There was a time, many years ago, when any Asian media in the western world was an oddity. Often sold in smaller imports with poorly implemented fan-subs, only the largest movies in Asia would traditionally cross the ocean. Today, in the age of Parasite winning the most prestigious award in cinema, this disconnect is rapidly diminishing. Though a lot of thanks go right to the movie industry for this progress, it’s just as important to consider the smaller contributions. Looking at online casinos as an example, we want to explore how developing online culture has helped lead the way to a greater acceptance of Asian media, and what this could mean for the future.
The Games of Online Casinos
Now an international industry worth billions, online casino games are enormously varied in what they offer. On the major level, games like online roulette cover a broad range of variations and themes, from classics like European Roulette to new creations like Paddy Power Original Roulette. Though the idea behind ranges of games like this is simply to offer titles and themes to a broad audience, the downstream effects can be much greater than just entertainment.
In the larger online casino ecosystem, the reliance on different cultures for inspiration can have a profound normalizing effect. Games like Sic Bo, for example, were traditionally played in China and rarely featured overseas in western casinos. With online systems, however, it became much easier to host international titles without running afoul of the all-important cost/benefit equation.
Sharing Interests
Though just a small thing, efforts like these made over decades have had an appreciable effect in building bridges between eastern and western media. Each time somebody played a casino game that drew from Asia, they overcame their initial unfamiliarity. Over time, these steps would conglomerate into something more, eventually reaching a point where Asian media was seen in much the same way as that produced at home.
Of course, online casino games play just a tiny part of a much greater whole. We also can’t forget the contributions of anime, video games, or even the recent explosion of J- and K-Pop music in the west. Acting in conjunction with ease of availability as afforded by the internet, finding connections all over the world went from alien to almost humdrum.
“KCON 2012” (CC BY 2.0) by Peter Kaminski
International Futures
Moving on from this point, the work from online casinos and the million other smaller international media creations is undeniable. Today, Asian dramas on services like Hulu are common, widely loved, and are only becoming more so. The implications for this are immense, not just in viewing habits, but also for the overall framework of how film media operates.
As we’ve seen with streaming films and the move towards simultaneous home and theatre releases, the next few years are likely to be filled with game-changing levels of better integration of Asian media. Though we’ll all appreciate this growth, it’s important to remember all the little steps that got us here. From online casinos to anime, we’ve come a long way, and we’re only just getting started.
