SINGAPORE -- Despite and beyond the copyright infringement issue, the booming "DVD phenomenon" in Asia appears to have a strategic importance to governments and a real psychological value to consumers. In fact, the DVD is replacing the video cassette as the best-selling item on the consumer market in Asia today. Even the poorer consumers in Asia's least-developed countries are beginning to gain access to DVDs thanks to the latest economic and technological developments. From China and Indonesia to Thailand and Laos, the DVD is ironically fast becoming symbolic of Asia's rise and well-being; it may also help maintain stability and awaken a sense of regional integration.

China's "DVD explosion" is reaching the masses. Priced at about $1.20, the DVD brings back to China the "film phenomenon" -- especially Western movies -- from which China was politically closed for years. The simultaneous global launch of the latest "Star Wars" movie, which included Beijing, was meant to fight piracy; but just two days after the launch pirated copies had reportedly popped up in DVD shops and in back lanes in the Chinese capital.

Undoubtedly the DVD phenomenon in China is driven by a desire to "catch-up" for lost time -- only a trickle of Western films a year were allowed to be screened till recently. This phenomenon is thus synonymous with China's "opening up," as the Chinese public discovers Western cinema and through it, the world at large.