Lifestyle Media in Asia: Consumption, Aspiration and Identity (Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia)

Across Asia, consumer culture is increasingly shaping everyday life, with neoliberal economic and social policies increasingly adopted by governments who see their citizens as individualised, sovereign consumers with choices about their lifestyles and identities. One aspect of this development has been the emergence of new wealthy middle classes with lifestyle aspirations shaped by national, regional and global media – especially by a range of new popular lifestyle media, which includes magazines, television and mobile and social media. This book explores how far everyday conceptions and experiences of identity are being transformed by media cultures across the region. It considers a range of different media in different Asian contexts, contrasting how the shaping of lifestyles in Asia differs from similar processes in Western countries, and assessing how the new lifestyle media represents not just a new emergent media culture, but also illustrates wider cultural and social changes in the Asian region. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures List of contributors Acknowledgements Foreword: Rethinking consumption in economic recessionary East Asia Consumption in Asia: after the new rich generation Consumerism in Asia Entering the era of economic recession or slow growth New dimensions for research in consumption Notes References 1. Lifestyle media in Asia: Consumption, aspiration and identity Consumption: compressed modernities, new middle classes, and the “neoliberal” turn Aspiration: middle-class imaginaries Identity: lifestyle media and subject (trans)formation Lifestyle media in Asia Note References 2. Neoliberal capitalism and media representation in Korean television series: Subversion and sustainability Defining terms: just sustainability and social enterprises Subversive desires and Queen of the Office The co-op boom and sustainable living: The Human Condition Conclusion Notes References 3. Family, aesthetic authority and class identity in the shadow of neoliberal modernity: The cultural politics of China’s Exchanging Spaces Economic reform and the commercialization of everyday life From at your service to lifestyle TV Family values and modern aesthetics: the negotiations among authority, community and neoliberal individualism Neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics? Family values as mediator between old and new models of modernization Notes References 4. Mediatization of yangsheng: The political and cultural economy of health education through media in China Celebrity gurus and gullible consumers: yangsheng as a media phenomenon Yangsheng as a field of contestation Conclusion References 5. The Pink Ribbon Campaign in Chinese fashion magazines: Celebrity, luxury lifestyles and consumerism Celebrities as embodiment of self-responsible subjecthood Breast cancer: a chance for class mobility through consumption Pink Ribbon Campaign: a global force situated in the Chinese context Conclusion Notes References 6. Empresses in the Palace and the “neoliberalization through China” project in Taiwan Neoliberal governmentality in Taiwan Neoliberalization through China The economization of culture and TV as an everyday network of government Historical TV dramas, Empresses in the Palace and “elite networks” Workplace literature and the production of authoritarian neoliberal working subjects in Taiwan Conclusion: neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics in Taiwan Notes References 7. Media and cultural cosmopolitanism: Asian women in transnational flows Media and reflexivity in everyday life Female individualization Transnational mobility Cosmopolitanism: beyond global consumer culture? Conclusion Acknowledgements Note References 8. Differential (im)mobilities: Imaginative transnationalism in Taiwanese women’s travel TV Unmarried middle-class women: demographic trends and media imaginaries Travel television in Taiwan TLC Taiwan: women imagining lifestyle mobility Traveling solo: pink travel TV and the single girl The limits of mobility? Acknowledgements Notes References 9. Locating the mobile: Intergenerational locative media in Tokyo, Shanghai and Melbourne Genealogies of locative media in Shanghai Genealogies of locative media in Tokyo Genealogies of locative media in Melbourne Conclusion Acknowledgements Note References 10. Dishing up diversity?: Class, aspirationalism and Indian food television A serving of cheese and broccoli: taste, consumption and cookery shows Food to go: culinary tourism and critical cosmopolitanism Vicarious consumption and the urban middle classes “It is a competition, not really for learning”: cookery shows and utilitarianism The dialectics of lifestyle television Acknowledgements Notes References 11. Islam’s got talent: Television, performance and the Islamic public sphere in Malaysia Ordinary Malays and the Islamic public sphere Global formats and local identities Malay modernity, the media and the performance of Islam From FELDA to the world Young imams perform Islam Concluding remarks Notes References Index 10. Dishing up diversity?: Class, aspirationalism and Indian food television -- 11. Islam's got talent: Television, performance and the Islamic public sphere in Malaysia -- Index -- Consumption in Asia: after the new rich generation -- Consumerism in Asia -- Entering the era of economic recession or slow growth -- New dimensions for research in consumption -- Notes -- References -- Consumption: compressed modernities, new middle classes, and the "neoliberal" turn -- Aspiration: middle-class imaginaries -- Identity: lifestyle media and subject (trans)formation -- Lifestyle media in Asia -- Note