GENERATIVE AI IN ASIAN ARTS: NAVIGATING INDUSTRIAL DISRUPTION, ARTISTIC RESISTANCE, AND CULTURAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION

Abstract

This study examines the profound integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within Asian creative industries from 2016 to 2025. As an active vanguard in generative AI adoption, Asia is experiencing distinct transformations across visual arts, music, film, and traditional cultural practices. Through qualitative documentary research and systematic literature synthesis, this article reveals severe industry disruptions, most notably a 90% reduction in animation production costs. Concurrently, artists face significant creative identity crises and the imminent threat of cultural hollowing within traditional arts. In response to these challenges, Asian creators are increasingly employing hybrid workflows, utilizing protective technologies, and cultivating irreplaceable human brand identities. Furthermore, the research identifies critical structural vulnerabilities, including lagging intellectual property jurisprudence, the absence of consent mechanisms, and pervasive Western-centric biases within AI training datasets. To analyze these complex dynamics, this paper introduces the "Triadic Tension Model," emphasizing the techno-artistic, global-local, and structural-individual axes. Ultimately, the study forecasts a polarized future market divided between automated commodity art and premium human-signature art. Urgent policy interventions, including explicit intellectual property reforms and sovereign investments in diverse Asian cultural datasets, are strongly advocated.