- BA Course

Previously, research in media or cultural studies has paid much attention to the consumption of cultural and media texts. This course, however, calls for their production to be examined, by focusing on the creative industries in East Asia including Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. While it is important to examine the inter-relation between production, circulation, consumption, regulation, and representation when we study the meaning of a cultural text, production remains a primary and vital moment in creating the meaning of a cultural text. Furthermore, while there are studies on the creative industries outside East Asia, the production of media and cultural texts within the region has been little studied. Given the fact that media and cultural texts in East Asia, such as Japanese comics, animation and pornography, Korean and Hong Kong movies, and the Taiwanese performing arts, have spread and had tremendous impact globally, an understanding of their production is increasingly important.
In this course, we shall explore how the recent trends in the political economies in East Asia have influenced the production of media and cultural texts in the region; several important sectors within the creative industries, including comics and animation, pornography, movie, popular music, and performing arts in East Asia; the production and marketing strategies of several major corporations in the region such as TVB in Hong Kong, Sony in Japan; and the manufacture of idols in the creative industries.