A Critical Analysis of Cultural Imperialism

Asian cultural industries have produced and exported domestic television programs and films on a large scale since the mid-1990s, challenging scholars' theories of cultural imperialism. The process remains complex, however, because the US still dominates the Asian cultural market and has expanded its influence through massive capital investments. This chapter analyzes the nature of transnationalization for Asian cultural industries in order to establish whether cultural imperialism is phased out in Asia. It explores the flows of Asian cultural products and examines the import and export of these goods in recent years. It then challenges the assertions made by scholars who formulate a reverse cultural imperialism thesis, and it questions whether cultural imperialism is still useful in explaining the Asian cultural market. Keywords: Asian cultural industries; cultural imperialism; globalization theory; Korean Wave; media markets