Researching inter-Asian audiovisual translation

Abstract

This paper first outlines the digital interaction and integration in the dynamic process of production, circulation and consumption of Asia-produced media that evoke the shared values and traditions among Asian audiences. It then introduces the papers collected in this special issue, which explore a variety of widespread but underexplored phenomena in the newly interconnected Asian cultural industries and the sites of digital convergence between production and consumption (digital prosumption). In regard to future research, it suggests that multidisciplinary expertise in and from the region should maintain a critical, dialogical connection with Western scholarship in order to contribute to a holistic understanding of the constantly evolving translational creativity in the global audiovisual world. Simultaneously, novel practices in new media habitats, such as danmaku-titling and video remixes, pose new conceptual and ethical challenges to the present scholarship in user-generated AVT and calls for further theoretical revision.