Asian Cultural Policy Seminar Series

From 2020 to 2022, Professor Hye-Kyung Lee, Karin Chau and Takao Terui organised Asian Cultural Policy Seminar series ten times. In these seminar events, speakers from various institutions (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand) were invited to present their research findings and have a vibrant discussion with participants. 

The seminar series covered diverse and significant themes relevant to cultural policy and creative industries in Asia.

(1) Dr Phitchan Chuangchai (Thammasat University) in Bangkok presented her findings on creative city discourses in South East Asia, highlighting the discourse and reality of creative city projects in ASEAN;

(2) Dr Meng-Yu Lai (National Taichung Theater) addressed long-term trends in theatre performance and cultural policy;

(3) Ms Michelle Loh (Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore) discussed changing definitions of multiculturalism in Singapore by articulating how multiculturalism has been conveyed through arts policies;

(4) Professor Dal Yong Jing (Simon Fraser University) critically examined several common myths about the Korean Wave and addressed the current debates on the role of Hallyu in the global cultural sphere;

(5) Professor Justin O’Connor (University of South Australia) gave a book talk about his new book Red Creative: Culture and Modernity in China (2020), exploring China’s response to the global rise of the creative industries discourse;

(6) Dr Max WL Wong (University of Hong Kong) analysed the HKSAR government’s cultural policy in response to the pandemic in Hong Kong and how cultural workers responded to these strict measures;

(7) Ms Kaori Takahashi (Rikkyo University) presented complicated and plural definitions of “professional artists” in Japan by applying a sociological approach and critically examining policy documents;

(8) Professor Shinji Oyama (Ritsumeikan University) highlighted and discussed often-neglected tensions and fissures within the Japanese media and creative industries by addressing the inequality and working conditions of media industry workers in Japan. 

(9) Dr Anubha Sarkar (City, University of London) explained the struggle of Bollywood (India’s Hindi film industry) for cultural and legal legitimacy and its interactions with the Indian governments by using the lens of cultural and creative industries studies;

 (10) The tenth seminar held in December 2022 is a significant milestone because this is the first seminar presented in Chinese. Dr Kanghua Li and Shuan Jiang (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) explained recent trends in China’s TV policy, reflecting on changes and continuities of TV drama production policies. The seminar was efficiently translated and facilitated by Karin Ling Fung Chau (King’s College London). 

Alongside CMCI PhD students, Erika Ningxin Wang and Liang Ge organised a guest seminar inviting Dr Xinqing Zheng (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) featuring the debate on the issue of queerbaiting in the Chinese online fan community.

Remarkably, these events attracted more than 610 audiences in total from diverse regions/institutions. They involved both established academics and early career researchers as speakers and contributed to expanding our research networks of various institutions/universities. More importantly, these online seminars offered significant platforms in which participants and speakers from diverse backgrounds discussed creativity, cultural policy and creative industries in Asia and learnt about their complexities and dynamics.

Following the success of these events, we are continuing to organise seminars to bring Asian perspectives into the creative industries and cultural policy studies and to offer platforms of active dialogues between students and scholars all over the world.