Film Stardom in South East Asia

Throughout Southeast Asia, film stars hold an important place in popular culture. They feature prominently in magazines and newspapers, on billboards and cinema marquees, at public events and premieres, and on the internet and social media. Southeast Asian cinemas have built their own distinctive star systems, which have produced a host of successful icons. These stars often possess the features of stardom commonly noted in film scholarship, such as glamour and charisma, while simultaneously offering nationally and regionally specific inflections of the phenomenon, embodying local tastes, values and ideologies. Stars such as Ananda Everingham in Thailand, P. Ramlee in Malaysia, and Nora Aunor in the Philippines, have all reached significant levels of fame in their respective countries. And yet, there is little academic work focusing on Southeast Asia’s stars. Film Stardom in Southeast Asia addresses this neglect by examining how stars shape the marketing, business and economics of their industries, contribute to the meanings and popularity of their films, and give insight into the social and political contexts of life in Southeast Asia.