Lai Yen-fu (2015). C-Mei’s Music Culture: Asia Pop and the Constructions of Gay Identities in Taipei G Star (conference paper). 15th Music and Cultural Studies Conference.(獲科技部國內研究生出席國際學術會議補助)
Introduction
In recent years, the trend that worships
masculinity is widespread among gay men in Taiwan. Many gay men, especially
young ones, identify themselves with masculinity. Because the masculine trend represses
gay men who do not fit in the standard and makes them suffer, queer studies in
Taiwan point out that it follows the same old disastrous road along which
homosexuals are discriminated by heterosexuals, therefore it needs to be
criticized severely. Even though this critique is very important, it assumes a
stable hierarchy between masculinity and femininity, and makes them become a
matter of dualism. Actually, people often directly recognize masculinity and
femininity through binary thinking. It seems like that gay men identify
themselves with either masculinity or femininity. It’s too inflexible to use it
to illustrate how gay men perform themselves in their everyday lives. In
contrast to this perspective, I suggest that masculinity and femininity are
hybrid and are always in the process of becoming. In order to explain my argument,
I find that Asia Pop in G Star, a special gay dance culture in Taiwan, is a
good example to show how femininity plays an important role to construct gay
identity in the trend that worships masculinity. By the way, G Star is one of
the most famous gay bars in East Asia, which opened in 2009.
What is Asia Pop?
“Asia Pop” refers to a cultural
spectacle which is regarded as a prime-time program in G Star and is composed
of Korean and Taiwan pop music by female singers, such as Girls’ Generation,
T-ara, 4minute, Jolin Tsai, Jeannie Hsieh, and so on.
Typically speaking, rather than Asia
Pop, house music which is composed of western pop music is used as a prime-time
program in gay clubs all the time. The reason why Asia Pop replaces house music
in G Star involves the drug issue. The development of house music culture in
Taiwan accompanies the controversial issue of recreational drug use. Because
clubs are the breeding grounds of drug use, the government forces clubs to take
the responsibility to stave off the drugs by law. To avoid breaking the laws, G
Star chooses Asia Pop as its prime-time program and it soon becomes its
distinguished characteristic.
When DJs play Asia Pop, many gay
customers step onto the stage and imitate female stars’ dancing steps in music
videos. In general, customers in G Star fit in the description that queer
studies often associate with the masculine image, such as short haircut,
muscular body and American wearing style. Even though they look masculine, they
dance with a feminine touch in that moment. Their dancing skills are so good,
even better and more feminine than female stars. Because K-pop’s MV dances are
highly feminine, gay men who participate in the dance movement are considered
sissy gay men, called C-Mei in Chinese. The dance-scape organized by Asia Pop
in G Star is popular with local gay community and foreign tourists. Obviously,
the landscape does not fit in the trend of gay community’s gender performance.
Regarding the “dance-scape,” I wonder how gay people experience femininity, or
sissiness, through participating in Asia Pop. According to Frith (1996),
musical experience is the experience that a person shapes his/her self in the process
of performing music. How does the experience of performing Asia Pop involve in
the construction of gay identity? In order to answer this question, I adopt
geographical approach to analyze “dance-scape.”
Dance
Music, Gay Identities and Affective Homosexualities
Gay culture can be best represented by
dance music. From the historical perspective, how Disco in 1970s and House in
1980s became popular is closely linked to the development of gay culture.
Therefore, analyzing gay’s dance music and its cultural space is an appropriate
way to understand dynamic constructions of gay identities and communities. For
studying the interaction between Asia Pop and the constructions of clubbers’
gay identities, I approach Tan’s concept of ‘affective (hetero)sexualities’
which bases on non-representational theory to frame the relations between music
performances and politics of sexualities.
‘Affective (hetero)sexualities’ is the
concept from Qian Hui Tan’s (2013) analysis of club culture in Singapore.
‘Affective (homo)sexualities’ is defined as the atmosphere about ‘being a gay
man’ between encounters of different dancing bodies. The atmosphere allows
clubbers’ bodies to affect and to be affected. Just in that moment, there is
some feeling vague but intensive about being a part of the gay scene emerging
and becoming. This perspective is very important, because it shows that
meanings of music are not always defined by pre-given representations such as
lyrics. Just like Tan’s illustration, affect could not be understood through
the analysis of symbolic systems. In terms of the practice of music, affective
subject is always in the process of musiking.
However, in Tan’s analysis,
representations of music are neglected. In contrast to her view, I suggest that
the analysis of representations of Asia Pop is necessary to be considered.
Because of Asia Pop’s characteristics, representation plays a significant role
to shape clubbers’ music experiences. There are three reasons. First, the style
of dance steps in Asia Pop is the hybrid genre made of Freestyle and LA Style.
Its steps are designed by lyrics distinctly. Take ‘Taxi’ from Girls’ Generation
as an example. When these girls sing ‘taxi, taxi, taxi, …’, they dance with the
movement of driving. Second, as a result of the contents of lyrics, Asia Pop
has obvious female images. The lyrics in Asia Pop often narrate stories,
especially about love, in girl’s position, so the steps express the images of
girls. Third, Asia Pop is an imitation culture. For clubbers who are good at MV
dance, they judge each other’s performance by how it resembles the dance presented by female stars in MV.
According to these reasons, the analysis of representation could not be
neglected. It’s important to think about how representation matters in the
process of musiking.
Research Methods
I approach music ethnography to do this
research. For geography, the method not only echoes the tendency that
geographers employ non-representational theory to explore how meanings emerge
from practices of music in recent years, but also help geography illustrate the
relations between structure, agency, and geographic context and expose the
tissue of everyday life (Herbert, 2000: 550-551). I have worked on the
fieldwork for three years, from 2012-2015. The study is now in progress.
Space for Performances of Affective Homosexualities
To understand how Asia Pop shapes
clubbers’ gay identities, it’s important to identify music as a part of the
space. According to Tan, space matters, because the arrangements of space, such
as light, music, and so on, assemblage clubbers’ affective homosexualities.
Generally speaking, because of the stage, many clubbers regard G Star as a
space for performance. When DJs play Asia Pop, clubbers who love it will stand
onto the stage and then dance to other clubbers. Clubbers in the dance floor
hail the clubbers on the stage. The interactions between performers and
audience shape the affective atmosphere among clubbers continuously. They feel
high and happy. Other clubbers outside from the stage and the floor are also
affected by the atmosphere. Some of them move to the dance floor and want to
get happy with crowds in that moment. The floor and the stage are usually
crowded. Everybody is soaking with sweat. What clubbers feel is not only a kind
of intensive affect but also something about being a gay man. Most of the
clubbers who have been in the music scene tell me that they felt themselves are
so ‘gay’ in that moment. The reason includes both the gay men gathering here
and the Asia Pop with obvious female images. For clubbers, Asia Pop is a kind
of girl-style dance culture. When clubbers participate in the scene, they feel
so ‘gay’ because they intimate how female stars dance.
The representation of music plays an
important role to shape clubbers’ gay identities here, too. Asia Pop evokes the
stereotype that gay man is regarded as a sissy man who is considered abnormal
in the heterosexual society in Taiwan. The stereotype is not rejected nor
accepted, but considered as the history of gay culture by clubbers. Here,
through the practice perspective, the meanings of symbolic system of music
become changeable. That is to say, there would be varied meanings produced in
the process. These emerging meanings challenge the stable hierarchy of values,
such as the hierarchical status of masculinity and femininity. Clubbers who
look like masculine are affected by the atmosphere to participate in Asia Pop
and perform sissiness. Based on the case, music not only blurs the distinction
between masculinity and femininity but also makes G Star a space for performing
sissiness.
It seems that there is no hierarchy in
the process of performing Asia Pop. However, it is not so. There is still a
hierarchy evolving from the different images of women. I find that the practice
of Jeannie Hsieh’s ‘Sister’ in G Star is a good example to illustrate it.
Sissy Performances and the Constructions of Gay
Identity
Jeannie Hsieh is very popular in Taiwan.
Her dance music is popular with both the heterosexual and the homosexual. In G
Star, clubbers love her music such as ‘Bi Bi Bi’ (嗶嗶嗶),
‘Fantastic’ (一級棒), ‘Sister’ (姐姐),
and so on, especially ‘Sister’. The song was published and quickly became a gay
anthem in 2013. It describes a mature woman who is not afraid of being pursued
by young men, singing the song with confidence in the position of the first
person. ‘Call me sister’ is the most famous lyric line. It even becomes the
slogan of this song. When clubbers hear this sentence, they will sing along
loudly. It is the lyrics that make gay men love the song, because it echoes the
‘sisterhood’ culture in Taiwan gay community. Gay men usually call each other
‘sister’ in Taiwan. It’s a gay subculture that follows the stereotype of the
connection between gay man and sissy man intentionally. In the moment that
clubbers sing the words ‘call me sister’ together, clubbers evoke the
‘sisterhood’ culture. Because of the understanding, clubbers make amusement and
the scene so enthusiastic from practicing the song. Many clubbers who perform
sissiness by the song feel so happy in the dance scene. Here, the performance
of sissiness is a kind of insider’s knowledge. When it becomes the element of
fun-making for gay men, it becomes the part of gay-identity making. The
hierarchy between masculinity and femininity become ‘flat’ in the practice of
music.
However, there is
something hierarchical produced by the performance of different female images.
Different female images, such as diva, cute girls, proud woman, and so on, echo
evaluations about masculinity and femininity. Take Jeannie Hsieh’s ‘Sister’ as
an example. The female image of the song, sister or older sister, 姐姐 in Chinese, expresses masculine femininity. This kind of
femininity is easily accepted for clubbers, because it looks stronger. The
image of Jeannie Hsieh’s ‘Sister’ is compatible with gay subculture in Taiwan.
In the context, gay man seldom calls himself ‘younger sister’. As my informant
said, the image of ‘younger sister’ looks feeble. “No one wanna be a feeble
person. That kinda sucks,” he said. For this reason, it’s necessary to
recognize what female images are selected to perform by clubbers. The selection
re-produces the hierarchy among femininities, such as masculine femininity,
feminine femininity, and so on.
Conclusion
In this presentation, I reveal that
sissy performance is not a dualism of masculinity and femininity but the
becoming of gay identities in continuous play of history, culture, and power.
From this view, the relations between masculinity and femininity are hybrid
rather than hierarchical. Nevertheless, it does not mean that there is no
hierarchy anymore. Performances of Asia Pop re-produce the hierarchy of
femininities which echos the context of gay subculture in Taiwan. In other
words, hierarchy is always there but in different forms.
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