International circulation and local retaliation: East Asian television drama and its Asian connotations

This chapter argues that a drawback of recent scholarly focus on regional distinctiveness and pan-Asianism is that an incomplete picture has hitherto been presented of the role contemporary Asian television drama is playing in transnational cultural exchange. Emphasis on the Asian-ness of Asian television drama, this chapter proposes, has resulted in neglect of aspects of the dramas that are appealing to broad non-Asian audiences. Further, large audiences who ardently watch East Asian drama but who do not fit into very broad definitions of what it means to be Asian have been marginalised. In addition, the chapter asserts that an excessive concentration on the socially positive impacts of the circulation of East Asian drama have obscured many of the less socially desirable and divisive nationalistic discourses that have surrounded inter-Asian cross-border transmission.