Introduction: Rethinking Asian media and film

This Introduction pulls together the main themes of the papers in this special issue, which covers major regions in Asia from Japan, Korea and China to Indonesia, India and Iran. The papers are all critical of the implications of imposing Eurocentric and metropolitan frameworks on the diverse assemblages of practices of producing, distributing and engaging with Asian media and film. Bringing a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds to bear, the contributors question existing approaches and concepts, reconsider what should count as objects of study and propose new theoretical approaches appropriate to the study of such large and rapidly changing industries. What emerges, however, is the extent to which issues of knowledge and power permeate not just the debates, but also the critiques. Drawing upon the papers, the Introduction concludes by suggesting the possibilities of a more rigorous and sustained analysis in terms of practice.