This course covers Indonesian popular culture such as literature, independent film and sinetron soap opera, as well as other Asian popular genres that are influential in Indonesia, such as Indian Bollywood films, Japanese manga comics and Hong Kong martial art movies. It will analyse the role of these genres as commercial commodities, works of popular art, and mediators of historical events and identities. Themes include the Indonesian media business; the circulation of foreign Asian pop culture in Indonesia; the mediation of daily life, politics, gender, religion and ethnicity; and critiques of and alternatives to the pop culture industry. The course will demonstrate both the potential of and limits to popular culture for promoting and representing various aspects of Indonesian civil society. Indonesian major students will be required to read some materials in Indonesian.