Over the past several years, gaming in Asia has emerged as a compelling cultural phenomenon and a key arena in which national imaginaries are articulated, contested, and remapped. Against a backdrop of a fragmented imagination of Asia, often divided into reified national categories and shaped by resurgent, reactionary nationalisms, video games have become sites where political, cultural, and affective forces intersect in complex ways. Yet, despite this significance, the increasingly tight and intricate relationship between video games and Asian nationalisms has not received sustained academic attention, particularly from bottom-up perspectives attentive to everyday practices through which nationalism is navigated, appropriated, and contested. This workshop seeks to investigate Asian nationalism through the lens of video games, offering nuanced insights into emerging gaming materialities, modalities, and mobilities, and their entanglements with national politics across Asia. A special issue is planned as a post-workshop publication outcome. For a fuller introduction to the workshop, please find the detailed CFP and submission information here: ari.nus.edu.sg deadline: February 6, 2026.
Gaming Asia: Asian Nationalism through the Lens of Video Games
