enthusiasm in Japan as well as in other Asian countries. Because of "familiarity with Confucianism and ethnicity" in this area, cultural products go beyond the borders of nations and genres, contributing toward Asians seeking for identity in the "diasporic public sphere, " which media has been creating worldwide.

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