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xxiicomplex relationships between food, health, wellbeing,and religious/spiritual components. The researcherwas alarmed at the threats to long-practiced foodculture posed by globalization, as exemplified in theentry of packaged food and the corresponding declineof organic food along with medicinal plants.Kenta Kishi (Japan) contrasted “master planning” and“networking” approaches to solve contemporary urbanplanning and development crisis in Asian cities. Hecriticized conventional “master planning” as oftendamaging to local cultures, ways of life, and the urbanenvironment. Instead, he proposed “micro-projects”and “network systems” as ways in which people canrework their local urban spaces to suit their needs andpreferences. He finds these approaches moreconducive to generating people’s sense of belongingand beauty, often in the midst of deterioratingsurroundings. The researcher brought out with greatclarity the potential satisfactions of his approach bothfor supportive architects and communities. The endresult may be new kinds of neighborhood exhibitionsthat express vitality in the diversity of city living.Panel III: Multiple Modernities via the Globalizationof Art, Media and Performance was chaired byAzyumardi Azra (Member of the API InternationalSelection Committee and Director of GraduateSchool, State Islamic University, Jakarta) with SunaitChutintaranond (Director, Institute of Asian Studies,Chulalongkorn University) as discussants. This panelcomprised five panelists, as follows.• Hikmat Darmawan: “A Mindscape Like NoOther?: Bits and Pieces on Globalization ofManga Subculture and Visual Identity,”• M. Ichsan Harja Nugraha: “Mapping Kyoto:An Artist Perspective,”• Yasuhiro Morinaga: “‘The Land of Isolation’ -a Soundscape Composition Originating inNortheast Malaysia,”• Maria Joselina Anna G. Cruz: “ContemporaryArt in Southeast Asia: Narratives of a Region,”and• Ronnarong Khampa: “Creative ContemporaryAsian Dance Based on Traditional Techniquesand Spirituality Fusing Lanna (NorthernThailand), Indonesia (Bali and Java) and Japan(Noh Drama)”.Rising global/regional interconnectedness via flows ofideas, practices, art, media and performances is asignificant cultural manifestation of globalization.Through these global processes, people experiencemultiple and somewhat ambivalent and fragmentedidentities. The panel investigated such cultural shiftsin our contemporary modern world. Asiancommunities are undergoing significant changes asthey encounter powerful contestations between globalmodernity and fundamental nationalist narratives.What happens when high-speed cyber technologybecomes a predominant norm in the areas of arts andmedia? Are there any clashes between local, nationaland international cultural norms in our contemporaryglobalizing era? What happens to artists who arecaught in-between contested arenas? What happens ifart and media are controlled by big business andinfluential political factions? What roles do creativearts play in social movements?Five fellows addressed the key issue of shifting ormultiple identities of people in diverse cultural localesand situations following flows of ideas, art, andperformance across Asia.Hikmat Darmawan (Indonesia) investigated culturalimpacts of Japanese comics (manga) on youth lifestylesand on their construction of identity in thetransnational world.The research of Ichsan Harja Nugraha (Indonesia)aimed to create public awareness of the need topreserve old buildings in Kyoto, based on a mappingproject in Bandung. The project associated with theresearch aimed to resolve the classic conflict betweenideas concerned with continually modernizing the cityversus the notion of preserving its established culturalheritage.Yasuhiro Morinaga (Japan) was interested in theprocess of making a recording of sounds from therainforests and the marine environment in northernMalaysia. His contribution helped broaden the field ofmedia and the artistic expression of natural beautythrough sound design and recording, with a focus ontechnical aspects.Maria Joselina Anna G. Cruz (the Philippines)discussed contemporary art practice and production inSoutheast Asia via art exhibitions. Some exhibitionshave sought to make sense of national developmentwithin an Asian regional context. Art exhibitions haveprovided artistic critiques of modernity, tradition, andmore.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows