Preconference: Willing Collaborators: The Rise of China and Changing Networks of Asian Media Production

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This is a proposal for an ICA pre-conference event, to be held at Tokyo University of the Arts, Kitasenju Campus. Senju, Adachi-ku, Tokyo, on June 8, 2016. It is affiliated to the Global Communication and Social Change Division.

This pre-conference is focused on the transformations of East Asian media production associated with the rise of China as a production centre, a large cultural market, and the centre of a growing number of strategic alliances ad co-production arrangements in the region. The current period is one of rapid change in the status of China in global media production that is not well understood in much of the scholarly literature on global communication. The pre-conference provides a platform for conversations about how this is having impacts in the region, and for film, TV, games and other digital content industries in Japan, Korea and other countries in the East Asian region.

Historically, the Chinese Mainland was, and still is, a low-cost location for film, TV and related creative industries sectors, tied into what has been referred to as the “New International Division of Cultural Labor” (NICL) as a site of low cost media production. For instance, the Hengdian World Studios in Zhejiang province (“Chinawood") was established to compete on price, and has successfully monopolised the bulk of historical dramas and films made in China. But China now has ‘nationally accredited’ production bases in almost every province, and in the online and mobile media world, it is host to some of the world’s most advanced new platforms and technologies, driven by the ever expanding coffers of media giants such as Sohu, Youku, Sina Video, LeTV and Tencent Video and their evolving ecosystems – companies which have successfully captured the world’s largest media audience.

It also considers rethinking in the upper echelons of the Chinese state about how to revitalise media production sector, and content aimed at domestic markets in particular, to reverse China’s ‘cultural trade deficit’, and generate new forms of ‘cultural soft power’. For example, despite their long-standing reputation for censorship, state policymakers are now encouraging Chinese media entrepreneurs to generate fresh ideas and come up with solutions to revitalise the stagnant domestic production sector. We propose that for scholars seeking to open up conversations in this area, these developments offer a timely opportunity for gaining deeper insights into the world’s largest media playground as the world moves into the ‘Asian Century’, and the ICA pre-conference format provides an ideal platform for such discussions.

Topics of interest for this pre-conference include:

• Film and TV co-productions involving Chinese and international partners;
• The influence of Korean and Japanese cultural product among Chinese audiences/consumers;
• Theories of cultural soft power and cultural trade;
• Chinese media laws and content regulations, and their impact on competition in Chinese media markets;
• Strategic alliances in games and digital content industries;
• Chinese media companies and their global aspirations;
• Chinese media and digital content and its significance among the Chinese diaspora.

Event organisers:
Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Anthony Fung, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Mouri Yoshitaka, Tokyo University of the Arts
Michael Keane, Curtin University, Australia
Brian Yecies, University of Wollongong, Australia

Registration Fee:
$US80/$US40 concession (for graduate students and employment exception ICA members)

Event sponsors:
Digital Media Research Centre, QUT
Digital China Lab, Curtin University
C-Centre, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Carsey-Wolf Center, University of California Santa Barbara
Global Communications and Social Change division, ICA

Sub Unit

• Sponsored Sessions

Participants

• Michael Curtin, U of California - Santa Barbara

• Anthony Y.H. Fung, Chinese U - Hong Kong

• Terry Flew, Queensland U of Technology

• Michael Andrew Keane, Curtin U

• Brian Yecies, U of Wollongong

• Dal Yong Jin, Simon Fraser U

• Aynne Kokas, University of Virginia

• Wenshan Jia, Chapman University

• Mouri Yoshitaka, Tokyo U of the Arts