ASPA 3970 University of Southern California Popular Culture in East Asia Essay

Hello,

Please write an essay answering one of the prompts below using five or more of the terms from the Study Guide. The prompts are quite broad, so feel free to focus on something specific (such as ANIME or K-pop) as a lens for addressing the broader questions in the prompt.

Write something like five paragraphs should be enough to make your main points without adding extraneous information. You should draw on the readings, powerpoints, and lectures to write your essay, but you do not need to add citations unless it’s a direct quote or paraphrase, or something specific like a statistic.

1) Japan has a very distinctive popular culture (or perhaps popular cultures) – How are Japan’s recent history and social relations (work, family, social class, race/ethnicity, etc.) reflected in popular culture? How has Japanese popular culture been impacted by outside influences? How and why has it become popular outside of Japan as well?

2) We could ask similar questions about Korea – what defines Korean popular culture and how have recent history and social relations affected contemporary popular culture? How has Korean culture been influenced by foreign cultures? How has such a relatively small country become a global powerhouse in music, film, and other realms of cultural production?

Include Sources

MLA Format!

Much love and appreciation.