Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top

2019 | Book

Japanese Homoerotic Manga in Taiwan: Same-Sex Love and Utopian Imagination Read chapter Read first chapter

Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond

Uniting Different Cultures and Identities

Editors: Fusami Ogi, Rebecca Suter, Kazumi Nagaike, John A. Lent

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Login to get access
insite
SEARCH

About this book

Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond offers a variety of perspectives on women’s manga and the nature, scope, and significance of the relationship between women and comics/manga, both globally as well as locally. Based on the activities since 2009 of the Women’s MANGA Research Project in Asia (WMRPA), the edited volume elucidates social and historical aspects of the Asian wave of manga from ever-broader perspectives of transnationalization and glocalization. With a specific focus on women’s direct roles in manga creation, it illustrates how the globalization of manga has united different cultures and identities, focusing on networks of women creators and readerships.

Taking an Asian regional approach combined with investigations of non-Asian cultures which have felt manga’s impact, the book details manga’s shift to a global medium, developing, uniting, and involving increasing numbers of participants worldwide. Unveiling diverse Asian identities and showing ways to unite them, the contributors to this volume recognize the overlaps and unique trends that emerge as a result.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Section I

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Japanese Homoerotic Manga in Taiwan: Same-Sex Love and Utopian Imagination
Abstract
This chapter focuses on young female consumers of ‘boys’ love’ (BL) (and some ‘girls’ love’ [GL]) manga in Taiwan to consider how these genres contribute to girls’ and women’s participatory pop culture outside Japan. BL and GL become indigenized cultural resources in Taiwan, speaking to the local social experience of readers while also fitting into the gendered transnational history of Chinese cultural modernities. Based on interviews with readers, the chapter shows how BL and GL narratives allow them to engage in a critical project of utopian imagination on same-sex love. The manga enable the imagination of individual authenticity, in conflict with a conformist education system and familial pressures; the imagination of pure love, in conflict with cross-sex marriage; and the imagination of the plasticity of selfhood, in conflict with the rigidity of adult social roles.
Fran Martin
Chapter 2. Hailing the Subject: Visual Progression and Queer Reading in Nananan’s Blue
Abstract
Kiriko Nananan’s Blue (1997) invites an Althusserian reading in which the (hailed) subject of the (capitalist) State is incorporated into ideological institutions. Blue’s women characters are continuously hailed by their teachers or each other. The girls’ black-haired heads—round dense patches of ink—visually depict Blue’s subjects heeding their hail (turning to acknowledge a calling) while they also attempt resistance to incorporation diegetically—the girls aspire to more than marriage and domesticity. Eventually, the protagonists accept that they cannot refuse State interpolation. Nananan’s accompanying diegetic drag—the visual encumbrance of numerous inked heads—is an imagistic resignation to this subjectification. Pitting the visual representation of the girls’ acquiescence to the hail against the consistently interrupted narrative creates a productive tension between image and narrative pacing.
Monica Chiu
Chapter 3. Queering Democracy Activism and Online Obscenities: Hong Kong Women’s Boys’ Love Protest
Abstract
This essay focuses on women’s contributions to democracy activism as part of an ongoing fight for more tolerant community standards and censorship legislation. It looks at how Hong Kong Boys’ Love fans use Facebook to circulate gay-themed erotica and sexually explicit media despite a rigid ban on depictions of sex and nudity. Secondly, it discusses a specific Facebook community, Lester Alex HeHe (捍衛 佔領巫山團), also nicknamed “Alexter,” that was set up during the Hong Kong Umbrella movement. As part of the movement for universal suffrage and Hong Kong’s political self-determination, Boys’ Love fans started posting political updates and also “queered” the political-activist mission by posting soft-erotic gay fantasies about the university student leaders.
Katrien Jacobs
Chapter 4. Pleasurable Interplay in the 2.5-Dimensional World: Women’s Cosplay Performances in Singapore and the Philippines
Abstract
Cosplay (costume play) is one of the most popular manga/anime/videogame-related fan activities worldwide. It often serves as a means of self-expression, self-assertion, constructing communities of “intimate strangers,” and/or enjoying superficial femininity/masculinity for young fans. My research in 2011 and 2012 showed how Singaporean and Filipina female cross-dressing highlight imaginary gender swapping and how crossplay (cross-dressing cosplay) served to alleviate societal pressure toward women in the two countries. This chapter will examine how crossplay functions for female cosplayers in Singapore and the Philippines in terms of femininity and sexuality by analyzing empirical data of individual interviews with female cosplayers.
Akiko Sugawa-Shimada
Chapter 5. Fudanshi (“Rotten Boys”) in Asia: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Male Readings of BL and Concepts of Masculinity
Abstract
This chapter delineates the characteristics of fudanshi (“rotten boys,” male fan of BL) in other Asian countries, including Japan, the Philippines, mainland China and South Korea. The primary thematic question which this study attempts to explore is whether or not the kind of “soft” masculinity exemplified by Japanese fudanshi is also seen in other Asian sociocultural contexts. This cross-cultural analysis is further enhanced by an examination of the ways in which fujoshi (“rotten girls,” female fan of BL) communicate with fudanshi, as well as by a consideration of how fujoshi in other Asian countries respond to the desire of fudanshi to access (and appropriate) the space within a specifically female-oriented cultural sphere.
Kazumi Nagaike
Chapter 6. Writing Boys’ Love Comics in the Philippines
Abstract
As an artist who is both passionate about boys’ love (BL) and manga, being a BL comics artist myself was foreseeable. I was raised in a typical Filipino household, known to be conservative and religious, which is why being in this career and as someone who also identifies in the LGBT Community are struggles that affect me both artistically and personally. I grew to naturally love making comics, but was engaging myself in BL also as natural? Through my struggles did I only begin to discover then accept and love myself. My inner strength is what kept me intact no matter what challenge as a BL comics artist and enthusiast comes at me and that is something I would like to share with people.
Scott WuMing

Section II

Frontmatter
Chapter 7. How Women’s Manga Has Performed the Image of ASIAs, Globally and Locally
Abstract
Asia was an untouchable arena for many mangakas of shōjo manga in the 1970s, said Keiko Takemiya, one of the leading mangakas who led shōjo manga at that time. Shōjo manga seems to have maintained the farthest distance among other genres of manga from the concept of Asia—even now, owing to its appearance, which is often called the shōjo manga style. Although the narrative portrays Asia, it just betrays its setting by making every ideal character Western with long legs, round eyes, and blond curly hair. However, it is also true that the number of works dealing with Asia has increased and now there are many works considered as masterpieces in the history of shōjo manga. As Gayatori C. Spivak remarks, Asia is not a place, yet the name is laden with history and cultural politics that it cannot produce a naturalized homogeneous “identity.” This chapter will explore Asian images that shōjo manga has historically employed as a genre, considering how they exclude and include Asia with the concept of the global and the local.
Fusami Ogi
Chapter 8. Saving the World with Tiny Little Boxes
Abstract
In “Saving the World with Tiny Little Boxes,” Ace Vitangcol describes his journey from initially being inclined towards the sciences and ending up pursuing a fiction writing career. He relates his insights into the books about super heroes (including “World without a Superman”) that influenced him to write comics. He has written and produced manga comic book series like “Love is in the Bag,” “Angel Crush,” and “My Celestial Family” which he had designed to cater to a diverse readership. His company has partnered with Cause Vision to produce manga comics that could be used in the global fight against child abuse and sex trafficking. True to his love of science, Ace tries to save Mother Earth through his comics’ panels or tiny little boxes.
Ace Vitangcol
Chapter 9. Environmental and Cultural Influences on an Artist
Abstract
An artist’s work is often influenced by his or her surrounding environment, viewed from the artist’s unique perspective.
FSc (Foo Swee Chin)
Chapter 10. Re-centring Australia in the Shōjo Imagination
Abstract
Geographically and culturally positioned between Asia and the Anglo-American world, Australia performs a peculiar role in the shōjo romanticization of the foreign, displacing conventional views of women’s manga exoticism. Focusing on two women’s manga, Igarashi’s Jōji! (Georgie! 1982) and Kazui Kazumi’s Sekai no chūshin de ai o sakebu (Crying out love at the centre of the world, 2001), this chapter traces the development of the representation of Australia in women’s manga and more broadly its role within the shōjo’s imagination of the foreign.
Rebecca Suter
Chapter 11. Manga in Australia
Abstract
Australian manga artist Madeleine Rosca discusses growing up in the West as a comics fan and how Western comics did not traditionally cater for female readers. The advent of translated manga from Japan has encouraged women and girls in the West to become more involved in comics.
Madeleine Rosca
Chapter 12. Manga and Shakespeare
Abstract
The combination of Shakespeare—the supreme icon of high culture and Englishness—and manga—a popular art format originating in Japan—may seem unusual. Yet, substantial numbers of manga adaptations of Shakespeare’s works exist, both from Japan and from other parts of the world, including Osamu Tezuka’s Vampire (1966–69), which incorporates Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Richard III. Some manga versions of Shakespeare remain fairly faithful to the original, while others are wild spin-offs almost unrecognizable as Shakespeare. This chapter analyzes manga adaptations of Shakespeare to explore whether manga versions of Shakespeare should be praised for their creative reinvention of Shakespeare or should be condemned as sacrilege toward Shakespeare’s authority. I will argue that manga versions of Shakespeare challenge us to question and examine established cultural hierarchy.
Yukari Yoshihara
Chapter 13. Yoko Tsuno and Franco-Belgian Girl Readers of Bande Dessinée
Abstract
Yoko Tsuno is the most famous Japanese person in Belgium. However, the series’ name and titular character is an entirely fictional as well as a popular Bande Dessinée (BD, Franco-Belgian comics) title. Yoko Tsuno is an adventure comic that since the 1970s was serialized in the popular BD magazine Spirou. One of Yoko’s defining characteristics is that unlike other comic narratives with a Japanese heroine, Yoko is a character that is not in any significant way sexualized or overly orientalized by her creator. This chapter outlines the history of the series and looks at how Yoko had an effect on the reception of Japanese culture and in particular Japanese femininity in the Franco-Belgian context.
Jessica Bauwens
Chapter 14. Matsumoto Katsuji: Modern Tomboys and Early Shōjo Manga
Abstract
This chapter looks at how this seminal figure in prewar Japanese girls’ culture responded to discourses about proper femininity in the early Shōwa period (1926–45). It shows how Matsumoto sourced positively from Hollywood and the flapper-type moga (‘modern girl’) to craft models of athletic and assertive girlhood that differs starkly from the wispy, homoerotic figures that traditionally dominate narratives of early shōjo culture.
Ryan Holmberg

Section III

Frontmatter
Chapter 15. Chinese Women Cartoonists: A Brief, Generational Perspective
Abstract
One way of categorizing the few women cartoonists of China historically is by generations, the scheme favored in film circles for decades. Perhaps five periods can be identified as the beginning stages of these women’s careers: World War II, and before, post-Liberation (1949), the “Cultural Revolution” and its immediate aftermath, the 1980s, and contemporary. Unlike cinema, these categories are not necessarily associated with particular creative styles, formats, or storytelling techniques; they are simply a way to place the women chronologically.
John A. Lent, Xu Ying
Chapter 16. Fifty Years of Popularity of Theresa Lee Wai-chun and Her Comic, 13-Dot Cartoon: Changing Identities of Women in Hong Kong
Abstract
This chapter surveys the most important girls’ comics in Hong Kong comics history, Theresa Lee Wai-chun’s Sapsaam Dim (in Cantonese Chinese), or 13-Dot Cartoon, which debuted in 1966. As a comic icon and a legendary figure, Lee and her character, Sapsaam Dim, have been the darlings of the Hong Kong mass media. By examining their appearances in print media throughout a fifty-year timespan (1966–2016), I decode the messages of changing women’s identities in Hong Kong. Through my analysis of print media materials, this survey uncovers a process of negotiating women’s identities, particularly breaking away from the stereotypical image of a homemaker, within a patriarchal society.
Wendy Siuyi Wong
Chapter 17. A Conversation with Theresa Lee, the Creator of Miss 13 Dots
Abstract
Renowned Hong Kong comics artist Theresa Lee Wai-chun has devoted herself to comics creation since the 1960s. Her signature work Miss 13 Dots, first published in 1966, is an acclaimed classic in Hong Kong and a pioneer of local girl’s comics. The title was immensely popular not only within the city but also in other parts of the world from the 1960s to the 1980s. Female protagonist 13 Dots—independent, fashionable, and righteous—represents an ideal that confronts the position of inferiority to which women were condemned in society at the time. The lovable heroine attracted a huge following from her endless collection of stylish outfits and modernistic lifestyle.
Connie Lam, Theresa Wai-chun Lee
Chapter 18. Witness to a Transition: The Manga of Kyoko Okazaki and the Feminine Self in the Shift toward ‘Flat Culture’ in Japanese Consumer Society
Abstract
This chapter is to examine the trajectory of the representation of gender identity and consumer practices in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s as illustrated by the changes seen in an important element of popular culture: manga. Reviewing the manga of Kyoko Okazaki (born in 1963), this chapter discusses how the gender identity of young Japanese women was accommodated in the advent of Japanese consumer society. In conclusion, I argue that Okazaki’s material girls in her works demonstrate a lack of awareness of social class, gender, race, and other ‘social’ matters, as they are concerned solely about the personal rather than the social, criticizing feminine selves in the course of ‘flat culture’ (Endō, Jyoron: furatto karuchâ wo kangaeru (Introduction: Thinking about the Flat Culture). In Furatto karuchā: gendai nihon no shakaigaku (The Flat Culture: A Sociology of Contemporary Japan), ed. T. Endō. Serika Shobō: Tokyo, 2010) in contemporary Japanese society.
Takeshi Hamano
Chapter 19. Reviving the Power of Storytelling: Post-3/11 Online ‘Amateur’ Manga
Abstract
This chapter discusses online manga that responded to the Japan’s triple disaster—the massive earthquake on March 11, 2011, that caused the tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear meltdown—created by non-professional cartoonists who published their works on social media. Focuses are on Misukoso’s Field of Cole: Remember the Great East Japan Earthquake (Itsuka nanohana batake-de) and Kizuki Sae’s Seven Days in the Disaster (Shinsai nanoka-kan). Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s theory on the nature of ‘storytelling’ that conveys lived experiences of the people, my chapter attempts to evaluate the powerful function of graphic storytelling, its resilience to the mass media(ted) images and information, and its ability to maintain human empathy toward the disaster victims.
Shige (CJ) Suzuki
Chapter 20. Comics-Prose: Evolving Manga in the Twenty-First Century
Abstract
This chapter is about the need for comics to evolve in a manner that will incorporate other forms of storytelling that it previously didn’t. Taking into account the need to expand an audience and the limits of selling hardcopies of comics, the author Queenie Chan discusses the difficulty of drawing serialised comics that is the nature of the Japanese industry, and some of the possible solutions to the problem. One solution she has discovered is mixing prose with comics—which permits an evolution of the medium in a direction which was previously unseen.
Queenie Chan
Chapter 21. Manga in Hong Kong
Abstract
Stella So’s animation (Very Fantastic 好鬼棧) is about old Hong Kong memories. She created illustrations (HK POWDER CITY粉末都市) for MilK magazine, cooperated with 7-Eleven for (so good) TV commercial, illustrated CD illustration for Eason Chan album (不想放手), and created (old girl 老少女) comic about daily interesting experiences and (城西故事 Old Western stories in HK) installation with MTR Hong Kong University Station.
Stella So
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond
Editors
Fusami Ogi
Rebecca Suter
Kazumi Nagaike
John A. Lent
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-97229-9
Print ISBN
978-3-319-97228-2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97229-9