Acknowledgements

This collection of essays has its origins in a series of symposia organised by the Centre for Asian Communication, Media and Cultural Studies at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia. We held the symposia over a period of four years and always sought to be at the edges rather than at the centre of current debates in Asian studies. Our first effort, in 1995, focused on the internet in Asia. We could see that the introduction of the net would have profound consequences for Asia, but it was not a view then shared by many of our colleagues. Subsequent symposia focused on the Hong Kong action cinema, representing the body in Asia and medical traditions in Asia. ‘Cultural Values and Cultural Capital of Pop Music in Asia’ was our third and most successful symposium held in 1997.

The collection of essays assembled here examines the cultural, political, economic and technological aspects of popular music across Asia, from India to Japan. Unlike much of the recent literature on globalisation which highlights disjunctures and deterministic aspects of ‘cultural imperialism’, each of the essays stresses the local situatedness which gives music a strategic and synthetic outlet for assuming specific meanings for different audiences, demonstrating that local appropriations of the pop music genre and content play an active, rather than reactive, role in manipulating global cultural and capital flows. Our position is that popular musical expression in Asia — its meaning and its practice — cannot be reduced either to the state or to the market, to tradition or to simple appropriation of Western forms. Rather, the culture of pop music is better understood first as multilayered fields of tension embedded in different socio-political settings, and second as a function of different institutional regimes and practices. In adopting this position we hope the collection resonates beyond the boundaries of its own field — which is precisely what we hoped the symposia would achieve.

In order to bring a collection of this magnitude to fruition we have, of course, incurred huge debts to friends and colleagues who have supported our work over the years. In particular we would like to thank all of the participants in the symposia who always shared their ideas willingly. These include Yao Souchou, Mike Hayes, Rob Webb (SBS), Sandra Kaji-O'Grady, Tan See Kam, Mirana May Szeto, Ken Wark, Nicholas Thomas and Nathan Sivin. Other individuals who provided the logistical support also have our thanks: Robin Johnstone, Ken Staples, Debbie Sadique, Sharon Snader and Alin Huma for his web and programme design. The authors of this volume have displayed great patience in seeing it through to completion, and we thank them for that.

At the institutional level we must thank our respective universities, Edith Cowan University (Perth), Monash University (Melbourne) and Academica Sinica (Taiwan): in particular, Professor Ed Jaggard, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Professor Steve Hunter, Dean of International and Community Affairs at ECU. Sarah Miller, Director of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), always made her staff, spaces and resources available, as did Peter Grant, Director of Perth's Artrage Festival. Both groups provided support at crucial times and ensured the success of the symposia. Thanks! We also must thank X-Press Magazine and Japanese punk-rock outfit, Mach Pelican, for a blast of a night.

We were delighted when ConsumAsiaN book series editor for Curzon Press, Brian Moeran, expressed early interest in the possibility of the conference papers developing into a collection of essays. We thank him especially for his patience and enduring support in seeing this book through to its final stages. Our thanks also go to Lise Skov, co-editor of ConsumAsiaN, for her support. ConsumAsiaN administrative support from Marie Lenstrup and Rachel Saunders was most appreciated. As so often happens these days in the world of academic publishing, a smaller press has been taken over by a larger one. In this case, Routledge brought the ConsumAsiaN series into its Asian Studies series, establishing RoutledgeCurzon in the process. It has been a great pleasure to work with Stephanie Rogers, editor of the Asian Studies publications, who has guided us with enthusiasm and professional support during this transition to see the completion of the book. Thanks also to Zoe Botterill at Routledge for her editorial assistance.

Finally, we thank the Centre for Asian Communication, Media and Cultural Studies for its unswerving support and access to its limited resources. As we write, the Centre is being disbanded, not because of funding cuts or other managerial excesses but because it has probably run its course. In retrospect it did some pretty interesting things on a very small budget. Not only did it organise and run the symposia but it also published three occasional papers and three volumes in the Reporting Asia Series, funded a number of scholars to Perth to participate in the symposia and to give public lectures and seminars and provided some material support for a number of young scholars in Asian media and cultural studies. In many respects this volume is a testament to that activity.

The authors and publishers would like to thank the following for granting permission to reproduce material in this work.

Time Spirit Co. Ltd and the Alfee, Project III Co. Ltd for permission to reproduce song lyrics from ‘Love Never Dies’, the picture of the ‘Maria’ guitar and the baroque guitar as featured in the ‘Love Never Dies’ video and the picture of the Alfee (Plates 1, 2 and 3).

Boomerang Management for permission to include a translation of song lyrics taken from Blues Males.

Kabir Suman for permission to reproduce song lyrics from Song of Flies, Dead Faces, Selling Out.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.

Allen Chun, Ned Rossiter
and Brian Shoesmith