Introduction: Regional Modernities in the Global Era

Abstract

In the Asia-Pacific region, performances range from traditional Javanese shadow puppet theatre filmed on smart phones to Australian interpretations of European and American realism. Focusing on the region’s diverse theatre and performance from traditional premodern to contemporary postmodern forms, this book provides a view of Asia-Pacific performance that engages with questions of traditional cultural practices, modern dramatic form, digital technology and experimental and avant-garde practice in local settings that are inflected with geographic and cultural specificities. Drawing on sociological approaches to modernity that see the contemporary period as an era of new, alternative or ‘liqu..