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The recent transnational reach of Japanese television dramas in East and Southeast Asia is unprecedented, and not simply in terms of the range and scale of diffusion, but also of the intense sympathy many young Asians feel toward the characters in Japanes

Saffron-robed monks and long-haired gurus have become familiar characters on the American popular culture scene. This book examines the contemporary fascination with Eastern spirituality and provides a cultural history of the representation of Asian religions in American mass media. Initial engagements with Asian spiritual heritages were mediated by monks, gurus, bhikkhus, sages, sifus, healers, and masters from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds and religious traditions. Virtual Orientalism shows the evolution of these interactions, from direct engagements with specific individuals, to mediated relations with a conventionalized icon. Visually and psychically compelling, the Oriental Monk becomes for Americans a “figure of translation” - a convenient symbol for alternative spiritualities and modes of being. Through the figure of the solitary Monk, who generously and purposefully shares his wisdom with the West, Asian religiosity is made manageable — psychologically, socially, and politically — for popular culture consumption. On an historical level, the books argues that American mass awareness of Asian religions coincides with the advent of visually-oriented media (magazines, television, and film) and examines how technological transformations ushered in a new form of Orientalism — virtual Orientalism — prevalent since the late 1950s. Although popular engagement with Asian religions in the U.S. has increased, the fact that much of this has taken virtual form makes stereotypical constructions of “the spiritual East” obdurate and especially difficult to challenge. Representational moments in Virtual Orientalism’s development that are examined include: D.T. Suzuki and the 1950s Zen Boom; the Maharishi Mahesh and his celebrity followers in the 1960s and; Kwai Chang Caine in the popular 1970 television series, Kung Fu.

Post-Industrial East Asian Cities analyzes urban developments and policies responsible for the growth of producer services and creative industries. This study is based on the findings of firm surveys conducted in East Asia and a review of the data and literature on several key regional cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok and Tokyo) that are transitioning away from traditional manufacturing activities.

Japanese literature and film have frequently been approached using lenses such as language, genre and ideology. Yet, despite a succession of major social traumas that have marked, and in many ways shaped and defined much of modern Japan, Japanese fiction and cinema have not often been examined psychoanalytically. In this book, David Stahl conducts in-depth readings and interpretations of a set of Japanese novels and film. By introducing the methodology of trauma/PTSD studies, Stahl seeks to provide a better understanding of the insights of Japanese writers and directors into their societies, cultures and histories. In particular, by building on the work of practitioner-theoreticians, such as Pierre Janet and Judith Herman, Stahl analyses a number of key texts, including Kawabata Yasunari’s Sleeping Beauties (1961), Enchi Fumiko’s Female Masks (1958) and Imamura Shōhei’s Vengeance is Mine (1979). Consequently, through using concepts of social trauma, dissociation, failed mourning, revenge and narrative memory, this book sheds new light on the psychological aftereffects and transgenerational legacies of trauma depicted in Japanese works. Trauma, Dissociation and Re-enactment in Japanese Literature and Film will be of interest to students and scholars of Japanese Literature and Cinema, as well as those interested in Japanese History and Trauma Studies.

The accession of Donald Trump to the US presidency has triggered serious discussion within Australia's policy community over the future of Australia-US security relations and Australia's role in Southeast Asia. During his first days in office, President Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, an integral part of his predecessor's \"pivot strategy\" towards Asia and an initiative strongly supported by the Australian government. The US' withdrawal from the TPP has led various Australian commentators to question Washington's commitment to maintain a viable economic and strategic presence in the Asia Pacific. Such uncertainty is aggravated by Canberra's growing disquiet over intensified tensions between China and the US in the South China Sea. President Trump's posture of challenging Chinese sovereign control over its man-made islands in the South China Sea has increased Australian concerns that it could soon face the nightmare of being compelled to \"choose\" between its largest trading partner -- China -- and its long-term security ally -- the US -- if the two Great Powers were to clash militarily in Southeast Asia's critical maritime littorals.

Six months after the historic August 1999 referendum in which the people of East Timor voted to reject Indonesia's offer of broad autonomy, the newly appointed chief of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, Sérgio Vieira de Mello, commented to CNN on the enormous challenge of setting the territory on the road to independence: ‘It is a test case, therefore it is even a laboratory case where we can transform utopia into reality. But I think we can try and get it right in the case of Timor.’ After 24 years of brutal military occupation, the suggestion that East Timor was to be a laboratory case for the United Nations might have seemed insulting, the notion of utopia absurd. Hundreds of thousands of people were without housing. Basic infrastructure lay in ruins. Commodities were scarce and those goods available were sold at grossly inflated prices. Eleven thousand foreign troops had arrived to restore security. Tens of thousands of refugees were still living in squalid camps across the border in Indonesian West Timor, many against their will. Nevertheless, Vieira de Mello's statement neatly captured the twin aspirations of the time — the independence long-dreamed of by East Timorese and the opportunity for the United Nations literally to build a state from the ground up. In the same CNN report, East Timorese Nobel Laureate José Ramos-Horta emphasised precisely this point: ‘This is the first instance in the history of the UN that the UN has managed completely an entire country; and they have a [Timorese pro-independence] movement that is very cooperative, they have an exceptional people that's cooperating with them, so they cannot fail. They are condemned to succeed because failure would be disastrous for the credibility of the UN, so they simply cannot afford to fail.’ Utopia, it seems, had become a necessity.

This book builds on the lessons from public institutions and programs to support innovation, both successful and failed, from Europe and Central Asia (ECA) as well as China, Finland, Israel, and the United States. Field visits to these countries were hosted by the innovation and scientific agencies of the respective governments, strengthening the international experiences presented here. This book is a culmination of ten years of analytic and operational work led by the private and financial sector development department and the chief economist's office of the ECA region of the World Bank. Several regional reports and country policy notes exploring these issues have been published over the years. The book also reflects the lively discussion in the ongoing series of flagship events to promote knowledge based economies in the region. The most recent knowledge economy forum was held in Berlin in 2010, hosted by the fraunhofer center for Central and Eastern Europe. The book identifies policies that have an adverse affect on innovation. It also identifies policy gaps that, if filled, could have a catalytic effect on private sector innovation.

In order to characterize and explain regional formation processes, theories in the field of international relations have focused primarily on political and economic parameters that were drawn from experiences in Western Europe. In East Asia, however, it is often mentioned that \"regional dynamism\" and cross-border economic activities, rather than formal agreements between governments, or shared historical or cultural \"Asian\" background generates the formation of the region. This article, however, examines the role popular culture plays in shaping and regionalizing East Asia. It focuses on the process by which confluences of culture have diffused throughout East Asian markets in the decades surrounding the 1990s and the concurrent formation of regional media alliances. An attempt is made to go beyond state-centric explanations of regionalization and extend the cultural approach to regionalization, demonstrating how popular culture can affect regional formation.

This collection of essays covers the media and public debate dimension of the events of 9/11 and beyond, from the point of view of Middle Eastern and Asian countries. The first part of the book deals with the use of the media as an instrument of warfare, the growing significance of religion, the emergence of transnational media and a transnational public sphere and the relationship between the West and the rest of the world. The second part of the book contains nine case studies relating to different parts of the Middle East and Asian world, all with a strong empirical focus, while at the same time elaborating the book's theoretical concerns. Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. War Propaganda and the Liberal Public Sphere 3. The West and the Rest: A Drama in Two Acts and an Epilogue 4. Television in America from 9/11 and America's Continuing 'War on Terror': Single Theme, Multiple Media Lenses 5. The Middle East's Democracy Deficit and the Expanding Public Sphere 6. Political Islam in Iran and the Emergence of a Religious Public Sphere: The Impact of September 11 7. September 11 and After: Pressure for Regulation and Self-Regulation in the Indian Media 8. The Jewish Hand: The Response of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind 9. The WTC Tragedy and the US Attack on Afghanistan: The Press Joins in Beating the War Drums 10. War, Words and Images 11. When Osama and Friends Came A-Calling: The Political Deployment of the Overdetermined Image of Osama ben Laden in the Contestation for Islamic Symbols in Malaysia 12. Some 'Muslims' Within: Watching Television in Britain After September 11 Peter Van der Veer is Professor of Comparative Religion and Director of the Research Center of Religion and Society at the University of Amsterdam. Shoma Munshi is Assistant Director at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania.