UI Press | Edited by Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Larry E. Smith, and Wimal Dissanayake | Transnational Asia Pacific: Gender, Culture, and the Public Sphere

Transnational Asia Pacific

Gender, Culture, and the Public Sphere

This timely collection provides a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex cultural effects of emerging global capitalisms and modernities in the Asia Pacific region. Geographically, this vast territory encompasses Japan, the newly industrialized states of East Asia and China, the Southeast Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, the South Sea Islands, and the Pacific coast of North America. Culturally and conceptually, its reach is even more extensive. Departing from the exclusive focus on economic and political issues that has dominated analyses of the region, Transnational Asia Pacific assesses the relation of gender to development, education, and culture. Contributors explore the psychosocial and linguistic processes through which women's selves are constructed, the role of popular culture and mass media in shaping new female identities, and the consequences for men's and women's lives of the state's response to modernization and global capitalism. Cutting to the heart of key cultural issues, Transnational Asia Pacific advances our understanding of the dynamics of cultural globalization and their impacts on Asian social communities.