臺灣博碩士論文加值系統

In the last few years, the drag scene in Taipei has grown exponentially in terms of both performers and venues, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Exploring the development of drag in Taipei, this thesis begins with a historical overview of gender nonconforming performance in Taiwan, which continues to influence contemporary drag culture. With fieldwork conducted across drag space in Taipei from 2017 to 2021, as well as interviews with performers, Taipei’s contemporary drag culture is outlined in terms of active performers, events and venues, and popular performance styles. The following chapters provide case studies, first of localizations of global drag culture to Taiwan, including representations of Taiwanese temple cultures, indigenous Taiwanese cultures, and specific political situations regarding LGBTQ rights. As global trends and local cultures mix, globalization and localization engage in a symbiotic relationship where globalized drag culture grows from the increased diversity of queer genders represented through localizations, and local cultures’ gender constructions and discriminatory practices are challenged through drag performance. Further challenging mainstream gender ideology, the following chapter analyzes drag that break the binary by utilizing symbols of masculinity and femininity simultaneously. Through their own agency, these performers combine the butch and femme roles outline by Sue-Ellen Case’s butch-femme subject position. Moving beyond contemporary ideas of gender presentation and human behavior, the final chapter explores the posthuman in drag, including presentations as alien figures, animalistic humanoids, and bodies combined with technology. Through uncanny posthuman representations, these artists engage in a utopian performance, a concept theorized by Muñoz, orienting the space towards a future where gender is not heavily policed and being human is no longer tied to the heteronormative gender binary. It is this embedded hope that creates a utopic imagining, always on the horizon, always oriented towards a queer future.

Chapter I: Introduction
1.1 Literature Review..........................................................5
1.1.1 Gender and Sexuality Studies x Performance Studies.......................5
1.1.2 Taiwan Studies x Gender and Sexuality Studies............................7
1.1.3 Ethnomusicology x Queer Musicology.......................................9
1.2 Theoretical Concerns......................................................11
1.3 Methodology...............................................................17
1.4 Goals and Contribution....................................................21

Chapter II: A Brief History of Gender Nonconforming Performance in Taiwan.....23
2.1 Introduction: Acceptance of Gender Nonconformity Onstage versus Offstage..23
2.2 The Fanchuan Show (反串秀) as a Precursor to Drag..........................31
2.3 The Arrival of Drag........................ ..............................36

Chapter III: Ethnography of Contemporary Drag Performance Culture in Taipei...41
3.1 Introduction: Enchanted by Taipei’s Drag Scene............................41
3.2 Where is drag happening?......... .....................................44
3.3 Who is doing drag?........................................................50
3.4 What kind of drag are they doing?.........................................58

Chapter IV: Localizations: Representations of Local Cultures in Drag Performance ..............................................................................71
4.1 Introduction: Drag’s Political Power......................................71
4.2 The Taiwanization of Drag.................................................72
4.3 Representation of Indigenous Taiwanese Cultures...........................85

Chapter V: “Actually Transgressive”: Breaking the Binary of Gender Construction in Drag Performance...........................................................92
5.1 Introduction: Underground Gender Play.....................................92
5.2 Sawyer’s ButchFemme Aesthetic.............................................95
5.3 Rafaela’s Masculine Femininity...........................................102

Chapter VI: The Alien in Drag: Utopic Performativity in Posthuman Drag.......109
6.1 Outside Gender, Outside Human............................................111
6.2 Nymphia’s “Alien Experiment”.............................................114
6.3 Is Popcorn Even “Human”?.................................................119

Chapter VII: Conclusion for Dragging Up Taiwan...............................123
7.1 Summary..................................................................123
7.2 Contribution.............................................................127
7.3 Continuing Research......................................................128

Bibliography.................................................................130

Book, Journal, and Dissertation Sources:

Ahmed, Sara. “Orientations: Toward a Queer Phenomenology.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 12, no. 1 (2006): 543-574.

Ahmed, Sara. Willful Subjects. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.

Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Brett, Phillip. “Are You Musical? Is It Queer to Be Queer? Philip Brett Charts the Rise of Gay Musicology.” The Musical Times 135, no. 1816 (1994): 370-76.

Butler, Judith. “Critically Queer.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 1 (1993): 17-32.

Cárdenas, Micha. “Becoming Dragon: A Transversal Technology Study.” Ctheory, 2010, 1.

Case, Sue-Ellen. “Towards a Butch-Femme Aesthetic.” Discourse 11, no. 1 (1988): 55-73.

Chiang, Howard and Yin Wang. Perverse Taiwan. New York, NY: Routledge, 2017.

Cook, Nicholas. Analysing Musical Multimedia. New York, New York: Clarendon Press, 1998.

Halberstam, Judith. Female Masculinity. Durham [N.C.]: Duke University Press, 1998.

Huang, Hans Tao-Ming. “From Glass Clique to Tongzhi Nation: Crystal Boys, Identity Formation, and the Politics of Sexual Shame.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 18, no. 2 (2010): 373-98.

Dame, Joke. “Unveiled Voices: Sexual Difference and the Castrato,” in Queering the Pitch: The New Gay and Lesbian Musicology. Ed. by Philip Brett, Elizabeth Wood, and Gary C. Thomas. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Frith, Simon and Angela McRobbie. “Rock and Sexuality,” in On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. Ed. by Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin. London: Routledge, 1990.

Kaminski, Elizabeth. Listening to Drag: Music, Performance and the Construction of Oppositional Culture. PhD Diss. Ohio State University, 2003. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Koskoff, Ellen. A Feminist Ethnomusicology: Writings on Music and Gender. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014.

Khubchandani, Kareem. “Ishtyle: Queer Nightlife Performance in India and the South Asian Diaspora.” PhD Diss. Northwestern University, 2014. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

賴彥甫.〈展演「C／娘」的音樂文化－臺北同志夜店G*Star的Asia Pop與男同志身分建構〉.《女學學誌：婦女與性別研究》第37期（2015）：頁93-133。

Luo, Ching-yao. “Queering across the border at the crossroads: The queer discourse, body/voice politics and cultural practices in Taiwan 1990-2002.” M.A. thesis, National Chiao Tung University, 2005.

Magozo, Sakura 佐倉孫三. Taifeng zaiji 臺風雜技 [Miscellaneous records on customs Taiwan], trans. & reprint in 1996. Taizhong: Taiwan Sheng wenxian weiyuanhui 台灣省文獻委員會.

Mann, Stephen L. “Drag Queens' Use of Language and the Performance of Blurred Gendered and Racial Identities.” Journal of Homosexuality 58, no. 6-7 (2011): 793-811.

McClary, Susan. Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.

Muñoz, Jose Esteban. Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Muñoz, José Esteban. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. Sexual Cultures. New York: New York University Press, 2009.

Pai, Hsien-Yung. Crystal Boys: A Novel. San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1995.

Peraino, J A. “The Same, But Different: Sexuality and Musicology Then and Now.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 66, no. 3 (2013): 825-831.

Slobin, Mark. Returning Culture: Musical Changes in Central and Eastern Europe. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997.

Wu, Chao-Jung. Performing Postmodern Taiwan: Gender, Cultural Hybridity, and the Male Cross-dressing Show. Wesleyan University, 2008. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Yu, Yonghe and Keliher Macabe. Small Sea Travel Diaries : Yu Yonghe’s Records of Taiwan / Translated from the Literary Chinese and Annotated by Macabe Keliher. Taipei: SMC Pub., 2004.

News Sources:

China Times, June 28, 1996.

Taiwan Daily New News, June 23, 1908.

Taiwan Daily New News, February 2, 1909.

Taiwan Daily New News, July 13, 1920.

Online Sources:

“BLUSH,” https://www.facebook.com/blushtaipei/, Facebook.

“CUM – Create Ur Mmmagic Drag Labs,” https://www.facebook.com/draglabstw/?ref=page_internal, Facebook.

Kunai 古奈 (@kunai0905), “Make a diva 2 第二集 主題是女英雄,” Instagram, January 20, 2021, https://www.instagram.com/p/CKQ6HtslF1M/?utm_medium=copy_link

Nymphia Wind 妮妃雅 風 (@66wind99), “The Tiger Gaurdian 老虎,” Instagram, September 13, 2019, https://www.instagram.com/tv/B2T9xSBnuU8/.

Rose Mary 羅斯瑪麗 (@rosemary_besu), “Rose Mary 泰雅古訓,” Instagram, November 18, 2018, https://www.instagram.com/tv/BqHTCyWBi82/.

Taipei City Government 台北市政府, “Drag Queen引領新時尚：Café Dalida的變裝伸展台,” September 10, 2020, YouTube Video, 4:03, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP6eMqGv-WY.

TV Sources:

RuPaul’s Drag Race. “RuPaul Book Ball,” Season 8 Episode 8. Directed by Nick Murray. Logo TV, April 25th, 2016.

Interviews by Author:

Nymphia Wind, interview by author, phone recording, Taipei city, November 7, 2019.

Popcorn, interview by author, phone recording, Taipei city, November 26th, 2019.

Rose Mary, interview by author, phone recording, Taipei city, March 22, 2020.

Sawyer Darling, interview by author, phone recording, Taipei city, June 7th, 2019.