Synopses & Reviews
Mobile Cultures provides much-needed, empirically grounded studies of the connections between new media technologies, the globalization of sexual cultures, and the rise of queer Asia. The availability and use of new mediaandmdash;fax machines, mobile phones, the Internet, electronic message boards, pagers, and global televisionandmdash;have grown exponentially in Asia over the past decade. This explosion of information technology has sparked a revolution, transforming lives and lifestyles, enabling the creation of communities and the expression of sexual identities in a region notorious for the regulation of both information and sexual conduct. Whether looking at the hanging of toy cartoon characters like andldquo;Hello Kittyandrdquo; from mobile phones to signify queer identity in Japan or at the development of queer identities in Indonesia or Singapore, the essays collected here emphasize the enormous variance in the appeal and uses of new media from one locale to another.
Scholars, artists, and activists from a range of countries, the contributors chronicle the different ways new media galvanize Asian queer communities in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and around the world. They consider phenomena such as the uses of the Internet among gay, lesbian, or queer individuals in Taiwan and South Korea; the international popularization of Japanese queer pop culture products such as Yaoi manga; and a Thai websiteandrsquo;s reading of a scientific tract on gay genetics in light of Buddhist beliefs. Essays also explore the politically subversive possibilities opened up by the proliferation of media technologies, examining, for instance, the use of Cyberjayaandmdash;Malaysiaandrsquo;s government-backed online portalandmdash;to form online communities in the face of strict antigay laws.
Contributors. Chris Berry, Tom Boellstorff, Larissa Hjorth, Katrien Jacobs, Olivia Khoo, Fran Martin, Mark McLelland, David Mullaly, Baden Offord, Sandip Roy, Veruska Sabucco, Audrey Yue
Review
andrdquo;Mobile Cultures is a feast of a collection. This compelling anthology renders the mediated queer realities of Asia within a more dynamic global frame. Studies of the Internet, cinema, and other technologies unmoor queer Asia from its static and sedentary locations. A necessary addition to the burgeoning field of transnational queer cultural studies!andrdquo;andmdash;Martin F. Manalansan IV, coeditor of Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism
Review
andquot;[A]n exciting, satisfying and inspiring anthology that makes a significant contribution to transcultural queer studies.andquot;
Review
andquot;[A]n important addition to the growing field of queer media studies, and by repositioning the field away from its Euro-American coordinates, the book creates a necessary international space for critical comparative perspectives to flourish.andquot;
Review
andquot;[A]n important work. . . . [T]his volume has unearthed an exciting new arena for queer studies in the intersection of new media and New Asia. Its invaluable wealth of materials, extensive coverage and theoretical sophistication can surely inspire and benefit politics, and postcolonial Asian gender-cum-techno-politics.andquot;
Review
andquot;[I]f you don't know what MOTSS BBS are (andquot;members of the same sex bulletin board systemsandquot;) and want to find out, this book would be the place to start.andquot;
Review
andquot;[T]he editors . . . have gathered fascinating essays. . . . [T]here is much here to interest readers at all levels. Recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;As spelt out lucidly in the introduction and acted on earnestly in most of the essays, Mobile Cultures as a whole has a coherent polemical take on the phenomenal rise of l/g/q formations in Asia (and other parts of the world). . . . And through concrete analysis of specific cases, the collection critically examines the question of whether the impact of globalization is homogenizing . . . or in effect 'glocalising.'andquot;
Review
andquot;This is a rich and compelling book. . . . [T]he volume makes a major contribution to Asian studies, new media studies, and particularly queer Asian studies.andquot;
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p.268-292) and index.
Synopsis
A collection of essays on the uses of new media in the formation of East Asian and Pacific queer identities.
About the Author
Chris Berry is Associate Professor in Film Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is author of A Bit on the Side: East-West Topographies of Desire and editor of several books including Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy: The Genesis of Chinaandrsquo;s Fifth Generation, published by Duke University Press.
Fran Martin is Lecturer in the Cinema Studies Program at La Trobe University in Australia.
Audrey Yue is Lecturer in the Cultural Studies Program and Department of English at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Table of Contents
Introduction : beep-click-link / Chris Berry, Fran Martin, and Audrey Yue -- Interfaces : global/local intersections. I knew it was me : mass media, "globalization," and lesbian and gay Indonesians / Tom Boellstorff. Japanese queerscapes : global/local intersections on the Internet / Mark McLelland. Guided fan fiction : Western "readings" of Japanese homosexual-themed texts / Veruska Sabucco. Syncretism and synchronicity : queer'n'Asian cyberspace in 1990s Taiwan and Korea / Chris Berry and Fran Martin. Queerly embodying the good and the normal / David Mulally -- Mobile sites : new screens, new scenes. Singaporean queering of the Internet : toward a new form of cultural transmission of rights discourse / Baden Offord. Pop and ma : the landscape of Japanese commodity characters and subjectivity / Larissa Hjorth. From Khush List to gay Bombay : virtual webs of real people / Sandip Roy -- Circuits : regional zones. Queer voyeurism and the pussy-matrix in Shu Lea Cheang's Japanese pornography / Katrien Jacobs. Sexing the city : Malaysia's new "cyberlaws" and Cyberjaya's queer success / Olivia Khoo. Paging "New Asia" : Sambal is a feedback loop, coconut is a code, rice is a system / Audrey Yue.