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A review by thebooksatchel
New Kings of the World: The Rise and Rise of Eastern Pop Culture by Fatima Bhutto
5.0
Rating : 4.5
This is how non fiction should be written! Even if the topic does not interest you, read it for the excellent writing.
The book reads like a movie, true to the topic it explores — exploring Bollywood, mostly Shah Rukh Khan, Turkish Dizis, Korean pop culture. It is pacy, inducing wonder with every page, making you curious to read more. I absolutely adored it. Divided into three sections, Bollywood and SRK form a first and major portion. Bhutto touches on how many stars of the past changed their names (Muslim sounding to Hindu sounding) and then came the rise of the three Khans, each one of them with a different public persona. Then the section focusses on the 'King of Bollywood' Shah Rukh Khan — who carved out a place (throne?) in the industry all by himself and took on challenging, negative roles, yet won hearts. Who knew about SRK fan clubs in Peru, dream destination Mumbai for trips for fans, people whose lives changed thanks to Bolly movies, dances to Hindi songs, star worship and more.
The Turkish drama section explores the parallel look at the evolution of culture, historical changes that affect the pop culture, cultural expectations, women on screen, family culture in eastern vs western screens. You'll want to watch some Turkish TV asap after this account.
Something that really bothered me in the book — the last section covering Kpop and K drama culture was too short and not explored in detail. This is a pity since East Asian TV has been taking the world by storm, both through dramas and bands. Many bands/drama were mentioned as one liners, which is a real pity considering how amazing the book read so far. It would've made more sense to the title of the book as well to cover this section with a wider scope — it was very short — I enjoyed reading about behind the scenes, contracts, training, competition etc of the idols and stars but overall I felt unsatisfied and sad at this section. I really wish the book went deeper into this instead of limiting the vast topic of dramas (not just Korean, but Jap, Viet, Chinese etc which are getting alot of attention internationally) into a very short essay. Nevertheless, the writing was gripping even in this section, and hence the high rating.
Much thanks to Aleph for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.
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This is how non fiction should be written! Even if the topic does not interest you, read it for the excellent writing.
The book reads like a movie, true to the topic it explores — exploring Bollywood, mostly Shah Rukh Khan, Turkish Dizis, Korean pop culture. It is pacy, inducing wonder with every page, making you curious to read more. I absolutely adored it. Divided into three sections, Bollywood and SRK form a first and major portion. Bhutto touches on how many stars of the past changed their names (Muslim sounding to Hindu sounding) and then came the rise of the three Khans, each one of them with a different public persona. Then the section focusses on the 'King of Bollywood' Shah Rukh Khan — who carved out a place (throne?) in the industry all by himself and took on challenging, negative roles, yet won hearts. Who knew about SRK fan clubs in Peru, dream destination Mumbai for trips for fans, people whose lives changed thanks to Bolly movies, dances to Hindi songs, star worship and more.
The Turkish drama section explores the parallel look at the evolution of culture, historical changes that affect the pop culture, cultural expectations, women on screen, family culture in eastern vs western screens. You'll want to watch some Turkish TV asap after this account.
Something that really bothered me in the book — the last section covering Kpop and K drama culture was too short and not explored in detail. This is a pity since East Asian TV has been taking the world by storm, both through dramas and bands. Many bands/drama were mentioned as one liners, which is a real pity considering how amazing the book read so far. It would've made more sense to the title of the book as well to cover this section with a wider scope — it was very short — I enjoyed reading about behind the scenes, contracts, training, competition etc of the idols and stars but overall I felt unsatisfied and sad at this section. I really wish the book went deeper into this instead of limiting the vast topic of dramas (not just Korean, but Jap, Viet, Chinese etc which are getting alot of attention internationally) into a very short essay. Nevertheless, the writing was gripping even in this section, and hence the high rating.
Much thanks to Aleph for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.
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