Even in Hong Kong, with its own substantial movie industry, a substantial portion of the films in movie houses are Hollywood blockbusters. Moreover, the infrastructure and budgets to identify, import, dub or subtitle, and promote English-language products are entrenched. Churning out more of the same is easy. It makes little business sense for a Hong Kong cinema owner to gamble precious screen space on an Asian movie for an audience that may not exist. The same holds true for books, plays, dance recitals and concerts.
Satellites transmit a few local music videos across borders.
And some printed and digitized culture is spread regionally through cross-border communities such as overseas Chinese, Indians and Filipinos. But by and large, Rambo and friends rule the transnational Asian market. Sometimes it seems that Western cultural centers such as New York, London and Paris are better places from which to monitor the breadth of contemporary regional culture than Asia itself. They have the infrastructure to find and import arts from abroad, and the audiences to support doing so. Yes, there are Asian festivals that showcase local arts, but it is usually easier to find a French or German film, for example, than one from a neighbor.