-
4. From the Chinese Exotic to the Asian Exotic: Critical Regionalism and Pop Culture Asianism
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
- Additional Information
From the Chinese Exotic to the Asian Exotic 151 Does the very idea of an Asia/Pacific region point to a future (multicultural, de-centered, regionally entrenched) different from the past because of the role societies in the region will play in these new dynamics, or will these societies perpetuate hegemonic relationships, since they themselves are shaped by the capitalist world-system? – Leo Ching, “Globalizing the Regional” Pacific Rim Discourse arises, in part, out of the impossibility of imagining a core in the old, concentric terms. Rather, regions are ex-centric. The meaninglessness of core and periphery at the global level is one indication of the need for a new spatial imaginary. – Christopher L. Connery, “Pacific Rim Discourse” This chapter concludes with some thoughts and observations on a movement I have been signalling throughout; that is, a movement from the Chinese exotic into a formation of the Asian exotic. The Chinese exotic is a phenomenon that is constituted through ex-centric movements that mark its dispersal and displacement at local, regional, and global levels. The Asian exotic appears when we examine the Chinese exotic from the perspective of the region Asia. It does not displace the Chinese exotic, but is a related mode of representation manifesting alternative, and shared, interactions from a regional perspective. Regionalism is the deliberate grouping together of nation-states into a collective. Asianism, as a specific form of regionalism, groups nations into a 4 From the Chinese Exotic to the Asian Exotic: Critical Regionalism and Pop Culture Asianism 152 Region region called ‘Asia’. The term Asianism is often used to describe a nation’s strategic invocation of, or renewed relationship to, the putative category ‘Asia’.1 It is, however, appearing in a new form, tied to the mass or popular cultural product. It is this type of regionalism in the field of popular culture that provides an important frame to engagements between diaspora China and Asia. The first three chapters explored diaspora China’s relationship to the West: specifically, in Chapter 1, I examined cross-cultural exchanges and interactions as they occurred within diasporic contexts in the West, Chapter 2 explored the translations involved in the cross over from Asian film industries to the West, and Chapter 3 considered convergences and divergences between different diasporas in the West as represented within Asian American and Asian Australian literature. In the last ten to fifteen years, however, intraregional or intra-Asian transactions in the field of popular culture have also been growing and have gained increasing critical attention. Within these transactions, the West does not participate either as a dominant producer or consumer; in fact, the only access the West often has to these regional engagements is through the diasporas. From a perspective outside the region, Asia has often been mobilised as a coherent formation even though it is composed of shifting, precarious relationships, arguably creating an Asian exotic through the collapse of differences. Images and representations of Chinese femininity have also been visualised according to these regionalising impulses whereby ‘Chineseness’ comes to signify ‘pan-Asianness’ through the collapsing logic of visuality that structures exoticism within popular culture. Although the Asian exotic may also be taken to refer to this type of unproblematic consumption which collapses historical and cultural differences, such a perspective again emanates from the standpoint of the West. Rather than approaching the Asian exotic in this way, I return to one of my original aims which is to consider how diaspora China can make sense, and signify, independent of mainland China. I suggest that another alternative to reinvoking the homeland myth is through an investigation of the relationship between diaspora China and Asia; or more precisely, by considering how diaspora China reorients itself towards the region as a whole through popular culture Asianism, rather than to China directly. While China is an important consumer of popular culture from Asia, it is not yet a dominant producer. The broader question being pursued is how it might be possible to account for the Chinese exotic within the context of this strengthening of intra-Asian cultural flows. I conclude by highlighting the implications that result from such a spatial realignment when the Chinese exotic is examined from the perspective of the region Asia. What is the Chinese exotic’s [23.20.220.59] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 06:11 GMT) From the Chinese Exotic to the Asian Exotic 153 relationship to Asia’s mobilisation as a region, and how does this modern Asia bring about the experience...