Introduction; L.Fitzsimmons PART I: MEMORY Engaging with the Valley of Death: The Dialogue with Modernity in The Burmese Harp; L.Fitzsimmons National Allegory, Modernization, and the Cinematic Patrimony of the Marcos Regime; T.Espiritu Censorship and the Unfinished Past: Political Satire in Contemporary South Korean Cinema; S.Park-Primiano PART II: CITY Modernizing the Urban Landscape: Architecture and the Internationalized Face of Asia; I.Morley Romancing Urban Modernity in Tokyo, Taipei, and Shanghai: The Film About Love and the Shaping of a Discursive East Asian Popular Culture; R.Dasgupta Imagining Modernity in Contemporary Malaysia: Non-Western Soap Opera and the Negative Urban Morality; A.Hamzah & M.Azalanshah Md Syed PART III: CELEBRITY Gender Reconstruction in Post-Mao Urban China: The Interplay between Modernity and Popular Culture; H.Zhang Beyond the 'Fragile Woman': Identity, Modernity, and Musical Gay Icons in Overseas Chinese Communities; S.Ee Tan Jay Chou's Music and the Shaping of Popular Culture in China; W-H.Lin Index