Aviation extended the horizon of international touring across Asia and
the Pacific in the 1950s and 1960s. Nightclubs in Hong Kong, Manila,
Melbourne, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Taipei presented an
international array of touring acts. This book investigates how this
happened. It explores the post-war formation of the Asia Pacific region
through international touring and the transformation of entertainment
during the 'jet age' of aviation. Drawing on archival research across
the region, Bollen investigates how touring variety forged new relations
between artists, audiences, and nations. Mapping tours and tracing
networks by connecting fragments, he reveals how versatile artists
translated repertoire in circulation as they toured, and how
entrepreneurial endeavours harnessed the production of national
distinction to government agendas. He argues that touring variety on
commercial circuits diversified the repertoire in regional circulation,
anticipating the diversity emerging in state-sanctioned
multiculturalisms, and driving the government-construction of national
theatres for cultural diplomacy.