Over the last two decades, the Asia-Pacific region has been central to the growth and development of esports. The establishment in 2000 of the Korean Esports Association placed competitive gaming within a government ministry at a time when it was still a niche hobby in other parts of the world (Jin, 2010). Three years later, the Chinese government also recognized esports, making it the country's 99th official sport, and broadcasting esports documentaries and tournaments on state-owned television stations (Lu, 2016).
Today, the region remains a major esports site, with Jakarta hosting an exhibition esports tournament as part of the 2018 Asian games (Etchells, 2018), and Hangzhou set to host the first medalling esports Olympic event as part of the 2022 Asian games (The 19th Asian Games, 2021).
Asia is also a huge esports market. It is the fastest growing esports sector in the world and in 2019 it “generated nearly half of total global esports revenue at $519 million” (Niko Partners, 2020). The size of the Asian population plays a key role in both the number of spectators and the number of esports athletes from the region: “According to Juniper, 50% of the over 1 billion esports and games viewers in 2025 will be from the Asia Pacific region” (Campe, 2021).
As well as the major esports markets of China and Korea, the region also contains countries that are, according to one CNN report, “destined to become a powerhouse of esports […], comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan” (cnn.com, 2019).
Recent publications such as Global esports, edited by Dal Yong Jin (2021), include scholarship located in the Asia-Pacific, and there is a growing body of case studies investigating esports in specific Asia-Pacific contexts from the perspectives of gender (Hussain, Yu, Cunningham and Bennet, 2021; Yussof and Basri, 2021), industry (Yu, 2018; Lee, 2020; Zhao and Lin, 2021), labour (Zhao and Zhu, 2020; Lin and Zhao, 2020) and regulation (Sihvonen and Karhulahti, 2020). However, there is a need for a special collection to extend research beyond the most common Asia-Pacific sites of Korea and China, trace intra-regional flows across the Asia-Pacific, and develop research on new topics relevant to the past, present and future of esports in the region.
Aim
This volume aims at understanding the status of the esports phenomenon in countries from the Asia-Pacific region. For the purposes of this collection, we are defining the Asia-Pacific as countries throughout East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. We welcome chapters on the history, development and current practices/challenges of esports in specific local contexts as well as interconnections across the region.
We recognise that understanding esports requires a range of different approaches from game studies, area studies, media and communications, sociology of sport and others, and so we are interested in seeing scholarship from different academic fields, as well as interdisciplinary work.
The aim of the volume is to look at the interconnections between esports, players, audiences, industry, and society across the Asia-Pacific.
Topics include but are not limited to esports developed around the following:
- Players:
- competition;
- labour issues (including non-player workers);
- player health;
- gender;
- identity;
- Audiences:
- online and offline;
- media coverage;
- fans and community;
- motivations for engagement;
- gambling;
- streaming and streaming platforms;
- Industry:
- convergence;
- cultural heritage and museum;
- entertainment;
- music;
- branding;
- marketing;
- regulating institutions;
- history of the industry;
- government regulation and support;
- training and qualifications;
- Society:
- events;
- education;
- collegiate and school esports;
- attitudes to esports;
- regional flows of labour;
- nation and nationalism;
Submission
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before 31 July 2021 a 500 word abstract and 200 words outlining where and how the chapter fits within the aims of the book to Filippo Gilardi (filippo.gilardi@nottingham.edu.cn) and Paul Martin (paul.martin@nottingham.edu.cn)
Important Dates
31 July 2021 a 500 word abstract and 200 words outlining where and how the chapter fits within the aims of the book.
Notification 16 August 2021
Please direct any inquiries you may have to Filippo Gilardi (filippo.gilardi@nottingham.edu.cn) and Paul Martin (paul.martin@nottingham.edu.cn)
An edited volume by Dr. Filippo Gilardi and Dr Paul Martin (University of Nottingham Ningbo China).
Provisional book title: Esports in the Asia-Pacific
Full chapters due: Not required until confirmation from the publisher (Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies)
Keywords: China, Asia-Pacific, esports, online gaming, arena event, competitive gaming, electronic sports.
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