Edited By Zhen Zhang, Sangjoon Lee, Debashree Mukherjee, Intan Paramaditha

A collaborative project that started in the throes of Covid-19, with editors located across 3 continents, the Asian Cinemas volume will finally be out this summer.

Asian cinema studies, at the intersection of film/media and area studies, has rapidly expanded and transformed under the impact of globalization, compounded by the resurgence of a variety of nationalist discourses, sentiments, and institutions, as well as counter-discourses, new socio-political movements, and the possibilities afforded by digital media. Differentiated experiences of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have further heightened interest in local politics and cultural activism, newer media and the digital everyday, and a renewed geopolitical divide between East and West and between North and South. A new “companion” to Asian cinemas therefore feels necessary and urgent in these times.