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Fantasy, Organization and Gender: Investigating Bodies-Spaces in a Hong Kong Maid Cafe

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Fantasy, Organization and Gender: Investigating Bodies-Spaces in a Hong Kong Maid Cafe Fantasy, Organization and Gender: Investigating Bodies-Spaces in a Hong Kong Maid Cafe YANG, Jing A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree ofMaster ofPhilosophy in Gender Studies The Chinese University ofHong Kong September, 2010 ^^z^T^ tp ^^%. 4^ X^^^一^<¾^、么、 ^¾. >^ 麥、工 \ ；>^ % ^<^a-^A || 'V— 、德 f|3 i q 4i|fi 2012 iil l v \l\ '• I L ^ 、 、’ / …识 |^\ — —„一一丄$ WK p-;-,iSirt 则 W^v …雜 sYSTB/iAvf <rT ^ ^^ri^^rZ^V^^^s.._^u1_7 ^, 5 /Cri n -^t-J>^ C,；^ \ \ ^？^ ii Abstract Maid Cafes are inventions of Japanese ACG subculture. Along with the global popularity ofJapanese ACG subculture, maid cafes started to emerge in places outside Japan, such as cities in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the US, and Europe. The present thesis is based on an ethnographic research conducted in a maid cafe in Hong Kong. It explores the dynamics ofbody and space in everyday life in this cafe, and it construes the relationship between bodies-spaces and the constructions of subcultural fantasy, interactive service organizations and gender. During the eleven weeks of field study, the researcher worked as a maid in this cafe and collected data from participant observation and in-depth interviews with a strong focus on people's everyday practices and experiences related to the maid cafe. By analyzing the bodies-spaces dynamics in relation to the construction of fantasy, organization and gender, the study found that bodies and spaces ofthis maid cafe are not only engaged in constant (re)construction ofeach other, but they also (re)construct each other in accord with the production of ACG fantasy, interactive service organization, and the matrix of gender, gender relationship, and sexuality. iii 論文摘要 女僕咖啡店是日本動漫次文化的產物。隨著日本動漫次文化的全球流 行，始於東京的女僕咖啡店出現在東亞、東南亞甚至歐美的幾大城市。本文即 以一家位於香港的女僕咖啡店為民族志研究的調查田野，探究身體一空間的相 互關係及其與次文化幻想、商業組織以及性別形態之間的聯繫。 在為時十一週的田野調查中，研究者本人於這家咖啡店做兼職女僕。借 助於研究者參與式的觀察與體驗，以及稍後進行的深度訪談，這項研究分析理 解人們與女僕咖啡店有關的日常實踐和個體經驗。通過從次文化幻想、商業組 織運行以及性別形態構成三個不同的角度透視身體一空間的日常情境，本文認 為在女僕咖啡店中，身體和空間不但無時無刻不在相互建構對方，這種相互關 係還作用與動漫幻想、互動服務型商業組織和多種性別特質與性別關係的建構 與發展。 z iv Acknowledgement This thesis would not have been possible without help and support from my dear professors, classmates, friends and family. I would like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to them. First and foremost, I am heartily grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Saskia Witteborn. During my years at Chinese University, she taught me logical thinking, disciplinary writing, and effective presentation of ideas, all ofwhich have been crucial in completing this thesis. She has always been encouraging and supporting both intellectually and emotionally. It is from Dr. Witteborn that I learned the beauty of academic work, as well as the responsibility of a scholar. I consider myselfto be beyond fortunate to have become one ofher students. Thank you so much, Saskia. My sincere gratitude also goes to Professors Anthony Fung and Eric Ma. In addition to being two of my thesis committee members, I was also their students in classes I attended before the writing of this thesis. In Anthony's class, I had the opportunity to widen my knowledge of communication studies, while Eric was responsible for bringing all the useful and beautiful qualitative methodologies, especially ethnography, into my lxfe. Both professors also offered me valuable comments and criticism to better this thesis. I would also like to thank my instructors and classmates from both Gender Studies and JCM School. Dengli, Xiaoxiao, Xiaoxiong, Lina, Leo, Dorcas, Dr. Jacobs, Ms Pikki Leung, thank you for your encouragements and advice. I also want to thank Ms Carol Chow, who offered me constructive critiques in many ofour personal conversations. They helped me in refining my application of concepts and bettered my analysis. Moreover, I wish to express my love and gratitude to my friends who suffered fronTmy continuous complaints and worries in the past months. Zhen, Banjo, Tangtang, Zheng, Olivia and Dr. Tierney, thank you for your support. Lastly, I owe the most to those who always tolerated my bad temper. Thank you, Kevin, the talented editor and the best boyfriend. Thank you, mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa, for always having faith in me. V Table of content Chapter 1: Introduction P.1 Chapter 2: Literature Review p.l4 Bodies p.l5 Spaces p.l9 Bodies-Spaces....... - p.23 Fantasy, Organization & Gender p.28 Chapter 3: Methodology p 36 Data Collection p.36 Date Analysis p.41 Chapter 4: Fantastic Bodies-Spaces The ACG Fantasy ofMaid p.43 Geographical Location & Imaginary Location p.46 Inventing Names & Dressing Up p.50 Home, Sweet Home p.57 Fantastic Bodies-Spaces..... p.61 Chapter 5: Organizational Bodies-Spaces Maid Date, A Profit-Organization p.66 White Maid Date & Black Maid Date p.67 Redrawing the Boundaries Between Home and Work p.70 Working as Professionals p.74 Supervision p.79 Organizational Bodies-Spaces p.82 Chapter 6: Gendered Bodies-Spaces Display of Femininity & Male Gaze p.87 Butler's Day p.93 Gendered Bodies-Spaces p. 100 Chapter 7: Conclusion p.l03 Appendix p.ll7 Reference p.l22 1 Chapter 1: Introduction Research Scene "Welcome home master", says a young girl dressed up in black-and-white Victorian-style maid-costume as she opens the door with a big smile. She takes a bow, hands over copies of the menu, leads the "master" to the table, and starts to introduce herself: "How are you, master?" she says, ‘‘I am your maid Lala. I hope you will enjoy your stay here," Usually, she will introduce the day's special drinks. After ordering a milkshake with peculiar names like “Black Knight", the "master" won't simply be left sitting alone. Instead, the maid will approach the table from time to time, serving drinks, offering board games, or engaging in conversation. Looking around, other "masters" are also actively involved with similar communications and activities with the maids. This is the experience of this so-called "home", an upstairs cafe named "Maid Date" in Causeway Bay, a prosperous area in downtown Hong Kong. What sets this cafe apart from the many catering places in Hong Kong is its close relation to a Japanese subculture — ACG (anime1 -comics/manga2 -video game3 ). It• i s a styl- e derived from the popular ACG subculture related maid cafes in Japan in terms of service style and interior design. It employs self-proclaimed female fans ofACG subculture as waitresses, and trains them how to maintain maid/master relationship with masters. 1 Anime is the Japanese abbreviation for animation ^Napier, 2001). However, it has also become a common English word now which means "a style of animation originating in themes" (Anime, 2010). While in Japan, any kind of animation is referred to as anime, anime is often times understood as Japanee animation outside Japan (O'Connell, 1999). 2 Manga in Japanese refers to any kind of printed cartoon (O'Connell, 1999). Just like the modern English use of anime, elsewhere manga especially means "a Japanese comic book or graphic novel" (Manga, 2010). 3 Video game, here especially refers to video games on computer, play stations, game-boys and alike with characters/stories derived in or imitated from anime and mangas QSfg, 2008b). 2 The popular ACG subculture in Hong Kong is heavily influenced by its Japanese counterpart. ACG products in Japan began from small manga publishing and animation production businesses, and now they're available via various forms of media 24 hours a day and seven days a week, with various genres to meet almost everyone's tastes (Schodt, 2002). Furthermore, they are published and commercialized in various media forms, such as comics, magazines, toys, stationaries, evolving into a "wide range of media mix consumer products (e.g., games and merchandise) that folly penetrate everyday life in Japanese society" (Bryce & Davis, 2006，p. 5). Though a large part of ACG products have been produced and promoted by large production companies and media groups, they have been, almost at the same time, approporiated, recreated, or even created by devoted Otakus . Many Otakus are more than passive consumers who only live in the fantasitc textual worlds in the < mass ACG productions. Instead, they enthusiasticlly take part in the making ofthat world, relieving the world from texts via activities like creative dojinshi (Kinsella, 1998; Schodt, 2002) and cosplay6" (Winge, 2006). The fantasy shared by Otakus and ACG industries has also affected people outside Japan. Japanese ACG products have been available abroad since as early as 1980s fNg, 2010). Not surprisingly, alongside the global consumption of Japanese 4 Otaku is the Japanese term to address young people, usually male, who are obssessed with ACG products (Galbraith, 2009; Schodt, 2002). 5 Dojingshi is amateur mangas created by Otakus, most of them are parodies of popular ACG Even comparing to mainstream manga, the amateurs' number ofDoshijin production is huge. There are comic affairs organized only by and for Dojinshi artist and fans to exhibit, exchange and even sell dojinshi (Kinsella, 1998). 6 "Cosplay" is the combination of costume and play ( McCarthy, 1999; Poitras, 2001), It is a fan activity where fans "wear detailed makeup and elaborate costumes modeled after their favorite anime, manga and related video game characters" (Winge, 2006, p. 65). People participating in cosplay are called "cosplayer". Cospalyers usually devoted large amount ofmoney purchasing costumes, props and makeups. Their pleasure doesn't come from fashion design or runnway modelling, but the temporary experience ofbecoming the admirable ACG characters. 3 ACG products comes a global fandom and subculture around it (Allison, 2003, 2006a,2006b; Befu, 2002; Iwabuchi, 2002b，2002c; Norris, 2000). Hong Kong is an important importing region of ACG subculture. Although Hong Kong has produced its own comics for several decades — including a special Hong Kong Kung-Fu genre — since the 1960s，they have been facing the competitition of Japanese manga while also absorbing Japanese style into their own works (Lent, 1999; Ng, 2002, 2003; Redmond, 2007; Wong, 2002, 2006).
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