Starring Asia: A Three-Day international Conference on Asian Stardom and Celebrity

Posted by Sean Redmond
https://networks.h-net.org/node/22055/discussions/3815823/starring-asia-three-day-international-conference-asian-stardom

Starring Asia

A Three-Day international Conference on Asian Stardom and Celebrity

Date: 2-4 December 2019

Venue: Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

Conference and Event Organisers: Shenshen Cai (Swinburne University of Technology), Glen Donnar (RMIT University), Koichi Iwabuchi (Monash University), Vikrant Kishore (Deakin University), Sean Redmond (Deakin University), Jian Xu (Deakin University)

Key date: 150-250 Word Abstracts due by 5 May 2019

A selection of the best conference papers will be published in a confirmed Special Edition of Celebrity Studies in 2021

In this three-day conference we will explore the varied ways through which stardom and celebrity emerges in and across Asia. We understand Asia as a geographical location and a geopolitical set of interfaces, both interconnected and divided by a number of distinct National imaginaries and transnational vectors. Stardom and celebrity is understood to be a central part of the Asian attention economy; wrapped up in questions of representation and identity, democratic and demotic articulations; and utilised in various nationalist and transnational discourses. The relationship between binaries, core and periphery, major and minoritarian cultural forms will also be addressed. The questions that energise this call for paper are:

                What does stardom and celebrity mean in Asian regions? How has it been conceptualized?

                What impressions, economies and desires does it elicit? What problems and concerns does it provoke?

                What is its complex, diverse and multifarious relationship to Western experiences and practices, and global celebrity culture more                  generally?

Alongside the conference will be a free public screening event which will include the showing of four seminal ‘star vehicle’ films: from China, Japan, India, and South Korea. Each film will be introduced by a leading screen expert and will be followed by an industrial panel with leading star figures from those industries.

Topics to be addressed, complicated and critiqued could include:

Theorizing Stardom and Celebrity in Asian regions – textual and contextual approaches and provocations

National star and celebrity case studies

Digital Asian celebrity cultures

Asian political celebrity

Asian star and celebrity fandom

Asian global care ambassadors

Do-good Asian stars

Marketing Asian stardom and celebrity

Online Asian celebrity

Attention economies

Regulating desire – patriarchy, sexuality, religion

Asian star brands

The Asian celebrity influencer

DIY Asian celebrity

East to the West, the West to the East: transnational star passing

Race and ethnicity in the Asian star and celebrity context

Asian pop stars and belonging

Asian star and celebrity aesthetics

National and nationalist star Asian bodies

Empirical research on Asian stars and celebrities

Trans-Asian pop stars and fandom

Queer and transgendered Asian celebrities

Asian celebrity-turned-activists

Asian celebrities and public diplomacy

150-250 word abstracts for individual paper presentations or 750 word pre-constituted panel abstracts should be sent as a Word document tos.redmond@deakin.edu.au by 5 May 2019

For enquiries, please contact any of the organisation committee members:

Glen Donnar glen.donnar@rmit.edu.au

Shenshen Cai scai@swin.edu.au

Jian Xu j.xu@deakin.edu.au

Vikrant Kishore vikrant.kishore@deakin.edu.au

岩渕功一 koichi.iwabuchi@monash.edu

Sean Redmond s.redmond@deakin.edu.au