Explores the cultural terrain of East Asia. Arguing that becoming modern happens differently in different places, this work examines popular culture most notable cinema and television to see how modernization, as both a response to the West and as a process that is unique in its own right in the region, operates on a mass level.

Jenny Kwok Wah Lau is Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema at San Francisco State University.Contributors: Jeroen de Kloet, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Yomota Inuhiko, Frances Gateward, Hector Rodriguez, Dai Jaihua, David Desser, August Palmer, Lu Szu-Ping, and the editor.