Call for Paper Contemporary Asia Pacific Cinemas: Spatiality, Desire, New Technologies An increasing number of films from the Asia Pacific region have recently enjoyed unprecedented success in the international film circuit. Many of them have transgressed national boundaries. Though they still pursue themes that are politically and historically laced, the works of Wong Kar-wai, Kitano Takeshi and Jang Sun-woo, for example, do not always comply with the scope of national allegories which was previously conceived to be intractable and incontestable. With transnational cultural flows and newly re-figured cosmpolitanism permeating the youth cultures, and national identities taking departures from codes of archaic orthodoxy, the cultural signposts rendered by the cinemas from this region boldly resist the (academic) desire to frame the films primarily through the discourse of the nation. Many of the film narratives no longer engage with the tension between tradition and modernity and they reject nationhood that is being conceived of and idealized by the state. In addressing codes of history, family, development, trauma and memory that are disposed with repression and violence, the films visualize contemporary spaces of desire in which imagination, new technologies, and global/local forces play significant roles. The special volume of _positions: east asia cultures critique_ (published by Duke University Press) hopes to analyze and re-map the forms and contours of the cinematic landscape of the Asia Pacific. One primary concern is how the cinemas negotiate with the materiality and subliminality inscribed in the newly emergent technologies, identities, spaces and the cityscapes. Although many conferences and books have previously investigated the processes of production and reception of visual culture in one national context, this volume explores the spatial boundaries that redefine the region of the Asia Pacific beyond the national axioms that figured cultural movements of the 20th Century. The volume will address the following topics: 1) The significance of new technologies in reshaping the field of relationships between image, body, space and time. Increasing popularity of "Japanimation" films in the region, as well as the use of video, computers and digitization and what they mean regarding visuality, representation and simulation. 2) Visualization of sex and sexualities examined in the context of power and discourse. The elaboration of queer theories and criticism in relation to cinemas of Asia Pacific. In other words, how are sexual desires and pleasures as well as "alterior sexualities" eroticized and aestheticized in the cinemas of Asia Pacific? In this section, the proposers intend to continue the discussion first initiated by films and academic forum in the "Visualizing Eros" series staged at UCI in May 1998. 3) Urban visions and the cityscapes: new spatial boundaries and spatialized desires with regard to the globalized and localized forces. We propose the question: what are the processes involved when ideologies become monumentalized and mummified, fantasies and visions spatialized, and panoramas and cityscapes flattened and digitized? As recent works in film and cultural studies further engage in provocative dialogues that address new ontological possibilities of opticality and visuality through new technologies, more innovative and politicized articulations and stimulations can be made in the relationship between the studies of film and Asian studies. The editors of the special issue of _positions_ strongly believe in strengthening the relationship between film studies and Asian studies as well as the one between area studies and ethnic studies. Coming at the moment of blurring disciplinary boundaries, the conference will not only attempt to historicize cinemas, but also to spatialize the new visual events that are taking increasingly more active role in reshaping the cultures of the region as we move into the 21st Century. A conference, scheduled to be held at University of California, Irvine in October 1999, will precede the publication of the volume. Because a substantial publication plan has already been made, the papers presented and discussed during the conference will promptly be evaluated for publication. The conference will ensure that the papers are collectively consulted, ideas exchanged, and discussions interarticulated, in order to improve ultimately the publication quality of the special volume of _positions_. Guest Editors of -positions- are: Esther Yau Roland Tolentino Kyung Hyun Kim Submit 4 copies of proposals for articles (between 700 and 800 words) by February 1, 1999 to: Kyung Hyun Kim East Asian Languages and Literatures University of California Irvine, CA 92612-6000 email:[log in to unmask] (Final articles are due by October 1, 1999) ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]