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Global goes Local:
Popular Culture in Asia
Edited by Timothy J. Craig and Richard King
Guy Babineau

When I cracked open this book, something was missing; 
India. Maybe the binding had broken and some pages had 
fallen out. But no, all pages were accounted for and in 
order. Not just India, but more than half of Asia’s 
population was missing, leaving plenty of room for the 
People’s Republic of China, which dominates the collection 
of fourteen essays accompanied by sidekicks Tibet, 
Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the 
Philippines. By popular culture, editors Timothy J. Craig 
and Richard King–both professors at the University of 
Victoria–mean music and television, with nods to visual 
imagery and comics in two essays.

What I wouldn’t give to see the first drama broadcast on 
Beijing Television in 1958, A Mouthful of Vegetable 
Pancake, which promoted frugality, and then contrast it 
with two recent, very popular Chinese miniseries Public 
Relations Girls and Stories From An Editorial Office. Both 
examined the conflict between dying traditional and 
socialist values and the new market-driven economy, and 
are featured in a fascinating essay on the development of 
TV drama in China.

Conflict between the old and the new, and in some cases 
the oppressor and the oppressed, underpins most of the 
essays. How do cheap, modern recording techniques and 
affordable cassettes affect the popular folk music of the 
Philippines’ northern cordillera? What tactics does 
Malaysian TV advertising employ to support traditional 
morals and beliefs? Why are spiritual mystics getting more 
and more television airplay in Thailand? And why on earth 
is wrestler Hulk Logan a hero to the people of Malaysian 
Borneo’s rainforest? 

All the (mostly non-Asian) writers teach in universities and 
academic jargon hinders the text. But it can’t obscure the 
valuable information in this book and I walked away the 
better for reading it and most importantly, curious to learn 
more. But where are Bollywood and bhangra, or Japan’s 
animes? What about the current phenomenon of K-Pop 
(Korean music and fashion) sweeping all of eastern Asia? 
Global goes Local is a worthwhile introduction to some of 
Asia’s popular culture but it’s just a peek through the 
keyhole.

Originally published in The Georgia Straight

© Guy Babineau 2003-2004

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