Post by SamIAm on Jul 25, 2005 14:54:25 GMT -5
Seminar : Cultural Typhoon 2004 in Okinawa Program, University of the Ryukyus
Date : July 9-11, 2004
Topic : East Asian Cultural Industries and Trans-Urban Fandom and Boredom
Coordinated by Koichi Iwabuchi
URL : w1.nirai.ne.jp/tada/Typhoon2004.program.Iwabuchi.htm
Author : Eva Tsai (National Taiwan Normal University)
Paper : Transnational Stardom and Narrative Construction: The Case of Kaneshiro Takeshi
Even among the idiosyncratic group of transnational stars in Asia, Kaneshiro Takeshi is something of an exception. With his protean good looks and conscious disregard of borders, the multi-ethnic and multilingual film star/heartthrob triggers different emotions in different locations and cultural moments in Asia. Audiences in Taiwan-where he was born and raised-have seen him successfully transform from an "average" pop idol into a new kind of superstar, one who is cosmopolitan and tempting. He was introduced to Japanese fans by media producers in the mid 1990s during Japan's "Asia boom," a phenomenon facilitated by the rapid flow of information, commodities, and tourists within the region as well as a renewed belief in Japan's preeminent position in Asia. The Japanese films, dramas, and numerous ads he appears in represent various efforts to domesticate and capitalize on his hybridity. In fact, the half-Taiwanese half-Japanese star continues to help keep the global aspirations of the Japanese entertainment industries afloat. Meanwhile, he dashes in and out of a struggling post-1997 Hong Kong film industry that hopes to tap into the changing regional production and market forces with new stories, images, and stars.
Kaneshiro has found a fluid niche by playing quaint characters that inhabit narrative and imaginative spaces between the everyday and the ethereal. He is still young and could enjoy a long and ever more varied career. It is not my intention to document his success and catalog his popularity in a static, museum-like form. There have already been enough attempts to attribute his transnational appeal to his inherent hybridity. Rather than endorsing this self-evident argument, which takes on a tautological logic consistent with popular star discourse in general, I want to address the hybridizing conditions of stardom in Asia which have enabled Kaneshiro to embody the quintessential borderless, pan-Asian man. Some of the questions that I hope to discuss in my paper include:
(1) What does Kaneshiro's stardom tell us about both the practice and requirements of star-making in Asia which are not only influenced by each region's specific historical conditions, but also by their simultaneous entanglements with globalization?
(2) What star narratives have become available to Kaneshiro and which ones have become dominant? How does his rise compare to the narratives of other transnational stars in Asia such Teresa Tang, Vivian Hsu, Jackie Chan, and Chow Yun-Fat?
(3) How do different circuits of cultural workers and consumers negotiate and reproduce his appeal? For example, why is cultural identity persistently highlighted in interviews with Japanese media? Why is not the same issue focused on by the Taiwanese and Hong Kong media?
(4) Based on Kaneshiro's case, is it possible to develop a thesis addressing the relationship between hybridity and stardom? If so, what sorts of analytical tools, such as intertextuality and intervisuality, can be used?
Date : July 9-11, 2004
Topic : East Asian Cultural Industries and Trans-Urban Fandom and Boredom
Coordinated by Koichi Iwabuchi
URL : w1.nirai.ne.jp/tada/Typhoon2004.program.Iwabuchi.htm
Author : Eva Tsai (National Taiwan Normal University)
Paper : Transnational Stardom and Narrative Construction: The Case of Kaneshiro Takeshi
Even among the idiosyncratic group of transnational stars in Asia, Kaneshiro Takeshi is something of an exception. With his protean good looks and conscious disregard of borders, the multi-ethnic and multilingual film star/heartthrob triggers different emotions in different locations and cultural moments in Asia. Audiences in Taiwan-where he was born and raised-have seen him successfully transform from an "average" pop idol into a new kind of superstar, one who is cosmopolitan and tempting. He was introduced to Japanese fans by media producers in the mid 1990s during Japan's "Asia boom," a phenomenon facilitated by the rapid flow of information, commodities, and tourists within the region as well as a renewed belief in Japan's preeminent position in Asia. The Japanese films, dramas, and numerous ads he appears in represent various efforts to domesticate and capitalize on his hybridity. In fact, the half-Taiwanese half-Japanese star continues to help keep the global aspirations of the Japanese entertainment industries afloat. Meanwhile, he dashes in and out of a struggling post-1997 Hong Kong film industry that hopes to tap into the changing regional production and market forces with new stories, images, and stars.
Kaneshiro has found a fluid niche by playing quaint characters that inhabit narrative and imaginative spaces between the everyday and the ethereal. He is still young and could enjoy a long and ever more varied career. It is not my intention to document his success and catalog his popularity in a static, museum-like form. There have already been enough attempts to attribute his transnational appeal to his inherent hybridity. Rather than endorsing this self-evident argument, which takes on a tautological logic consistent with popular star discourse in general, I want to address the hybridizing conditions of stardom in Asia which have enabled Kaneshiro to embody the quintessential borderless, pan-Asian man. Some of the questions that I hope to discuss in my paper include:
(1) What does Kaneshiro's stardom tell us about both the practice and requirements of star-making in Asia which are not only influenced by each region's specific historical conditions, but also by their simultaneous entanglements with globalization?
(2) What star narratives have become available to Kaneshiro and which ones have become dominant? How does his rise compare to the narratives of other transnational stars in Asia such Teresa Tang, Vivian Hsu, Jackie Chan, and Chow Yun-Fat?
(3) How do different circuits of cultural workers and consumers negotiate and reproduce his appeal? For example, why is cultural identity persistently highlighted in interviews with Japanese media? Why is not the same issue focused on by the Taiwanese and Hong Kong media?
(4) Based on Kaneshiro's case, is it possible to develop a thesis addressing the relationship between hybridity and stardom? If so, what sorts of analytical tools, such as intertextuality and intervisuality, can be used?
We don't care if it's new or old news--as long as it's regarding our main man---we'll take anything and everything!! ha! Ha! 
