Film censorship has always been a controversial matter, particularly in jurisdictions with restrictive state-based censorship systems. This book reviews the film censorship system in the Asia-Pacific by comparing the systems used in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia. It identifies the key issues and concerns that arise from the design and implementation of the system by examining the censorship laws, policies, guidelines and processes. The book evaluates film practitioners’ and censors’ opinion of, and experience in, dealing with those issues, and goes on to develop reform proposals for the film censorship system.

Film censorship has always been a controversial matter, particularly in jurisdictions with restrictive state-based censorship systems. This book reviews the film censorship system in the Asia-Pacific by comparing the systems used in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia. It identifies the key issues and concerns that arise from the design and implementation of the system by examining the censorship laws, policies, guidelines and processes. The book evaluates film practitioners' and censors' opinion of, and experience in, dealing with those issues, and goes on to develop reform proposals for the film censorship system.

This book explores censorship, particularly film and video censorship, in Japan in modern times. It shows how most censorship has been the film and video industry exercising self-censorship and how this system has been problematic in that it has allowed dominant players in the industry to impose their own standards and exclude independent filmmakers. It outlines notable obscenity cases and discusses how industry self-censorship bodies have been undermined both by industry outsiders setting up their own alternative regimes and by the industry self-censorship bodies themselves being prosecuted for obscenity. The book also examines the conflict between the obscenity law, introduced in Meiji times when Japan was importing Western models, and the freedom of speech law, which was put in place by the US occupation administration after World War II. The book concludes by assessing the current state of censorship in Japan and likely future developments.

This ground-breaking book explores the moral dimensions of sexual imagery in contemporary, general-release Asian films. It examines debates that arise over aesthetic styles and the cultural and traditional influences that determine the content and impact of these films. The social and regulatory environments for filmmakers across Asia reflect distinct national and cultural differences. In just the past decade, for instance, Indian cinema has rapidly moved from representations of coy and submissive female protagonists to highly eroticized leading ladies unafraid of flaunting their sexuality. On the other hand, the cinema emerging from the Chinese mainland has been much more circumspect in its representations of overt sexuality, at times in conflict with other Chinese cinemas from Hong Kong and Taiwan. This use of sexual imagery or morally questionable film content raises on-going debates into censorship and the use of state or industry controls to protect certain sectors of society from exposure to particular narratives or images. Film, like all forms of art, fulfils a number of aesthetic functions for local, regional and international audiences. As distribution and technological advances make Asian films more readily available across the globe, an understanding of the different aesthetics at play will enable readers of this book to recognize key cultural motifs in representations of onscreen sexuality and the surrounding controversies found in cinematic texts from Asia.

Film and the Chinese Medical Humanities is the first book to reflect on the power of film in representing medical and health discourse in China in both the past and the present, as well as in shaping its future. Drawing on both feature and documentary films from mainland China, the chapters each engage with the field of medicine through the visual arts. They cover themes such as the history of doctors and their concepts of disease and therapies, understanding the patient experience of illness and death, and establishing empathy and compassion in medical practice, as well as the HIV/AIDs epidemic during the 1980s and 90s and changing attitudes towards disability. Inherently interdisciplinary in nature, the contributors therefore provide different perspectives from the fields of history, psychiatry, film studies, anthropology, linguistics, public health and occupational therapy, as they relate to China and people who identify as Chinese. Their combined approaches are united by a passion for improving the cross-cultural understanding of the body and ultimately healthcare itself. A key resource for educators in the Medical Humanities, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese Studies and Film Studies as well as global health, medical anthropology and medical history.

This volume presents a comprehensive survey of the dynamics of conflict and climate induced forced displacement and organisational response across Asia and the Pacific. The Asia Pacific region hosts some of the largest numbers of displaced people on the planet, with some of the fewest protections available and sparse frameworks for advancing rights, livelihood, and policy. The region maintains the lowest number of signatory states to international refugee protection covenants, and the majority of national protection and support systems are ad hoc, precarious, and unpredictable. Civil society has very often filled in the gaps but, with the rise of nationalist rhetoric, civil society space has been shrinking. Drawing upon the expertise of academics, practitioners, historians, theorists, policy makers, political scientists, economists, and the voices of affected communities across the region, this book examines both key case studies and larger regional trends. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners looking to understand the complexities of responses to refugees and forced migrants in the Asia Pacific Region.

Arts and cultural activity in Asia is increasingly seen as important internationally, and Asia’s growing prosperity is enabling the full range of artistic activities to be better encouraged, supported and managed. At the same time, cultural frameworks and contexts vary hugely across Asia, and it is not appropriate to apply Westerns theories and models of leadership and management. This book presents a range of case studies of arts and cultural leadership across a large number of Asian countries. Besides examining different cultural frameworks and contexts, the book considers different cultural approaches to leadership, discusses external challenges and entrepreneurialism, and explores how politics can have a profound impact. Throughout the book covers different art forms, and different sorts of arts and cultural organisations.

Taking a long view, and a wide perspective, this book by Japan's leading scholars on Asia and Eurasia provides a comprehensive and systematic comparison of the three greatest powers in the region and assesses how far the recent growth trajectories of these countries are sustainable in the long run. The book demonstrates the huge impact on the region of these countries. It examines the population, resource and economic basis for the countries' rise, considers political, social and cultural factors, and sets recent developments in a long historical context. Throughout, the different development paths of the three countries are compared and contrasted, and the new models for the future of the world order which they represent are analysed.

The rapid trend of globalization has brought with it a variety of sustainability challenges, including global climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, and social inequalities, which are problems with unclear boundaries, complicated interrelated components, undefined parameters, contradictory values, and no single solution. Social work has a long-standing tradition of emphasizing the interaction of people and their environment. For this reason, the field of social work is one of the best-placed academic disciplines for studying the impact of environmental change on social systems, and should play an important role in developing strategies for mitigating and adapting to these environmental challenges. However, traditional social work tends to lack sustaining work and neglect globally interconnected social problems. Combining case studies and country reports from around Asia with a theoretical framework for understanding sustainability concerns, this book aims to show how social work can play a valuable role in mitigating and adapting to environmental challenges and social sustainability. For social work to develop a meaningful and viable profession that addresses contemporary sustainability issues, it requires changes and transformation in paradigm, theories, strategies, social policy and social services that will facilitate a sustainable future for all mankind.

The cities of Asia and the Pacific are at the epicentre of development in what is arguably, the most populous, culturally distinctive, and economically powerful region in the world. 16 major cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore, Auckland, Kuala Lumpur and Santiago, located in countries as diverse as Mexico and Vietnam, Samoa and India, China and Australia, exemplify the changing patterns of development across this vast region of the world. By tracking economic and social trends the contributors to this collection reveal how a wide range of political and cultural factors have interacted over time to provide a powerful explanation for the shape and characteristics of ‘the city’ today. Based on a collaborative research programme and drawing on the work of local researchers, this book examines the realities of city development characterised by domestic migration, spatial and social fragmentation, squatter settlements and gated communities, economic experiments and the emergence of the ‘Asian Tigers’. The collection as a whole records the way in which countries in this region have moved from underdevelopment to become global economic and political powers. This book provides a fascinating journey through Asia and the Pacific by generating an insiders’ view of each city and an insight into national development. As such it will be of great interest to students and scholars interested in: the Asian and Pacific region; in disciplines such as economics, politics, geography and sociology; and in policy domains such as urban planning and economic development.