Informants in the age range of fifteen to twenty-one years from a working class background might not seek out a commercial lesbian space often due to the lack of money. Rather, they tend to rely on affordable spaces or free hangouts to socialise or simply to get away from their parents. Sixteen-year-old Yuki often argued […]

Hybridised business ventures are in-between social spaces which merge community group organisations and private businesses. These business ventures are generally lesbian cafes located upstairs in buildings in neighbourhoods known for shopping and tourism. High rental prices for street front premises have driven most businesses (including independent bookstores, bars and cafes) upstairs in commercial buildings. In […]

Queer Sisters is a social support group for queer women and has been active in holding workshops and public seminars, producing media materials on issues related to sexualities, dis­crimination and counselling. The core coordinator of the hotline, Eunice, who joined Queer Sisters in 1997, noticed that before the year 2000 callers were mostly troubled by […]

For many lesbians, meeting online through social media websites such as Facebook, Leztalk, and Queer Sisters Forum (zemui tungzi hauseoifong) is an everyday practice. Information about parties and events is often advertised online and circulated through social networking websites that one might join to look for friendships and erotic relationships. Social spaces targeting Hong Kong […]

Since the reversion of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997 there has been a proliferation of research by Hong Kong scholars into female same-sex sexualities in Hong Kong. Chou Wah-Shan (1997) has been a prolific writer on Chinese homosexualities with his research influencing many activists and scholars alike, although his work has also attracted […]

Denise Tse-Shang Tang Introduction In order to understand lesbian spaces in Hong Kong, one needs to examine the meanings and cultural aspects of lesbian desires in an urban environment. Chinese lesbian sexualities vary in different historical, social and cultural contexts. One can imagine the differences between the everyday life experiences of Chinese lesbians living in […]

In 1989, at the end of the Showa Period a young man named Miyazaki Tsutomu was arrested for murdering and molesting four girls between the ages of four and seven. As the nation tried to make sense of these heinous crimes, much attention was given to the discovery in Miyazaki’s room of 5,763 videotapes, including […]

Though in previous decades the word had been used among fans as an innocuous second- person pronoun, ‘otaku’ was adopted as an insult during the lolicon boom in the early 1980s. Foundational to the discourse is ‘‘Otaku’ Research’ (‘otaku’ no kenkyu), a column written by Nakamori Akio and published in Manga Burikko from June to […]

A good record of the evolution of ‘otaku sexuality’ is provided by Manga Burikko (1982-1986), a subcultural magazine from the height of the lolicon boom. While it is difficult to know precisely the demographic of its readership, a survey published in the September 1983 issue of Manga Burikko shows that readers range from ‘below 15’ […]

In Japan, manga and anime have in the postwar period become vibrant cultural forms with mass appeal. In the 1960s, Tezuka Osamu’s Astro Boy was the star of a manga and anime series, had been recorded as a TV and radio drama and could be purchased in the form of toys and merchandise. Each episode […]