Trans–East Asia as methodthat facilitate dialogue and mutual learning among citizens on different sides of various divides,
including government officials, members of the mass media, representatives of NGOs and NPOs,
citizen activists, and concerned individuals. As producers, translators, and coordinators of critical
knowledge, researchers can serve an important function in the instituting of a dialogic learning
process in society in which diverse citizens personally and collectively transform themselves and
foster alternative views of the self–other, the nation, and the world.
Trans–East Asia as method aims to transnationally extend our commitment to the local by
taking the East Asian connection as a strategic focal point. As such, with a cosmopolitan scope
and relevance, it collaboratively aspires to enhance a sense of sharedness and togetherness across
borders. In a world of intense digitalized communication and interconnection, so many issues
and diverse voices are “sharable but not necessarily or inevitably shared” (Silverstone 2006, 91).
To tackle globally shared issues such as the violent impact of global capitalism, the widening gap
between rich and poor, grave environmental problems, expanding transnational ethno-cultural
flows and growing cultural diversity, and the rise of jingoism and racism, learning from the expe-
riences of other cultures and societies, and conversing about transnationally common issues is
required now more than ever. As Prasenjit Duara (2011, 982) argues, “we need to recognize our
interdependence and foster transnational consciousness in our education and cultural institu-
tions, not at the cost but for the cost of our national attachments.” The transnational circulation
of popular culture interconnects East Asia both spatially and temporally, materially and imag-
inatively, as well as dialogically, unevenly, and antagonistically. It highlights historically consti-
tuted relationships in East Asia and draws attention to regionally and globally shared emergent
issues. As such, popular culture does play a significant public role—affectively, communicatively,
and participatorily—in the promotion of the transnational commons and cross-border dialogue
over those issues. Collaboratively pursuing such radical potentials, Trans–East Asia as method
is an imperative call to all researchers of East Asian popular culture for it will be meaningfully
achieved only by forming transnational collaborations beyond the nation and the region.
Notes
1 In my own research on the regional consumption of Japanese and Hong Kong media cultures, I also
tend to look at how audiences became more critical of their own lives and society as well as the percep-
tion of other cultures without closely analyzing how gender or ethnicity is represented in the original
texts. See Iwabuchi (2002, 2004, 2008).
2 A Report by the Discussion Group on the Promotion of Cultural Diplomacy (Bunka gaiko no suishin nikasuru
kondankai houkokusho), July 2005.
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