Our projects
Divine Work: Japanese Colonial Cinema and it legacy
The Greater East Asian Film Sphere’ was a term that came into existence around 1941. Linked into the Japanese imperialist idea of ‘the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity sphere’, the GEAFS was part of a pan-Asianist moment that was at the heart of the Japanese theorization (and justification) of their Empire. This project has been funded by the ARHC, the Great British Sasakawa Foundation and the British Academy and is due for publication as a monograph study in early 2014. Conference papers and collected edition book chapters have already been presented as part of this project. This project has involved new and never-done archival research and has unearthed several new and dynamic developments in our understanding and evaluation of Japanese colonial Cinema.
East Asian Journal of Popular Culture
Bangor is the home for the new international journal, East Asian Journal of Popular Culture. It is the first academic peer-reviewed journal for scholars, teachers, and students from around the world who have an active and passionate interest in the Popular Culture of East Asia. The journal is devoted to all aspects of popular culture in East Asia and the interplay between East Asia and the wider world. With the growth in popularity of Asian visual products in the Western world and the increasing strength of the Asian markets, this publication fulfills the need for an international journal that allows Western and Asian film, media, literary, music, fashion, digital media, television, art and cultural scholars alike to engage in discussion. In the last few decades there has been a huge rise in the interest in East Asian popular culture. The East Asian Journal of Popular Culture engages directly with that trend. From film to music; art to translation and fashion to tourism, this journal offers a forum where multidisciplinary work can come together in new and exciting ways.