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This study sheds new light on Feng Xiaogang, one of China’s most successful film directors, through an investigation of how Personal Tailor (2013) engages with the guiding rhetoric and ideals underpinning the “Chinese Dream”. The authors demonstrate how the hybrid political–commercial–artistic critique of the Chinese Dream in Personal Tailor offers poignant commentary on China’s quest for national rejuvenation during a period when China continues to struggle with increasing social and economic inequalities. By foregrounding these complex tensions between political and economic rationalism, and their intersections with an imagined nostalgia as a key story-telling trope, this study shows how Feng and Personal Tailor are expanding the boundaries of contemporary Chinese cinema in a new era of globalized commercial culture.

BACKGROUND Social media platforms are crucial for public health and news media organizations in crisis communication with the public, as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, limited research on how these organizations use social media for communication may inhibit their public relations and community engagement in managing future crises. OBJECTIVE This study investigates early COVID-19 communication by four public health organizations and four news media organizations on Twitter and the public responses to these tweets. METHODS A mixed qualitative and quantitative data analysis was conducted. An unsupervised learning approach based on a convolutional neural network was used to classify the 15,711 tweets crawled from Twitter according to their meaning. The top 30 tweets in the validated 37 clusters were subjected to in-depth thematic analysis. Public responses to different content and communication strategies were then compared using descriptive statistics. RESULTS Six topics were identified: (1) case updates, (2) medical research and treatment information, (3) health instructions and suggestions, (4) impacts and consequences, (5) policies, methods and action, and (6) opinions and responses. Public health organizations tweeted most about "health instructions and suggestions" (52.6%) and least about "impacts and consequences" (2.7%). News media organizations tweeted most about "policies, methods and action" (28.1%) and least about "health instructions and suggestions" (3.6%). Public health organizations’ tweets about "medical research and treatment information" attracted the highest replies/tweet (24.4%), retweets/tweet (27.2%), and likes/tweet (27%). News media organizations’ tweets about "opinions and responses" attracted the highest replies/tweet (33.5%) and likes/tweet (23%) and "medical research and treatment information" attracted the highest retweets/tweet (21%). Both types of organizations received the fewest replies/tweet (10.6% vs 6.7%), retweets/tweet (9.4% vs 8.6%), and likes/tweet (8.8% vs 8.8%) about "impacts and consequences". The public was receptive "opinions and responses" for likes and replies for and "health instructions and suggestions" for retweets. They responded much less to "impacts and consequences" and "policies, methods and action". Five communication phases were identified: inception, awareness, panic, spreading, and co-habitant. For communication strategies, more hashtags used led to fewer public responses in the format of replies, retweets, and likes. Longer tweet text led to fewer retweets but no significant effect on replies or likes. An exception is that longer tweet text resulted in more retweets and likes about "medical research and treatment information", and more replies, retweets, and likes about "health instructions and suggestions". CONCLUSIONS Facing a public health crisis like COVID-19, the public engages more with social media content about pandemic updates and health instructions. To improve communication, more concise language and fewer hashtags may be used in when reporting factual pandemic information. Conversely, incorporating comprehensive details and a higher frequency of hashtags may be advantageous when providing health instructions.

This study investigates the rise of South Korea’s webtoon industry and the fan–translators who are contributing to the transformation of this entrepreneurial digital comics format. By analyzing the...

This study investigates some of the previously unrecognized reading, writing and sharing trends emerging across Asian-born popular digital webtoon and webnovel platforms. These particular sectors o...

Webtoons are fast cementing their place as a new sector of the digital media industries, with interest in this niche comic form increasing on a monthly basis across a range of platforms. To clarify this transformation, this article investigates the popular webtoon Cheese in the Trap, as well as its television series and film remakes, to illustrate the transmedia flows and participatory culture that underpin the extension of this new ‘IP-engine’. Next, it investigates the previously unrecognized contributions that fan translators – or what the authors call ‘transcreators’ – are making to the global spread of this format on Line Webtoon, the largest platform of its kind. The authors build on some significant previous studies – albeit with limited scope – by analyzing how webtoon series and the big data linked to them are transformed across multiple formats and platforms, how they are received by fans, and how cultural intermediaries are amplifying the impact and global spread of webtoons.

Since the early 2000s, the Korean Wave (aka Hallyu) has influenced Greater China in enterprising and complex ways that diverge from the ways in which Hallyu has impacted other markets. At the same time, since China joined the Word Trade Organization in 2001, art, culture and media production have been largely transformed from vehicles for state propaganda into new gateways for producing and showcasing popular commercial entertainment. Korean producers have played a significant role in this evolving transformation, albeit in a cultural space that the Government of Mainland China still uses and shapes as an important mouthpiece of the Party-state. While media headlines accentuate these progressive pathways, there is a dearth of scholarly commentary on the ways in which Korean film practitioners are contributing to this new era of cultural globalisation in China. To shed light on this emerging topic, the authors examine Chinese audiences’ reception of the Korean film Miss Granny (2014) and the most successful Korean–Chinese co-production to date, its Chinese remake 20 Once Again (2015). The article utilises data drawn from Douban, a major Chinese entertainment and popular culture social networking site, to assess the ‘inconspicuous’ impact of the cinematic component of the Korean Wave on Chinese cinema. In taking this approach, the authors seek to assess the importance of localized film content for Chinese audiences, as well as canvassing a range of hitherto unknown opinions about ‘Korean’ and ‘Chinese’ styles of storytelling.

This panel investigates how complex layers of trust and (dis)trust are surrounding and impacting on the fans, also known as ‘cultural intermediaries’, involved in the production, circulation, translation and remake of Korean and Chinese webtoon and webnovel platforms in Asia and among Asian users. Collectively, the panellists argue for a reconceptualisation of the concept of ‘Internet platform’. In so doing, we interrogate the concepts of ‘platformization’, ‘platform capitalism’ and ‘digital capitalism’ by asking: how, and with what effect, Korean and Chinese digital platforms – as well as their aggregated domestic and international users, are operating in the Asia Pacific, compared to more global ‘liberal’ platforms? Noting the activities of ‘digital champions’, such as the giant Korean search portal Naver, as well as China’s Kuaikan and Bilibili enterprises, which are now rapidly emerging in the shadows of their larger competitors: iQiyi (Baidu), Taobao (Alibaba), QQ (Tencent), collectively known as BAT. In sum, we show which Korean and Chinese webtoon and webnovel platforms are taking root in various regional territories and among regional audiences. Our intent is to illustrate how digital platforms (i.e. the globality of the internet) are refashioning the image of Korea and China, which is often viewed outside of their national borders as driven by an ideologically-free ‘broadband nirvana’ (Goldsmith et al. 2011), and tainted by authoritarian state, respectively. Accordingly, all four papers will consider how platform capitalism offers new ways to understand the outreach of both Korean and Chinese digital culture – from both economic and technological viewpoints.

In this empirical study of online leadership, analysis for movie recommendations on Douban, one of the biggest interest-oriented online Chinese-language social networking systems of its kind, we address the identification of the characteristics of key opinion leaders using a big data processing framework. As an illustrative case study, we focus on a niche subset of popular audience content on Douban: approximately a half million short comments regarding the top 94 most popular South Korean films produced between 2003 and 2012. Raw data samples, including film details, review comments, and user profiles, are harvested via one asynchronous scraping crawler, and then their heterogeneous features are manipulated accordingly. Finally, a parallel association rule-mining (ARM) algorithm is employed for revealing leadership patterns. The proposed framework explains how to extract high-level features that can then be used to gauge the effectiveness of these so-called key leaders and their ability to generate word-of-mouth (WOM) awareness and interest surrounding their recommendations. In turn, researchers can edge closer to determining the kind of charismatic `soft power' appeal of leading reviewers and reviews that are facilitating among follower networks new opportunities to evaluate a film and ultimately to decide to view it.

In conventional metamorphic testing, metamorphic relations (MRs) are identified as necessary properties of a computer program's intended functionality, whereby violations of MRs reveal faults in the program---under the assumption that the source and follow-up inputs (test cases used in metamorphic testing) are valid. In the present study, the authors argue that MRs can also be used to validate and assess the quality of the program's input data---under the assumption that the source or follow-up inputs can be inappropriately generated. Using this new perspective, a case study in the natural language processing domain is used to explore the different types of text messages that are difficult to interpret by (Chinese-English) machine translation. A total of 46,180 short user comments on Personal Tailor (a 2013 Chinese film), collected from Douban (a popular Chinese social media platform), has been used as the primary dataset of this study, and the analysis of results demonstrates that the proposed MR-based data validation method is useful for the automatic identification of poorly translated text messages.

Webtoons are fast becoming a new part of the expanding digital media industries, with interest in this niche comic form increasing on a monthly basis across a range of mobile apps and online websites. The major South Korean web service provider Naver has developed a pioneering global webtoon platform called ‘Line Webtoon’, which is accessible across multiple markets and in multiple languages throughout East Asia. Given this reach and its impact on cultural transactions, this chapter argues that one of Naver’s most significant, yet overlooked, contributions to the thriving digital environment across Asia is made by the amateur user-translators, or transcreators, who localize webtoon content across 32 different languages. Seeking to explain how this inherently transnational cultural practice is undergoing rapid transformation, this chapter examines how a coterie of volunteer translators are generating value-co-creation for Naver, the webtoon industry and the global media industry more broadly through their digital transcreation activities. In so doing, the chapter engages with the concept of cultural transactions and the critical role of intermediaries in furnishing exchange across cultures.

Official film co-production treaties are designed by policymakers to stimulate a range of collaborations, technology transfers, and joint funding initiatives in the industry. Since July 2004, the Chinese government has used this top-down approach to cultural diplomacy as a symbolic tool for advancing Chinese cinema and opening the domestic market to a host of willing international partners. Korean filmmakers in particular have exploited the (often informal) opportunities presented, engaging in vigorous cooperation with Chinese colleagues across all sectors of the production ecosystem. The continuing flow of Chinese–Korean transnational film encounters, underpinned by influential personal networks, resulted in the signing of a formal China–Korea co-production agreement in July 2014. To examine the efficacy of this policy intervention, this article analyzes the diversity of film collaboration that preceded this agreement and its impact on transnational filmmaking in China. It investigates the strategies use...

This article explores how technicians working in the cinema exhibition arm of the Korean conglomerate CJ Global are pioneering the diffusion of four-dimensional (4D) motion widescreen cinema technology. It analyzes the 4D work-flow processes being developed to connect Asian and Hollywood films with local audiences via motion and environmental special effects, as well as some of the cultural assumptions underlying this new technology transfer. As a case study, this article investigates how the Korean 4D team in Beijing is seeking to appeal to Chinese audiences through this innovative process, while assisting CJ Global’s expansion across China and the world. This study sheds light on a new type of inconspicuous transnational collaboration that is enabling Korean post-production practitioners to contribute to the expansion of the film industry in China and its integration of technical innovation and ideas from outside the country.

This article investigates the significant re-orientation of audio-visual production in East Asia over the last few years brought about by the rise of China, beginning with the proposition that unprecedented change is occurring in East Asian media production. While the ‘Sinophone world’ has been the locus of critical analysis in the past, all eyes are now focused on China. Flows of knowledge, expertise and content are becoming significant in this mediascape, yet this dimension has been overlooked by most scholarship in the field. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks based on cross-border consumption of East Asian content require urgent revision. This article shows how media collaborations are changing global media practice and East Asian media flows through a variety of contemporary international collaborations, as well as relevant policy frameworks that impact, positively or negatively, productions by international partners working in film, television and online and mobile video content.

With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic and its inevitable consequences in education, increased demand for robust online learning frameworks has occurred at all levels of the education system. Given the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms, there have been determined attempts through the design and application of intelligent tools to overcome existing challenges in online learning platforms. Accordingly, educational providers and researchers are investigating and developing intelligent online learning environments which share greater commonalities with real-world classroom conditions in order to better meet learners' needs. However, short attention spans and the widespread use of smart devices and social media bring about new e-learning systems known as microlearning (ML). While there has been ample research investigating ML and developing micro-content, pedagogical challenges and a general lack of alternative frameworks, theories and practices still exist. The present models have little to say about the connections between social interaction, including learner–content, learner–instructor and learner–learner communication. This has prompted us to investigate the complementary aspects of Computer-supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) as an interactive learning model, along with an embedded ML module in the design and development of a comprehensive learning platform. The purpose of this study is to explore the pedagogical frameworks and challenges with reference to interaction and retention in online learning environments, as well as the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of ML and its applications. In addition, we delve into the theories and principles behind CSCL, the main elements in CSCL, identifying the issues and challenges to be faced in improving the efficacy of collaboration processes and outcomes. In short, we aim to synthesize how microlearning and CSCL can be applied as effective modules within a comprehensive online learning platform, thereby offering STEM educators a relevant roadmap towards progress that has yet to be offered in previous studies.

The 1927–1928 Royal Commission on the Moving Picture Industry in Australia sought to strengthen the domestic film industry's competitiveness against foreign investment, technology and manpower. Although it concluded before the wide-scale rollout of sound exhibition, it began collecting evidence after the coming of sound had already begun to make waves. Beginning in 1924 and continuing beyond the Commission, agents of the US De Forest Phonofilms company, primed the local market for sound through a series of publicity events. Their activities lead the local trade press to dub the Australian Phonofilms franchise as the instigator of a ‘Talkie War’, challenging the Commission's ability to curtail the expansion of human capital and technology from the USA. Within a year of its conclusion, agents from the US Western Electric company arrived in Australia to wire the major capital city theatres with sound. Initially, this strengthened Hollywood's foothold in ways that the Commission was anxious to avoid. Hoyts Th...

The authors examine how Chinese film and television companies have collaborated with their counterparts in South Korea during the past decade. The first part of the chapter challenges the concept of cultural and media ‘flows’, arguing that processes and technologies have probably been more instrumental in transforming the Chinese media industries. Whereas the generic term ‘flows’ applies to finished content, an increase in film co-production and formatting activity in the television industry between the two nations leads us to examine other factors including professional relationships and the exchange of creative ideas and technology. The next section looks at the Chinese government’s ‘going out’ strategy through the 2014 film co-production agreement with South Korea, and the post-production collaboration that followed it. We then examine some examples of television collaboration and how this is helping to raise China’s profile in East Asia, where it is inevitably tarred with the negative image of the Chinese Communist Party. The question that arises is: will such East Asian collaboration efforts enable or impede China’s media dream of reaching out to the world stage?

This article explores the trajectory of Song Kang-ho’s on-screen performances from the release of his fourth film, Number 3 (1997), to one of his most recent films, Thirst (2009). As a case study, it reveals new insights about this popular and representative actor’s numerous screen personae and how they have enabled audiences to peer into a cinematic surface that reflects back a mixture of anti-heroism and pantomime. Beneath the many costumes and performance styles he adopts, audiences have come to see a human being with everyday problems and concerns. In a way reminiscent of the French pantomime clown Pierrot, Song’s characters reflect a depth of human feeling and compassion modulated by a comic undercurrent—the tension between these overlapping layers is precisely what holds his various personae together.

Introduction: Introducing "Planet Hallyuwood" Part 1: The Golden Age of the 1960s 1 Hypergrowth of the Propaganda Factory and the Producing Paradox 2 At the Crossroads of Directing and Politics 3 Genre Intersections and the Literary Film 4 Feasting on Asian Alliances: Hong Kong Co-productions and Japanese Remakes Part 2: The Dark Age of the 1970s and Hollywood's Domination in the Aftermath 5 Policy and Producing Under Hollywood's Shadow in the 1970s and 1980s 6 Robust Invalids in a New Visual Era: Directing in the 1970s and 1980s 7 Weapons of Mass Distraction: The Erotic Film Genres of the 1970s and 1980s Part 3: The Golden Age of the Post-censorship Era 8 The Rise of the New Corporate and Female Producers 9 The Rise of the Female Writer-Director and the Changing Face of Korean Cinema10 Genre Transformations in Contemporary Korean Cinema 11 Korean Transnational Cinema and the Renewed Tilt Toward China 12 Conclusion Welcome to Planet Hallyuwood

Between 1926 and 1936, cinema in colonial Korea was a vibrant business, involving the production of domestic films and the distribution and exhibition of American, British, Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Russian films. During this decade, the first golden age of American cinema in Korea, Hollywood films overwhelmingly dominated the Korean market. Korea was an important territory that Hollywood used in its overall global expansion campaign. Amid this globalization operation, the Government-General of Chōsen’s film censorship apparatus was a financially self-sustaining operation. It paid for its operation by profiteering from the application of more than 6,700 American and 630 other countries’ feature and nonfeature films, a vast majority of which were approved with minor, if any, censorship changes. The Government-General’s systematization of film censorship policies was intended to obstruct Communist, revolutionary, and later, socialist themes rather than “Western” themes—at least until the late 1930s, when the Japanese Department of Home Affairs began banning the import of American films and the Government-General intensified the suppression of Korean culture.

This article analyses the distinct local responses to the coming of sound to the Australian cinema and examines the reactions to the American modernisation of the motion picture industry. The story documents how sound technology was promoted by the trade press, inventors, and the American electrical companies, each with a different agenda. The most active Australian sound systems and companies are discussed and located within the context of modernity. Film Weekly and Everyones, Australia's two major film industry trade magazines at the time, promoted the coming of sound as a technology battle—a ‘Talkie War’. Hollywood film distributors were portrayed as military victors in a ‘war’ to wire Australia with American technology. It is hoped to offer a richer and more complex understanding of the rise and development of sound technology by presenting new research on this, a largely unknown aspect of Australian film history.

This study considers the recurring themes contained in selected films shown in Korea before and after Japan’s defeat to offer insights into how Japanese and US occupation authorities attempted to capture the hearts and minds of the occupied. In order to show how this theoretically worked, this chapter examines two of the most notable co-productions from the early 1940s, Homeless Angels (Choi In-gyu, 1941) and Suicide Squad at the Watchtower (Imai Tadashi, 1943, hereafter Suicide Squad). This investigation also includes a number of Hollywood films shown in Korea between 1946 and 1948, such as In Old Chicago (1937) and You Can’t Take It with You (1938). In each case, the occupation authorities screened films to reorient Korean audiences toward their social, political and economic worldview. Despite tremendous scope, most histories of the Japanese and US occupation periods lack a rigorous discussion of this significant cultural policy.1 Furthermore, conventional accounts of cinema in Korea only address the struggles that Korean filmmakers experienced during both eras, highlighting the limitations that threatened the expression of local culture.2 This investigation builds upon these former studies by providing a complementary viewpoint on how such screenings resulted in complex intersections between cinema, culture, and politics, before and after Japan’s defeat in 1945.