Dr Michael Samuel (Warwick) and Dr Louisa Mitchell (Independent Scholar)

contact email: asiapacificscreencultures@gmail.com

To the surprise of analyst expectations, at the end of 2019 Netflix recorded a record-high growth in subscribers and revenue outside of the United States, specifically in its Asia-Pacific region. The growth in this region is attributed to the establishment of regional offices and the commissioning of local productions, the success of which travels even further afield in the wealth of pan-Asian content making its way into Netflix’s global catalogue. But while Netflix occupies a dominant, though increasingly threatened position in the West amongst competitors such as Amazon, Disney+ and Hulu, in the Asia-Pacific it faces bigger challenges pitted against an abundance of well-established alternatives, such as Viu (Hong Kong), iflix (Malaysia), Voot (India) and HOOQ (Singapore). While there is an emergent body of work with a focus on streaming and screen cultures in the US and Europe, limited attention has been paid to the Asia-Pacific region. Our collection wishes to address this gap, exploring Asia-Pacific’s expansive services to produce a more comprehensive picture of its contemporary streaming culture. We are therefore inviting scholars to consider the expanding stream culture in Asia-Pacific territories.

Our collection has already attracted some exciting new work, contributing to our understanding of visual media and its contemporary cultural significance in China, Japan, South Korea, India, Thailand, and Australia. However, we are aware that our collection is incomplete. The aim of this re-circulated CFP is to therefore seek chapters that specifically explore or engage with content, technologies or viewing practices in the Australasia and Southeast Asia region.

In our previous CFP we invited scholars to engage with the following. This is, however, by no way a set list.

  • Soft power
  • Production, distribution and reception context—nationally and internationally
  • Streaming and pop culture: narratives, forms, aesthetics, themes
  • Identity—national and regional identities
  • Gender, sexuality and sexism in visual streaming culture
  • Internationalisation and decentralisation of local/regional content
  • Media imperialism
  • Markets and audiences: viewing habits (weekly release, binge-watching, live streaming, mobility of screens), accessibility (freemium model, VOD), demographics
  • New media, new technologies, new platforms
  • Terrestrial vs. cable vs. streaming television
  • Copyright and censorship issues

Please send a biography (no more than 150 words) and a 300 word abstract to our email asiapacificscreencultures@gmail.com by 31 January 2021.