The search for an Asian Idol: The performance of regional identity in reality television

Abstract

This article examines the prolific international adaptation of reality television programmes in Asia through the Asian Idol phenomenon. For the first time in Asia, a regional song contest, Asian Idol, is held in Jakarta, Indonesia organized in the Pop Idol format. As the Idol series is a longstanding television hit across many Asian countries, Asian Idol can be seen as a test of the format’s transferability to another cultural environment. More interestingly, it can be seen as a professed ‘search’ or more accurately, a ‘performance’ of possible regional identities. Telecast over three nights and going live through television production deals across the six participating countries, two questions arise. Does Asian Idol perhaps hope to herald or take advantage of a form of growing pan-regional celebritism? In adopting a new innovative system of interactive voting and building an online forum for the show, what form of Asian identity did it hope to produce or ‘find’ through this production? This article examines these cultural issues and considers the primary role television may still play as the nationalized platform for cultivating such regional exhibitions.