What is film genre? Does it still matter in today’s film production, distribution and consumption? How have some film genres become so closely associated with a nation or region, such as Chinese martial arts films, Japanese horror, and Korean melodrama? The fact that genre is widely discussed by the general public suggests that it is still important. However, the examination of genre theory and the scholarly discussion of genres have remained predominantly focussed on Hollywood and European cinemas, as exemplified by the work of scholars such as Thomas Schatz, Steve Neale, Barry Keith Grant, Rick Altman, Belén Vidal, and Antonio Lázaro-Reboll. Despite their rich screen culture and their influence within and beyond the Pacific region, East Asian cinemas remain underexplored. In today’s context of increasingly international filmmaking, we would aim to explore the ways in which film genres underpin cultural translation between East Asia and beyond.

As the theme of ' Rethinking Film Genres: East Asian Cinema and Beyond' suggests, the conference intends not only to celebrate cinematic creativity through the interrogation of the narrative and aesthetics of film genres developed in East Asian (including mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Korean) cinemas, but also seek to expand scholarly discussion of the rich heritage and fast changing landscape of filmmaking of East Asian cinemas by examining the international co-production and cross-cultural consumption of film genres.