Asiavision: A tool for cultural exchange?

The Australian newspaper The Conversation has published an opinion article in which the impact of the future event as a tool for cultural diplomacy is analysed. The article states that Australia and its broadcaster SBS takes de innitiative in order to get closer to the Asian countries.

According to the article, Asiavision or (ABU TV Cup Song Contest, if the Pan-Asian organisation and Hunan TV join forces), the festival could ease the political tensions between some of the Asian countries as a result of the open woulds of the Japanese occupation during WWII, and the increasing power of China in the region.

As the launcher of Asiavision, Australia intends to get closer to Asia in the musical field. Recently the country, hosted pan-continental sports events such as the Asian Football Cup. In the entertainment industry, the Japanese and South Korean singers and bands, enjoy an increasing popularty among the Asutralian youngsters. In fact, one of the programs of SBS is dedicated to the asian pop music. The same station also sent some entries to the ABU TV Song Festival, which till now, has been a non competitive event, which ended upo dissapointing the Australian TV channel, which wirthrawed last year.

Recently, the same broadcaster has unvelied the elegible participants for Asiavision which at the moment, seems to be limited to India, the Asian Far East and the Pacific Ocean states.

The list is as follows:

Australia
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China
East Timor
Federated States of Micronesia
Fiji
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Japan
Kiribati
Laos
Macau
Malaysia
Maldives
Marshall Islands
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nauru
Nepal
New Zealand
North Korea
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Samoa
Singapore
Solomon Islands
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Taiwan
Tonga
Tuvalu
Thailand
Vanuatu
Vietnam

Source: The conversation