Asian Gothic

While Asia is a somewhat familiar territory for Gothic, Asian Gothic appears to be a category in the making, or a label in search of content. A potential contributor has to face two major issues to begin with. One significant difficulty is to agree upon what exactly is meant by “Asia” in Asian Gothic. If we define Asia by its geographical boundaries, we are immediately confronted with the virtually impossible task of drawing parallels between radically different cultures, for one tends to forget that Asia stretches through the vast territory of Russia and ex‐Soviet republics, down to the Middle East and then through the Indian subcontinent toward the Far East of China and Japan (seejapanese gothic). There exists also a more convenient and culturally coherent Asia based on definitions of Eastern philosophies and religions derived from various forms and practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, which once again can prove misleading, as it omits a significant Islamic population that has been present in the area for generations, as well as Asian Christians. Needless to say, there is yet another Asia, popularized by influential critical texts which focus on selected economically attractive regions, postcolonial literary heritage, and visual texts from countries with well‐established cinematographies, which successfully narrows the continent down to India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and an occasional mention of South‐East Asia, as represented by either Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, or Vietnam (but rarely by all at the same time).