Celebrity Studies
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Internationalising Celebrity Studies: turning
towards Asia
Jian Xu, Glen Donnar & Vikrant Kishore
To cite this article: Jian Xu, Glen Donnar & Vikrant Kishore (2021) Internationalising
Celebrity Studies: turning towards Asia, Celebrity Studies, 12:2, 175-185, DOI:
10.1080/19392397.2021.1912069
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CELEBRITY STUDIES
2021, VOL. 12, NO. 2, 175–185
https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2021.1912069
Internationalising Celebrity Studies: turning towards Asia
Jian Xu
a
, Glen Donnar
b
and Vikrant Kishorea
a
School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; bSchool of Media and
Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
KEYWORDS Asian celebrity; Asian stardom; celebrity studies; internationalisation
Introduction
Celebrity Studies is a growing interdisciplinary field; its members use diverse theoretical
and methodological approaches to explore cultures of celebrity and an eclectic range of
subjects. The field’s development, maturation and, in Franssen’s words (2020, p. 494),
‘ever-expanding universe’ is intertwined with the journal that bears its name, Celebrity
Studies. Over the 10 years since its inauguration, Celebrity Studies has recognised the
critical potential of analysing celebrity from a diversity of perspectives and encouraged
provocative pieces that signal new research directions (Franssen 2020). However, as Su
Holmes recognises in her valedictory editorial (Holmes et al. 2019), Western celebrities
and cultures continue to dominate the field. Likewise, in their recent special issue on Star
Studies’ perceived ‘mid-life crisis’, Shingler and Steenberg (2019) share their concerns
about (the difficulty to arrest) the shared Western centricity of star and celebrity studies.
Almost despite itself, Celebrity Studies remains Anglo-centric, largely focused on the
global North, and predominated by Euro-American case studies. Moving the field for­
wards, its next phase of growth will benefit from greater attention to largely uncultivated
local diversities beyond Western ideo-geographical and sociocultural contexts. As the
world’s most populous continent, Asia has increasingly vibrant media, entertainment and
celebrity industries. Stardom and celebrity are a central part of its globally expanding
media, cultural and entertainment economies, interconnected and divided by numerous
distinct national imaginaries and transnational vectors. Yet far from matching its boom­
ing, lucrative, and globalising entertainment and cultural industries, English-language
celebrity scholarship has paid insufficient attention to Asian examples, or the complex
and multifarious relationship between Asian and Western practices and perspectives on
stardom, celebrity and fandom. This is borne out by statistical analysis of articles pub­
lished in Celebrity Studies. Since its inaugural issue through to the end of 2020, less than
10% of the near 500 articles (excluding book reviews) published in the journal discuss
Asian stardom or celebrity. Checks of the ‘Top 30 most read articles’ and ‘Top 30 most
cited articles’ amplify this, with only one Asia-focused article on each list. As imperfect as
these statistics are, it is apparent that even in a journal that rightfully prides itself on
encouraging a diversity of approaches and perspectives, Asian subjects have been pro­
foundly under-represented.
CONTACT Jian Xu
j.xu@deakin.edu.au
Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood VIC 3125, Australia
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
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Why and how to internationalise Celebrity Studies: Starring Asia
Celebrity studies sits at the intersection of a range of disciplines and fields – its great
strength – with media and cultural studies the ‘most energetic hub’ (Holmes and
Redmond 2010). Olivier Driessens (2014, p. 115), adapting Nick Couldry, defines celebrity
cultures as ‘collections of sense-making practices whose main resources of meaning are
celebrity’. Driessens asserts that this simple transposition can help better explain what
celebrity cultures are because
It is not only about the collective of specific celebrities themselves, but also about the
industry that produces them and the different commodities built around them that people
consume, about the different meanings attached to celebrities, and about what people do
and say in relation to celebrity.
The deep connection between celebrity cultures and media cultures is evident in the close
association between celebrities and celebrity industry with popular media (from film and
TV to social media, short-video and live-streaming apps) and the cultural production,
circulation and consumption surrounding them. In Turner’s words, ‘the production of
celebrity articulates with varying patterns of media regulation, production and consump­
tion’ (2010, p. 16). It is little wonder then that scholars in celebrity studies are trained and
engage in media, cultural, star and new/social media studies. Yet as Marcus (2015) argues,
celebrity cultures are changing alongside radical shifts in media platforms, formats and
channels.
The need to internationalise media and cultural studies has been broadly advocated
since the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the deepening globalisation of
global media and cultural industries (Curran and Park 2000, Abbas and Nguyet Erni
2005, Livingstone 2007, Thussu 2009, Iwabuchi 2014). Acknowledging the limitations of
the epistemological essentialism rooted in Anglo-American academic traditions, these
pioneer scholars advocated for engagement with diverse locales and intellectual tradi­
tions in non-Western societies, and adopting a comparative, transnational, or interna­
tional approach to de-Westernise the disciplines. Specifically, some stressed the
importance of studying Asia due to its crucial role in transnational media and cultural
flows, and the complexity and diversity of its media and popular cultural practices. Daya
Thussu (2009, p. 18) contends that any meaningful attempt to internationalise media
studies must consider ‘the rise of Asia’, especially China and India. The dramatic economic
growth of the two ancient civilisations, and the associated increasing global media and
cultural impact are firmly creating ‘globalization with an Asian accent’. Thussu (2014)
concludes that the rise of ‘Chindian’ soft power is leading the challenge to US-dominated
media and cultural hegemony.
According to Nguyet Erni and Chua (2005), the history of ‘Asian media studies’ can be
traced to the 1960s and has experienced three overlapping stages, from ‘appropriation for
legitimacy’ (1960s–1970s) and ‘self-legitimacy through rejecting western cultural imperi­
alism’ (late 1970s-early 1990s) through to ‘critical legitimacy through deconstructive
postcolonial tactics’ (early 1990s-present). Historically, Asian media scholars have uneasily
negotiated subject positions by mixing Western concepts, theories and methods with
local cultures, politics and media practices. Koichi Iwabuchi (2014, p. 47) proposes ‘interAsian referencing’ as a way to de-Westernise media and cultural studies. The approach
CELEBRITY STUDIES
177
advocates transcending the ‘West/Rest paradigm’ by ‘promoting dialogue among diverse
voices and perspectives derived and developed in Asian contexts’. As he argues
By re-embracing deep-seated western inflections in a global scale, inspired inter-Asian
comparison and referencing aims to refreshingly elucidate and theorise specific processes
in which the experiences of Asian modernisations have been formulated, whereby knowl­
edge production derived from Asian experiences leads to the articulation of visions and
values that are translocally relevant for transmuting not just Asian societies, but also
European societies and the world as a whole. (Iwabuchi 2014, p. 47)
In addition to advocacy for an Asian focus and approach, the establishment of germane
academic associations (e.g. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society, Chinese Communication
Association, The East Asian Popular Culture Association), and launch of numerous scho­
larly book series (e.g. Routledge’s ‘Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia’, Hong Kong
University Press’s ‘TransAsia: Screen Cultures’, Rowman & Littlefield’s ‘Asian Cultural
Studies: Transnational and Dialogic Approach’) and dedicated academic journals (e.g.
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, Asian Journal of
Communication) have significantly increased the visibility of Asian media and cultural
studies, and promoted the formation of academic community across borders and
disciplines.
Extending calls to internationalise media and cultural studies through an Asian ‘turn’,
we similarly advocate for greater attention to Asian contexts, perspectives and practices
to internationalise Celebrity Studies. Asia offers complex and unique context(s) to study
celebrities and celebrity cultures, a region where transnational media flows intensify,
cultural hybridisation prevails, (post)colonialism and nationalism collide, and diverse
historical and political traditions co-exist. This Asian Celebrity Studies requires more
than merely conducting Asian case studies or applying Western concepts, theories and
methods to the same. Instead, it will profit from the greater visibility of empirical research
by Asian scholars, non-Asian scholars with Asian language-cultural proficiency, and inter­
cultural research collaborations that encourage historically informed analyses of inter­
connected national, inter-Asian and transnational contexts, and genuine cross-cultural
dialogue and productive intersections between East and West. The enhanced critical
analysis of Asian celebrities and celebrity cultures will help develop international under­
standings of celebrities and refine or challenge dominant theories. By embracing the
‘reciprocal listening’, ‘cross-border dialogue’, and ‘transcultural approach for comparative
research’ promoted by Asian media and cultural scholars (Thussu 2009, Iwabuchi 2014),
Celebrity Studies can address stubborn epistemological limitations and decolonise the
field.
Research on Asian celebrity and stardom: some trends and gaps
A pervasive force in twenty-first-century society, celebrity culture is constituted through
dynamic interplays between celebrities, media, culture, economy, and politics. As
a culturally local but also global phenomenon, the ‘operation of a celebrity culture’ is
always ‘embedded in national and transnational cultures’ (Marshall 2006, p. 9). Therefore,
its study requires both local knowledge and a transnational horizon to identify its geocultural and geopolitical distinctions, as well as its interconnections with celebrity cultures
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in other national contexts. Case studies remain the most popular method in researching
celebrities and celebrity cultures. Scholars typically start from a particular celebrity phe­
nomenon within a certain national or transnational context and employ a range of
qualitative sub-methods, including textual analysis, discourse analysis, interview, and
(digital) ethnography, to examine their example/s. As a dynamic region, Asia offers unique
(and not so unique) historical, social, cultural and political contexts, as well as a range of
related celebrity phenomena. Studying Asian celebrity and stardom will expand the
current research agenda in Celebrity Studies and holds the potential to innovate theore­
tical and methodological developments. The scope of under-researched, locally specific
celebrity phenomena is far-reaching. The below merely posits some initial, clear trends
and directions for potential research, focusing on Japan, India, China, and South Korea
because they have the most developed celebrity cultures and industries in Asia and the
most global impact.
Since at least the 1980s, Japan has been a powerhouse of Asian popular culture.
Japanese drama, film, music, animation, and games have been widely consumed globally
and profoundly influenced the region’s pop culture industries (Iwabuchi 2002, Tsutsui
2010, Allen and Sakamoto 2014, Freedman and Slade 2017). The global reach of Japanese
popular culture has been used to evidence cultural glocalisation (reinventing Western
pop culture for Asian consumption) and ‘decentring globalization’ (Japan-centred trans­
national cultural flows in Asia and beyond) (Iwabuchi 2002). Yet compared to the exten­
sive scholarship on Japanese popular culture, its idols and celebrities are relatively
overlooked. Patrick W. Galbraith and Jason G. Karlin’s Idols and Celebrity in Japanese
Media Culture (2012) arguably remains the most comprehensive English-language volume
on such celebrity. As they observe, although idol culture is the most prominent char­
acteristic of Japanese popular culture it has been seriously overlooked in scholarly
debates. They argue that the study of Japanese celebrity culture would significantly
contribute to ‘global and comparative analysis of media systems’ and ‘productive dialo­
gue with celebrity studies and media theory’ (Galbraith and Karlin 2012, p. 2). Indeed, the
widespread adoption of its cutthroat idol training, production and management (Jimusho)
system throughout Asia alone deserves greater scholarly attention. Additional subjects
could include the paradoxical pressures on idols to be perfect and accessible, the fan
desires generated by celebrities (e.g. cutesy idol, AV idol, and flower boy idol), and
perception of celebrity idols in countries where strong historical anti-Japanese nationa­
listic sentiments persist, such as China and South Korea.
Nowhere is the long-standing interconnectivity between stardom and celebrity
observed by Shingler and Steenberg (2019) clearer than in India. In Bollywood cinema,
which has dominated the imagination of South Asian filmgoing audiences for more than
a century, stars, rather than narrative or genre, have always been the biggest drawcard. Lal
and Nandy (2006) and Dwyer (2006), following Dyer and McDonald (1998), recognise that
Bollywood stars have long been constructed as commodities. Beyond selling stories and
attracting audiences, this celebrity is uniquely exploited through politics, social outreach,
and product endorsements, with stars genuinely countenanced for their views on poli­
tical, social, economic, and religious issues, albeit not without controversy. Offering ample
potential for scholarship on idolatry, Dwyer and Patel (2002) and Bhattacharya (2013)
argue that audience admiration and affection for Bollywood stars are similar to the
darshan (worship) of the Hindu gods; with this veneration leading to many fan-built
CELEBRITY STUDIES
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temples (Kishore 2014). In recent years, the tenuous dichotomy between stardom and
celebrity has been sundered by the rise of social media, with the consequent ‘celebrifica­
tion’ of Bollywood creating ever greater interest in its stars (Nayar 2009, p. 68). Most
recently, the alleged suicide of rising star Sushant Singh Rajput in 2020 sparked the
creation of emotionally charged international fan groups on social media to pressure
police to investigate his case. The Indian media followed suit, even side-lining coverage of
the unfolding Covid-19 pandemic. Rajput’s case – and subsequent insinuations against his
partner, actress Rhea Chakraborty – not only confirms the global consumption of Indian
celebrities/stars, but also the importance of examining Indian diasporic fandom’s soft
power role and reassessing the relationship between celebrities and fans globally.
China has the largest media and entertainment market in the Asia Pacific and is second
only to the US worldwide (De Ritis and Si 2016). In China’s socialist market economy,
media and entertainment industries are complexly subject to both neoliberal market
ideology (as a robust growth engine for the national economy) and socialist ideology
(as a means for propaganda and ‘edutainment’). Accordingly, the social responsibilities of
and public expectations on celebrities, as well as celebrity power and politics, are vastly
different from the West. As the public face of the media and entertainment industries,
celebrities must painstakingly struggle between market logic (to seek attention, fame and
economic gain) and Party logic (to pass on ‘positive energy’ to influence people’s hearts
and minds) (Xu and Zhao 2019). China’s market-oriented, Party-controlled media and
cultural industries, as well as its socialist ‘role model’ legacies, have created a unique
ecosystem for celebrity production, performance (persona), and governance, such as the
official call to cap stars’ sky-high salaries (Xu and Jeffreys 2020), bans of ‘tainted’ celebrities
(see Xu and Yang in this issue), and the release of social responsibility rankings (Fan 2018).
These phenomena urgently require dynamic, historically informed, interdisciplinary ana­
lysis, especially as China’s global rise seemingly accelerates in the aftermath of Covid-19.
The Korean Wave (Hallyu) has been widely studied as a prominent example of transna­
tional media and cultural flows within and beyond Asia (Chua and Iwabuchi 2008, Kim
2013, Kuwahara 2014, Jin 2016). Existing scholarship predominantly focuses on the
transnational success and fandom of K-drama and K-pop (Han 2017, Sun and Liew 2019,
Yoon 2019, Lynch 2020), but the idol training system, production cycle, and perception of
idols within South Korea warrants greater scholarly attention. Lee Jong-im’s (2018)
ground-breaking book, Idol Trainees’ Sweat and Tears (in Korean), documents the untold
stories behind K-pop idols to criticise their merciless exploitation by the country’s cultural
and entertainment conglomerates (chaebol). The heart-breaking suicides of young K-pop
celebrities (e.g. Jonghyun, Sulli and Goo Hara) in recent years, which have exposed the
dark side of the industry and the terrible conditions experienced by Korean entertainers
(Harber 2019), signal an urgent need for wider exploration of idols’ lived experiences, from
their relations with management companies and fans, through to persona construction,
labour and well-being. More recently, scholarship in social media micro-celebrity and
consumption has emerged, particularly in global phenomena such as meokbang (e.g.
Donnar 2017). However, as Park and Hong’s article in this issue demonstrates, this work on
popular and new media celebrity must be historically informed, including in detailing
government ambivalence and shifting attitudes to such phenomena.
East Asia also has the world’s largest social media market and most vibrant digital
economy and media cultures. China and South Korea, in particular, are at the forefront of
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global ‘internet celebrity’ or ‘micro-celebrity’ culture, especially in utilising native plat­
forms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili and Weibo (China) or AfreecaTV and Naver (South
Korea). The influencer economy in the region, for example, has grown dramatically in
recent years, with China alone predicted to be worth up to USD 43 billion by 2020 (Feng
2019). Notwithstanding recent attempts to lessen its influence in the US and India, China
also provides the digital infrastructure for the global internet celebrity culture and
influencer economy. TikTok, the international version of Douyin, owned by Beijingbased ByteDance, has become the world’s most popular short-video and live-streaming
app, with 800 million active users. However, as Abidin and Brown (2018) observes, existing
scholarship on internet celebrities is similarly Anglo-centric, English-speaking and
focussed on global North platforms. Scholarship on Asian internet celebrities urgently
needs to match the region’s crucial role in the global digital economy. Asian internet
celebrities such as Li Ziqi (China’s most popular YouTuber with 14 million followers), PONY
Syndrome (Korea’s most popular K-beauty YouTuber with 5.8 million followers), and
Hajime Syacho (Japan’s most popular YouTuber with 9 million followers) are already
globally popular. Li Ziqi’s popularity in the West has triggered heated discussion in
Chinese media and academia on Chinese culture ‘going out’. Her success has even
impelled the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to recognise the limitations of state-led
soft power initiatives and innovative strategies of ‘telling China’s stories well’ (Kim 2020).
As the influence of globally recognised Asian internet celebrities is likely harnessed or coopted by the cultural diplomacy of ‘Cool Japan’, the ‘Korean Wave’ and Chinese culture
‘going out’, it will be timely for Celebrity Studies to attend to how such developments
revise or challenge dominant perspectives on the power of celebrity and celebrity culture.
In this issue
The articles in this special issue, Starring Asia: Asian Stardom and Celebrity, emerged from
the Starring Asia international conference held in Melbourne, Australia between 2 and
4 December 2019, the first international conference dedicated to Asian stardom and
celebrity. Convened together with Professor Sean Redmond (Deakin University),
Professor Koichi Iwabuchi (Kwansei Gakuin University) and Dr Shenshen Cai (Swinburne
University of Technology), the conference attracted scholars from China, South Korea,
Japan, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the UK, US, and Australia to explore
the varied ways through which stardom and celebrity materialise in and across Asia. The
issue continues with Sabrina Qiong Yu’s study of late Hong Kong superstar Leslie
Cheung’s enduring transnational fandom, 17 years after his death. Qiong Yu draws on
a combination of in-person, digital and auto-ethnography to address the scarcity of
posthumous fandom studies in Asian contexts. She surveys Cheung’s fandom via a fan
site in Chengdu, China, the Zhongqing Café, as well as the café’s fan-entrepreneur owner
and its passionate fan community, including their social media activities. Qiong Yu’s
analysis of this ‘unique cross border cultural phenomenon’ significantly outlines how
Cheung’s fan community is sustained and reproduced over time, and how younger
Chinese fans depoliticise his complex stardom to build individual and collective identities.
Jian Xu and Ling Yang’s dissection of the CCP’s governance of entertainment celeb­
rities from 2005 to 2020 is a powerful addition in the study of the intertwining of politics
and entertainment. Xu and Yang demonstrate how the CCP has utilised four forms of state
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governance – ‘banning celebrities’; ‘governing through professional associations, laws
and notices’; ‘platform governance’; and ‘co-opting stars’ – to discipline entertainment
stars and sustain cultural hegemony. Xu and Yang importantly identify the role of
‘governance of celebrity’ and ‘governance through celebrity’ as part of the CCP’s broader
cultural governance. In particular, they highlight the formation of a ‘neoliberal subjectiv­
ity’ by entertainment celebrities which allows them to manage the double bind of
tightening government control and an increasingly competitive entertainment market.
Chrishandra Sebastiampillai’s article delves into the strategic construction and promo­
tion of rising transnational star Henry Golding’s racial identity throughout his fledgling
career. Sebastiampillai argues that Golding’s ‘racial ambiguity’, both in terms of his
transnational/transcultural background and his Pan-Asian looks, ‘makes him a uniquely
versatile star’ in Asia and in the West. Revising the well-worn notion of the American
Dream, she argues that Golding exemplifies a sort of ‘Asian Dream’. Western conventions
of beauty and notions of cosmopolitanism are highly valued in Southeast Asian media
industries, while Golding’s Asian heritage and indigeneity are exoticised in the West.
Sebastiampillai finally asks whether Golding can continue to successfully navigate his
otherness in both Western and Eastern contexts without succumbing to racial
stereotypes.
At the intersections of stardom, celebrity and social advocacy, Dorothy Wai Sim Lau
analyses how Asian superstars utilise their celebrity for social works. While Western
celebrity humanitarianism has been much discussed, critical examinations of the transna­
tional humanitarianism of Asian stars remain slight. Lau fills this void, using the case of
Bollywood star Aamir Khan’s ‘Asian-yet-global persona’ to examine mediatised transna­
tional flows of global celebrity and the rising visibility of humanitarian celebrity in Asia.
Also, popular in China, Khan exhibits a new mode of ‘cosmopolitical’ consciousness, ‘to
thrive commercially and benevolently in multiple cultural and media networks’. Khan’s
humanitarian interests even impact his films, notably dovetailing with his favoured social
causes in a Bollywood industry more typically associated with escapism and fantasy.
With the ever-rising popularity of K-pop worldwide, Anna Yates-Lu’s article on the
contradictory balance of artistry and celebrity expected of popular Korean traditional
music (kugak) performers is an intriguing study of ‘subcultural celebrity’ in South Korea.
Kugak performers are typically limited to government support and finding mainstream
popularity is difficult. Yates-Lu scrutinises three kugak celebrity-artists to demonstrate,
first, the requirement of a specific ‘celebrity moment’ and, second, the subsequent need
to invoke persistent ‘celebrity reluctance’. Kugak artist-celebrities must ‘prove their con­
temporary relevance’, variously using branding, marketability, and multi-platform links to
sustain this precarious celebrity. Paradoxically, kugak artist-celebrities must also reaffirm
their strong cultural roots in the artform, upholding its traditions and representing its
artistry, if they are to retain artistic legitimacy.
Following Wai Sim Lau, Rio Katayama scrutinises Japanese idol-celebrities’ humanitar­
ian performances and subsequent fan activism in the wake of the Great East Japan
Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in 2011. Focusing on J-pop idols, Katayama
offers an intriguing examination of celebrity citizenship and affective intimacy in idoldriven activism post-catastrophe, each clouded by parallel commercial imperatives.
Although Japanese idol-celebrities are expected to be apolitical, the twinned disasters
allowed celebrities to connect with victims and fans more intimately. She observes that
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‘idols and celebrities not only solidified their branding and expanded their fan bases but,
in some cases, encouraged their fans to act on their behalf’. Katayama concludes that
while idol groups such as AKB48 were lauded for their humanitarian works post-disaster,
anti-nuclear activism proved more fraught.
In contrast, some Bollywood stars currently lend their celebrity in support of populist
politicians and political movements. Sreya Mitra examines discourses surrounding Akshay
Kumar’s ‘soft-ball’ interview of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to astutely comment on
‘emerging confluence’ between Indian politics and entertainment. Mitra demonstrates
how Bollywood stars’ ‘role in disseminating political rhetoric’ highlights both shifts in
discourses of Hindi film stardom and ‘the increasing politicisation of the new media
ecology’. Bollywood actors have (un)successfully participated in politics previously, but
the rise of social media platforms has created a uniquely reciprocal space for publicity and
propaganda. This new symbiotic relationship is not only dependent upon a network of
shared followers but also seeks to shape political discourse and distract public attention.
Finally, Sojeong Park and Seok-Kyeong Hong explore the influence of media technol­
ogies and practices on Korean beauty norms and the construction of stardom. The
fascination with white skin in Asia has a long and complex history, beyond simplistic
cultural imperialist arguments. Park and Hong explore how a mibaek aesthetic, a glowing,
bright toned ‘televisual skin’ is utilised to deliver romantic narratives and as ‘a vehicle for
star-making’. Park and Hong intriguingly identify how media techniques first privilege the
mibaek aesthetic before media producers imitate its most popular examples, cumulatively
conveying a sense that ‘whiteness’ assures professional and romantic success, especially
for women. They finally demonstrate how audience fantasies and desires are accordingly
produced, then reproduced by fan communities, and utilised to produce and market
trans-Asian celebrity.
Conclusion
Exploring a range of national and transnational contexts, media and transmedia, and
historical moments, the special issue underlines the rich interconnectivity of stardom,
celebrity and fandom across Asia. The contributions highlight the many meanings of
stardom, celebrity and fandom in Asia; how intimately they are wrapped up in questions
of representation, identity and desire; and the problems and concerns they provoke as
they are utilised in democratic and demotic articulations, and nationalist and transna­
tional discourses. They cogently demonstrate how attention to Asian contexts, practices
and perspectives can enhance our understandings of transnational stardom and celebrity;
hyphenated star-celebrities; on-screen stardom and off-screen celebrity; celebrity capacity
to prompt social change; and celebrity-fan sites. We believe the issue represents an
important development, even pivot, in English-language scholarship on celebrity and
stardom, supporting calls for greater attention to Asia to truly internationalise Celebrity
Studies. It marks not only the multifaceted and diverse relationship between Asian and
Western experiences, practices and perspectives, but also Asia’s vital and growing con­
tribution to global celebrity culture more generally. To advance the field and build on its
earlier successes, a greater focus on Asia not only offers fertile ground for new research on
celebrity cultures but greatly contributes to expanding our Celebrity Studies universe.
CELEBRITY STUDIES
183
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributors
Jian Xu is a Senior Lecturer in Communication at Deakin University, Australia. He researches Chinese
media and communication with a particular focus on digital media culture and politics. He is the
author of Media Events in Web 2.0 China (2016) and co-editor of Chinese Social Media: Social, Cultural
and Political Implications (2018).
Glen Donnar is a Senior Lecturer in Asian Media & Culture and Approaches to Popular Culture in
Media and Communication at RMIT University, Australia. He has published diversely on stardom,
popular cultural and screen representations of masculinity in film and television, and the mediation
of terror in news media. He is the author of Troubling Masculinities: Terror, Gender, and Monstrous
Others in American Film Post-9/11 (2020) and currently writing a monograph on ageing action stars.
Vikrant Kishore is a Senior Lecturer in Screen and Design at Deakin University, Australia. His areas of
research are Indian and Asian Cinemas, intangible cultural heritage, Indian folk and popular culture,
factual web-series, and caste politics. He has made more than 20 documentary films, and organised
various film festivals and conferences. He is the author of From Real to Reel: Folk Dances of India in
Bollywood Cinema (2014) and has co-edited three books on Indian Cinema.
ORCID
Jian Xu
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2798-0996
Glen Donnar
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1393-0787
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