Why enjo
kosai anchors at Taiwan but not Hong Kong? Or the convergence of ¡§enjo¡¨ and
¡§kosai¡¨ in teenage sex work
LAM Oi-Wan
The
context of the convergence is of course related to the development of the
society of consumption and youth¡¦s role in such society. However, looking at
the issue in a cross border perspective, it is too simplified to say that such a
phenomena is a result of economic force. There are different actors for shaping
the convergence. In the case of Taiwan and Hong Kong, I can see that the power
of mainstream media, politicians, NGOs and youths / teenagers are at work. These
forces are governing, resisting, negotiating, expelling the activity. And it
results in different landscapes of the ¡§convergence¡¨.
In
Japan and Taiwan, sex work is not recognized by the society as a form of work,
and it is in this context ¡§enjo and kosai¡¨ are likely to converge, as sex
work needs to get its momentum from subculture rather than from the institution
for its spreading. In Japan the convergence is an active claim of a subjectivity
by teenage girl in response to the material desires and the gaze of the society,
while in Taiwan it is a process of active searching and interpellation of a
governed object that later turns into a resistant subject. In Hong Kong, sex
work is recognized as a work, though highly stigmatized in the society. The
frame is set and ¡§enjo kosai¡¨ cannot anchor (become popular). Yet in another
sense, there is another process of convergence between the two spheres in the
form of cultural resistance carried out by a coalition building process among
various governed / resistant subjects, including ¡§sex workers¡¨, ¡§women¡¨,
¡§teenagers¡¨ and ¡§gay & lesbian¡¨.
In
this paper, I start with a very simple question of ¡§why enjo kosai anchors in
Taiwan but not Hong Kong?¡¨ In the process of investigating the question, I
also address the following questions: how does a subculture travel to another
place through popular media? How is it being decontextualized through the global
media and the interpellation of the mainstream and recontextualized in different
destinations? Who contributes to the cultural transplantation project? When
¡§enjo kosai¡¨ was transplanted in Taiwan, can we still call it a subculture
without acknowledging the context where the trajectory of its resistance lies?
How does border politics manifest itself in this issue?
In
the case of ¡§enjo kosai¡¨ in Taiwan, the term is popularized in the past 6 or
7 years. It is, therefore, a very good example to illustrate the process of the
formation of an ¡§issue¡¨ or a ¡§problem¡¨. As the term ¡§enjo kosai¡¨ is
originated in Japan in the 70s, I trace the cultural phenomena back in Japan,
not to suggest a framework of cultural imperialism, but to show how new meaning
of the same term is locally created and how cultural politics works across the
border.
LAM
Oi-WanªLħ¶³
is now taking M.phil in Beijing
Tsinghua University sociology department. Her thesis will be on migration, with
special focus on the traveling of people, idea, culture and habit across border
against the background of specific border politics.
