Here Be Dragons.

Die Medienproduktion boomt in Ost-Asien und hat sich in den letzten Jahren auch einen globalen Ruf erarbeitet. Japanische, südkoreanische und chinesische Filme und TV-Serien erreichen ein immer grösser werdendes Publikum – auch aufgrund der diversen Streamingportale. Die verschiedenen Filme und Serien beschäftigen sich mit unterschiedlichen kulturellen Phänomenen und ihren Entwicklungen sowie auch mit Religion aus je spezifischen Perspektiven. Diese Ausgabe bietet einen Einblick in das vielfältige Forschungsfeld Ostasien, Film und Religion und regt dadurch zum Weiterdenken und -forschen an.

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Media industry is a vibrant element of East Asian popular culture that has become increasingly important on a global level in the last decades. Japanese, and recently South Korean and Chinese films or TV series have a growing and worldwide audience not least because of easier access through streaming services. The many film productions provide a multifaceted arena of highly diverse content that spans nearly all aspects of the cultural developments in the countries. Religion has always played a major role in these contexts in various ways and in accordance with the highly diversified religious landscape of East Asia. Consequently, this issue brings together contributions on Japanese, Chinese and Korean films, including one additional glimpse to South Asia, thereby presenting portrayals of independent filmmakers, highly renowned classics, but also specimina of manga and anime, the cyberpunk genre, or on most recent highly successful streaming series. The admittedly tiny sample we can provide is intended to pique curiosity and encourage readers to delve deeper into the multifaceted and intriguing relationship between religion and media in Asia. If the presented contributions, which have been carefully selected, lead to academic discourse and inspire further research, then this issue will have served its purpose.