Eastern Standard Time, by Jeff Yang, Dina Han, Terry Hong. Trade
paperback,
ISBN: 039576341X
Book capitalizing on the
trendiness of
Asian pop culture, but doing a good job at the same time. The approach they've taken is to look at the
influence of Asian (especially
Japanese and
Chinese) culture on "
the West" (mostly
North America). It's a series of short
articles, with a great many
photos, so it doesn't get too
in-depth on much. For example, if you've read
Manga! Manga! you know far more about manga than is covered in this book.
However,
EST is a good jumping-off point. The best thing about it, I think, is that it covers far more than just
Hong Kong movies and
Japanese videogames--it covers
food,
clothing, etc. etc. Because of this, it will contain some surprises for even the most fanatic Western
otaku, but will also be intriguing to those with a general interest in global
pop culture. Again, it's not very
academic (verging on
smart-ass sometimes, as it's from the editors of
A. Magazine), but it is very readable and (IIRC) has a good
bibliography. Highly
recommended; it also makes a good
gift for many different kinds of
geeks. Somewhat dated now, of course (being pre-
Pokemon), but perhaps they'll release another
edition someday.