The Passionate Confusion: Romantic Love and Sex in East Asia
He is tall and cool, and the captain of the kendo team at his school.
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Nonetheless, as a judo and kendo champion, he can be tough, and 3 See the episode with English subtitles online at http: The Chinese version is found online at http: Interestingly, the English subtitles translate wen-wu simply as pen and sword. Popular Culture and Masculinity Ideals in East Asia he defends Ryo Miyakozuka, a new girl at the school and the heroine of the series, in the very first episode. In this way, we are reminded of the most well-known of effeminate men in traditional Chinese literature, Jia Baoyu, the protagonist of the Qing novel Dream of the Red Chamber Edwards Likewise, an otomen, as the theme song indicates, must treasure what he really wants but at the same time aspire to wen-wu attainments.
If we see wen-wu as a masculine ideal that needs to be sought on the one hand, and being feminine as the real true self of the otomen on the other, the series revolves around the resolution of these demands in a young man. As this is a comedy with a happy ending, Asuka does find a resolution with the help of his friends, and Otomen has become so popular that manuals and scholarly works have been spawned by its success Gosselin These young men may at first appear to be passive players, but in fact they can also be seen as active agents who must find ways to redefine masculinity Iida Erin Michele Gosselin uses this series as a case study to illustrate an important trend that has emerged in Japan in the last few years: According to Maki Fukasawa, who first introduced and popularized this term in , an herbivore refers to a man who is gentle, quiet, and soft.
Instead, he treats women not as sex objects but as friends. He does not care whether he has a girl- friend or not, and he likes the same things women like, such as cooking and eating cake. A willowy figure, he is said to be gentle and kind-hearted. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, who sings as well as acts in variety shows and movies in Korean, is an important member of the hugely popular pop group, SMAP.
His skill with Korean makes him a truly transnational icon in East Asia.
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The boy band SMAP began in the s and became increasingly popular throughout the region, their boyish looks giving the impression that they are non-threatening, nice guys, in contrast to rock bands in the West such as the early Rolling Stones. Even politi- cal leaders cashed in on their popularity, as is evidenced by Wen Jiabao meeting them when he visited Tokyo and sending them a congratulatory message during their Beijing tour with the stated intention of furthering relations between the two countries Huanqiuwang Japanese boy bands whose members have girlish looks and demeanors have been popular in Asia for some time, and have influenced the way in which young Asian women perceive desirable masculinity.
Over the last decade, however, Korean artists have attracted perhaps an even greater following in Asia, and the Korean wave is showing no signs of subsiding Shin Again, Korean boy bands generally feature cute boys who are in stark contrast to bands in the West such as the Backstreet Boys and Westlife. The boy band Super Junior is one such example. This K-pop band was launched only in , but has already toured Asia several times.
Again, the band not only sings in Korean and Japanese, but also performs in Chinese Hanxingwang One band member who left the band in , Han Geng, was even ethnically Chinese. Such bands have thus achieved some sort of CJK identity. Nationality is not the only confusing aspect of this new kind of East Asian male ideal.
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Their cute looks confound twentieth-century Euro-American con- ceptions of what is male and what is female. As mentioned above, BL literature and manga were originally and are still mostly created by women for women. For example, while the above dis- cussion indicates that the attributes that constitute masculine ideals may have changed somewhat, what do these women regard as desirable features in other women?
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To answer this question, it is instructive to look at the Chinese Super Girl phenomenon. The contest started in and immediately gained immense popularity. By , it had attracted criticism from a former cultural minister, Liu Zhongde, and despite changing its name and format it ceased airing in There are many reasons why such a popular show was unable to continue in its original form, including hostile pressures from rival networks that had more financial and political clout. That is clearly an excuse, and, for the purposes of this essay, the ideological reasons are the most interesting and relevant.
Such a moralistic and didac- tic attitude of the political leadership towards mass media was reflected in a series of directives from the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television a year later. The assumption here is that entertainment, whether or not it appeals to the masses, must be morally uplifting. In this case, the fact that so many millions of viewers were prepared to spend time and money to cast their votes suggests that this was a popular democratic exercise, and conservative political leaders may not have liked the enthusiasm with which the young took to this activity.
The outcome of the contest provides a very good illustration of this point. That year, there were , applicants for the title of Super Girl, and the winner, Li Yuchun, received 3,, votes. She went on to tour China, including Taiwan, and was chosen to be on the cover of Time Asia for its special issue on Asian heroes of As many commentators have pointed out, her instant stardom and celebrity status surprised the nation because she is not considered pretty, sexy, or sweet-sounding.
And it seems that this provoked such a strong reaction from conservative elements of the Chinese Communist Party, who see them- selves as the moral guardians of the young, that the show was eventually shut down. Some in the scholarly community also deplore the new images that are consumed so readily by the young.
Nevertheless, the key here is that power rests with the consumer. And in Asia, women and the young are increasingly expres- sing that power, and in the process are transforming notions of sexual desirability in both men and women. This is helped by the astronomical rise in Internet usage throughout the East Asian region, which means that images are literally available to tens of millions immediately and simultaneously.
Equally importantly, the means of accessing cyberspace has become cheaper, so that gadgets such as mobile phones are increasingly within the reach of the young and not so wealthy. Where information was once the preserve of the urban middle classes or the political elite, the increasing affordability and availability of electronic gadgets ensure the rapid spread of popular culture to most people in most parts of China.
In particular, the young are much more adept with the new tech- nology, making it easier for them to cross national boundaries to access new sites. On the contrary, they welcome these gender benders. In the last few decades, the CJK economies have been among the most vibrant in the world. Cultural exchanges follow trade, so that CJK cultural pro- ducts are permeating the Western consciousness as never before.
Ten years ago when I published Theorising Chinese Masculinity, my intention was to use wen-wu to demonstrate that Chinese gender ideals had major differences from the dominant Eurocentric ones.
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I also wanted to show that wen-wu was a changing construct, but that in most contexts it enabled educated men to dominate others. Certainly, different classes in traditional times have tried to gain political advantage in different ways.
But in terms of masculinity, the ideological use of wen and wu to vie for power and influence was ever-present. It followed socio- economic changes so that, for example, when the Mongols were in power, the more muscular, wu masculinity took precedence. In more stable times, wen offi- cials dominated because of the need to provide manpower for the huge bureauc- racy. Nowadays, something else is emerging. For example, male models in the West are increasingly androgenized, possibly for similar reasons.
Ultimately, changing material circumstances will continue to shape ideological constructs such as wen-wu, but the essence of these constructs themselves will remain, mostly because on the whole the core of these constructs tends to be a powerful tool for ordering human relationships, whether between people or between nations. But the emergence of consumerism and the Internet means that new groups of people—women and children—are gaining power.
So new symbolism will also arise.
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Many of the J-pop and K-pop lyrics are eulogies to youth, and the same is true for Canto-pop and M-pop. This was the case in the past, too, but now there is a difference. The singers are very young, or look very young. J-pop and K-pop band members are sometimes as young as ten, so that both boy and girl bands can emphasize being kawaii, or cute. We had issues before but this time I thought it was going to be different - I don't know why. I love him and he is kind to me but there are bumps in the road that I am finding hard to deal with and I don't have Amy Schumer on how she confused abuse for passion with ex: Sasha Brady August 17 Amy Schumer with Bill Hader in a scene from Trainwreck.
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