As the chapters of this volume have demonstrated, the rise of East Asian popular culture, its
coproduction, circulation, and consumption in the region, and the generation of new kinds
of cross-border connections, have been studied extensively over the past twenty years. Given
that the trajectory of these ongoing trends is towards complexity, it is vital to regularly make a
contextualized examination of emerging cases and issues. Reflecting on the subjects covered by
the other chapters in this section, this chapter considers some significant issues pertaining to the
study of East Asian popular culture connection and suggests future directions for research. It will
discuss the limitations of and impediments to cross-border connections and how those connec-
tions have been shaped by the internationalizing forces generated by the interplay of industries,
markets, and state policies. Finally this chapter will propose a collaborative project—trans–East
Asia as method—to critically and effectively engage with these predicaments.
The economy of attention in East asian popular culture connection
Many chapters in this volume have argued that one of the most significant issues regarding the
rise of East Asian popular culture and its regional circulation is the articulation of various expe-
riences of modernization and globalization in East Asian contexts and the mutual referencing
and sharing of those experiences in terms of changing social relations, urbanization, and cul-
tural mixing. Mutual recognition of similar and different experiences is not just significant for
researchers’ theorization from Asian experiences but also for people’s critical reflection on their
own lives and their everyday practice of dealing with issues such as gender, sexuality, working
conditions, interpersonal relationships, and social justice. As discussed in Chapter 2, popular
culture flows have been advancing cross-border dialogic connections in East Asia, but cultural
globalization is fundamentally an uneven process. East Asian popular culture connection has
generated cross-boundary disparities, divisions, indifference, antagonism, and marginalization as
well as dialogue. We are also required to closely examine what kinds of connections and whose
voices are eventually promoted through media texts, and to take notice of what types of issues
are being disregarded in the emerging cultural public sphere. Disparity in the material accessi-
bility to popular culture and digital communication technologies is still a crucial issue in many
parts of the world. Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2015, a statistical report issued by the Asian
Development Bank, states that in more than one-third of the economies in the Asia and Pacific