Urban Culture Asia

This course seeks ways to explicate variable, contested, and multi-layered features of urban cultures in Asian societies. The question of urban Asia, or ?Asian modernity? acquires new significance at the current moment, as the impact of globalization and advancement of digital technology have created a thriving East Asian cultural market and active exchanges of pan-Asian popular cultures among different Asian locations. Looking into various forms of urban culture in contemporary Asian societies?theatres, films, street performances, demonstrations, national campaigns, ads, fashion, sporting events, etc.?students will be engaged in critical discussions about how people experience patterns of national/cultural expressions that are not readily reduced to fixed, static narrative descriptions. Active class participation is extremely crucial.