Cultural Intermediaries in East Asian Film Industries

This book explores the roles cultural intermediaries play in East Asian cinema. Based on extensive original research, and viewing cinema from the social science perspective which emphasizes the social processes entailed in the cultural production, circulation, and consumption of films and the social relations they involve, rather than studying films as texts, the book examines issues such as the differences between individual and collective intermediaries, the diverse resources and services that they mediate, their social background and targeted audiences, and the political implications of their work. One important conclusion is that cultural intermediaries have been central to creating the whole "idea" of East Asian cinema.

1. Introduction Eyal Ben-Ari and Heung-wah Wong 2. Going overseas and evolving locally: the strategies of a Japanese pink film company Heung Wah Wong, Hoi Yan Yau, and Nobu Tanaka 3. Celebrities, Asian film, and a name economy Brian Moeran 4. Audiences as cultural intermediaries:a case study from Kyoto, Japan Jennifer Coates 5. The role of film critics and scholars in the development of film industry in Japan and China Chan Yan Chuen, Kobe 6. Festivals, finance and global cultural intermediaries: co-production and the shaping of "East Asian cinema" Cindy Wong and Gary McDonogh 7. Cultural intermediaries are made not assumed:a case study of a Japanese short movie competition in Hong Kong Karin Ling-Fung Chau, Heung-wah Wong, and Wendy Wei-Wei 8. Women as cultural intermediaries within the Chinese diaspora: the search for Esther Eng in S. Louisa Wei’s Golden Gate Girls (2013) Gina Marchetti

Eyal Ben-Ari is Fellow of the Center for Society, Security and Peace at Kinneret College, Israel. Heung Wah Wong is Associate Professor of the Global Creative Industries program inthe School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong.