This book analyses how independent filmmakers from Bangladesh have represented national identity in their films. The focus of this book is on independent and art house filmmakers and how cinema plays a vital role in constructing national and cultural identity. The authors examine post-2000 films which predominantly deal with issues of national identity and demonstrate how they tackle questions of national identity. Bangladesh is seemingly a homogenous country consisting 98% of Bengali and 90% of Muslim. This majority group has two dominant identities - Bengaliness (the ethno-linguistic identity) and Muslimness (the religious identity). Bengaliness is perceived as secular-modern whereas Muslimness is perceived as traditional and conservative. However, Bangladeshi independent and art house filmmakers portray the nationhood of the country with an enthusiasm and liveliness that exceeds these two categories. In addition to these categories, the authors add two more dimensions to the approach to discuss identity: Popular Religion and Transformation. The study argues that these identity categories are represented in the films, and that they both reproduce and challenge dominant discourses of nationalism. Providing a new addition to the discourse of contemporary national identity, the book will be of interest to researchers studying international film and media studies, independent cinema studies, Asian cinema, and South Asian culture, politics, and identity politics.

Examining the cultural, political, economic, technological and institutional aspects of popular music throughout Asia, this book is the first comprehensive analysis of Asian popular music and its cultural industries. Concentrating on the development of popular culture in its local socio-political context, the volume highlights how local appropriations of the pop music genre play an active rather than reactive role in manipulating global cultural and capital flows. Broad in geographical sweep and rich in contemporary examples, this work will appeal to those interested in Asian popular culture from a variety of perspectives including, political economy, anthropology, communication studies, media studies and ethnomusicology.

Examining the cultural, political, economic, technological and institutional aspects of popular music throughout Asia, this book is the first comprehensive analysis of Asian popular music and its cultural industries. Concentrating on the development of popular culture in its local socio-political context, the volume highlights how local appropriations of the pop music genre play an active rather than reactive role in manipulating global cultural and capital flows.
Unlike many studies on globalization which highlight functional disjunctures of 'cultural imperialism', "Refashioning Pop Music in Asia" stresses that it is the local context which imbues specific meanings for different audiences, in turn allowing a creative synthesis that makes pop music a unique channel through which cultural identity, political resistance, social expression and personal desire can be experienced. Popular musical expression in Asia-its meaning and its practice-cannot be reduced to the State, market, tradition or to a simple appropriation of Western forms, rather, it is at the juncture of the local and global that an aesthetic refashioning of traditional and pop music genres emerge.
Broad in geographical sweep and rich in contemporary examples, this work will appeal to those interested in Asian popular culture from a variety of perspectives including, political economy, anthropology, communication studies, media studies and ethnomusicology.

With contributions from a diverse group of media and communications scholars from around the globe, "Bangladesh's Changing Mediascape" presents a pioneering study of the trends, patterns, and prospects shaping the contemporary Bangladeshi media. Among the many topics discussed here are the difference among specific media formats, including television, newspapers, radio, film, and photography; policy issues; and the challenge that new media poses to governance in a developing nation faced with innumerable economic, social, and political problems. Eschewing the currently dominant development communication model, the editors argue that market forces rather than planned state interventions will contribute to a more equitable communication environment.