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
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). Moreover,
Fung (2005) and Ng (2010) note that Hong Kong, along with Taiwan, is a major distributor of Japanese ACG subculture. Almost every famous title ofACG has had
Chinese translated versions published in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Local television networks, such as free-to-air network TVB, have been airing translated
Japanese animes for years at different timeslots throughout the week.
In a recent survey, Ng (2010) reports that more than 80% of participants X prefer ACG products from Japan than those from elsewhere, and that 13% of
participants identify themselves as Otakus. The negative connotation ofthe word
otaku (addicted ACG fans incapable of social life that also serve potential danger to
society) tends to be highlighted by media and mainstream society in Hong Kong
(Schodt, 2002). Besides enjoying ACG products at home, fans can go to manga cafes
to read their collections, participate in fan communities activities on university
campus, andjoin ACG conventions held in Hong Kong.
The maid cafe mentioned in the beginning of this chapter is also a popular
ACG subculture-related cafe. Maid cafe is part of the ACG industry/subculture in
and outside Japan. Maid cafe evolved from cosplay cafes that existed in the 1990s in
a neighborhood called Akihabara in Tokyo, famous for the huge gathering of Otakus
who go to shop for ACG products (Macias & Machiyama, 2004). At the beginning, 4 a cosplay cafe has all kinds of charactors dressed in costumes waitressing and serving Otakus, with the maid character being only one of them. However, it became apparent around the beginning of the 21st century that maid cafes are the most popular ones among cosplay cafes (Galbraith, 2009).
The maid character, often dressed up in Victorian maid costume of white/black color with knee-high dresses and apron, is one of the popular ACG figures (Azuma, 2009; Macias & Machiyama，2004). There are various stories in
ACG products telling very different stories of maids, some suggesting maids should
be live at their master's home doing housework (Mattsu & Asu, 2004). Others
suggest that maids don't necceserily have to be female (Yana, 2008), and a few even
suggest that maids can provide erotic services (F&C, 1998). Therefore, a very large
imaginary space is left for the creation and interpretion of the maid character.
However, maids in maid cafes usually refer to the kind ofmaids who are X young, shy, tender, willing to care for their masters. Usually, interactions between
maids and masters stop at the visual and verbal level. Moreover, it is usually
forbidden for masters to request personal information of the maids (Galbraith, 2009).
On a practical level, these regulations are designed to protect the maids' privacy and
safety. Analyists (Azuma, 2009; Galbraith, 2009)，on the other hand, point out that
such kind of game rules are in line with the fact that Otakus fantasize only towards
two-dimentional images rather than a human being.
Maid cafes now have trenscended Japan and set foot in Taiwan, Hong Kong,
Mainland China, Korea, Singapore, and other regions. Maid Date is the first maid
cafe established in Hong Kong. The interesting thing about its foundation is that the
cafe owner at that time was not inspired by maid cafes in Japan, but rather by a maid
cafe in Guangzhou that he had visited during a trip. Being a fan ofACG himself 5 along with his girlfriend, he rented a small apartment on the third floor of an old building near the Time Square in the district of Causeway Bay and named it "Maid
Date". Three shareholders promoted the newly opened cafe with cartoon posters distributed on the Internet, and that is also where they had found their first group of employees. Not surprisingly, many customers, as well as local lifestyle media, tend to compare this cafe with the Tokyo cafes they have seen from other media coverage
or personal travels (Don, 2008; Kazuki, 2007; Yanlee，2007). At the same time, cafe
owners and employees also keep representing and promoting this cafe as Japanese-
style, and they themselves as enthusiastic fans of ACG subculture.
During its three years of operation, new maid cafes opened in Hong Kong,
many ofwhich had only lasted for a short time before closing. It might be proofthat
such business is not easy to run in Hong Kong, as even Maid Date has gone through
several changes in the managerial level due to tranfers of shares. While the cafe had N set the young ACG fans as its target customers at the beginning, a new shareholder
decided to extend his potential customers to those outside the ACG community when
he bought a large portion of the shares. The cafe, then, went through a major re-
decoration in order to both maintain a sense of the maid cafe asethetics while
developing an atmosphere more similar to bars and clubs elsewhere in Hong Kong.
Almost at the same time, local TV station TVB had aired an episode in its
Sunday Profile program featuring the cafe. In this episode, a Hong Kong man called
Perter was interviewed in-depth about his life as an Otaku in this city. The crew had
followed him to his usual place, including Maid Date. The manager said that the
number of visits to the Maid Date website peaked after the airing of the show.
The re-decoration and the television exposure had successfully attracted a
more diverse clientele for Maid Date. Businessmen, families, amd romantic couples 6 also visit Maid Date for meals, social gathering, and parties. However, the change is not welcomed by everyone, as loyal maids and customers who have strong affection for ACG subculture have showed me their crtiques and complaints.
Investigating Bodies and Spaces in Maid Date
I set my first step into Maid Date in September 2009. The ACG fantasy-based setting made me both curious and nervous, as I had no idea what a customer should do in such an environment. A maid approached me and introduced herselfas Maid
Lunar. She ttied to make me feel comfortable by starting a conversation on my hairstyle. Somewhere between this little chat and the arrival of my drink, I found myself feeling more comfortable to be there. In the following weeks, I frequented
Maid Date and made myselfacquainted to several maids, managers and "masters" there. I became fascinated in the encounters ofdifferent people moving around this
cafe and the playing of fantasy-based roles. In pursuance of exploring the making of V,
such constructions of fantasy, I convinced the manager to hire me as a part-time maid.
From that point, I carried on an ethnographic study in Maid Date from Janurary to
April 2010.
During this time, I got the opportunity to communicate with other maids,
managers and masters using this maid identity. It was in our communication and
interaction that I found it helpful to understand and interpret the daily scenarios in
the cafe via the concepts of body and space. Bodies and spaces are both concepts that
are heavily loaded with various meanings. Borrowing feminist philosopher Elizabeth
Grosz's theory, I conceptualize bodies and spaces in Maid Date as both constituted
by material structures, inscribed with social and cultural meanings. As this study will
illustrate, bodies and spaces are mutually defining and constituting each other (Grosz,
1994,1995,1998). 7
By bodies, I mean the "sociocultural artifact" (Grosz, 1998, p. 42) which should be construed by both its materiality and socialcultural specificity. On the one hand, it is impossible to deny the physical and animate existence ofthese people who present themselves via their appearance, movements, interaction with one another.
However, the bodily existance of these people cannot be reduced to mechnical carriers of such practices that are capable ofnothing but following orders and routines. On the contrary, with deeper communication with the people, their embodied subjectivity can also be discovered. They are individuals with their own memories, feelings and wills. Their capabilities and autonomies might be restricted in accordance with socialcultural condistions yet not totally subjected to these conditions. In Maid Cafe, the maid-master bond is usually established after several encounters between the two. It is not an automatic procedure where the the two people are simply combined. On the contrary, it is a process based on the two
subjects' mutual understanding and mutual commitment. Therefore, the concept
"body" deployed in this study refers to both the materiality and subjectivity ofthe
people studied.
By space, I refer to the activity spaces of the bodies I have encountered,
acquainted and communicated with in the ethnographic practices. As a cafe with its
concrete geographic location and architectural construction, it clearly makes more
sense to say that Maid Date is more like a place than a space. However, the cafe is
not isolated from other places and bodies related to it. Instead of providing accounts
for Maid Date as an enclosed place disconnected with the outside, I found it more
meaningful to envisage this small place in its inter-relatedness with other places
where the bodies under investigation also stage their life (Jess & Massey, 1995). For
instance, most maids in Maid Date spend the majority of their time in school, and 8 other time at their part-time workplace and home. For them, the experience and meaning ofMaid Date can only be expressed and explained with comparison with other places. Therefore, rather than conceptualizing Maid Date as a single, fixed place, this study attempts to situate it in activity spaces in order to explore its difference and similarities with other interrelated places.
Furthermore, in this thesis, maids, managers, and masters are considered embodied subjects whose identities and practices are at the same time internalized from and projecting onto the particular space of the maid cafe. The "feelings" and
"auras" of maid and maid cafe are always a mixture produced by both the bodies and the spaces. The relationship between bodies and spaces are not creators and creations, containers and inhabitants, causes and results (Grosz，1998). Instead, they are interwoven into the mutually producing and transforming process. For instance, one master has compared the maids on duty as "mobile landscape" which he regards as important constituents of the fantastic space. For another, in many posters and wallpapers of Maid Date, vivid and colourful images of cartoon maids have become
the references and models for the real maids draw experience from. In both case, not
only do bodies and spaces actively constitute and construct each other, they are also
to a certain extentbecoming each other.
However, as Nigel Thrift (2006) has cautions us, it is easy to fall into the trap
oftheorizing certain spaces along a single perspective. In our daily lives, both spaces
and bodies could be understood with simultaneously multiple interpretations.
Although it might become much more convenient to emphasize one particular
perspective out of many, the consequence may be a lack of understanding of others
and the interactions among all of them. In my case, bodies and spaces of Maid Date
are representations offantasies. To be a maid means enacting the fantastic feelings 9 on the masters via verbal/nonverbal communications. It is in the mimic performance in accordance with ACG imaginations that we gain different experiences and pleasures comparing to their lives elsewhere. However, along with my involvement with the bodies and spaces ofMaid Date，I have discovered that not only are they highly connected to the issue of fantasy, but also that they have engaged in organizational and gender relationships.
I deploy the concept of "organization" here with a strong emphasis of its reliance on personal relationships and interactions on a daily basis since organization can be defined as the “system of consciously coordinated activities or forces oftwo or more people" (Barnard, 1968, p. 73). The establishment and maintenance of any kind of organizations needs the cooperative relationships among people. In the organizations of service industry, which is related to this study, the interpersonal communication and interaction permeate everywhere. Managers, employees and customers are usually present at the same time, each demanding the other two's co- existence (McDowell, 2009), The interpersonal dynamics of the three influence the operation and effiency of the organization all the time. Simutanieouly, the three's identities and subjectivities in this particular organization are also affected by their
relationships. This is also the case in Maid Date. My time working in Maid Date
enabled me to understand that this job actually required two work roles at once —
maid and waitress. It is true that maids spend most of their time performing the ACG
roles, and the space is constructed to be where the fantasy comes true. However, the
bodies of maids are simultaneously laborers and products for maximizing profits for
the company, and in accordance, the fantastic spaces are designed and engendered as
organizational spaces to control the production and monetary transactions.
Furthermore, in my conversations with maids, managers and masters, I discovered 10 that they were more or less engaged in a competition with one another to determine the "nature" ofbodies and spaces ofMaid Date. While some maids and masters deploy the narrative of"home and family member", managers like to refer to these bodies and spaces as "the possession of the company".
Gender and gender relations also have a hold upon the constructions ofthese bodies-spaces. While previous schools of feminist studies — psychoanalysis- informed feminists (Chodorow, 1978)，and radical feminists (Millett, 1978) for instance - tend to consider gender as the cultural nurturing result in a patriarchal society which leads to the inequality between the two sexes, scholars like Butler
(1993a; 1999) have pointed out that sex and sexuality arejust like gender, socially constructed ideas. To be a gender is to do one, which means to behave in accord with the socially assigned gender roles. Gender cannot be fully comprehended without considering its affiliation with gender relationship and sexual behaviors. In Maid
Date, a particular femininity is highlighted and consequently gendered behaviors and relationship which come in harmony with this femininity are expected and
encouraged. Meanwhile, the kind of relationship in harmony with these two gender
roles between maids and masters/managers are regarded as acceptable. On the other
hand, representations of other kind of femininities and masculinities are perceived as
jokes or absurd. Consequently, other kinds of gender relationships, such as
homosexual relationships, are discouraged and excluded. These inclusions and
exclusions can be discovered on bodies-spaces level, given that both the spatial
representations and layout have assisted in this filtering process, the same holds true
in terms of embodied practices and bodily interactions.
Therefore, based on these observations, I found it feasible and interesting to
conduct research and analysis not only on the mutually construction ofbodies and 11 spaces, but also on the complex relationships among bodies, spaces, fantasies, organization and gender in Maid Date, which bring me to my research questions:
RQ1: How do bodies and spaces construct each other in Maid Date?
RQ2: How do bodies-spaces relate to the constructions of fantasy, organization and
gender in Maid Date?
Research Significance
Acknowledging "the unremitting materiality of a world where there are no pre-existing objects" (Thrift, 2006, p. 139), this study can contribute to the ongoing discussions on bodies and spaces not by offering answers to what bodies and spaces are but by analyzing how bodies andspaces come into being.
In addition, most literatures on bodies and spaces come from disciplines like philosophy (Casey, 1993; Grosz, 1995，1998;Malpas, 1999), sociology (de Certeau,
1984; Lefebvre, 1991; Turner, 2008), and human geography (Harvey, 1996; Massey,
1994, 2005; Tuan, 1975, 1976, 2003). Therefore, studies often take the forms of geneology of concept (Thrift, 2006), re-reading of classic literatures (Grosz, 1994),
and political-economy analysis (Harvey, 1996). Though there are still relatively few
scholarship on bodies and spaces in Communication Studies, the discipline's focus
on everyday interactions can surely bring new perspective in the subject matter.
Futhurmore, since this study investigates how sexualization is interwoven
into the production of spaces and bodies, it also joins in feminist debates on
sexualization of female body. By presenting the voices ofthe maids, I want to
challenge the idea of reducing women as either victims or liberated/empowered
subjects in relavant studies.
Lastly, the subjects of this study - teenage girls working as maids - are new
for acdemic investigations, given that relavant researches are prone to take the 12 pespective from cultural industry studies ^orris & Bainbridge, 2009; Wu, 2007), this paper can also offer, as an empirical study, academic account ofthis area from a more embodied perspective.
Organization of Chapters
This thesis is based on an ethnographic study in a local maid cafe in Hong
Kong. It concentrates on the inter-relationship ofbodies and spaces. Relying on contemporary scholarships which offer theoretical foundations to collapse the body/space binary as well as construe bodies and spaces through each other, the present thesis explores how bodies and spaces in this particular site are engaged in mutual production of each other. In order to understand such dynamics more comprehensively, this research also explores the interrelation among bodies-spaces dynamics and constructions of fantasy, organization and gender. Chapter Two will presentadetailed literature review of the main concepts of the thesis, that is, bodies and spaces, fantasy, organization, and gender. In Chapter Three, I will introduce research methodologies, and discuss data collection and analysis process. Chapter
Four will envisage bodies-spaces of Maid Date as fantastic subjects. It will elaborate the discussion based on concrete ethnographic materials, such as the geographical
and imaginary location of the cafe, as well as the bodily change and interactions
among maids and masters on a daily basis. Chapter Five frames bodies-spaces ofthis
thesis along the construction of organization. After a brief introduction ofthe history
and current situation of Maid Date as a registered company, this chapter will
continue to manifest how organizational bodies-spaces construct each other in this
company. Concrete cases like the negotiation ofboundaries between home and work,
managerial surveillance will be elaborated on. At the end of this chapter, a section
will be devoted to probe into the relationship between fantastic and organizational 13 bodies-spaces ofMaid Date. I will argue that both exploit each other for their own survival and negotiate each other for their own interests. Chapter Six will discuss the gendered bodies-spaces ofMaid Date. It reflects on how specific gender roles and relationships are maintained and negotiated from the everyday production ofbodies- spaces. Analysis in this chapter will focus on the spatial display offemininity, male gaze, and transgressing gender acts in the cafe. The last section ofthis chapter is devoted to discussions and reflections of the relationship among fantastic, organizational and gendered bodies-spaces. Chapter Seven will conclude and elaborate on the relationships between bodies-spaces, fantasy, organization and gender. It will also examine the indication of the thesis in order to think out the possible improvement and continuation for future studies. 14
Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter will start with reviews of the conceptualization on "bodies" and
"spaces" from philosophy, anthropology, sociology, human geography, and feminist studies, with a focus on the recent scholarship on the social constructionist view and phenomenological account on body and space. I will introduce Elizabeth Grosz theory of"bodies-cities" (1998) in order to argue that bodies should be understood and analyzed together with spaces. I wiE especially focus on the idea of discontinuities, interruptions and contestations ofbodies and spaces, which is inspired by Grosz's work. Then, I will propose the term "bodies-spaces" which will be used throughout this thesis. Another part of literature review will be that of fantasy, organization and gender with a bodies-spaces perspective. Previous studies on fantasy, interactive service industry and gender will be introduced at the end of the chapter.
"Bodies" and "spaces" are the core concepts of this thesis. Both are loaded with various meanings across disciplines and throughout history, which is especially true after the so-called "body-turn" and "spatial turn" in social science during the last thirty years (Lefebvre, 1991; Shiling, 1994; Turner, 2008). This turn to the body and the space is not a discovery of what have not been studied or defmed. Instead, the thriving interest towards body and space often comes together with an engagement in the rediscovery and reconfiguration of the two subjects (Bordo, 2003; Butler, 1999;
Grosz, 1994; Thrift, 2006; Turner, 2008).
On the one hand, recent conceptual exploration ofbodies is making effort to
debunk the centuries-old dualist thinking which regards bodies as nothing but
material basement where the minds/souls are housed (Bordo, 2003, Featherstone,
Hepworth, & Bryan S., 1991; Grosz, 1994; Shiling, 2003;Turner, 2008). On the other 15 hand, studies on spaces are making effort to envisage the spaces beyond the domain of natural science by explaining the cultural-social dimention ofthem (Casey, 1996;
Grosz，1998; Massey, 1994, 2005; Thrift, 1996; Tuan, 2003). Nevertheless, scholarships on the two concepts are not at all separated. First ofall, the reformulation ofbodies and spaces are both under the similar influence ofanti- essentialism epistemology, especially phenomenology, critical theory and social constructionism (Grosz, 1994, 1998). Moreover, bodies and spaces are now employed to explain and analyze each other (Duncan, 1996; Landzelius, 2004;
Longhurst, 2001;Nast & Pile, 1998; Turner, 2008).
Bodies
When Lefebvre argued that "western philosophy has betrayed the body; it has actively participated in the great process of metaphorization that has abandoned the body; and it has denied the body" (1991, p. 406), he didn't mean that western philosophy has neglected "body" as an object to think upon. Instead, Lefebvre was criticizing the long-held tradition of treating the body only as an object, an object which is on the opposite side of mind.
Such dualist thinking of separating mind and body and treating them as contradicted concepts has dominated Western philosophy, dating back from Plato, who sees body as no more than an inferior version of the ideal form to Aristotle, who
specifies that female body in particular is just a formless and passive house waiting
for forms given by male body, to Christian tradition, where the dualist relation of
mind/body is regarded as reflection of immortal/mortal, and fmally to Descartes, who
relates the duality of mind/body to those of soul/nature, emotior^reason, etc. (Grosz,
1994). 16
Cartesian theory has imposed an artificial distinction between mind and body as if they are mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories. A simply combination of body and mind would present us a man, a man who is a "non-corporeal being trapped in the body" (Grosz, 1994), The famous formula “Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am) tells us that the precondition and the key ofhuman existence is the ability to think, and it is our mind who take charge of contemplations and reasoning.
Moreover, this mind has more to do with the invisible and abstract existence - the soul, than the bio-neural system of our brain. Therefore, our mind not only is superior to our body, but also has already transcended our bodily being (Alcoff, 1996;
Bordo, 2003).
On the other hand, body, in Cartesian sense, is conceived as purely material existence, constituted by organs, nerves, fluidities, muscles, fleshes, skins and hairs; it is what likens us to animals that are never capable oflogic and reason. While mind represents the achievement of civilization and evolution ofhuman, body must reflect the risk ofretrogress and degeneration of us getting back to animals. Following this argument, body has become something alien to human, something that needs to be trained and tamed. Although we have our body to make good use ofit needs constant attention and efforts. Mind, which is coupled with consciousness and reason, therefore, is not only disembodied, but is also capable to mobilize the body for its own will; body, which is correlated to corporeality and passion, now needs to be
disciplined and tamed(Grosz, 1995; Landzelius, 2004).
In spite ofthe fact that body has already been assigned to a humble and low
place in Cartesian theory, actually not any-body has the fortune to be noticed and
assigned so. Body, more often than not, refers to the male body, white body, and
body in its healthy condition (Bordo, 2003; Dorn & Laws, 1994; Shiling 2003). 17
Female body, colored body, deceased body or body in its sickness, are either missing in the discussion or correlated to depreciative meanings. Female body, for instance, is linked to the thought of weakness, instability, hysteria or even profanity. These othered bodies need to be tamed more than anyone else (Hughes & Peterson, 2004;
Longhurst, 2001).
Such Cartesian conceptualization ofbody, after centuries dominance in
natural science and later human science, has received serious rejections and attacks
from schools of thoughts that are dedicated to reviving the body in academic and
daily life, for instance, phenomenology and psychoanalysis, as well as from, not
surprisingly, feminists, queers studies, postcolonial scholars who are enthusiastically
engaged in deconstruction of the "natural body".
Phenomenological thinkers are said to be most successful in overthrowing
binary thinking of mind/body. Merleau-Ponty for instance, has explained how body
and mind are closely interrelated; instead of conceptualizing body-mind relationship
in a reductionist way — seeing body as the extension of the mind, they maintain that
human beings are nothing but "being-in-the-world", that our existence cannot
transcend our body. Mind is always embodied, is based on "corporeal and sensory
relations" (Grosz, 1994，p 86). We gain our knowledge of the world, others and
ourselves through perceptions and bodily contacts (Merleau-Ponty, 2002; Shiling,
2003). Therefore, we not only have our bodies; we also are our bodies (Nast & Pile,
1998). As Grosz summarizes (from Merleau-Ponty), we learn that how a sense of self
is gained through subject's being-in-the-world: "insofar as I live the body, it is a
phenomenon experienced by me and thus provides the very horizon and perspective
point which places me in the world and makes relations between me, other objects
and other subjects possible" (Grosz, 1994, p. 86) 18
From a different perspective, psychoanalysis maintains that human subjectivity is not acquired with a natural-born omnipotent mind, but by constant bodily interaction with the outside until a cohesive and unitary image ofhis/her own body has formed. For instance, Lacan suggests that children formulate their own senses of subjectivities with the help of externalized images oftheir own bodies
(which could be reflections from a mirror) (Butler, 1990; Grosz, 1995)
Yet, the journey of reformulating the body hadn't stopped. Besides gaining the awareness ofthe mdivisibility ofbody and mind, social constructionists
(feminists in particular) continue to challenge the essentialist and material view of
the body. Inspired by Nietzsche (1968) — who proposes the body as the site ofsocial
production of subjectivity - Foucault (1977) — who argues the body as the site of
docility and subversion - and Deleuze and Guattari (2004) - who sees the body as the
site oftransformation - social constructionists remind us that though biological and
material dimensions of the body cannot be denied, body is not an immobile, fixed,
natural-given existence, but a product which is gradually transformed from raw
material to social, historical facticity (Grosz, 1994). Therefore, there is, on the one
hand, a real, biological-based body, and on the other hand, all kinds ofsocial—
cultural representations of the body (Chodorow, 1978). A representative statement of
such understanding ofbody could be that of Simon de Beauvoir's - "One is not born
a woman, but, rather, becomes one" (de Beauvoir, 1973, p. 301). Our bodies are not
born like such, but are regulated, disciplined and transformed into such. Social
writing or social inscription could be interpreted in a literal way, with body tattoos,
body buildings, and plastic surgeries as examples; but they can also be understood
metaphorically, as in institutional rules, culturally specific norms, etc. 19
The so-called difference feminists have gone even further, proposing that the material dimension ofbody should also be called in question. Butler, for one, indicates that natural body itself is a fiction constructed by and with culture. For her,
social writing doesn't take place in a blank and innocent body. There is no-body and
nothing as pre-social or pre-discursive beings (Butler, 1990, 1993a; Wittig, 1993).
The body is already marked and interpellated from its birth as a sexed body, a
colored body, etc. Therefore, the body that we have and that we are is not an end-
product, but rather a process. The body is volatile, transformative and of great
potentials. It is always in the becoming and never finished. We, at some level, do our
bodies by performing or taking up different styles of activities (Butler, 1990).
Putting all these reflections from phenomenology, psychoanalysis, social-
constructionism, and post-structural feminism together, we will see that a
reconfiguration ofbody is indeed needed. To be more specific, the bodies consisted
of only flesh, organs and bones, should be dismissed together with the minds
constituted by only brains, thoughts and souls; the static, pre-social bodies should be
replaced with the fluid, volatile and ever-becoming bodies; the plural form "bodies"
should replace the single authentic "body" to avoid the error of privileging certain
kind of body before the rest ones.
Spaces
Space, debates on which had been monopolized by natural science, especially
physics and geometry, has now been reinterpreted and deployed across humanity and
social science. Indebted to phenomenology, critical theory, social constructionism
and feminism, the concept of space has also been through a through scrutiny. What is
even more complicated about theorizing space is the ambiguity and difficulty ofthe
difference between space and place. Indeed, whereas the discussion ofbody often 20 correlates that of mind, conceptualizing space often couples with conceptualizing place. Space and place needs each other for definition (Tuan, 2003). Though it is more than usual that many scholars are used to using the two terms interchangeably,
I will distinguish the two along the review of previous theories.
Geography, as a discipline particularly affiliated with concepts of space and place, has heavily relied on physics and mathematics for a long time. Newtonian
physics assumes that space is absolute, infinite, abstract, and void, and that space is
nothing but pure extension. Space then becomes a "homogeneous and
undifferentiated realm of pure extension — the idea of pure realm of 'containment5 of
the sort that is arrived at" (Malps, 1999, p. 26). On the other hand, place has become
"the mere apportionings of space" (Casey, 1996, p. 14), a location (Grosz, 1995;
Malps, 1999). Human experiences are not included in such conceptualization. Space
and place are purely mechanical and physical, and thus are neutral mIHeu where
human history continues to play along with the history of the nature (Massey, 2005).
Both space and place are conceptualized as physical objects, which echo well with
Euclidian geometry where they can be measured as well as calculated and only exist
in two dimensions (Grosz, 2001).
However, under the influence ofhumanity and social science and along with
the development and transformation happened within science, there has been a major
change in theorizing and utilizing the concepts of space and place, Summarized by
Massey, this change has led to a focus on spatial science shifting onto spatial social
science (Massey.l994). Important influence includes that from phenomenology and
that from critical theory.
Yi-Fu Tuan (1974; 1977; 1979) has explored the relationship between
experience and geography. Tuan drew lessons from phenomenology to explain the 21 production ofspatial sense in our childhood as well as the concrete spatial experience we gain via our sensory organs. Moreover, he also borrowed anthropologist account to explain interconnected relationships among habitants, rituals and the land. It should be noted that Tuan assigned such experiential register to place rather than space. What he continues to dig out is how our "sense of place" is formed and how spatial practices influence that formation. Space, on the other hand, belongs to the open, extending and abstract domain,
Marxist geographers at the same time have adopted another view where
social class and social relation, instead of personal experience, define space and place. For them, the so-called spatial distribution isjust social relationship taking on
a spatial form. Space has proposed to be not only constructed by the social, but it is
at the same time constructing the social (Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994). Economy,
social class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation are all taken in account to
be both a social and spatial phenomenon. Space is no longer a blank stage on which
human history has taken place. Description and representation ofspace is no longer
limited to scientific measurements. Labels like "capitalist space", “queer space",
"gendered space" and "white space" are employed in various scholarships (Bell,
Binnie, Cream, & Valentine, 1994; Jackson, 1999; Massey, 1995; McDowell, 1999).
While space is considered as a complex network of social relationships, place
continues to be related to static and closed locations which often times implies a
steady relationship between land and its inhabitant. Moreover, it is critisized that
scholars tend to fit specific representation of spaces into their own frameworks to
better their arguments, regardless of whether their interpretation mightjust be one of
many potential readings on that space. 22
Though both phenomenology-informed scholars and Marxist geographers have managed to corrupt Newtonian articulation on space and place, they have more or less reserved the assumption the space is open and abstract, and that the place is enclosed and detailed. However, this assumption has also been turned over with the academic focus on globalization, as well as the academic input from feminism and queer studies.
On the one hand, the widely-spread usage of the internet and fast development of media in general have provided us with the so-called virtual space or mediated space, spaces which can no longer be thought ofby width, length or depth
(Couldry & McCarthy，2004; Soja，1998; Turkle, 1995). On the other hand,
globalization has collapsed the stability and purity of the local. Previous accounts of
"place-bounded identities" (Harvey, 1998) turn out to be inadequate in encompassing
the place with multiple identities. Places now have to be understood as hybridized,
interrelated with each other. The social hierarchy formulated in and by places is
noted and emphasized (Massey, 1994).
Although places continue to "have singular characteristics, their own
traditions, local culture and festivals, accents and uses oflanguage;" (Massey, 1995,
p. 46), and space is particularly analyzed as socially constitutive and constituted, the
interrelatedness between the two is much more emphasized than before. Firstly,
places are now also construed of its complexity and fluidity rather than stability; they,
too, are constructed by different genders, ethnicities, races, etc. In addition, places
still have boundaries, and only boundaries now are seen as what “do not embody any
eternal truth". Instead, they are "lines drawn by society to serve for particular aims"
(Massey, 1995, p. 68); and hence what's inside the boundaries is not only what
deserves the attention; what's outside the boundaries, as well as what's reshaping the 23 boundaries matter too are equally deserving of such treatment. Place is understood by its connections with other places, and more importantly, with space.
Space is conceptualized now as social and spatial networks ofvarious links, connections, and comparisons, and it is "the space of places" (Massey, 1995).
Furthermore, the way of describing place and space in a singular, contingent narrative, be it capitalist or heterosexual, is also challenged. Places and spaces are suggested to be thought as sites of contestations among multiple narratives. And hence, we are encouraged to reflect whether current representations of spaces and places are as coherent and fixed as they claim to be.
Bodies-Spaces
The change and development in the theorization ofbody and space, as we can
see from the above review, share some commonalities with each other in at least
three perspectives. To start with, both concepts have been through an epistemological
change from Cartesian thinking to anti-essential standpoint. There is a strong
emphasis of seeing bodies and spaces as open, fluid, performative, and ongoing
processes instead ofbounded, static, pre-social existence and finished products. This
is largely because the conceptualization of the two concepts is also heavily
influenced by both phenomenology and social constructionism. Phenomenological
perspective inspired an embodied way to see bodies and spaces. As human subjects,
we live in and through our bodies and spaces. Bodies and spaces are integral parts of
our lives. We gain our knowledge and understanding of ourselves, ofthe others, and
ofthe world by embodied practices taken in concrete spaces.
Social constructionism，on the other hand, has complicated our understanding
ofbodies and spaces in terms of their social-cultural dimensions. Bodies are notjust
biologically determined. Instead, they are at the same time biological, physical, 24 psychical, cultural, and social (Bordo, 2003, Turner, 2008). Similarly, spaces are not ahistorical screens upon which "the particularities of culture and history come to be inscribed" (Casey, 1996，p. 14); on the contrary, we are now aware that spaces are an important part of the history and society. Both bodies and spaces are constituted by and constitutive ofthe social.
At the same time, feminism, post-colonialism and critical race studies have brought forth the idea of using body and space in plural forms to demonstrate their diversity and transformative potentials. The kinds ofbodies and spaces which are formerly regarded as too trivial, too personal or not representative enough now have received much more attention.
For the above reason, the present study will deploy bodies and spaces as
material, experiential, social-cultural artifacts always in a plural form. Hence, I want
to borrow the definition ofbodies from Grosz, who is interested in bodies as
‘‘culturally, sexually, racially specific bodies, the mobile and changeable terms of
cultural production" (Grosz, 1994). The reason why I chose Grosz's definition is that
her definition is the most comprehensive one:
‘‘...a concrete, material, animate organization of flesh, organs, nerves,
muscles, and skeletal structure, which are given a unity, cohesiveness, and
form through the psychical and social inscription of the body's surface. The
body is, so to speak, organically, biologically 'incomplete'; it is indeterminate,
amorphous, a series of uncoordinated potentialities that require social
triggering, ordering, and long-term 'administration,' regulated in each culture
and epoch." (Grosz, 1995, p. 104)
Such an open and comprehensive manner of theorizing is also shared by
Massey in her differentiation of space and place with former construed as activity 25 space and later as interrelated places particular useful here, since in her articulation, space and place are defined by social-relations, daily activity and interconnectedness:
"One way ... is to think in terms of the activity space of different social
phenomenon. The activity space of something is the spatial network oflinks
and activities, of spatial connections and of locations, within which a
particular agent operates." (1995, p. 54)
"Places can therefore be conceptualized as formed out of numerous social
relationships stretched over space. And many of these social relations link
places together. Places, represented in this way, are thus not isolated from
each other, each with its own internal history." (1995，p. 69)
Although there is a large pool of literature relating, most ofthe research has adopted different ways of theorization and analysis against each other (Bell, 2001a,
2001b; Grosz, 1998; Landzelius, 2004; Longhurst, 2001;Nast, 1998; Nast & Pile,
1998; Rodway, 1994). Thus, it seems necessary to first make clear what kind of
linkage ofbodies and spaces will not be inferred in this study.
First of all, I am not in favor of the kind of relation where bodies make the
spaces. Bodies and spaces of such kind are collected only externally. Spaces are
productions ofhuman agency, i.e. human design, build, transform and modify spaces
according to their own will. Bodies are seen as "the generator (or producer) ofthe
space" (Lefebvre, 1991). There is an assumption of the causal relationship between
bodies and spaces, bodies being the cause, and spaces the result. This viewpoint
magnifies humans as sovereign agents and predates human bodies before spaces. Not
only bodies have been repressed by minds, spaces have also been reduced to
architectures, urban-planning or even blue prints (Thrift, 2006). At the same time, I
refuse to see spaces contain the bodies. On the contrary to the previous perspective, 26 spaces in this instance become the first-order subjects which predate the bodies.
Spatial boundaries are emphasized and frozen, and bodies are hence either in or out the spaces. I give up this articulation of spaces and bodies because it neglects the fact that while bodies are filtered by spaces, spaces are also filtered by bodies;
furthermore, the boundaries among spaces, as well as between spaces and bodies, are
never static but fluid. Instead of seeing bodies and spaces as creators and creations,
containers and inhabitants, causes and results, I propose to treat them as inter-
permeable, interdependent, mutually defining and mutually constitutive subjects.
Instead ofusing phrases as "embodied space" (Low, 2003), or "emplaced body"
(Dorn & Laws, 1994), I propose the term "bodies-spaces" modified from Grosz's
"bodies-cities". There are three embeded understandings of the relation between
bodies and spaces beneath this term.
Therefore, I suggest to replace the point of view that regards bodies and
spaces as mutually exclusive subjects separated by staitic boundaries, with the
viewpoint which sustains the fluidty and flexibility ofbodies and spaces. On the one
hand, clearcut between bodies and spaces often fails to explain the constant exchange
between the two. Via consumption and excretion, bodies and spaces always take in
what used to belong to the other. McDowell (1993) has written on the boundary-
break between female body and her space when the body goes through "menstuation,
childbirth and lactation". Grosz has also discussed the attests to the boundary set by
all kinds ofbody fluids (1994). On the other hand, bodies and spaces tend to extend
themselves on to each other. As Merleau-Ponty has articulated, bodies sometimes
include more than meaty coporeality, they also extend themselevs with the
attachment of things (Grosz,1994). The makeups and clothes we wear, the
stationaries and tools we use, can all become a part of the body temporarily. Again, 27 as Merleau-Ponty has pointed out, while bodies are our bodies that exist for us, they are at the same time bodies that exist for others. Multiple bodies exist together in shared spaces. Therefore, it is very common that one or one group ofbodies would take others, and sometimes even themselves as a part of the space (Colebrook, 2009).
In a nutshell, the seemingly clear and obvious boundaries are often times what Nigel
Thrift (2006) calls “leaky bags of water constantly sloughting off pieces of themselves"(p. 141).
To see bodies and spaces as mutully constuctive subjets indicate that not only
do bodies interpellate spaces, spaces also interpellate bodies. Grosz has called such
interpellations as introjections and projections. While bodies introject the social-
cultural representations and discourse from the space, they also project the "form and
interest" on to the space(Grosz, 1998) of the body. I want to quote Grosz's
discussion on these processess here:
“ This relation of introjections and projections involves a complex feedback
relation... the body and its enviroment, rather produce each other as forms of
the hyperreal, as modes of simulation which have overtaken and transformed
whatever reality each may have had into the image of the other." (Grosz,
1998, p. 42-43)
She explained her argument with the analysis ofhow bodies and cities are
constantly going through the introjection and projection processes when cities are
"made and made xnto the simulacrum of the body" and bodies are "transformed,
‘citified’，urbanized as a distincitive metropolitan" bodies (Grosz, 1998).
Last but not the least, although I have proposed seeing bodies and spaces as
mutually defining subjects, that doesn't mean that bodies and spaces are always
unified as harmonious, consistent subjects. On the contrary, I maintain that the inter- 28 relation between bodies and spaces needs to be examined by specific practices and experiences rather than treating bodies and spaces like plain text. It has been critiszied that scholarship tend to produce spaces and bodies as where "everything
comes together"QS[igel, 2006), or to treat the relation ofbodies and places as though
‘‘it was either universal (none-specific) or unique (too-specific)” fNast & Pile, 1998).
Such notions ofbodies and spaces relationships often result in an aliging assemble
where a centred value is represented (Thrift, 2006, p. 141). To overcome this fault,
bodies spaces relation needs to be examined on both theoretical/figurative/discusive
dimentions and empirical/practial/mundane basis. In this thesis, I will not only try to
situate bodies and spaces along one another in the analysis in order to capture their
complex relationship, but also reflect and discuss bodies-spaces based on the lived
experience of my subjects. Moreover, everyday activities and communications will
be scrutinized as well so that bodies-spaces could be interpreted with their mundance
representaions. By bodies-spaces, I suggest an alternative understanding of bodies
and spaces as co-existences which are inter-related, inter-permeable, mutually
contitutive, mutually defining and forever-becoming social-cultural artefacts.
Fantasy
In literary studies, fantasy is examined as “a type of fiction that beyond the
ordinary, material，rationally predictable world in which we live" (Mathews, 2002, p.
1) Scholarships in this discipline have concentrated on the genre's complicated
relationship with reality (Armitt, 2005; Hume, 1984; Jackson, 1988;
Timmerman, 1983). They argue that the apparent distinction between fantasy and
reality is actually not a given, but a socially imposed idea. Fantasy is defined by and
through realities. On the one hand, fantasies are regarded as things that are non-real
because they don't follow the time-space limitation of a given time, nor do they need 29 to follow certain natural/social laws. On the other hand, fantasies rely on reality to come into beings because fantasies do not come from nowhere, but at often times recombine different elements drawn from the reality. Therefore, fantasies often violate reality. At the most, fantasties may provide subversive alternatives to reality, while other times fantasies can also be used for escaping from the reality temporarily
(Jackson, 1988).
Another field which has devoted much attention to the concept of fantasy is psychoanalysis. Although both regard fantasy of that with imagination (Jackson,
1998; Shigematsu, 1999), psychoanalysis prefers to consider fantasy as psychic reality with structures and driving logics. The relation offantasy to reality is
compared to that of people's internal feeHng to their perceptions ofthe external
world (Adams, 2006). Therefore, the interplay between reality and fantasy is argued
to be mutually permeable; while the construction of fantasy is influenced by
subjects' relation to the external world, reality itself, in turn, is also invested with
fantastic imaginations (Walkerdine, 1989)
Therefore, for both literary studies and psychoanalysis, fantasy is envisaged
as activities related to imagination. Moreover, both discipline have challenged the
common viewpoint that fantasy stands at the opposite of reality. Fantasy then could
be said to be imagnary activities positioned in between real and non-real. By this
token, many subcultural activities, especially those centered around certain texts, can
as well be counted as fantasy-based ones, because not only are they engaged in
(re)production of imaganary world, they are also living in a space between real and
non-real by particpating in such activities.
From a bodies-spaces perspective, we can also detect this liminal position of
fantasy. Given that "modern fantasy is rooted in ancient myth, mysticism, folklore, 30 fairy table and romance" (Jackson, 1988, p. 4), to engage in the fantasy means that we have to actively imagine and act as if we are in a different space and being a different character. This is true for active audience who identify themselves during reading/watching fantasy works (Kaplan, 1989). Nonetheless, the same holds true for people who engage themselves in activities beyond reading texts. For instance,
Butler (1993) has mentioned a transsexual communities' sexual fantasy-based lifestyle which involves bodily change and construction of private/publish space; for another, Hodkinson (2002) offers detailed analysis ofhow Goth fans stylize themselves with make-ups and perform stories in night clubs. The relevant
subculture of this thesis, ACG subculture is no exception. Participations in ACG
subculture, cosplay for instance, require the Otakus to perform as ifthey are in the
manga or animations stories, embodying particular characters or particular types of
characters. While outsiders like to attribute the passion for such fantasy-based
activities to the incapability of commuicating with real people in daily life (Azuma,
2009; Bryce & Davis, 2006; Schodt, 2002), others argue this special bond between
Otaku and ACG fantasy is partially the result of young people's reaction towards the
external social-cultural change in Japan (Azuma, 2009; Galbraith, 2009).
Organization
In his landmark work Funcations o/Excutive, Chester Barnard defined
organization as “a system of consciously coordinated personal activities of forces"
(1968, p. 72). Barnard futherly points out that organizations may differ from one
another due to the differences in "physical environment, the social environment, the
number and kinds of person, and the bases of their relation to the organization"
(1968,p. 73). Inspired by a view of organization that especially highlights its
relational dimension, a well-established literature investigating these industrial 31 changes in the organizations has taken on an embodied or spatial perspective to explore the relationship among organization, environment and the people (Gregson
& Rose, 2000; Halford, 2005; Halford & Leonard, 2006; McDowell & Court, 1994;
Massey, 1995). Analyzing organization dynamics with such perspective is considered to be resulted from new development “in social and cultural analysis where issues of agency, reflextivity and identity formation are becoming increasingly central" (Hassard, Holliday, & Willmott, 2000). While orthodox ecnomic explanations tend to understand organization dynamics with theories like "supply and demand", "human capital”，etc. (McDowell, 1999), in which both bodies and spaces are taken as mechanical organs in the analysis, recent scholarships have taken the embodiment of organizational practices and spaces at the heart. In these studies,
organizational bodies are construed of its relationship with embodied practices and
subjectivity, while spaces are investigated of their connction with subjectivity and
power relations in the organizations (Acker, 1990; McDowell, 1999，2009; Shilling，
2003; Vischer, 2005; Wolkowitz, 2006).
While Barnard's insight on organizations' close relationships to these crucial
elements will be embraced in this thesis, I'd like to focus on one particular
organization, given the scope and subject of the study — that of the service industry,
or more specifically, the kind of service industry where employees, managers and
customers are all present and have to interact with each other (McDowell, 2009). It
is believed that over the last two decades, the service industry has gone through a
major expansion, and a simutanious growth in the relavent employment market has
also become evident (Pine & Gilmore, 1998; McDowell, 2009). However, unlike the
optimistic viewpoint to see this shift as chances for "welcoming the introuction of
less stressful or dangerous working conditions, improved pay and oppurtunities for 32 social mobility for a better-educated population" (McDowell, 2009, p. 3), it has been argued that exploitations within the service industry has become more subtle and harsh, with bodies of the employees becoming both mechanical tools and commodities for sale (Scheper-Hughes, 2002; Sosteric, 1996). For instance, if working in cafes and bars, the employees are expected to not only produce food and drinks effeciently, but to also regulate their bodies in accordance with a certain manner to satisfy the customers under managerial survilance (Crang, 2004;
Wolkowitz, 2006). Also, takingjobs related to, for example, female sexuality, they may require the employee to objectify and sell her femininity be it emotional carings or sexual transactions during employee - customer interaction (Allison, 2001;
Hochschild, 2001). The spaces of such organizations are also under acadamic investigation, as some have argued that spaces of interactive service are usually transformed into harmonious and hostile existence to offer better experiences for the
customers (Lugosi, 2009). Meanwhile, others remind us of the blurring spatial
boundaries of work and home, or work and leisure in organizational settings (Massey,
1998; Wolkowitz, 2006).
From an organizational point of view, maid cafe could be counted as
interactive service industry. Maids are both fantasy performers and organizational
employees. For this reason, deploying theories and concepts from organization
studies is very helpful to understand maid cafe as a business.
Gender
Although gender is now a very commonly used term, the definition and
discussion of it has been a central project in feminist studies. Traditional feminist
schools tend to construe gender as the social construction of the two sexes
(Chodorow, 1978; Oakley, 1985; Millett, 1977; Rubin, 1987). They believe that 33 although there are biological differences between male and female, the unequal social reality towards the two genders have more to do with social nurturing rather than nature endowment. For them, all women belong to one group which is always suffering from this patriarchal society. To diminish the discriminations and inequalities that women face, some of these feminists propose to eradicate gender in an empowered future (Butler, 1990; Grosz, 1994; Lloyd, 2007).
However, such theory has proven to be inadequate in explaining the differences within women of different classes, races and ethnicities, or to attend to the LGBT groups whose gender is entangled with not only sex but sexuality as well.
Therefore, contemporary feminist studies inspired by queer studies and post-colonial
studies question the legitimacy and validity of conventional gender categories -
gender, sex and sexuality. Lorber (1996), for instance, has called for a deconstruction
ofaclear separation between sex, gender, and sexuality, as well as the congruent
relations among the three. She suggests researchers explore the interconnected and
overlapped parts ofthese categories in order to develop new ways ofrepresenting
and analysing relevant experience. Butler (1993a, 1999) also proposes to situate
gender into a matrix constituted by sex, sexuality, sexual orientations, etc. Butler
argues that gender is not merely the social construction of sex, but embedded in the
matrix with sex and sexuality. Sex, along with gender, is also a social invention
rather than a natural fact. The whole matrix is a product of social controls and
subversions. Gender should be always investigated in its indivisible relation with sex
and sexuality, if not any other constructs. This is because gender is always
understood and evaluated in its affiliations of particular sex or sexual behaviour. For
instance, once the sex of an infantile is ensured to be male or female, a chain of
consequences will immediately develop. She/he is prepared to be cultivated to a 34 certain gender role and to fit in a certain sexual relationship. Certain sexual behaviour is encouraged/forbidden according to their sex (Butler, 1999). Therefore, there is no fact or essence behind either sex or gender. What we perceive as fixed and stable gender identity, gender behaviour and sexual relationship are after all social conventions. Butler calls the seemingly well-defined gender as nothing but "stylized repetition of acts" (1999, p, 179). To be one's gender hence becomes to do one's gender right. Therefore, gender is not a stable identity - not who we are, but a serial of performances—what we do. Furthermore, the relation among sex, gender and sexuality is not that of cause and effect, but an interactive and interrelated one
(Butler, 1988，1993a，1993b, 1999).
Understanding gender as performative acts in the matrix of gender, sex and
sexuality helps to unearth the productions ofbodies-spaces as well. Feminist
scholarship informed by Butler's theory and concentrating in gendered bodies and
spaces abound. Many of them have investigated the relationship among gender, body
and specific spaces such as gyms, streets, home and workplace (Duncan, 1996;
Johnston, 1998; McDowell, 1999; Valentine, 1996). They have made effort to not
only question "how sexual hierarchies are organized by the differential allocation and
use of space, ofhow women's bodies resist enclosure Wby space", but also “speak
more generally to a concern for our embodied subjectivity" (Price & Shildrick, 1999,
p. 337), They have argued that the production and performance ofboth bodies and
spaces have been highly involved with (re)production of socially preferred gender
matrix, as Massey (1994) puts it "particular ways of thinks about space and place are
tied up with, both directly and indirectly, particular social constructions of gender
relationships" ¢). 2), and hence the gendering ofbodies and spaces "both reflects and
has effects back on the ways in which gender is constructed and understood in the 35 societies in which we live"(p. 168). As for the socially undesired gendered bodies and spaces, they are regarded as potential danger and gradually excluded from the social life — "potentially subversive and emancipatory differences among women
(and men) are kept out of the spatial equation, and we are stuck within a restrictive and hierarchical social space" (Bondi & Davidson, 2005, p. 21).
In all, existing literatures on fantasy, organization, and gender could be helpful to understand and explore the different side of maid and maid cafe. Moreover, taking a bodies-spaces perspective to understand the construction of fantasy, organization, and gender could offer a more embodied and down-to-earth point of view. 36
Chapter 3: Methodology
The present interpretive study has adopted qualitative methodology to explore the "subjective experience" in contextualized small-scale interactions (Hesse-Biber
& Leavy, 2010, p. 16). To be more specific, the research is based on the ontological assumption that bodies and spaces, together with other “social realities", are not objective facts lying there to be revealed, but ongoing constructions dependant of human experience and interpretation. Therefore, epistemologically speaking, this research regard that both the researcher and the researched are active subjects involved in meaning-making process. To understand the lived experience and to produce the interpretation thereof require the researcher to be with the bodies and be there, which Thrift artfully terms ‘‘body a-where-ness" (2004, p. 126).
Methodologically, the study is carried on in a "naturalist setting" (Denzin & Lincon,
2005, p. 25) of everyday life of the research subjects.
Data Collection
The data is collected through ethnographic field work consist of participant
observation and formal/informal interviews. Ethnographic fieldwork is considered
“the practices of engaging in the world of the others in order to study them at close
quarters" (Jupp, 2006, p. 119). While such account is criticized to be taking a
postcolonial standing where the knower and the known are placed hierarchically,
with the former exploiting the latter to produce knowledge and power (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2005), its assumption that people's life and experience could be best
understood through researcher's personal engagement in their world is still valid.
Given that the present study aims to understand the daily dynamics ofbodies-spaces
together with fantasy, organization and gender in a maid cafe, I have carried out my 37 research by participant observation in the cafe and formal/informal interviews with the people there.
The choices of the two major methods are based on preliminary observation
ofthe field as well as later development in the research. I visited Maid Date as a
"master" for preliminary observation from September, 2009 to January, 2010. During
these visits, I observed that although maids were willing to talk to me, the
communication tended to be restricted by the maid-master roles we were playing.
Anything went deeper than the dramatized interaction was difficult to obtain because
of regulations and restrictions about what can and cannot be talked about with the
masters. Moreover, a maid told me that there were several middle school students
visiting around that time to do project research in order to fulfill requirements for
their liberal courses at school. That led to a phenomenon where maids had developed
standardized answers for students' inquires, and these answers had been censored
and modified by the manager in order to keep a positive image ofMaid Date.
Therefore, I decided the best way to overcome these barriers was to change
my role in Maid Date from master to maid and from researcher to the researched to
obtain more access to the people, as well as spend more time in the field. Participant
observation — establishing my own place in the cafe to "investigate, experience and
represent the social life and social processes that occur in that setting" (Emerson,
Fretz & Shaw, 2001, p. 339) - hence became a core method in the fieldwork. I
proposed to the manager with the idea that he could hire me as a maid and informed
him about the research. He approved this proposal, considering I could be helpful on
busy weekends as well as future promotions. Working as a maid has determined the
role I play in the field - the maid cafe - to be somewhere between the “complete
participant" and "complete observer" (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007, p. 82). This is 38 because my participatory role as a maid, on one hand, is always affected by my revealed identity as a maid. On the other hand, I still have contacts with people I am observing and I am not detached from them.
For ethnographic research, though sampling decisions are often times negotiated and compromised, given the limited control on the field that researchers
have, sampling is still crucial since it influences the validity of the research
(Hammersley & Atkinson，2007; Sehensnl, S.L:, Schensul, JJ, & LeCompte, 1999).
For the participant observation, I chose Maid Date as the main setting. There are
currently four maid cafes running in Hong Kong. The reason I chose Maid Date is
two-folded. First of all, it is very practical to conduct the research there since I have
gained the access at a fairly early stage. Moreover, the other maid cafes have either
only been established for three or four months or only open on weekend. In
comparison, Maid Date's relatively long history and stable business can ensure
abundant and valid data. Although it would be ideal to work in Maid Date everyday,
since all of the maids are part-time workers that are occupied with work and their
studies7,1 had to choose my shift based on everyone's schedule. Moreover,
according to my priliminary observation, weekends are usually much busier than
weekdays, and that's also when special occasions are held as well. As a result, I
decided to work on Saturday, Sunday and, a random weekday every week from
Janurary to April 2010 in order to have a comprehensive view.
The exploratory nature of ethnographic research makes it hard to clearly
decide what or who to observe and focus on (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). In
Maid Date, I started with observing as much as possible. The attention was mainly
7 According to Hong Kong law, young people can be employed for part-time or full-time job after they are 15, and their working conditions and workload is restricted comparing to adult. In Maid Date, many maids are full-time or part-time students/junior clerks, and they only work here for part time jobs. 39 given to the basic rules and mechanics. After I have developed the general knowledge as to the spatial settings and major types of people, I gradually shifted my concentration to people who went there frequently. I categorized them according to their roles: maids, managers, and masters. Their everyday activities and interactions with each other are the major concentrations of my observation. As Conquergood
(2006) points out, although ethnographic fieldwork, especially participant observation, "privileges the body as a site ofknowing" (p. 352), it has still been conducted in a way that lived bodies are replaced by language. For him, embodied practices are equally important, if not more than, the oral accounts produced along
with them. Therefore, my field notes contain descriptions of both verbal and non-
verbal communications observed on-site.
In addition to participant observation, I also conducted ethnographic
interviews in the fieldwork. These informal and usually short interviews mainly
come from my daily conversation with people in Maid Date. These informal
interviews, hence, are highly contextualized in the field, and the traditional roles of
interviewer and interviewee become two active participants in a dialogue. Unlike
formally designed and conducted interviews, conversations are "based on common
understanding and are marked by a lack of explicit purpose" and can produce "a
more participant-respectful and insightful projects" (Stage & Mattson, 2003, p. 99).
Ethnographic interviews, therefore, have bettered my understanding ofthe field and
subjects, as well as prepared topics and questions for formal in-depth interview. As
the ethnographic fieldwork went on, I found that contacting people in the field can
lead to advantages and setbacks, as many topics this research touched have
something to do with the interpersonal relationships in the field. While the field —
Maid Date — is more naturalistic than an experimental setting in laboratory, it is also 40 imbued with complicated relations among the people in it. As a result, gaining data
in the field was sometimes hindered. For example, maids tend to avoid talking about
managers and "masters" when the latter two are present. Moreover, while
ethnographic interviews in the field are very helpful in understanding the concrete
activities, they are also short, simple and with little possibility to elaborate.
For that reason, in the later stage of the research, I selected eleven people for
in-depth interviews outside Maid Date to explore more comprehensive subjective
interpretations that could not be gained in the field. I interviewed these eleven
people in other cafes, rest areas in shopping malls, and parks. Among them, there are
seven maids, one manager and three masters (for detailed information, please refer to
Appendix C). The selection is based on their time spent in Maid Date and their
cooperative attitudes. The time and place were mostly arranged according to the
interviewee's needs and requests. The interviewees were informed of the nature of
the interview and signed the required consent form. Five of the interviews were tape-
recorded, and each of them lasted from 45 minutes to two hours.
The interviews were semi-structured into three major sections — personal
information, experience of working as a maid, and memories and feelings about
Maid Date Q)lease refer to the question list in the Appendix B). However, since
interviewer and interviewees are both unavoidlly active participant of meaning-
making process interviewee in the interviewing processes (Holstein & Gubrium,
1997), interviewees had also contributed other related information. While
tranditional interviews tend to process as a "search-and-discovery mission" (Holstein
& Gubrium, 1997, p. 116), which regards the interviewees as passive respondants
from whom the reality could be found, the interviewed of the study in interpretive
and critical paradigms are considered to be subjects consistently making and 41 representing meaning of their lived experiences (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007).
Moreover, whereas traditional interviews assume the interviewer as objective researchers that are absent from the construction of meaning, interpretive and critical paradigms recognize the equal engagement in the meaning-making process ofthe
interviewer (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Therefore, I represented my own experience
and interpretations to the interviewee in the in-depth interview in order to seek for
their resonances and divergence. In the mean time, I kept a relatively loose control of
the conversation flow because I saw my interviewees as "productive source of
knowledge" (Holstein & Gubrium, 1997, p. 121).
Data Analysis
The analyzed data include fieldnotes and interview transcriptions. Fieldnotes
are written “more or less contemporaneously with events, experience and events"
(Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 2001, p. 353). They are selective representation of the
daily observation in the field. My fieldnotes are all taken off-set, since there was
little possibility to write down everything during the participantory engagement in
the field. The fieldnotes are very descriptive and filled with short quotes from
personal communications. The in-depth interviews were transcribed after the
research and were selected in accord with the major concepts and themes of the
thesis.
In this research, data collections and analysis are mutually influential. Taking
the example of the generating of concepts, I formulated the key concepts of "space"
and "performativity" at an early stage in the research. Along with the engagement in
the field, I have gone back and forth to modify and revise these concepts. While I
found "space" is very useful for both data collection and analysis, I decided not to
focus on "performativity" since I realized that it could not help further investigation. 42
Other concepts — bodies, fantasy, gender, and organization - are developed during the fieldwork and interviews. The data are organized respectively under fantasy, organization and gender, and all the selected data could be analyzed from a bodies-
spaces perspective. This juxtaposition can make sense of the data through "a pieced- together set of representations that is fitted to the specifics of a complex" (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2005, p. 4). This dialectic relationship between collection and analysis
ensures that the data would be represented intelligibly and that the analysis could
provide a novel and contextualized perspective (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007).
Moreover, such dialectic relationship ensures the validity of the analysis and
arguments since it has tightened the relation "between theoretical concepts and the
observations that are supposed to represent those concepts" (Perakyla, 1997, p. 212).
As a researcher, I also reflected on my own position and location in this
study during the analysis process. This is because an ethnographic study is often the
intellectual and critical interpretations ofthe researcher. Hence, the representation
and interpretation are inevitably influenced by the researchers' own positions in the
research and in the related social context .While I share similar female experience
both in and out the field with the maids, I found that my training in Gender Studies
constantly shaped my understanding towards them. In order to not erase their
opinions and interpretations of their own lived experience, I have represented their
voices in the writing of this thesis by means of direct quotation from formal/informal
interviews. 43
Chapter 4: Fantastic Bodies-Spaces
The ACG Fantasy ofMaid
On my first day of duty, I had a short, but intensive training on how to make drinks, but there was no lesson about how to act like a maid. Instead, the manager instructed me to simply observe and consult other maids. With two other maids on duty that day, Little Windy and Cutie eased my uncertainties: "Just try to imitate the
girls in any cartoons you can relate to". Later, I asked Lucky, another maid who told
me she had known nothing before she put on a maid costume several years ago. She
gave me the address of a website of a famous maid cafe in Tokyo that uploaded
videos of their services on Youtube. Some "masters" offered me similarly abstract
ideas; while Master Bug considered maid as "the ideal wife", Master Gale
recommended video games that featured special “maid services".
Although many people in Maid Date suggested me to go to ACG products to
find inspiration, I discovered later that they were all referring to different ACG
products. For instance, maid Yuki told me that I should read My Master, a story of
two maids who stay in the house of their master, servicing him from morning to
night. On the other hand, when I watched video clips of the cafe Lucky
recommended, all I saw was lines of maids giving song and dance performances. In
video games such as Welcome to Pia Carrot, maids are actually waitresses in a
home-run restaurant that are also potential sexual preys of the game's main character.
Though all these forms of media claim they are depicting a "cute" maid, the maids in
My Master are dressed up with sexually-appealing uniforms whose black shirts are
substituted by low-cut dresses, exposing the little girls' supple breast and cleavage
are; in the Tokyo maid cafe, the cuteness mainly comes from the maids' gestures and 44 voices, while their costumes don't make their breasts that noticeable. Nonetheless, both are considered authentic stories of maids for their fans.
Reference to ACG products is not the only area where people's opinions
diverge, as the maids also offer different accounts of the maid character prototype in
history. Three maids in Maid Date told me that even though they were sure that the
prototype ofthe character was inspired by British maids who had served the royal
family in Victorian times, which is what they believe makes the maid character noble
and graceful. Lucky, on the other hand, considers the inspiration to have come from
the French maids since she often sees the term “French maid" on the Internet.
However, she admits that the costumes of French maids are very similar to British
maids, "only the dresses are tighter and shorter, I guess," says Lucky. Little Windy,
along with IsaBaby, doesn't see the point of tracing the origin of maid character，“for
me, it'sjust a virtual character," says Windy, "a Japanese virtual character."
From the maid-related ACG products other maids and masters suggested for
me to watch and their interpretations and explanations, I identified three elements of
this "maid" character and her world. First, bodies of the ACG maid are usually
considered "cute". The cuteness of a maid is packaged with various detailed "cute"
elements deriving from the "cute culture" in Japan society and ACG subculture. In
his study of cute culture, Kinsella (1995) proposes that the word is often employed to
describe the quality of infantile, delicate, and pretty. Shiokawa (1999) regards it as a
descriptive adjective depicting "the adorable aspects of babies and children, pretty
young women and pretty young men, charming characters，and likable personal
quirks in not—so-young folks, especially the elderly" ^p. 93). Both Kinsella and
Shiokawa noticed the lack of accurate and fixed "external features" (Shiokawa, 1999,
p. 94) of the concept, while Yomota (2007) points out that "cute" can be used to 45 describe both the quality of objects and feelings towards certain objects. As a result, the specific standard of cuteness often depends on personal preference. However,
Azuma (2009) argues that the seemingly ambiguous nature of cuteness may be understood not with a generalized wholesome image, but with numerous small
elements that accumulate the sense of cuteness. He noticed that most popular ACG
"cute" products or characters are often combinations of various "cute" elements such
as cat tail, cat ear, colorful eyes and hairs, bows, a short, but slim body figure, among
others.
For the maid character, infantility and innocence are mirrored by her delicate
body figure and girlish dressing styles. Similar to related genres of ACG culture，
such as Bishoujo 8, maid. s are usually teenage girl• s who may be secondary students as
well. They are depicted as young, innocent, unsophisticated, and pretty figures. In the
fantasy world, even the brooms and rags held by maids are exquisitely decorated
with floral patterns and sparkling beads. School uniforms, toys, pets, and all kinds of
personal belongings in a tiny pink form are all necessary items that accompany the
girl.
Furthermore, the maid is a relational character since she always co-exists
with her master, regardless of where she works, and masters are often boys of the
same age. Master Bug offered me his understanding of the maid:
For me, the maid is the ideal wife. At the beginning, maid stories all took place in the guy's home. When their masters are busy or out, maids would do housework for him. However, they are not like Filipino maids that work all day, every day, When he needs company, she will excuse herself from cleaning and cooking to listen to him and cure him. They are young and pretty, and they need to be taken care of too.
8 Bishoujo is the Japanese term for "beautiful young girl". Bishojo ACG products usually feature a pretty teenage girl's romance as the core plot. Sailor Moon, the story about a magical army constituted by several young teenage girls, is a classic Bishoujo manga (Napier, 2001). 46
Maid Kiwi, who admitted that she had known nothing about maids until she got thejob, provided a similar account:
I guess that maid in a manga is a very noble girl because she cares for others and she has the ability to cure those who are suffering. Although the earliest maids worked in their masters' residences and only provided exclusive service, maid cafe later allowed people who are not that rich to afford a personal maid that can offer them company. Unlike girls at a similar age, maids are altruistic; she cares about her masters.
We can see that although the relationship is referred to one of a maid and a
master, both parties respect and perhaps even admire each other. Potential romance is
usually the plot, and in ACG products whose target audience is male, the possibility
for sexual relationship also develops.
Also, since maids need to serve their masters, the story usually takes place in
small and intimate spaces or other surreal fairytale-like settings. Maids have to take
care of both her master and his home. Furthermore, given that both maids and
masters are just teenagers, school is also a frequent space for the story to move
forward.
Bodies-spaces in this fantasy world are relatively enclosed and filtered. Only
certain types ofbodies can enter these spaces, and only certain types of activities are
engendered in these spaces. At the same time, spaces are modified and decorated to
give off a sense of intimacy, sometimes to the point of being isolated from the
outside world. In such private spaces, bodies are frequently interacting with one
another, making for intense and intimate relationships.
Physical Location & Imaginative Location 47
Despite being an upstairs cafe9 located in downtown Hong Kong, Maid Date hardly stands out as an appealing landmark. It is surrounded by all kinds of colorful and flashy signboard, logos, and show windows. It is on the third floor of an old tenement house, the first floor of which is designed for shops. The entrance to the building is not easy to find, as it is surrounded by several boutique stores and snack stands, and one has to ring the buzzer outside the entrance gate to get in. There are
several apartments on third floor, and the unit next to Maid Date is the meeting venue for the Countrymen's Association of a large Chinese family. In other words,
Maid Date's geographical location is not very noticeable and hence not that fantastic
in the traditional sense.
Despite its location, the managers of the cafe have never spent a dollar on
promotion in the media. Even on its opening day three years ago, the primary
promotion material was a digital poster posted in popular Hong Kong-based Internet
discussion boards. Yet, the poster had become the talk of the town, and it helped to
boost the awareness for Maid Date. There are two layers of images on this poster: the
background of the poster's upper half is a glamorous and graceful castle bathing in
the deep orange light at dusk; two round image-clips of two cartoon characters -
teenage girls dressed in classical black-and-white maid costume with salmon bowties
and white headbands - are pasted in the foreground. One of them seems very shy
with a blushed face，whereas the other character looks very happy with a carefree
9 Upstairs cafe, as well as upstairs bookstores, restaurant, boutiques, etc., is a unique Hong Kong invention. Due to the excessively high real estate prices, owners of small business find themselves having to move to higher floors ofbuildings. The literal translation of the Chinese term should be "second floor cafe". However, it is very common to find cafes and other shops higher than the second floor (Pan, 2005). 48 smile. Beside them are large Chinese characters saying: “Moi \ Welcome back home, little master!" and “Maid Date".
Below the illustration is a row of pictures of fancy drinks and dessert, while the bottom of the poster is filled with visual indications of the cafe's location, its opening time, and the charge for service. Besides such information, there is also a
group of text promoting the specialty ofMaid Date, some of which are highlighted:
Our cafe is opened by a group of Hong Kong people who are into maid culture. We hope our high-quality food and drinks, together with the amazing and unique maid services, could bring you the enjoyment you have never had. We also hope every master will leave Maid Date with a nice, big smile, helping you forget the pressures of this city.
I didn't get the chance to interview the designer or manager of the day, but
manager Zorro has commented on this promotion project in our interview:
I totally get Alex (the first manager of Maid Date)'s idea. If we shot pictures or videos and put them on ads, those animation fans would probably expressed their disappointment of the poor authenticity, while people who know nothing about this theme would also have considered us as freaks. Plus, we would've had to pay a lot for the coverage. Using the internet is free, and it automatically attracts the right people. Even though our services and looks might not be right, people wouldn't know unless they pay us a visit.
The images ofbodies-spaces in the fantasy world are appropriated by Maid
Date as the symbol and mark of the meeting-point ofthe fantasy and reality. I call
this strategy the replacement of the physical location with an imaginary one. In our
shared worldview, geographical location usually refers to the physical location of a
subject (Lowenthal, 1961). In this sense, the location of Maid Date is as written in
corner of the poster - "Percival Mansion, 3/F, Percival Street, Causeway Bay, Hong
Kong". There is no connection between this location and the ACG fantasy at all.
However, as "[e]very image and idea about the world is compound, then, of personal
10 Moe, a Japanese term, is "a neologism used to describe a euphoric response to fantasy characters or representations of them" (Galbraith, 2009). It can be an erotic reaction, though it's not necessarily one. Otakus only have moe feelings towards virtual fantasies instead of real people. These are the people who obtain the experience of love not from interpersonal relationships, but from fantasies projected onto commercial products. 49 experience, learning, imagination, and memory" (Lowenthal, 1961，p. 260)，there is also the imaginative location ofMaid Date. The construction of this location borrows images and languages of ACG products to solicit people's memory, imagination, and experience ofthe ACG fantasies they enjoyed. Even if such imagined world is new to some of the poster's audiences, it may still work by stimulating their curiosity and expectations.
Moreover, these virtual bodies-spaces clearly imply what kind of experience
one will get from a visit to Maid Date. Instead of pictures of real people dressed in maid costumes working in the cafe, which might affect the imagination of the virtual,
presenting images from ACG culture stimulates the viewers' imagination and
amplifies their expectations. The image of smiling faces, skinny bodies and various
kinds of little props in Maid Date remind one of his/her surroundings, his^ier
perception of other people's activity, and how he/she should behave. Therefore, even
though the geographical location of maid date is not that instrumental for
constructing fantastic spaces, the constant and nearly ubiquitous appropriation of
ACG images remedies that by literally adding the fantasy to the daily scenarios in
Maid Date.
Similar techniques are used repeatedly to tighten people's perception of Maid
Date to the imagination of the fantasy. As mentioned, finding Maid Date for the first
visit is not easy. Furthermore, even when one manages to find it; the view of the old
neighborhood and its buildings may reduce expectations. However, one can find
guides in the form of a banner or a logo of pretty, young maids on walls as the
customers approach the cafe. These images can also be found inside the cafe, on
large posters on the wall, coasters, purple menus, and of course, inside the manga on
the bookshelf and inside animation playing on the television. 50
Inventing Names & Dressing Up
As mentioned in the beginning of the chapter, the cafe offers no official training for a new maid to get to into the character. Zorro the manager always asks new maids to observe each other and learn. My first teacher was Little Fanny. She is
19 year old; she goes to vocational school on weekdays and works there on weekends. Having been there for five months, she was deemed qualified enough to tutor “a new bird." "You have to make yourself a maid name first", Little Fanny tells me as she handed me an empty employee pass-card.
Every maid there has a maid name they created by themselves, names that
should have nothing related to their real names, The maids greet each other with this fake name, despite knowing each other's real name. Creating the maid name is the
first step to creating a maid identity. In most cases, our names are given by our
parents, making them projections of their hopes for us. In Maid Date, the new names
are imbued with the maids' own wishes. There are translated names of popular
animation characters; for example, Lucky's name comes from an animation called
Dr. Slump11. Japanese names are also preferred, though no surnames are necessary.
Several of the maid names start with the Chinese word “siu”, which literally means
"little". Other maids favor the names of small things - such as "Pudding", "Pear",
and "Mushroom". Most maid names are reminiscent of concrete figures of people
and objects whose nice qualities we want to share. At least it is hoped that once
people get to know these names, they will develop a way to interpret their bodily acts,
a way they prefer. Names, therefore, become hints ofhow maids want to be
perceived, as opposed to their actual interests. For example, Pudding told me that
puddings had never been her favorite snack, "but it sounds nice," says Pudding,
11 Known in Chinese as Dr. IQ, it is a classic Japanese anime which made its debut in the 1980s. It has been shown on Hong Kong television since the 1980s, and continues to play in reruns today. Lucky, a junior high student with the IQ of a primary school student is one of the leading characters in the story. 51
"Aren't you picturing a cute little creamy pudding in your mind when you read my name? I want to be a girl as fragile and cute as a pudding". Maid Miwako, a 17-year- old middle school student, consulted several Chinese-Japanese dictionaries to come up with her name: “I treat the naming as a big deal. I want a Japanese name; after all, maid cafe is a Japanese invention. I chose Miwako because it is a very common female name in Japan". I also spent some time to invent my new name; it had to fit into the style that other names share. In other words, it had to be cute, easy to recognize, easy to read, and relevant to ACG (or at least Japan).
I finally came up with "Lala", a name I vaguely remembered I had seen in
some manga. Also, the double "La" sounded cute to me. At first, I could not even respond in time when people addressed me by that name. In order to get used my new maid name, managers and maids stopped addressing me by my real name. Not
only did they constantly make an effort to remind me of my maid name, they also
developed cute ways of saying the name. Maids are especially good at this — they
pronounce "Lala" in a very high key and a sweet voice, as if it was the name of a
little girl. At first, I felt that present myself as a twelve-year-old was very unrealistic
and shameless, given that I was the oldest maid among all. However, I gradually
realized that our actual age had little to do with the performance; a 20-year-old maid
can behave as childish as a 15-year-old, and the two sometimes even acted as twin
sisters using names of the same style. Also, other maids found me more approachable
when I became more willing to use my maid name. When I was less willing to do so,
they appeared more aware ofmy identity as an observer and an outsider.
Similarly, maid names helped to quickly develop a friendly relationship with
new "masters". Maid names are similar to nicknames; although introducing oneself
with a maid name may be understood as a refusal to reveal her identity, it could also 52 be interpreted as a willingness to befriend others. Moreover, since many of the names are made to be cute, calling them also makes "masters" feel like a family member of the maids. Some masters even invented their own "master" names in a similar manner, with Happyboy, Bug, Siu-Ming being a few. These "master" feel proud to be referred with these names since it shows that they are good friends and loyal masters of the maids,
Once the new maid name is written on that employee pass-card, the identity is solidified, and our existence in Maid Date is separated from that from elsewhere. If
someone greets me as Lala in or outside Maid Date, I know that he/she is a Maid-
Date-friend. Just like this, bodies and spaces are tagged together via the employment of a name.
While names provide a departure for the imagination of the fantastic bodies-
spaces, costume and make-ups are definitely the most useful tools for
transformations to the fantastic bodies. Every day, the first thing the maids do before
the start of work is to change clothes in the bathroom. Since the number of the
costumes is limited, the maids are not allowed to bring the costume home. Besides,
most of us find that Maid Date is the only place where wearing these costumes are
not seen as inappropriate.
There are mainly four sets of costumes for us to wear — classic maid costume, • 10 weekend's choice, festival costume, and costume for "butler 's day". If the maids
are willing, they can choose costumes either from their own wardrobes or Japanese-
style school uniforms from Maid Date on Sundays. Meanwhile, festival costumes are
for special events held on holidays like Halloween and Christmas, while the butler's
costume is for special days when maids dress up like young boys. Most of the time,
12 Butler: male counterpart ofmaid in ACG products. A separated analysis on Butler's Day will be presented in Chapter Six. 53 the Classic maid costume is the required costume. It is a simple black and white wardrobe made up by three pieces - the black long-sleeve shirt, black short-skirt, and a white apron. We have to also bring our own black long stockings and black high heels to match this costume. In addition, headbands and colorful bow-ties are also essential accessories for this costume.
At the very beginning, wearing this set of costume can easily lead to high levels of self-awareness because the costume makes the maids unique from all the people in the cafe. Together with masters, who are dressed in contemporary everyday styles, maids become the most distinctive people in the room. Most of the maids enjoy wearing the costume very much since it can show their slim figure and its style can bring out their "cute" side. Also, dressing up in costumes in Maid Date becomes a very precious opportunity and experience for the maids because they feel restrained elsewhere in terms of clothing. Often, maids bring their own accessories to make them stand out in their costumes. On the other hand, other maids like Little Fanny
sometimes "forget" to wear stockings in order to show her long and slender legs.
Below are five excerpts from in-depth interviews where maids talk about the
importance and meanings of wearing costumes:
The whole thing (finding a maid cafe to work in) began after I saw and wore a maid costume in an animation convention. I guess I was thrilled that I finally found a style meant to be mine. It is so cute and lighthearted. An important reason I came here to wash dishes and serve around is that I could wear maid costumes and be appreciated. The only thing I am not ok with is that they got the collar wrong, which should be shaped like a lotus leaf according to the costume in Japan. (Lucky)
You know I'm already 19 years old this year, and I havejust finished vocational schooL My parents are like ‘Time to live on your own'. I don't feel exited when thinking about that. I might be 19, but people usually estimate my age to be around fifteen, thanks to my baby face. However, this dress makes me even younger. I love this feeling. I feel very comfortable to act peevish or childish; peoplejust take it for granted. (Yuki)
I work full time in a sports goods company owned by my uncle, and people have to wearjerseys all the time. In a way, Maid Date pays me to cosplay. I 54
love the feeling of getting nicely dressed andjoin the line of other maids. We belong to a nice world where people know cute is also a pleasant style. Also, I feel cute and sexy at the same time. (Lunar)
In my school, which is a prestigious all-girl middle school in Hong Kong, good girls seldom wear make-up, not to mention a maid costume. I don't get along with them, since I am the one 'who is too much into her looks' for them. I do not particularly like maid costume out of all the costumes I have, but it's good that people appreciating you dressing differently and 'unrealistically'. (Strawberry)
I admit that I don't have a perfect body, but I hate to conceal my body in the stupid, boring dark blue school uniforms. My teacher cannot bear the sight of young, well-dressed female students. For her, female students are sexless. I bet my parents will freak out if they know about my secret part-time job in Maid Date. They cannot accept this style. (Kiwi)
Indeed, wearing that costume is one of the most attractive things about the job. Not only do the maids feel confident and satisfied with their aesthetically pleasing looks in this costume, they also feel different than usual. Most of them are
ordinary people elsewhere who have to follow all kinds of social norms and rules
outside the cafe in order to fit in with other people. In the eyes of their schoolmates,
teachers, parents, siblings, co-workers, and bosses, their love for ACG subculture are
often regarded as representation of their immature personalities, and their indulgence
in ACG fan activities are considered an indication of their social disability. Dressing
in costume, then, is more than a simple fashion choice; it is an escape and subversion
from the mainstream requirements (Entwistle, 2000). Whereas part of the fantastic
feeling of dressing in maid costumes comes from the sensual and visual pleasures,
the rest has a lot to do with the unique experience of violating the rules and pursuing
individual autonomy.
Moreover, dressing up is also closely related to our sensual experience. On
one hand, costumes are made of fabrics with their own textile in variable patterns,
shapes, designs and sizes. Therefore, our bodies encounter all kinds of sensual
experiences when wearing a piece of clothing. On the other hand, dressed-up bodies 55 are also visual and tactual existence in that they can be caught in anyone's sight in virtually no time. Consequently, the sensual experience of dressing up is both personal and relational - one is exposed to both bodily awareness ofhimself/herself and others' (Jackson, 2004). This applies in the case of the maid costume. For example, the first time I put on the maid costume, I immediately felt its tightness, especially around chest and waist. Even though weight or body shape is not an issue injob interviews in the cafe, one's slimness is apparently a practical matter since it is very possible that any undesired fat will become visible in the costume. Lucky later reminded me to be aware of my gestures since the mini-skirt-like length of the costume made it easy for underwear to show. Lunar told me of the term "the fatal five centimeters", referring to the part of the leg between the bottom of the costume and the upper-most part of the stockings. She explained to me that the flve centimeters worked well in arousing the lookers' imagination and desire, though it caused no harm to the image of an innocent girl. In other words, maids are highly aware of the aesthetic value of their bodies in the costumes.
Maids are not the only ones who cherish the costumes, for many masters costumes are major seductions of Maid Date. Some could spend their whole evening sitting in the balcony and only watch the maids on duty. Some may not be that excited, but they also acknowledge the significance ofhaving dressed up maids around them:
I come to Maid Date every evening on weekdays. I have passed the phase when you cannot move your eyes from the maids. However, that doesn't mean I don't treasure it. Even when I am totally concentrating on conversations with my friends or the games I am playing, I love to be surrounded by maids. They are like mobile landscapes. They must be there even if you don't look at them. (Master Galo)
Costumes have become crucial parts of the maids' bodies, as they would not be perceived as maids ifthey dress similarly to the masters. Dressed-up bodies are, 56 as a result, regarded as important constitutions of the space. Quoting Galo's terms, they are "mobile landscapes" that help the master form and keep their sense and feelings ofbeing in unique spaces. Landscape was originally construed as “a portion ofland which the eye can comprehend at a glance" (Jackson, 1984, p. 3). However, recent scholarly works (Guarassi, 2001; Serreli, 2008; Terkenli, 2001, 2005) argue that landscape and the subjects who are active in it are mutually defming existence.
This echoes with Grosz's (1994,1998) argument that bodies and spaces are inter- permeable. When using "landscape" to explain the maids' bodily existences, Galo viewed maids as crucial constitutions of the fantastic spaces, which implies that bodies become spatial constituents.
Besides costumes, fantastic experience could also draw from other detailed elements in Maid Date. The food and drinks in Maid Date are not very different from other cafes in terms of material and cooking methods. As a result, presentation, names, and decorations of the food became critical in distinguishing Maid Date from other cafes. The menu is not only filled with illustrations of cute maids and food in manga style; it is also full of peculiar names such as “Black knight", "Burning souls
• • 1 ^ of the maids", and the “Maids special today" . While some of the names have many references to ACG or Japanese culture, other names also suggest young romantic love. Food coloring is an important element in these drinks, as presentation is as crucial as, if not more than, taste. Meanwhile, the food menu features spaghettis, fried chicken wings, chips, among others. However, before serving them, maids usually draw some cute images of small animals, or simply spell moe on the fringe of the plate with ketchup. Therefore, these paintings usually get more attention from the masters than the food itself.
13 "Maid special today" is a creative cocktail made by the maid who takes charge the bar that day. There is no recipe for this drink, and is fully dependent on that maid's improvisation 57
Mr. Tam, a frequent customer of Maid Date, is a huge fan of the ketchup painting, and he makes special requests concerning what to be painted on his dishes.
He carries his albums of photos taken in ACG conventions and several mini-models of female manga characters with him every time he visits. He likes to place his models on his table and takes pictures of them standing besides his food. He explained to me about this routine:
They are like my closest friends. I take them wherever I go and take picture of them in different locations. I often ask the maids to draw similar images on my food. My models, my food, and my maids look so in harmony.
Ketchup drawings, colorful cocktails, together with costumes hence become critical constituents ofthe bodies-spaces that generate the fantastic experience. Their functions are more thanjust average practical usage; they are also bodily extensions of the maids and masters (Grosz, 1994). Like Baudelaire concluded, “[a]ll the things that adorn women, all the things that go to enhance her beauty, are part of herself’
(as cited in Craik, 2005, p. 43). Without these ornaments, maids cannot be recognized ofher fantastic identity, and the experience that masters gain in Maid
Date would have much less to do with ACG fantasy. From Mr. Tam's explanation, we can see that on the one hand, enjoying ketchup paintings is as important as having maids in costume among his, while the fantastic experience could also be harmonized and enhanced with the combination of maids' existence and the ketchup figures, mini models and food.
Home, Sweet Home
The major difference between a maid cafe and general cosplay activity is that maids engage in conversation with others, while the normal cosplayers keep a distance from their audience. Also, cosplayers sometimes present themselves on stage in a play for some time, whereas metaphorically maids can be said to be 58 participating in an improvisational performance together with masters all the time.
The story between maids and masters start right after he/she buzzed the bell on ground floor and the maid opens the door, bowing and smiling while saying
"welcome back home master". Along the service, maids will always remind masters oftheir master identities by addressing them as “master，，in and at the end of every conversation.
This very short but unusual greeting contributes quite a lot to assignment of the roles and setting up of the scenes. When one hears the maid calling hinVher
"master" , he/she is immediately reminded ofhis/her identity in this cafe. Given that master is paired with maid in this context, their identity of maids is simultaneously established when maids addressing masters as “master”，even though maids will introduce themselves with only their maid name. Being interpellated as "masters" and hence “maids”，the master-maid relationship is formed at the same time, and it is two-folded. It is a relationship of obligation and control; master is the temporal owner of the maid, and therefore he is the one who sits in the sofa giving orders, whereas she is the one who always stand by his side satisfying his needs.
Furthermore, it is also a gender relationship; normally, masters are male and maids are female. Their close and sometimes even intimate contacts enable the possibility of romantic relationship take place.
For new masters, adjusting to such an identity and relationship is new and not easy. It is very common for new masters to find the maids' way of addressing awkward and peculiar. In such cases, masters usually ridicule each other to drive away the awkwardness. Nonetheless, things get smoothen out as time passes by, as
14 The Chinese word for "master" is ZhuYan. ZhuYan normally refers to a male subject; however there is no feminine form ofZhu Yin. So, when referring to a female subject, Zhu Yan can also be used. 59
"masters" gradually grow increasingly comfortable with their new identities.
Meanwhile, there are people who go to the cafe only to experience being a master, and such role play game is fun and exciting for them. Therefore, they are willing to order more food and drinks only to find an excuse to give their maids commands.
Even if a master orders nothing and shows no interest to any entertainment facilities, maids are assumed to have the responsibility to keep him company.
Before or after the meal is served, maids are supposed to approach the masters and start casual conversations. Topics can range from their visit to the quality of their food. Later, the conversation topics can extend to the masters' hobbies and vexations. In these conversations, maids usually play the listener's role, sometimes consoling the masters. These conversations tend to be similar to one with a family member:
Since Maid Date is the home for us and the masters, it is expected that we should have a relaxing time and get away from the pressures. We normally talk little about ourselves and focus on the masters. Although we may not help them to resolve the problems they are facing, making them feel that we care about their pains means a lot to them. We cure them. (Lunar)
Therefore, other than the aforementioned interpellation of the maid-master identities and relationships, there is also an interpellation of "home". Moreover, the
"home" shouldn't be a new and strange one since by saying, there is an implication that the masters have already been to the cafe when the maids tell them "welcome back home". The masters are invited and suggested to feel as ease and entertain themselves with the recreation available to them in this home. They are also instructed to form personal relationships with others as if they are family members.
The construct "home" is a very loaded term, and that it may mean different things to different people. For instance, when compared to a workplace, "home" implies leisure and privacy (Ahrentzen, 1997). Meanwhile, "home" could also mean 60 heavy domestic work for female members of the family (McDowell, 1999).The
"home" people experience in Maid Date emphasized harmonious personal
relationships, and it is constructed as the space where there is no pressure. Maids and
masters usually start such homey relationships by chatting up one another, usually
with topic related to ACG subculture. Miwaka, for instance, likes to play her favorite
episode of animation and talk with masters about the story. However, the fantastic
feeling about this home does not necessarily be always derived from ACG subculture.
For example, Japanese-speaking masters are seen as language teachers, with maids
approaching them and make conversation with basic Japanese words. While the
general pattern of such home and families members are formed, the relationships
among people per se become meaningful. Budding is a very outgoing girl, and she
has become close friends with many masters. Her experience of "feeling like home"
in Maid Date has more to do with her personal experiences:
In my real family, no one appreciates me. I am always the underdog. Nothing about me is satisfactory for my parents. In Maid Date, I am special and I am an important member of the big family. I have served CEOs here; they talk to me as I was their little sister, and they teach me how to run a business. There was this old nanny who was so glad when I asked her to regard me as her granddaughter. She even paid me special visits afterwards. The most exciting thing is that I meet a lot of patient and brother-like guys here. They like me and they take care of me all the time. I have three ex-boyfriends whom I met in Maid Date.
In this sense, masters would regard maids not as humble servants waiting for
their order, but as little sisters willing to keep them company. For many masters,
kinship is not the only thing to be found in this family, as romance is also a
possibility. I have interviewed several masters concerning their understanding of the
relationships between themselves and the maids. While most of them use the
metaphor of home and family, they would often choose one of the maids as their
potential or imaginary girlfriends. 61
A good example can be master Bug and master Sunny, who are brothers.
They first went to Maid Date two years ago, and each fell in love with a maid.
At that time, the ‘maid cafe' is so strange for me. Then I came with my brother and asked the maids to explain the whole idea of the thing. I felt like, ‘wow, isn't this great? It's like living in a dream of manga world，. Maids for me are the ideal type of wife or girlfriend. Who knew that my brother and I would finally get girlfriends who work as maids?
Mr. Tam, a government officer, hopes that one day, the same thing could happen to him.
It's not like that I came to find a girlfriend, but it certainly is a blessing ifI could find one here. I felt nervous and inarticulate while talking to those ladies at work; they are so pretentious and proud of themselves. Every time you approach them, they would think you are after them. Here, even if I do fancy a maid and make a move on her, it is understandable. You know, we are family, and we're supposed to like and care for each other.
By interpellations of identities and relationships, bodies in Maid Date smoothly follow the indications and interact with one another. The address of
"master" and maid names, as well as the explanation of Maid Date as a home, enables personal and intimate relationships to establish without beingjudged. These temporary relationships are treasured, and they are built upon the shared assumption that they are based on ACG fantasies and that they only last during the maids' and masters' stays in Maid Date. This means that everyone primarily gets a hold on engagement in such relationships as long as he/she takes on the role of maid or master. There is no further requirement to filter people from "home". At the same time, maids and masters all know the performative nature of such relationships, and they won't be expecting others to fall in love with them. Last but not the least, all these relationships are supposed to last only during people's stay in the cafe. All of the three assumptions more or less guarantee that people build relaxed, responsibility-free relationships in Maid Date.
Fantastic Bodies-Spaces 62
Maid cafes are mostly inspired by the fantasy world created in ACG subculture, and Maid Date is no exceptional in this respect. This chapter argues that in Maid Date, not only do bodies-spaces mutually construct each other; they also construct each other into fantastic ones. Moreover, the uniqueness of such fantastic bodies-spaces is also produced via its comparison with bodies-spaces elsewhere.
In Maid Date, bodies and spaces are critical constituents of each other. For example, maids are simultaneously embodied subjects who participate in daily life in maid cafe and “mobile landscape", which is part of the completely fantastic spaces.
For another, spatial representations of maid characters are not only pretty decorations
of the space, but also references and models for the real maid to imitate from.
Moreover, bodies and spaces interpellate each other on a discursive level as well.
While the spaces are referred to as "home", clues are offered to people “at home" to
treat each other as family members. Also, when people address each other as "maids"
and "masters", the spaces have simultaneously become homey and intimate.
Furthermore, bodies and spaces reproduce each other on a daily basis through
repeated bodily performances and spatial layout.
This chapter interprets bodies-spaces ofMaid Date as fantastic ones. On the
one hand, the imaginative and variant images from the fantasy world are constantly
employed as references and constituents ofthe fantastic bodies-spaces; on the other
hand, subjects obtain pleasure from the performance of such fantasy world.
Firstly, the images and product ofthe fantasy world, such as cartoon posters,
dolls and tiny props, are utilized as important components ofboth the spaces and
bodies in this case. At the same time, the scenario and characters in the fantasy world
are also textbooks for the construction of fantastic bodies-spaces. Given that most of
the people going to Maid Date are devoted ACG fans, embodying the ACG 63 characters in an ACG-like environment offer them pleasures. This is why most maids are in love with their costumes. They are more than simply stylish dresses; they are also products ofACG subculture. When wearing such costumes, maids are able to temporarily get away from their identities outside the cafe. The maids feel treasured and valued, while the masters can leave behind their everyday routines and indulge themselves in this temporary fantasy.
To enact the fantastic bodies-spaces in this perspective, two crucial elements are indispensible - cuteness and Japaneseness. While cuteness is a prevailing characteristic of ACG subculture, Japaneseness also has its importance with the global popularity of ACG subculture since most ACG products are created in Japan.
As this chapter demonstrates, looking cute and feeling cute is considered to be of importance. The most-frequently mentioned characteristic of maid and maid cafe by the maids and masters is cuteness, Cuteness in this context refers to the childish, fragile, and innocent side of femininity, which needs male attention and protection.
Such qualities are represented on both bodies and spaces in Maid Date with good- looking teenage maids and all kinds of spatial representations of similar figures.
Moreover, cuteness is also an experience of being treasured, protected and appreciated. For instance, maids get their fantastic feelings from other people's praises and admiration. Japaneseness is also crucial in constructing the fantasy and experiencing fantastic. This is because serving Japanese cuisine may create an impression of an authentic maid cafe, considering their presence Japanese ACG products. At the same time, maids and masters' indulgence in ACG subculture simultaneously cultivate their interest in Japanese culture in general. Both Miwako and Lucky told me that they are preparing to go to Japan within a few years for further education and employment; they regard working in Maid Date as a warm up 64 for them to adapt to Japan. Quite a few maids and masters have already been to Japan, and they prefer to find the Japanese elements in Maid Date to recall their memories in Japan. To some extent, going to a maid cafe like Maid Date could be seen as a mini-trip to an imagined Japan.
However, even the most outrageous fantasies are inevitably the creations of their times (Jackson, 1988). The colorful fantasies emerging from global ACG products, therefore, cannot be entirely transplanted elsewhere. Although maids and masters claim they share a similar fantasy world, the fantasy is perpetually localized, personalized and hence transformed into numerous versions. Maids and masters have attached their own experience and understanding to the shared fantasies. To this extent, the fantastic bodies-spaces are not brought forth only by each other, they are also the results of their discrepancies from and similarities with other bodies-spaces.
Other than connections to cuteness and Japaneseness, fantastic feelings of being a maid/master in Maid Date comes from individuals' experience ofbeing with other bodies in other spaces. For instance, the "home" that maids and masters found in
Maid Date is always compared with other spaces, be it a highly regulated school, a ponderous workplace, or a real home that lack intimacy and care. For another, feeling good in costumes is also an explanation by the maids via the comparison of presenting themselves elsewhere, such as school and home.
In my own experience, the beauty of such fantastic bodies-spaces lies in all kinds of possibilities and potentialities for a participant to experiment being someone other than himself/herself in the daily life. Such attraction is very apparent for those who have already built the passion for the beloved A.C.G culture, but it also works well towards new-comers and strangers. Even though my participant was at the beginning led by a very general curiosity and had little to do with the subculture per 65 se, plus my knowledge of the subculture is much less than that of a fan, going through the daily routines, I am now used to and fond of exploring the boundaries of the fantasy - how to behave, who to talk to, what to do in this big family. As many as the subcultural references there might have to be, they mostly serves as a departure.
Equipped with basic knowledge and props, I find that the interpretation and
representation of a maid and maid cafe has become very fluid. In a conversation with
several maids, we have reached a conclusion that we were very like to a maid family
with sisters each representing her own characteristic yet together still the
embodiment ofthe maid role. It is the constant citations, adaptations, mixtures and
re-creations that keep the fantastic bodies-spaces alive, up-to-date and personal. 66
Chapter 5: Organizational Bodies-Spaces
Maid Date, a Profit-Organization
Although Maid Date has gained its reputation as a unique subculture gathering place in Hong Kong, it had almost gone out ofbusiness several times. At the beginning, the cafe was a fresh topic at the time, especially among the teenage
ACG fans who found out about Maid Date on the Internet. As time went by, managers had to face the fact that most of their masters had very limited consuming capability. Within one year, two of the owners sold their shares to two other people.
The new managers were very unsatisfied with the cafe and started a large-scale renovation project and implemented a new training policy. At the same time, local television TVB had featured Maid Date in its program Sunday Profiles. In the episode, focus was given to the cartoon-like decoration of the spaces, as well as the maids. Shortly after that broadcast, the profits began to grow. However, under the impact of the global recession in 2009, Maid Date's turnover started to fall off quickly.
In the history of Maid Date, there has only been one female manager, and all of the employees have always been female. Most maids are between fifteen and twenty years old and all of them work part-time. Some of them are studying in high school or vocational school, while others are full-time employees elsewhere. Their hourly wage ofHK$14 is considered very low, even by Hong Kong standards.
However, almost none ofthe maids depend solely on thisjob，especially given that most of them still live with their parents. The number of maids is not fixed due to it a relatively high workforce turnover rate.
Comparing to Cafe Matsuri, another maid cafe in Mongkok that opened in early 2010 that requires formal interview and examination for recruitment, Maid 67
Date usually bases its hiring decision on a casual conversation. Lucky, for instance, had failed the exam in Cafe Matsuri, but she was soon employed by Maid Date after
a five-minute chat with two managers. Quite a few new maids leave theirjobs after
one or two days, with reasons ranging from a lack of commitment, loss of interest, or
schedule conflicts. Along with managerial change, a large number of maids also quit
because of disagreement with new business orientations and principles. Subsequently,
there is an interesting phenomenon where maids distinguish themselves from each
other by their recruitment date. They refer to themselves as "first generation",
"second generation", and so forth; each generation is only a couple of months apart
from the others. At the end of my field study, the oldest maids are from generation
two and three, while the newest maids are from the eighth to the tenth generations.
Black Maid Date & White Maid Date
Once every several weeks, maids have to go to the cafe for a Sunday staff
meeting. Manager Zorro gives a speech at every meeting about the latest evaluation
of the maids' work. There is always a highlighted part in his speech about the
changes he brought forth for Maid Date after he had taken over the business. Namely,
he would mention that the cafe was in a dire financial shape before his arrival, and
then, he saved the company with "magic". The "magic" he refers to is renovation.
The large-scale renovation project has indeed become the watershed in Maid Date.
For Zorro, renovation marks his success as a businessman and an interior designer.
For the maids, renovation divided the history of Maid Date into several parts - the
Maid Date before the renovation, and the Maid Date that exists now.
Although I never saw Maid Date before the renovation, I learned about it
with the help of many people, including Zorro. For most of them, there are two Maid
Dates — "White Maid Date" and "Black Maid Date". As the name suggests, "White 68
Maid Date" utilized light colors in decoration. From what I saw in old photos, the walls, the doors, and the bar counters were all painted in creamy white; white chairs with hearts-shaped back surrounded black tables and white bar counters; a large piece of golden canopy had been tied to the ceiling with a delicate crystal-like chandelier hanging on it; the balcony was empty and was used as a sightseeing stand.
Zorro explained that the renovation was conducted in order to attract diverse
customers. He conducted research on demographic information of the masters, which
led him to a conclusion that the majority of them were young people who consumed
very little. However, Zorro was very unwilling to give up other "potential master":
“I got the idea that Maid Date should be a fun gathering place for those young stingy kids, but the bottom line is that we pay a lot on rent, gas, water, electricity, Wi-Fi, and salaries, so we had to at least make ends meet. I am perfectly fine if interested people come here to kill time, but they have to pay for that. Otherwise, they should stay in the student club." (Zorro)
“I am a businessman and a designer. I was able to see that Maid Date had potential to do better. After all, it is in Causeway Bay, and you can find all kinds of people who are willing to spend some money here. The renovation did an excellentjob in adjusting the [cafe for] target customers. Before, we were all about ‘making home’ for kids who knew manga. Now, I have turned the cafe into a mixture of Japanese manga world and a downtown club/bar. Gone is the childish white and pink; black brings us fashionable, metropolitan feeling." (Zorro)
According to him and other maids who have served both before and after the
renovation, there really is an evident difference in terms of the number and kind of
masters. Although there were occasionally senior couples and white-collar workers
in White Maid Date, they only made up a small percentage of customers. After the
renovation, more and more people come here not to have a date with the maid, but to
meet friends or spend some time alone. Moreover, the various entertainment
applications in Maid Date are very useful to keep the masters around longer and 69 spend more money on drinks and snacks. All of this resulted in increasing revenues for the company.
Colour tones shaped differed perception of White and Black Maid Date for almost every person, but the "magic" didn't bringjoy to everyone. For instance, maids and masters that are dedicated to their fantasies, as well as "stingy" masters who are not welcomed under the new policy of "stay longer and pay more", cannot
stand the transformation; Lunar of the so-called "second-generation" and Budding
Girl of the “fifth-generation” recall the days before renovation with nostalgia while
criticizing Black Maid Date with discontent:
"In the old days, the environment of the house could put people at ease. We used a lot of pure and light-hearted colours, as well as small, delicate ornaments. We wanted to make Maid Date like a noble Victorian teahouse... Today's Maid Date is so dark since everything is black. It certainly has its own beauty and mystery, but it does little to cultivate a better mood or cheer people up." (Budding Girl)
“I remember the quietness in White Maid Date. You know, downstairs is Causeway Bay, which is always busy and crowded. The bright colours and light inside could let you feel peaceful and warm. Black seems to cut the room into small slices, with the masters enclosed in their tables. Nowadays, people from different tables no longerjoin together and have fun with us." (Lunar)
They mentioned that several "dear masters" stopped patronizing Maid Date
due to the change of business idea, and the new maid cafe in Mongkok became their
alternative. I met several of them in Cafe Matsuri; they're familiar with each other,
as their friendship started in Maid Date. They said that it was hard for them to not to
go to Maid Date anymore because it was a habit for most of them. However, they felt
that they had been no longer welcomed, since, as one of them put it, "drank too
slowly". A few masters like Mr. Tam and Happyboy, however, simply got used to
patronizing several maid cafes instead. “It is impossible to quit Maid Date, since
there are too many people you cannot cut off connection with”，said Happyboy. 70
Although Maid Date is becoming less and less relevant to ACG subculture for them, the long history and enthusiastic maids preserved the fantastic feelings for them.
The rearrangement of spaces in Maid Date reconstructed and filtered the bodies. Given that the accounts of White Maid Date are all based on personal memories, there is the possibility that White Maid Date has been beautified and idealized in these nostalgia flashbacks. Even so, these accounts are still useful for exploring people's expectation for the ideal maid cafe. In White Maid Date, although people with knowledge ofACG subculture are very welcomed, other people also have a chance to enter and learn. The warm and light-hearted colour tones, together with the cosy furniture, encouraged and facilitated frequent interpersonal communication, Black Maid Date, on the other hand, is the spatial representation of the newly endorsed organizational principle. In such spaces, those who can spend more are preferred. The fantasy-based relationships are transformed to business- based relationships. What should be noted here is that people don't become physically incapable ofbuilding intimate relationships simply because the tables are
further apart. Rather, spatial changes enact on personal relationships on a more
complex level. The replacement ofwhite by black is perceived by people as
indications of different business orientations, and the spatial changes are simply part
of the entire transformation of organizational operations.
Redrawing the Boundaries between Home and Work
It is argued that there is a prominent trend for industrial and commercial
organizations to obscure the spatial boundaries between work and leisure, as well as
public and private, in order to maximize their revenue and labour productivity with
the advent of information technology and cultural management (Bell & Taylor，2004;
Fleming & Spicer, 2004; Perlow, 1998). In Maid Date, the strategy of blurring the 71 boundary between working spaces and home could be found in everyday management and communication.
For managers, borrowing the metapher ofhome is helpful to sooth the intensified relationship between mangers and maids. It is a useful trick for the managers to convince maids to do things by pharasing their requests as advices from
a parent or an older brother. Furthermore, relating the organization to home helps
managers to keep their maids working longer on a regular basis. Working in Maid
Date is just a part-timejob for the maids since most of them are busy with study or
full-time jobs. Therefore, it is common for maids to ask for a leave due to unforseen
schedual conflicts. In addition, the maids' monetary reward is too low to serve as
their motivation for working more. Subsequently, the lack of labor becomes a
frequent problem for the managers, especially in late nights or weekends, when there
are often too many masters for the few maids to attend to. Therefore, managers have
developed the tactic of exploitating the metaphoric familiar relationship among
maids and masters. They encourage maids to “help other sisiters" on the busy
evenings and suggest maids go to the cafe on days that their “dear masters" would go.
Moreover, when addressing employees as family members, managers also articulate
the job responsibilities as familiar ones. For instance, maintaining the hygiene of the
bar counter is articulated not solely as ajob responsibility, but a considerate deed for
other family members. Also, being late for work is considered not only bad for the
business, but it is also perceived as selfish behaviour that will cause more workload
for other sisters. Even tips from the masters have to be placed in ajar on the bar
counter rather than given to the maids. Therefore, even though he doesn't understand
or care what the so-called "home" in ACG subculture actually means, Zorro is more 72 than happy to borrow the word to extract loyalty and a sense of responsibility from his employees.
Other than directly borrowing the "home" metaphor, managers also
implemented other techniques to obscure the boundary between workplace and home,
as well as cultivate familiar relationships with maids. First, they take advantage of
the spatial layout ofMaid Date to construct the feelings of a relaxed home. This part
is not difficult to realize because Maid Date is located in a renovated residential
apartment. Opening the entrance door will take one to the “living room" of this house.
The room is equipped with the typical furniture and entertainment equipment of a
living room. Besides the convenient sitting devices, there is a big TV screen which
can be connected to a laptop on the bar counter and a DVD player. At the corner near
the balcony, there are two shelves filled with toys, games, books, and magazine. The
VIP room, used for large groups of masters, is on the left side of living room,
renovated from what used to be a bedroom. Inside, long sofas are placed against
three sides of the walls, with a computer in the corner. Maids are permitted to play
with all these entertainment applications when they have accomplished their work.
During weekday afternoons, when there are only one or two masters, managers even
permit maids to take naps in the VIP room. According to Zorro, all of these practices
should not be understood as staff discount or welfare, but rather expressions of love
and care out of friendship or brotherhood. Second, managers also hold small
entertainment events for maids. This include dinners in nearby restaurants, trips
around the city, including karaoke and game centres. Managers like to label such
activities as family gatherings, but some maids discovered that the expenses of these
activities are covered by tips given by masters. According to managers, the reason
behind maids giving up the tip is that they are earned from work done in 73 collaborations with other maids. In order to treat every family member fairly, the tips should be divided into small portions for everyone or spend it on communal activities.
However, very few maids seem to accept this interpretation of"home". Zorro is commonly thought of as a greedy businessman among the maids. His ignorance and indifference ofACG subculture makes his idea of the cafe being a family business unconvincing. Nevertheless, many maids are happy to gain benefit from the
“family love". For instance, the evening shift usually starts at 7pm to 7:30pm, but
some maids tend to arrive one or two hours early for a free dinner. The desktop
computer on the bar counter, which is supposed to be used for administrative
documents and multimedia control, is often used as a play station and web browser.
The "home" and "family" metaphor is even understood by some maids as a timeless
concept. Therefore, they also come to Maid Date as masters, though they enjoy the
food and drinks for free.
Work and home are normally regarded as different "experience, realms"
^ippert-Eng, 1995 p. 18). That is to say "work" is experienced as more public realm
of labor, wage, discipline, reward, and punishment, and "home" is experienced as
private realm of leisure, intimacy, and emotion. Subsequently, we are expected to
take on different roles to deal with different problems at work and home, respectively.
Nonetheless, as what happens in Maid Date demonstrates, organizations can take
advantage of the obscure boundary between work and home by constructing
workplaces similar to home (Wolkowitz, 2006). This is because that it enables the
organizations to redefine the meaning ofresponsibility and organizational
relationships. Organizational rules and requirements are perceived as familial
responsibility and obligations, while discipline and supervision are perceived as
representations of familial concern and afftecs. 74
Working as Professionals
The managers may know fairly little about the role-play story, but they are very experienced in the cafe/restaurant business. Zorro owns several companies and has worked in customer service; Jason, another manager, has extensive knowledge of bartending, also from hisjob history. Both of them prefer to orientate Maid Date in the food service industry and regard the ACG elements as decoration. Zorro explains that the current manga-likQ performance is already enough to attract the masters, and there is no need to amplify this part ofthe business since it won't increase the revenue by very much. Instead, he believes that what needs to be improved is the
quality of food and service. Based on the customer evaluation, he found it very
urgent to train the maids into professional workers.
Therefore, a new maid will likely find little instruction to help her to adapt to
this fantastic role, but she can definitely receive ample training to better her
performance as a professional “maid”. Professionalism in Maid Date can be
translated into two concrete requirements: Efficiency and good attitudes towards
managers and masters. For example, during my training, I was first given a file with
the regulations of working in Maid Date. The text is constituted by several long
sentences with bullet points, the first being, "The customer is God because customers
pay us", and the second point being, "We should always be polite and nice to our
customers". The following part specifies how to achieve a pleasant attitude, which
includes smiles, using honorific speech style to address customers, avoiding
arguments, and providing quick services. The other regulations focus on how to
behave professionally, which involves respecting co-workers, respecting and obeying
managers, being on-time, and performing in a detail-oriented manner. Following
these regulations, the maids' attitude towards masters is transformed into 75
"professional attitude" and "professional spirit". Sincere love and care are now products ofmechanized responses. After I finished reading the regulations, Zorro took me inside the bar and taught me how to make drinks. What he showed me was the recipe, the equipment, and the basic processes, followed by being taught how to maintain hygiene of the bar and the tables.
Although these barjobs sound easy, performing them efficiently is very demanding. The majority of work in the bar involves preparing drinks and snacks, but maids also have to make sure the supplied ingredient is sufficient for the day and
fresh to eat. At the same time, they need to maintain the cooking appliances. They're
also required every day before the start ofbusiness to prepare sliced fruit, dry ice,
boiled water, and other things in the right place. Immediately after the start of
operation for the day, maids in the bar are required to make all kinds of drinks very
fast and maintain a high quality at the same time. Remembering the recipes and
names of different ingredients usually take longer time than requested, .which often
leads to a lag in working speed. Lack of formal experience often leads to bad quality
of drinks, leading to masters requesting for the order to be remade. Making things
worse is that there is only one set of each kitchenware in the bar. Therefore, maids
have to constantly wash everything so that they can move on to new orders. Also, the
bar is so small that everything is stuffed unordered, which slows down the working
speed considerably. Later, even when the masters are gone and the cafe is closed,
maids still have to clean up used dishes, leftover food, as well as remaining
ingredients that would otherwise be spoiled. Moreover, all of these tasks have to be
completed within a halfhour.
Many maids did not expect such working routines, as working inside the bar
counter has very little to do what they had expected, which was interacting with the 76 masters. Normally, the decision of which maid working in the bar depends on the maids' will. I found that except for five to six maids who can handle bothjobs very well, the rest have little interest in working the bar. For example, Lucky, Windy and
Yumi never step inside the bar. According to them, the barjob is busy, boring, and offers little to learn. On the other hand, they see waitressing as a chance to have fun and practice their communication skills. Another common belief in Maid Date is that pretty maids are more likely to be assigned as receptionist, while the rest belong behind the bar. The first week I worked in Maid Date, I was asked to get familiar with the cooking procedures, which meant spending most of my time in the bar.
Several maids showed their sympathy for me since they believed Zorro was simply using me to make food rather than allowing me to get the maid experience. Although
I was quite happy with the assignment since I did need the warm-up before working
as a maid, the heavy and repetitive work quickly tired me out.
Such boring mechanics made some maids complaining about thejob, though
others are content with it. This is because there are only few of part-time job choices
for these girls. The bestjob they can get elsewhere is probably tutoring elementary
school students, which can pay more than HK$30 per hour. Normally, they work at
jobs like salesperson, waitresses, cashier, and telephone operators, which pay them
anywhere from HK$12 to HK$30 per hour. Essentially, working in Maid Date
belongs to these low-wage part-time jobs, but the girls still prefer it because they get
the chance to wear their beloved costumes and participate in cosplay games with the
master. As several maids mentioned to me:
“You can make food and drinks everywhere. I have worked in McDonald before. Working in that area is like turning into a robot; all you need to do is to remember the order and get the right ingredient, and be quick is doing it. I expect more than that in this job. Otherwise, I could stay in McDonald's. They pay me more there" (Lucky) 77
“I treasure working here; it is the firstjob in my life. I have learnt many things, especially in communication. My parents run a family business, and I am expected to take over someday. I get to exercise my communication skill a lot when attending to the masters，and I can meet all kinds of masters here. Bartending is fun, but it is not useful." (Little Sunflower)
"When you are waitressing, you are with other maids and masters; but when you are making drinks, you are alone. One more thing is that masters often complain about bar workers more than about us because I can explain my mistakes with a cute expression while the bartenders can't.” (Yumi)
Here, the polysemy of the term "maid" can be best revealed by how it is used by maids and mangers to justify the responsibility of maids. While “maid” can be related to domestic labour and waitressing for the manager, the job, for the maids, refers to a fantastic and playful role whose main responsibility is to keep pleasing appearances and comfort those who need company.
Nevertheless, this double-meaning of "maid" is not incompatible. A subtle combination of maid the waitress and maid the playmate is best represented in the routine work outside of the bar, referred to "reception" in the cafe. Reception in
Maid Date demands more than the average greetings; it requires maids' to keep the masters company during their stay in the cafe. Although keeping one company is not
a monetary service, it is one of the crucialjobs for the maids. Lunar refers to this
duty as "curing the master". To cure a master, a maid has to patiently listen to him
talking about his frustrations and then try to console him by entertaining him with
jokes, conversations, and games. This service is part ofkeeping a master company,
whether he needs a "cure" or not. Therefore, maids are often requested to perform
this service whenever requested. Subsequently, apart from nicely presenting their
bodies and completing the orders, maids are also expected to be emotionally
involved with masters. The care and concern for masters hence become another part
oftheir work routine. By this token, the "curing" work of the maids can be 78 considered as a form of"emotional labour" (Hochschild, 2001, 2003). Hochschild
(2003) defines emotional labour as "management of feeling to create a publicly facial and bodily display" ¢. 7). In Maid Date, care (or "cure") has become a standard product to sell. They have to make constant efforts "to understand others, to have sympathy with their situation" (England & Farkas, 1986, p. 91)，and such services should be available for all masters. Ali the maids that I have interviewed admit that it is impossible for them to offer sufficient sympathies towards every master, and some of them even question the motivations behind such request from some masters. Kiwi complained to me:
“Don't they find it humiliating for themselves? Why do they assume that I will always smile no matter how annoying and rude they look like? I feel exhausted with such demanding and rude masters." During my stay in Maid Date，I have found that one master frequented the
cafe several times a week. Although he seems to be generous and loyal, most maids
like to find excuse to avoid serving him because he tends to be talkative and
expresses dissatisfaction if maids do not show sympathy for him. Also, if a maid
appears to be touched by his story, he interprets such feelings as signals for romantic
feelings, believing that any maid who "cures" him must be willing to develop a
romantic relationship with him. Masters like him are labelled as womanizers that use
the "cure" service to chase after maids. If maids refuse to stay around them, they
would argue they are not provided with routine service. Although some maids have
found their own ways to deal with such masters, they still prefer to simply stay away
from the hassle.
Managers are aware of this problem, but instead of fixing the problem, they
choose to makejokes about it instead, and most maids simply stop complaining to
avoid being mocked. This attitude is because the long conversations prolong the
masters' stay, hence increasing their spending. Subsequently, any procedure to 79 restrict an average master's access to such “curing” service will cut down the profits.
In this sense, the maids' "cure" service can “create value, affects productivity, and generate profits" (Steinberg & Figart, 1999). The revenue for this service comes from the extra money they spend on food and drinks, and therefore Maid Date's food and drinks are priced higher than other cafes.
Supervision
If one goes to Maid Date as a master, he/she probably won't know who the managers are. The three managers decide on different shifts among themselves;
Jason goes there on weekdays, while Dan is in charge of the weekend. There is no fixed schedule for Zorro, as he could appear anytime. Since the three don't trust the maids' cooking quality, all of them have to work in the kitchen. At other times, they like to choose a corner and remain there. They appear to be sitting there reading magazines, playing with their cell phones, or meeting friends, but the experienced maids know that they are also supervising the maids. Zorro explained that the necessity of supervision came from his former experience with factory workers. He found that employees would find every opportunity to take breaks, slowing down efficiency and affecting product quality. He is convinced that everything can go well with constant supervision and harsh discipline.
It is typical for a maid to be scolded in herjob. In general, bad qualities of
drinks and excessive communication with others maids and masters are the most
common problems. If a master complaints about his/her drink, or if managers find
the colour of the drinks strange, the maid who made the mistake would be harshly
criticized. Another behaviour not allowed in Maid Date is to chat with co-workers. It
is believed that this will probably result in ignorance of new orders and requests from
the masters. Even when there is no special need to attend to the masters, chatting is 80 still not allowed because it appears unprofessional. Moreover, talking too much with masters or laughing too hard is perceived as inconsiderate. Other misbehaviours that could lead to disapproval by the managers include being late for work, absent- minded mistakes, talking back to the managers, and making mistakes with the bills.
Moreover, since most of the areas in Maid Date are open to everyone, the scolding could be seen by anyone, which most maids flnd hard to accept. Although they are willing to admit technical mistakes, they regard the excessive communication excuse as ridiculous. For them, passionate communication with masters should be highly praised since that is the essence of the maid cafe. They cannot agree with reducing maids to efficient workers with no emotions and aspirations of their own. Nevertheless, since almost all the personal communications are detectable in such a small space, maids have to figure out the line between acceptable and inappropriate. Lucky, whojoined Maid Date two months before my field study, is very proud of the progress she's made, but her pride and confidence have been hurt several times by the managers.
“I remember clearly that I was talking to a Japanese master, asking him to teach me Japanese pronunciations. He made somejokes about my pronunciations, and both of us found it very funny, so we laughed. Suddenly, Zorro jumped out from nowhere, saying ‘am I paying you to laugh here? Can't you see that other masters are annoyed by your laugh? Don't you have any self-esteem?' I don't understand why I was being scolded. Even ifI was wrong, did he have to do it in front of everyone? All the masters were shocked and they seemed very awkward, too."
I had a similar experience when I told Happyboy that I would go to his
birthday party during my shift. I knew Zorro and Jason could hear us clearly, but I
was not aware that they were not happy to see this. As soon as Happyboy paid the
bill and left Maid Date, the two managers approached me in the middle of the living
room. Jason scolded me ofbeing too loose, implying that my agreeing to go to a
master's birthday party would make other masters look down on the maids by seeing 81 them as call girls or girls who do Compensated Dating15. Zorro also pointed out my mistake, but he instead emphasized his worries of the potential risk I would face when going out with a strange man. I was not scared by the harsh critiques, but I was somehow embarrassed to suddenly become the focus of all the other people in the room.
There are very practical reasons behind this strategy; public ridicule is the most efficient mean of punishment. Since that maids' wage is already very low, there is not much room for deduction. For example, Yuki does not care about the possibility ofhaving her wage deducted since "there is not much to deduct".
Moreover, most maids are not even working there for the money. On the other hand,
good impression and popularity among other maids and masters are seen as crucial
indicators of success for a maicL Being publicly criticized is regarded as a very
humiliating experience. Moreover, public ridicule in Maid Date is sometimes related
to sexual indications. Talking too much or too loud with masters are scolded as
shameless deeds because these behaviours could be read as flirting. These sexual
indications are the most unbearable part of the humiliation, as several maids have
shed tears while explaining what they did was purely out of politeness. Equally
important is that public ridicule can become a "legible lesson" (Ransom, 1997, p. 32)
that other maids and masters can about how to behave themselves from. Maids
simultaneously take on two roles - the audience ofthe ridicule and the targets of the
ridicule. This way, by putting on public ridicule, every maid (and maybe every
15 Compensated Dating has been a widespread youth phenomenon in Japan since 1990s. It usually refers to young school girls dating older men for monetary rewards. Sometimes sexual intercourse is also part of the dating package offered by girls ^Jdagawa, 2007). Jn recent years, Compensated Dating has also appeared in Hong Kong. Although there is a lack of academic literature on Compensated Dating in Hong Kong, local media has highlighted the issue from time to time (Wen, 2009). 82 master) that is present can be reminded of the omnipresent supervision and the consequences of misbehaviours.
Organizational Bodies-Spaces
Bodies and spaces construct each other in Maid Date by filter, transforming and exploiting each other. Under the regulations and principles of this profit- organization, bodies and spaces are continually under the (re)production via each other in order to create more labour and value. Via the renovation, spatial changes manage to attract people that can consume and exclude other people. At the same time, through obscuring the spatial boundaries between work and home, managerial policies achieve the goal to exploit more labour in a less perceptible manner, whereas working bodies also tried to shorten the working duration and make time for leisure.
At the same time, employee's bodies are always under the surveillance of the managers, and their performances arejudged according the organizational rules of
professionalism and efficiency. As stated in last chapter, authenticity of Japaneseness
and levels of cuteness are crucial criteria to evaluate fantastic bodies-spaces, as
efficiency and diligence become the principles against which organizational bodies-
spaces are measured.
What should be noticed is that the construction of organization is highly
related to the construction of fantasy, and both constructive processes are enacted on
bodies-spaces level. During our formal interview, Lunar tried to give me a brief
account of Maid Date, “what we sell here in Maid Date is maid and maid cafe". This
concise statement manages to encapsulate both fantastic and organizational bodies-
spaces in this study. On the one hand, bodies-spaces are fantastic products
mimicking those from maid-theme ACG works, thus "maids" and “maid cafe". On 83 the other hand, bodies-spaces are simultaneously organizational subjects (“to sell") making profit to keep and expand business.
The relationship between fantasy and organization on bodies-spaces level is complex. At the same time, organizational bodies-spaces rely heavily on the performance of ACG performance to maintain and extend themselves, though there are also times where there is a negotiation to balance the two.
The invention of maid cafe allows ACG-related activities like cosplay to take place on a steady daily basis. The commercial nature of maid cafe can promise longer and steadier performing capability, as well as a wider audience. Most ofthe maids are active participants of local ACG conventions ranging from large-scale annual ACG fair to private photo shooting. Participation in such activities is a very important part in their lives because they can meet like-minded people who appreciate all kinds of latest ACG works. However, such activities are subjected to temporal-spatial restrictions and little involvement via interpersonal relationships.
For example, an ACG fair usually last only two to five days, with its central stage
belonging to professional cosplayers and large publishing houses. For average fans,
an ACG fair is more like an exhibition for them to appreciate as audience and
consumers. Here, personal encounter occur, but the communications usually stay on
a limited level. Private photo-shooting, on the other hand, usually takes several hours
and involve people who are usually close friends that are situated in highly-involved
interactions and communications. Comparing ACG fairs and private photo-shooting,
working and performing in a maid cafe could step over the barrier of temporal
spatiality and limited interpersonal relationships. Since having waitresses play the
16 Private photo-shooting is a hobby among cosplayers. Normally, some cosplayers will purchase or make his^ier own costume, and then invite a photographer (usually a cosplayer as well). They would pick a particular spot to take photos ofthe cosplayers posing in his/her costume. They then upload their photos onto personal blogs or online photo album to share with other cosplayers. 84 character ofmaid is an essential feature of maid cafe, the fantastic performance could carry on as daily routine. Lucky was drawn to the maid phenomenon in ACGHK17 two years ago. She passed by a booth which rented costumes for passers-by. She tried the costume and felt excited about her look. When the convention, Lucky didn't let go ofher fascination with the maid costume and did her own research on the subject, leading her to Maid Date.
“I still remember the day in ACGHK, the way I look in that dress and the way other people look at me. Now, I can work two or three times a week wearing the similar dresses with other maids. I am content."(Lucky)
While interpersonal relationships are either temporal and superficial or limited to a certain circle in ACG fairs and private photo-shootings, in maid cafe, where performances are interwoven into working routines and enacted on a daily base, bodily relationships get a chance to slowly develop. Mr. Tam is a loyal ACG fair goer who met the girl in a campus cosplay competition and was attracted by her beauty. He got her permission to take a picture, but he didn't get a chance to talk to her. He hoped to meet her again, thinking that she might work or visit a maid cafe.
However, despite being very pessimistic, Mr. Tam isn't disappointed because he is
able to meet other people at Maid Date. However, he continues to hope that he will
meet her again. While participations in ACG fairs and private photo-shooting can be
shining moments for fans to celebrate and relish, working at or visiting maid cafes
prolongs such temporal enjoyment and maps them onto everyday routines.
Since all the maids are either students or full-time employees of low-paying
jobs, participating in ACG subculture is considered by parents and teachers as simply
a hobby that takes up time and money. Working in a maid cafe or manga store can
17 ACGHK is an annual ACG convention in Hong Kong. Its programs include cosplay shows, independent cartoonist competitions, as well as exhibitions held by publishing houses, production companies, products manufacturers, and media groups, etc. (1 lth ACGHK 2010, 2010) 85 justify the girls' ACG-related activity; not only can they make money out of their hobbies; they can also gain some working experience. The maids I interviewed also believe that they can benefit from this job. For instance, Lucky and Little Fanny consider bartending as preparations for their culinary career, while Little Sunflower,
Lunar, and Budding believe communications with masters would help their future jobs in commerce field. For them, maid cafe is like a middle stop between play and work. What they do and who they are in this place imaginatively relate to what they will do and who they will be elsewhere in the future.
Not only do fantastic bodies-spaces benefit from those of organizational ones, the opposite works as well. To some extent, Maid Date could count as the so-called
"experience-economy" (Pine & Gilmore, 1998; 1999) where service is delivered in a certain theme rather than standard formal business manner. On the surface, masters are still charged for food and drinks, but it is the experience of surrounded by maids
in fantasy-based spaces that prolongs their stay. In Maid Date, we see that
organizational principles are packaged with the fantastic features. The organizational
spirit of treating the customer as God is translated as the sincere concern for the
masters; the fantastic, docile, and pretty girls are now the embodiment of good-
tempered and well-presented maid/waitress; the indifferent and distant relationship
among waitress and customers are now replaced with that of family member. All of
the above has quietly changed the presentation of Maid Date from an average
upstairs cafe to a fantastic home that offers relaxation.
Overall, fantastic and organizational bodies-spaces are both exploiting each
other in order to survive and develop. However, that doesn't mean that the two
always exist in harmony. As Hong Kong's first maid cafe, Maid Date has
undoubtedly helped the development of local ACG subculture. Nonetheless, it has 86 been criticized by both maids and masters, as many maids criticize that the cafe not only fails to fulfill some basic requirement in accord with the models in ACG products, the managerial level also have showed no intension to establish a real maid cafe. Some masters complain that Maid Date is becoming increasingly money-driven and detached from the people. On the other hand, managers are not content with a
cafe which appeals only to subculture fans. As the renovation project indicates, the
maid theme is expected to just be a good brand to solicit curious masters, while the
performance of that theme should stay in a limited level so that masters won't be
confused or disturbed.
While the fantastic bodies-spaces find organizational operations to be
sacrificing the artistic value, the organizational bodies-spaces also see the emphasis
of fantastic performances as having a bad impact on working efficiency and business
image. The fantasy and organization are in a complex relation where they both rely
on and contradict with each other. Therefore, bodies-spaces are always under
negotiation trying to find the balance between enacting the fantasy and making a
profit. 87
Chapter 6: Gendered Bodies-Spaces
Display of Femininity & Gaze
Cartoon posters, manga covers, ornaments with heart and floral patterns, and all kinds of painted colourful stickers are the most frequently used decorations in
Maid Date. As analyzed in Chapter Four, these interesting images are constantly reminding their audience of the fantastic world they are attracted to. On the other hand, these images also highlight a unique kind of femininity.
Outside the cafe, beside the entrance door, there is a book-size purple wool poster hanging on the white wall. In the picture, two teenage girls are looking and smiling at you. They are both defined by long, shiny hair, small egg-shaped faces, large, round amber-coloured eyes, and slim body-figures. Wearing bowties of different colours in their hair and on their neck, they look very innocent and shy.
Inside Maid Date, dozens of such images hang on the wall, hide in the menu, and sit on the bookshelf. These girls all look at you from every perspective. None ofthese teenagers appear to have reached sexual maturity, nor do they pose in a sexually
explicit gesture. Their tight-fitting clothes nevertheless "accidentally" expose some
part oftheir breasts and highlight their slender legs. In several pictures, one caneven
see a tiny part oftheir underpants since the viewer's point of view is sometimes from
a low angle. In comparison, there are very few portrayals ofmale characters in the
pictures, and when they do appear, they are always surrounded by girls. Again, the
men are never represented in a sexual manner.
As indicated by their costume and accessories, over half ofthe figures on the
pictures are highly relevant to maid theme. However, the rest have little to do with
the maid story, though they still carry the same colour tone and painting style. None
ofthe figures in the pictures is a famous cartoon character. Therefore, it makes sense 88 to conclude that rather than representing certain stories or ACG characters, these decorative pictures are displaying a specific gendered body image or gender role.
Interestingly, when I asked maids and masters about their understanding ofthe maid character, many of them would point to one of these pictures to explain it. Meed, these two-dimensional pictures are decorative constituents ofthe spaces in Maid
Date, as well as the reference and prototypes for the bodies too.
According to Judith Butler (1999), gender roles and relationships are nothing but "stylized acts" ^p. 179). The meaning and "essence" of a particular gender/gender role/gender relationship lie in the relevant daily practices. Therefore, there is nothing more than "face value". In this case, maid as a gender role also has no essential distinctions from other characters. However, the representation ofmaids in terms of
appearances and functions has constructed the entire idea of this particular gender
role. These images objectify and crystallize the gendered identity ofmaid. Youth,
attractiveness, fragility, sliminess, and sexiness are all crucial "styles" of this gender
role. The highlighted gender roles in the pictures are enhanced with the small toys
and gadget around the space. The cute and childish handwriting in the menu, the
colourful and simple ketchup drawings on the food, the bells that call the maids, the
pink candles on each table, and the fuzzy dolls in the corner all demonstrate their
owners' immature and playful characteristics. Anything that is not delicate or pretty
enough, such as cleaning tools, kitchenware, and regular clothes, are all hidden away
from plain view. As for the concrete acts, we can see from the pictures that most of
the maids are busy greeting the masters, sweeping floors, making drinks, cooking, or
simply smiling. Domestic work and social activities taking place in intimate
relationships occupy most of their time. Therefore, all the pictures and props in Maid
Date contribute a lot in constructing and highlighting a figure of a young, cute girl 89 who is unaware ofher attractiveness that is willing to help with the housework and make good company for her (male) friends.
Moreover, these images are effective as cues for newcomers to learn and adapt in this new environment. They encourage new maids to present themselves according to the figures in the images, as well as inspire new masters to look at maids the way they look at the virtual figures. Before further interactions with the maids, masters are able to find clues from these images and props. Many masters who had known nothing about maid cafes began their education with reading the menus or using the bells to draw the maids' attention. By this token, these displays of
ACG images produce a specific way of seeing - a gendered gaze. In film studies,
"gaze" refers to "both to the ways in which viewers look at images ofpeople in any visual medium and to the gaze of those depicted in visual texts" (Chandler, 1998). In her study ofcinematic spectatorship, Mulvey (1992) argues that cinematic gaze is not gender neutral. In films, as well as in the cinema itself, women are objectified as pure image to be looked at, whereas men are the "bearer[s] of the look" (Mulvey, 1992, p.
27). Such male gaze reduces women to as fetish object, giving them the pleasure of
control. In Maid Date, the pictorial representation of maids follows the principle of
the male gaze. Girls in the pictures are fully dressed-up, inviting people to look at her.
The naive, pretty young girls in the pictures attract and demand appreciation, while
the voyeuristic viewpoint of the painter also instruct the viewers a specific way of
looking.
Instead ofthe two-dimensional pictures, the three-dimensional maids should
be the point of attraction in Maid Date. In a previous chapter, I analyzed how
managers use the open space to supervise their employees' working performance. In
a similar fashion, maids in Maid Date are constantly exposed to the masters' gaze. 90
The dark color tone of the spaces helps the masters to easily spot the maids out of other bodies because of the maids' snow-white headbands and aprons. In addition, the narrow, small space in the tables and bars leave little room for maids to move around. No matter which table they are serving, they are always within the sight of everyone in the cafe. This spatial arrangement facilitates the bodies in Maid Date to project their gaze onto each other. For masters, they seldom feel embarrassed to be found staring at the maids. Happyboy has said more than once that he is satisfied as long as he can sit there and look at the maids after a long day ofwork. Mr. Tam defends himselfby saying that such won't lead to anything anyway.
"Looking at maids is all we can do. We can talk to them, we can look at them, and it stops right there; there won't be any bodily contacts. I was told nothing about her real identity, so there is no way I can follow her out ofthis cafe. So what's wrong with looking at them?"
Another master puts it in a more direct way:
“I pay a lot for the drinks and snacks, but everyone knows that Ihave paid for more than that. I am here to watch these maids; I don't see anything wrong here. Plus, I am not harassing them — a simple look cannot be equated to sexual attacks."
Managers apparently know about this mentality well, but they have no
intention to acknowledge that a large part of their business is based on displaying
their maids' bodies. Comparing to services such as massage and erotic dancing,
which involving bodily contacts, pure gaze seems much more innocent. Zorro has
more than once stated that he is absolutely against any kind of sexual contacts
between maids and masters. He told me that as an older man, he has the
responsibility to protect the safety and reputation ofhis young employees. However,
he doesn't consider gaze as an intimate contact since "you cannot forbid people from
looking at others; it is human nature to look [at each other]，，(Zorro). Later on, he
also admitted that it impossible to require masters to stop gazing the maids since the 91 room has no blind spot. Ifmasters are asked to divert their eyes from the maids, they
have nowhere else to look.
We can see from this that the male gaze in Maid Date does not only stop at
the text/picture level; the particular way of gazing at pictures influences the way of
looking at real people as well. The voyeuristic gaze is deployed by masters to
objectify both maids in the picture and maids in real life. As Master Galo said in a
quote I mentioned in Chapter Four: maids are "mobile landscapes". To some extent,
Galo has reduced the maids' bodies to surface level and equate them to decorative
objects like all the ornaments in the cafe. Masters also see such gaze as a "normative
male point ofview" (Craik, 1993, p. 12). They take for granted that maids are there
for them to look, and that it is human nature to look at maids. Since their gaze
doesn't involve any bodily contacts, they argue that such gaze has no sexual
connotation. However, they do admit that they have gained pleasure and satisfaction
from gazing at maids. At the same time，the gaze shortens the spatial distance
between the looker and the looked. Even ifthere is no direct bodily contact, the
visual contacts can still insert sexual desire and control onto the maids.
Paradoxically, I seldom heard maids complaining about the gaze. In fact,
several maids expressed that they feel proud and happy when being looked at
Budding and Yumi see the gaze as reco^ition of their attractiveness, while Peai
considers it as an encouragement for her makeup and dressing style. Although other
girls haven't expressed their opinions ofthe gaze explicitly to me, it is not difficult to
sense that they expect to be noticed. Many maids put a lot of effort to perfect their
appearance; even though they wear the same costume, they try very hard to make
them distinctive from each other. For example, Miwako spends a lot oftime in the
bathroom to make sure her Japanese good-girl-style braids look glossy and tidy, 92 while Kiwi has to make sure her fake eyelashes are still intact every ten minutes; since the requirements for stockings and shoes are relatively loose — they only have to be black - many maids have experimented with different kinds oftrendy and/or sexually-appealing stockings and high-heels.
I also noticed a common phenomenon where girls like to judge and compete with each other in terms of physical attractiveness. They often looked at others' weight, waist^reast size, and choice of makeup brands. Although they acted as if they were only interested in being cute and innocent, they also discussed from time to time about how to increase their sexual attractiveness. I have been asked by several ofthe girls how to make their chests bigger since I was the oldest one.
Moreover, they liked to compare who enjoyed more popularity in Maid Date by counting the number of certain masters' visits when they were on duty. Little Fanny spends a lot oftime in Maid Date, to the point that several masters claimed that they patronize the cafe often partly because ofher presence. Two particular masters got the nickname "Waterfishes"18 because they are easily convinced by Little Fanny to
consume much more than they need. Although the two boys would watch any maids
who are on duty, they prefer to go on weekends, when Little Fanny is on duty.
Unlike other masters who would find something to do to kill time, "Waterfishes"
choose to sit still with an MP3 player on and look at Little Fanny all the time. Even
when Little Fanny is assigned to work inside the bar-counter, the Waterfishes would
go there, pretending they are checking the mugs. Maids joke about Waterfishes all
the time, though having such devoted admirers is also a proof of Little Fanny's
charisma and glamour.
18 Waterfish is a direct translation of the Cantonese slang Sui Yu, which refers to men who are easily deceived or taken advantage of. 93
This phenomenon is very paradoxical. On the one hand, borrowing Berger's
(1972) famous insight that "[m]en look at women" ¢. 45)and "[w]omen watch themselves being looked at"�.47) w, e can understand the maids' pleasure from being gazed at as the female obedience to the male gaze. By this token, the first audience ofmaids are not the masters, but the maids themselves. Maids have developed the habit to admire their own body and "display it to others, so that these others can share inthe admiration" (Chua, 1992, p. 125). The masters' comments and judgements ofmaids' bodies are the ones that really count, which is why Little
Fanny is envied by other maids — her beauty is proved by the loyal Waterfishes. In this perspective, maids become participants in turning themselves into the gazed objects ofmasters. On the other hand, maids themselves do not agree that they are
merely passive images to be looked at. Drawing attentions from the masters reassure
these girls oftheir sexual attractiveness, which is often disfavored by their parents
and teachers. Such gaze could be understood as sexual exploitation offemale bodies,
and yet, it can bring pleasure to the bodies that are being gazed at.
Butler's Day
Just like the maid, the idea of the butler also comes from ACG products. In
the bestseller manga Kuroshitsuji19, butler Sebastian Michaelis lives with his lord
Ciel Phantomhive in 19th century Victorian Britain. Both men have developed
romantic relationship with different female characters. However, in fan adaptations,
which adapt a Yaoi20 style, the lord and butler fall in love with each other. In Tokyo,
this newly emerged ACG title has been appropriated by certain fans who later
opened butler's cafe ^akamura, 2006). Butler's cafes hire young and attractive
19 Kuroshitsuji means "butler in black". 20 Yaoi stories are created by female ACG fans who favor seeing male homosexual relationships in manga, bi Yaoi literatures, the characters are usually young and beautiful male. Some Yaoi works also include explicit sex scenes, and female readers can obtain sexual pleasure from reading such "boys love" stories (Kinsella, 1998; McLelland, 2000). 94 young men, and its target customers are mainly female Otakus. Instead of "welcome home, master", butlers greet the customer with "welcome, madam". Unlike maid cafes, where the major interaction happens between maids and masters, butlers have to play with each other and attend to the madams to solicit moe feelings in a Butler's cafe. As of the writing of this thesis, one butler cafe exists in Hong Kong, which opened in 2009.
In Maid Date, Butler's Day started in 2009. The idea ofhaving a special day once a week for the maids change to “boys” were created by two maids who had read about butler cafes. The proposal was approved very quickly, and some maids volunteered to make the white shirts and black ties - the typical costume of a butler 一 on their own. At its beginning, Butler's Day was welcomed by both the maids and masters, but the routine stopped for a while when the maids who were willing to participate left the cafe for university. Butler's Day was briefly revived for almost five months until the new maids responsible for it also left the cafe. Obvious, the routine relies heavily on the maids' interest.
The maids who are willing to dress up as butlers are very creative; they
would design and make the simple, but impressive costume on their own accord. The
typical butler costume consists of a modified white shirt, along with black long pants
and leather shoes. In order to make appear more boyish, the maids bought colored
wigs of short hairstyles to hide their long hair. Other garments may include black
square-rimmed glasses (with no lens), coarse necklace with cross, and French grey
waists. Compared to the delicate and complex outfit for maids, the butler costume is
simplistic and in spotless white. The girls who choose to appear in such a masculine
style also highlight some kind of androgynous quality. For instance, other than short
hair, no usual masculine physical traits are represented. 95
Other than costumes, the butler-maids also have to create the right impression; they would intentionally lower their voice, as well as stand upright and still. Giggles and gestures like covering the mouth when smiling, touching their own hair, and making the victory postures should be avoided. Among the maids, Little Sunflower and another maid seem much more capable than others in acting in accordance with the character. They attributed such success to their boyish personality.
"I have to remind myself not to behave like a girl, but it is easy for me to act like a butler. My voice is natural lower in tone than average girls, and I don't pay much attention to those girly manners. My hair is always short, so I don't even need a wig." (Pear)
“I feel more at ease in butler's clothes. There are not so many rules for a butler to observe. I also truly believe that I look much better in this outfit than the usual maid costume. I have female masters who admire me and follow me to the bus station after work. I was touched by her feelings and then I escorted her to her home. That experience makes me feel proud ofmyself." (Little Sunflower)
On Butler's days, female masters are much more engaged in Maid Date than usual. On regular days, female masters often come with large groups offriends or boyfriend, and they often appear to have less interest to interact with maids than with their own companions. However, they would be involved in long conversations with butlers on Butler's days. The butlers also feel more comfortable to take initiative in
starting a conversation with female masters. Many female masters are aware that it's
a role play game, and they would interact with butlers like audience to a performer
by asking questions about the butlers achieve their look. The women masters gain
pleasure from learning the tricks of playing the other sex, and they sometimes
express their willingness to participate in similar performances. Other female masters,
however, are convinced that the performances mirror the butlers' real sexuality; they
believe the butlers are "male inside and female outside" (Master Bi), and that the
only reason that butlers act so well is that behaving in a masculine way is the butlers' 96 nature. These masters also tend to believe that some kind of romantic relationship can happen between butlers and them. For instance, Little Sunflower has been stalked several times by female masters that she met on Butler's Day. However, she was not scared by them and instead regarded it as acknowledgement and accomplishment ofher cross-gender performance. Therefore, she ended up approaching these masters and offered to see them off at the train station.
Meanwhile, male masters can also be divided into two groups in terms of attitude; one group enjoys the butlers' companionship and appreciates their appearance as a special kind of femininity. They remind themselves that these are girls playing the role of pretty boy. For example, Galo found such imitation cute, but unreal. He questioned whether there are any real men that act like these butlers. On the other hand, the other group dislikes the arrangement, and they would complain to managers in hopes of cancelling this routine. They perceive the butler-maids'
appearances to be abnormal and perverted, suggesting that the managers shouldjust
hire real men instead. No matter which groups these masters belong, men usually do
not take this gender-crossing experiment as seriously as the female masters. While
the female masters often accept the assumption that they are talking to a boy, male
masters prefer not to be involved. Even when they have to talk to the butlers, they
still treat them as maids.
In Maid Date, gender-crossing role cosplay, or as Hlozek (2004) call it
“crossplay”, is a very interesting phenomenon to reflect on "gender troubles" (Butler,
1990) caused by the gender role switch. According to Butler (1990), "bodily gestures,
movements, and styles constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self' ¢). 139).
The gendered identity ofbutler is entirely constructed on the maids' deliberate cross-
dressing activities. Although very few people would really take this performance as 97 reality, many people still gain pleasure from it. This is because the core value of crossplay does not lie in the accuracy or authenticity of the imitation, but rather in its playful parody of normative masculinity and femininity.
Since the butler is mostly known as the counterpart of maids, it is constructed as different from, if not opposite to，the femininity represented by maids. When the maids' costumes tend to be complicated, the butler's costumes are designed simplistically. When maids are used to speak in a high register, butlers deliberately lower their voice. When maids pay their attention to male masters, butlers show more interest to female ones. There is a playful spirit in the design and the execution of these gendered details in order to create a contrast between maids and butlers.
Moreover, given that maid and butler represent different sexes, playing the role of butler simultaneously means to un-play the female role. That is why maids who participate in Butler's Day experience pleasure from getting rid of the usual gender
norms imposed on them. Also, the butler is constructed as the opposite ofmasters.
Although both are male characters, masters demand attention and affection, whereas
butlers devote themselves to female madams. To some extent, the invention ofbutler
is also a compensatory imagination to provide love and care to females as well. In
this regard, the butler is not a normative male gender role, as reflected from Galo's
suspicions that no real man would act like a maid. For these reasons, Butler's Day
could be seen as a gender experiment; maids can experience an alternative gender
role and free themselves temporarily from normative conventions, as well as design
and construct an ideal male character as they wish.
At the same time, the role-playing ofbutler goes deeper than the change of
individual gender role. As introduced before, gender is also a relational concept that
should be examined with relevant gender relationship and sexuality (Butler, 1993, 98
1999; Lloyd, 2007). The reason why people hold different attitudes towards Butler's day is that the role ofButler may fit or contradict their preferred gender relationships and sexualities. For maids and female masters that enjoy Butler's Day, their attitudes toward homosexuality are relatively open. I identify two types ofqueer potentialities in the crossplay; one is the male homosexuality depicted in Yaoi works. This could be reflected from maids and masters who are loyal readers of Yaoi literature in which boys love is the main plot. Playing those beloved characters is an expression oftheir fondness of that character. The second type is that of transgressing gender relationship. This gender relationship includes heterosexuality, male homosexuality, and possibly female homosexuality. On one hand, most girls who are self-proclaimed devoted fans of Yaoi works admit that they either love to see the love between beautiful boys, or they enjoy the explicit sexual depictions in them. Yukari (2004) analyzed the connection among Yaoi fandom, homosexuality, and female sexual pleasure; “by separating 'sex' from their own bodies and borrowing young men's
bodies instead, young women have succeeded in freely manipulating 'sex'" Q). 86).
Meyer (2010), meanwhile, argues that, female audiences are able to shake offthe
normative restriction and enjoy the pleasure from explicit sex scenarios when reading
Yaoi texts. By this token, maids and masters who like Yaoi have enjoyed both
heterosexual pleasure by borrowing male bodies and appreciations ofhomosexual
relations. On the other hand, crossplays ofbutlers are only for female fans. That is to
say, there are often two girls playing the love between two boys. This almost chaotic
gender identity enables the possibility of transgressing gender relationship. For
example, Little Sunflower frequently participates in private shootings where she
dresses up as male characters from ACG works. She has scores ofphotos ofherself
dressing up in Middle Age knight costumes, sometimes kissing or caressing her 99 crossplay partner in similar attire. She admits that she felt very intimate with her crossplay partner. Several maids have questioned her sexuality based on her zealous performance on Butler's day and the photos she uploads to her blog, though Little
Sunflower denies being a lesbian. Later, she started to wear more make-up to work, as well as imply that she used to have a boyfriend. It is not evident to say that Little
Sunflower is a lesbian because ofher participation on Butler's Day or other similar activities. By transgressing gender relationship, I mean the kind ofsexual relationship which cannot be explained or understood with simply heterosexual^iomosexual divisions. The female masters involved in aforementioned staMng incident apparently have affections for Little Sunflower, but it is hard to judge whether this is a heterosexual or a homosexual affection (depending on whether Little Sunflower is perceived as male or female). The nature ofcrossplay, thereupon, is like that ofdrag shows (Butler, 1993)，which is not to privilege certain
gender roles or relationships, but to constantly challenge and subvert them.
Li this regard, bodies-spaces ofMaid Date both support and restrict such
gender experiment. On one hand, gender experiment as Butler's Day gets its
opportunity to take place somewhere known for subculture gathering. On the other
hand, along with the division of opinion among male masters，such experiment is
questioned and ridiculed. Even among the maids, it is more common to regard
butler's day as merely a game, and whoever treats this gender switching too seriously
would have her sexuality become the object of speculation. Unlike spaces where
homosexuality is tolerate and treated with respect, the pseudo-homosexual or non-
heterosexual performances are left with no privacy in the open spaces in Maid Date.
Gendered bodies may have managed to subvert the normative roles they are assigned
with, but more often than not, these "excessive" actions are discouraged and objected. 100
Gendered bodies-spaces
In terms of the construction of gender, bodies and spaces in Maid Date have constructed each other to both subvert and comply with mainstream heterosexual gender cultures. On the one hand, open spaces with abundant visual representations ofthe docile, infantile, and sexually-pleasing maid character facilitated the male gaze in the cafe. Masters take for granted that maids are there for them to look at, while maids are also actively engaged in preparations to make their bodies attractive. In the meantime, gender experiments like crossplay on Butler's Day is reduced to merely a childish role-play game and serious transgressing gender performances are rejected in the public heterosexual spaces. On the other hand, the presentation of a sexually attractive female waiting for the gaze reflects the maids' confidence and desire to get rid of sexist disciplines from parents, teachers, and even the cafe mangers. In
addition, the crossplay in the butler's role also have its chance to be enacted, with its
participants experiencing pleasure on different levels.
Gaze and transgressing gender role are two major phenomena in Maid Date
that can help us understand the construction of gender on bodies-spaces level. In
addition to the gaze and transgressing gender role, I have also touched on the issue of
gender construction in the previous two chapters because it is central to the fantasy
and organization. Fantastic, organizational，and gendered bodies-spaces are
interwoven with one another. While performing the ACG fantasies, bodies-spaces
are at the same time representing and enhancing specific gender roles and
relationships; the same holds true for the (re)production of organizational bodies-
spaces.
From the analysis in Chapter Four, we can see that the shared fantasy ofACG
world in Maid Date is primarily based on the representation of a highly childish, 101 dependant, and docile femininity. The maid character is primarily distanced from other ACG characters by its extreme emphasis on the combination of the female pubescent beauty's physical attractiveness and her altruistic spirit to serve others.
Moreover, when asked to describe the maid character, masters tend to relate them to female roles in gendered relationships - a wife, a younger sister, and a girlfriend. The routine greetings and addressing with terms like "home" and "masters" imply the existence ofhighly gendered relationships. Not only do maids become temporal possessions (or servants) of the masters, they also come to represent the symbol ofa home with docile female family members. Furthermore, the construction ofthe fantastic spaces also exploits this preferred femininity and gender relationship. The representations of Maid Date - both inside and outside — are all highly gendered with images of two-dimensional ACG female characters or three-dimensional real maid.
Meanwhile, the gendered spaces help the male bodies in projecting their fantasies on maid bodies that are exposed to the ubiquitous gaze.
At the same time, gendered bodies-spaces are exploited by the organizational mechanism. As discussed in Chapter Five, even though the masters seem to be only
charged for the food and drinks they order, the organizational bodies-spaces are also
major parts oftheir consumptions. Since the shared fantasy is mainly based on a
specific stereotype of femininity, it is not surprising to say that such femininity is
exploited again in the process of "selling maids and maid cafe". Indeed, even though
managers deny that masters are here to be with the highly gendered bodies and to be
in the highly gendered spaces, many maids and masters confirm that food and drinks
are by-products in Maid Date. In addition to their appearances, gendered bodies are
also sold for their emotions. Maids have to evenly distribute their care and affections
to any master who requires it, and the seven notebooks full of messages left by 102 masters support this fact. On the pages inside these notebooks, most messages are related to the masters' encounter with certain maids. Masters wrote about their excitement and gratitude of spending their afternoon with specific maids, as well as their disappointment when they didn't meet the maids they wanted to see. In other words, the construction of gender is very crucial for the survival and development of fantastic and organizational bodies-spaces. 103
Chapter 7: Conclusion
The present study inquired about the daily dynamic ofbodies-spaces active in
Maid Date，a maid cafe in Hong Kong. From data gained from ethnographic fieldwork, this thesis has demonstrated how bodies and spaces constitute, transform, and filter each other into fantastic, organizational and gendered ones. It investigated
1) how bodies-spaces construct each other in Maid Date; and 2) how bodies-spaces, fantasy, organization and gender relate to each other in Maid Date.
In relation to Research Question 1，this study has found that bodies-spaces in
Maid Date are inter-related, mutually contitutive, and forever-coming social-cultural artifacts. First ofall, bodies-spaces are co-existence in Maid Date. “To be is to be somewhere" (Bondi & Davidson，2003, p. 322), which is why it is impossible to imagine our lived experience without acknowledgement of our bodily existence in
and through spaces. We can see from ethnographic observation and in-depth
interview that lived experience ofbeing a maid is gained from the embodied
performances in the maid cafe. Maids and maid cafe would become unintelligible
without each other's presence. Second, bodies-spaces in Maid Date produce each
other in a complex dynamics. The spaces ofMaid Date constructed the bodies by
their particular geographic and architectural arrangements that affect "the way the
subjects see others .. • as well as the subject's understanding of, alignment with, and
positioning in space" (Grosz, 1998, p. 47). Moreover, the spaces ofMaid Date also
interpellate and inscribe the bodies with particular meanings by means ofvarious
types of spatial representation ofbodies. Specific spatialities are "constitutive of
specific subjectivities" (Rose, 1995a, p. 335), and the bodies of maids, managers and
masters constantly project their own interests and imaginations onto the spaces
through their everyday activities, Last but not the least, as Grosz (1998) suggested, 104 bodies and spaces also interact with one another on the interface where the two mesh with one another. In Maid Date, while certain spatial arrangements are taken as bodily extensions by people, bodies of maids and others are also regarded as crucial constituents of the spaces. This study has demonstrated, in the specific site ofMaid
Date，how bodies-spaces produce and reproduce each other in no time. Moreover, bodies-spaces are "woven together through intricate webs of social and spatial relations" Q^ast & Heidi，1998, p. 4)，and it is through such socialized bodies and spaces that our subjectivity comes into being. In this study, the mutual productions of bodies-spaces come along with the constructions of fantasy, organization and gender in Maid Date.
In relation to Research Question 2, this study has found that fantasy, organization, and gender are constantly constructing and constructed by bodies-
spaces in Maid Date. On the one hand, there are no natural or neutral bodies-spaces
in Maid Date, but rather fantastic, organizational and gendered ones. On the other
hand, the abstract concepts of fantasy, organization, and gender could be only
realized and recognized on bodies-spaces level. Moreover, because fantasy,
organization, and gender are simultaneously engendered upon same bodies-spaces in
the cafe, they also influence and negotiate with one another via verbal and non-
verbal communication.
The fantastic bodies-spaces in Maid Date are constructed via daily practices
ofbodies-spaces from the ACG world together with the distinctions from bodies-
spaces in more "realistic settings" such as schools and home. This finding echo
established literatures on fantasy that conceptualize fantasy as imaginary activities
positioned in between real and non-real (Adams, 2006; Jackson, 1988; Walkerdine,
1989). The referred imaginations in this study are primarily from the ACG subculture; 105 many of the subjects in this study have experienced the imagined ACG world from verbal and non-verbal communication. For instance, although the geographical location ofMaid Date in downtown Hong Kong makes little contribution to the construction of fantastic spaces, by appropriating ACG images oflandscape, architectures, and so forth, Maid Date has managed to create the fantastic connection with ACG world. Also, through verbal communications such as inventing and applying specific addresses and lines to greet and talk to each other, people replace their identity with fantastic ones and treat one another as friends or family members in the fantasy world. Non-verbal practices，such as appearing in front ofothers in maid costumes and behaving in particularly cute manners, also contribute to this transformation ofbodies-spaces. People go to Maid Date as maids and "masters" and
engage in this ACG performance; they get the chance to appear, act, and feel like the
kind ofimagined persons they always adore, and therefore temporally become such
fantasy characters. Most of people in Maid Date have learnt to appreciate each
other's embodied practices seriously. In such an atmosphere, the usually
discriminated and undesirable versions of fantastic bodies can become so visible that
they tum into the focal point. The spaces are thus constructed as enclosed and
isolated realms to include people that are alike. Meanwhile, fantastic spaces are also
shaped into harmonious, intimate ones where all people become family members
living in an idealized home. Such experience is derived from both the fantasy itself
and its sharp differences from the everyday reality. To some extent, the differences
and distinctions from the reality have also helped the formation of the fantasy
(Armitt, 2005). Most of the research subjects are elsewhere ordinary people who
have to follow all kinds ofsocial norms and rules in institutions such as schools,
family and work in order to fit in. Li the eyes of their schoolmates, teachers, parents, 106 siblings, co-workers, and bosses, their love for ACG culture are often regarded as representation of their immature personality and their indulgence in such fan activities are considered indication of their social disability. Moreover, the affects
among "family members" in maid cafe are not based on their achievement in school,
their financial capacity, or their work performance, but rather based on knowledge
and devotion to the fantasy world. The fantastic practices could provide a good
opportunity for the participants to escape from the reality temporarily, and it could
even sometimes be considered as the exercise of agency and relative autonomy ofthe
ACG fans (Jackson, 1988). They are able to defend their imaginations and fantasies
in the routine performance ofbodies-spaces in Maid Date.
However, it should be noted that such autonomy only exists on a restricted
level. An important reason for this limited autonomy is because the organizational
nature ofbodies-spaces. That means apart from following the scripts from the fantasy
world, bodies-spaces also have to comply with organizational regulations and
management. Like other industrial organizations, Maid Date privileges work
efficiency and quality as the core principles in daily operation ^ine & Gilmore,
1998), but it also shares similarities with organizations in interactive service industry
where bodies-spaces have substantially become part of the products and services
purchased by customers (McDowell, 2009; Scheper-Hughes, 2002). Through large-
scale renovation and professional training of the maids, Maid Date has made every
effort to maximize its profits by attracting diversified customers and increase work
efficiency. Although routine work doesn't require a strong educational or career
background, it is still very consuming in its perpetual repetition. Maids have adapted
to see their bodies as instruments with which they can finish their routine jobs; they
are trained and disciplined to adapt to the professionalism spirit and mechanical 107 working procedures. The evaluations of their performances are based on their work attitude, punctuality, and abilities to sell more food. Promotions and sales ofthe cafe's products are mixed with fantasy-based fun communications. Moreover, when promising the masters that they would have a fantastic stay, Maid Date also suggests that the fantastic experience ofbeing there with maids is also part ofthe service.
Therefore, maids' comfort and empathy for the masters become standardized service items where maids' bodies become both tools and products to satisfy masters'
requests. In this perspective, bodies-spaces are not at all separated from the
mainstream world where people and spaces are capitalized upon in order to gain
more economic returns. It may appear that the managers benefit the most from the
organizational operations, given that they have successfully turned the attractive and
pleasure bodies-spaces into intermediary money-making tools. However, from the
work performance and oral account of maids, it is also discernable that they are also
trying to take advantages of such business rules. Whereas many of them find the
strict and sometimes even harsh management intolerable, none ofthem questions the
rationality behind such operation pattern. For them, working in Maid Date is a kind
ofpreparation for their futurejobs, and learning to survive in Maid Date is very
useful for their personal development. Most maids are aware that, to some extent,
their bodies are also what the masters paying for, but seldom do they challenge the
logics and ethics behind such transactions.
The organizational exploitation of fantastic bodies-spaces is highly relevant
to gendered construction as well. In exploring gendered bodies-spaces in this study, I
found a close connection between gender/gender role, sex, and sexuality. The daily
performance in the maid cafe 一 be it fantastic, organizational, or both — causes a
series ofchain effects by regulating the preferred gender roles and sexual norms. I 108 witnessed first-hand the kind of"gender trouble" (1990) Butler revealed - trouble in drawing a clear line of male/female in accordance with masculinity/femininity. First of all, in terms of gender and gender role, bodies-spaces in Maid Date are shaped and reshaped to produce a specific kind of femininity and masculinity in the fantastic practices and organizational operation. Maids are constantly reproducing a fragile,
infantile and aesthetically-pleasing style of femininity via the embodied
representation, whereas masters and managers are continuously behaving in an
authoritative and protective way. On the one hand, such gender performance could
be seen as an alternative model from those dominating the mainstream society. By
performing like men and women from a fantastic setting, people manage to construct
their subjectivity and identity against the usual requirement and standards (Butler,
1999). Through their embodied acts, maids refuse to undertake obligations that their
peers may have to face, and masters can ease themselves from the intense
relationships with average female in their life. The fantastic home maids and masters
both enjoy are the exact spaces where such particular femininity and masculinity co-
exist and enhance each other. On the other hand, such kind of gender roles and
relationships are again absorbed into and exploited by mainstream commercial
culture. This is because these gender performances rely heavily on various types of
support from the profit-organizations, and hence they are cashed upon by
organizational operations and development for survival and expansion (McDowell,
2009; Sosteric, 1996). The childish and immature femininity is transformed into
docile and submissive ones in the organizational setting, and the diligent female
bodies are employed to accomplish the consuming workload. Moreover, attractive
female bodies have also become something to sell, as the idealized gender
relationship between the male and female is bonded through monetary transactions as 109 well. Subversive gender acts are subsequently transformed into organizational routines. In terms of sexuality, the encouraged performances between maids and masters from this study show that a specific mode of sexuality 一 heterosexual relationships with men and women desiring each other - was cultivated and encouraged. Female bodies become the projections of male fantasy captured by male gaze. Such heterosexual relation is partly based on the exchange of sexual appeals of female and monetary power of the male. By this token, the gender roles of maids and masters are closely attached to the reproduction ofheterosexuality in both the cafe
and everyday life. Following a regular routine (maid performing as female
characters), girl's sexual identity (female), their feminine sexuality (childish and
submissive femininity), and their gender role (maids working for the master) all
come together, working along with each other to maintain a fixed identity and norm
for these women. However, the gender experiment on Butler's Day has clearly
interrupted this harmonious gender matrix. In terms of gender role, it brings about a
mismatch between one's sex and one's gender. With the right costume and right
manner, girls become boys. However, these_boys are not the usual masters we see in
maid cafe, but rather an androgynous mixture of male chauvinism and female
tenderness. In terms of sexual relationships or sexual orientations, Butler's Day also
caused confusions and discoveries among both maids and masters. Both female-
female and male-male relationships became visible, while one can also interpret at
the same time that such interactions are between male masters with female maids in
boy' costume, as well as between female master and male butlers. The girl's sexual
identity (female) was contradicted by their female sexuality (androgynous mixture)
and their gender role (male butlers working for masters). This inharmonious situation
unearths the seemingly legitimate and solid connection ofthe gender matrix. Once 110 the gender role has slightly changed, the definition of the corresponding sex and
sexuality has also to be adjusted. Therefore, the daily activities in Maid Date do not
only influence gender roles in general, they simultaneously work on the matrix of
gender and sexuality. Even though such "gender trouble" (Butler, 1990) is now at
best considered as non-serious playful performances, it still works to challenge the
common belief of the fixed gender role/ sexuality, as well as create new forms of
different gender possibilities. This finding echoes with studies on Boys Love
Manga21 texts and their fans in Japan (Aoyama, 2005; McLelland, 2000, 2006; Ogi,
2008). The researchers of these texts found that the making and consuming of male
homosexual contents by and for female fans has gradually developed alternative
gender/sexual possibilities in Japanese society, especially among many in the ACG
fan community. Reading/writing boys love manga makes it possible for women to
both project their desire onto mass-produced cultural products and explore the new
kinds of gender experiment.
Overall, maids and other people in the everyday productions ofbodies-spaces
in Maid Date are caught in between the imaginative fantasy performances and the
disciplined organizations regulations. Their efforts and attempts to disrupt the
mainstream values are appropriated and absorbed into daily consumption. The
highlighted femininity of maids is constantly captured in the circle of transformation
from alternative gender role to purchasable goods, and the emphasized intimacy of
maid cafe has thereupon turned to the imagined spaces that you can experience ifyou
can afford.
The present research has contributed to studies on relationships between body
and space both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically, this study is indebted to
21 Boy Love (shojo/shoujo) is a subgenre of ACG culture. It is often media texts depicting male homosexuality written by and for women (McLelland, 2001) 111 key scholarships on body, space and their relationships written by Grosz (1994; 1995;
1998)，Massey (1994; 1995; 1998; 2005), Thrift (1996; 2004; 2006), etc. It envisages body and space as complex sociocultural artefacts, as well as material existence, and hence construes them through both the social and the material dimensions.
Furthermore, inspired by Grosz's proposal ofbodies-cities, this study links bodies
and spaces to unearth their inter-relations. The study is inherited from the bodies-
cities formula in terms ofthe mutually constructive relationship between cities and
bodies. However, it also modifies and contextualizes the formula into bodies-spaces
in order to capture the daily dynamics in all spatial scales, and in this case, a local
cafe. Last but not the least, the study also explores the bodies-spaces dynamic
together with the construction of fantasy, organization and gender in order to provide
a more comprehensive representation ofbodies-spaces in their complex situation.
Empirically, this study employs ethnographic research methods in order to
understand and analyze the bodies-spaces of a specific cityscape — a maid cafe. It
makes efforts to explore the bodies-spaces dynamics from the most mundane
activities on a daily basis.
Equally important is that this research also added to Communication Studies
on bodies and spaces. While bodies and spaces are sociocultural constructs and daily
mundane experiences at the same time, the production and reproduction ofbodies-
spaces rely heavily on our everyday communication. While many communication
studies on body and space have concentrated on mediated communications with
virtual bodies and virtual spaces (Angerer, 1999; Dahlgren, 2001; Markham, 1998;
Stone, 2001), this research provided accounts for everyday bodies-spaces in and
through the verbal and nonverbal communications among the people. It shows that
by means of garnering people's oral accounts of their memories, experiences and 112 even fantasies on bodies-spaces level, Communication Studies can also probe into how people make and understand these subjects. At the same time, by observing and participating in the constructive process ofbodies-spaces, researches can also grasp
the concrete details ofbothverbal and non-verbal communication practices. Relevant
studies in sociology (Shilling, 2008) have raised questions about the role ofmind and
social context in forming and reforming people's bodies. As this thesis shows, a
communication approach can offer a comprehensive insight for these discussions
because it is able to obtain materials ofboth people's experiential/sensory narratives
and daily mundane activities relevant to the body-making process.
This research can also enrich the studies on global fandom ofJapanese ACG
subculture by providing the analysis of a specific subculture site in Hong Kong, an
important region for the distribution of ACG products that already has a pool ofrich
literatures on their popularity (Fung, 2005; Ng, 2003; 2010; Wong, 2006). Most of
these studies focus on local distribution and adaptation of the ACG texts and
products such as manga, animation and toys. In contrast, there is a lack of
scholarships on the concrete subculture activities by fans of the culture. The present
study, therefore, can add to this particular area. By crystallizing ACG subculture
activities onto the bodies-spaces level, this study also helped to understand how this
subculture is integrated to people's lives and expand the reach to specific locations in
this city from personal perspectives. Apart from maid cafes, there are also dozens of
manga bookstore, manga book cafes, anime rental stores, costume stores, and school-
based fan clubs in Hong Kong. Therefore, it would be interesting to track fan
activities on a bodies-spaces level to see how the subculture develops in this city.
Furthermore, these local places are also connected to their overseas counterparts via
personal trips, as well as reports from the mass media and the Internet. To compare 113 these global subcultural locations would be of importance in the study of global fandom. This study, hence, can contribute to future studies as such by providing a
detailed analysis and interpretation in one regional site.
In addition, the study has also analyzed bodies-spaces in the maid cafe with
their relationship with organizations, which offered a linkage between current scholar
interests on experience economy (Pine & Gilmore 1998; Thrift, 2000) and interactive
service industry (McDowell, 2009; Warhurst, Nickson, Witz & Cullen, 2000;Witz,
Warhurst, & Nickson, 2003). Whereas the former emphasizes the stylized
environment and service procedures experienced by the customers, the latter focuses
on the transformation of bodies into both labour and products. The current studies of
bodies-spaces in maid cafe provided a comprehensive case in which the consumption
of experience and transformation ofbodies interact with one another. The
experiences constituted by interactions with maids and emplacement in the themed
cafe have become substantially the most important part of masters' consumptions,
and such experiences are mostly constructed by embodied services offered with the
maids.
Based on the Butler's theory (1999) of gender performativity, this study also
contextualizes the gendered performances in maid cafe where fantastic scripts and
organizational regulations both interpellate a docile, infantile, and aesthetically-
pleasing femininity. Following Butler's argument that particular gendered
performances could periodically paradise and subvert the dominant gender roles (and
hence cause gender troubles), such parody and subversion always face the
probability ofbeing absorbed into dominant gender roles, this study has shown how
being a cute maidAmtler can both undermine and support the privileged gender
ideologies. On the one hand, being cute in maid cafe often comes in forms ofbeing 114 obedient and tender to male masters, as well as ofbeing aesthetically pleasing but not too mature and sexy. Such way of constructing femininity is in line with general female gender role model in Hong Kong, where professional achievement can be acknowledged only when the familiar responsibilities are fulfilled, and
objectification of women is still common (Cheung, Lai, Kit-chun, & Ngai，1997; Lee,
2002). From various media sources we can often see the sexist stereotype ofHong
Kong women - selfish, demanding, non-serious, and not considerate at all (Fung &
Ma, 2000). To this extent, the image of a cartoon-like tamed maid is a preferred
gender role to replace the undesired feminity. On the other hand, being cute can also
be read as a refusal to grow up and an alternative way of develop new possibilities.
Teenage girls in Hong Kong are regarded mostly as daughters oftheir parents and
students in high school in public. They are advised to pay whole attention on their
studies and their future - career and family-wise, instead of exploring other things in
the life include sexualities. However, in Maid Date, these maids have chosen ajob
where daily encounters and communication between the two sexes are basic and
crucial. Moreover, the crossplay ofButler has pushed maids' gender adventure
further. Some ofthem are exposed to the alternative possibilities of gender roles. All
this has strongly, yet somehow secretly, violated the general gender roles and rules in
Hong Kong.
Although this thesis has answered the two research questions it raised, as well
as contribute to current studies on body and space, subculture fandom, interactive
service industry and gender construction, it still has several limitations.
Theoretically speaking, the thesis has deployed five major concepts that are
all heavily loaded terms, with large pools of existing literature related to each one of
them. For the concept ofbody and space, the thesis mainly relies on scholarships of 115 social construction and phenomenology in traditional disciplines, but with less attention on those of architecture, urban studies, and proxemics. Moreover, in the concept of "organization", I have mainly focused on the interactive service industry.
Considering that some of the arguments have touched upon the issue of
commercialization of woman's body, feminist studies on the sex industry would be
ofhelp for analysis. Therefore, a much more extensive literature review is needed in
future research.
Methodologically speaking, the ethnographic fieldwork is influenced by my
limited control in the field and intense field relationships. Even though Maid Date
allowed me to become an insider, the managers kept a lot of information from me.
For instance, I gained no access to the demographic information ofevery maid,
which impacted research validity. Also, the intense relationship between the maids
and the managers forced me, as a researcher, to constantly strive to fmd a balance
between the two groups. Both the maids and the managers worked to hide
information that would put them in a bad light, and they also tried to stop me from
interviewing people who hold opinions opposite from theirs. I had planned to
interview eighteen people at the beginning, but seven maids turned down my request
because they were concerned about the confidentiality ofthe interviews.
Moreover, this thesis has not attended to certain phenomenon due to the
scope ofthe study and the limited timeframe. Near the very end of the field research,
the maids started to construct a virtual "Maid Date" on the Mernet. They provided
pictures and texts on personal blogs, fan communities, and social network websites.
The production of virtual bodies-spaces could very likely offer new perspective for
the study. However, there was not enough time to review relevant literatures and
collect new data. Therefore, attentions can be given in future investigations to this 116 area in order to establish a more comprehensive understanding ofbodies-spaces of maid cafe in both virtual and real life. 117
Appendix A
Consent Form for In-Depth Interview
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
School of Journalism and Communication & Gender Studies Program
Performing as other women22
^ Yang Jing Dr. Saskia Witteborn
M h.t Mphil Student Supervisor =^ (852)63436389 (852) 26091668(office)
&om [email protected] [email protected] CUHK, and I am conducting interviews for my thesis. I am studying the gendered performances in maid cafes in Hong Kong. This is a consent form for this research. Thanks for participating in the interview.
Please read this form carefully and ask any questions you have. There will be two copies of this form for you to sign. One of them will be given to you; another will be kept by the interviewer.
Consent for Participation in Interview Research
I volunteer to participate in this research conducted by Yang Jing from CUHK. I understand that the research is designed to gather information for her research on maid cafe. I will be one of approximately 20 interviewees for this research.
1) My participation in this research is voluntary. I understand that I will not be paid for my participation. I may withdraw and discontinue participation at any time without penalty. 2) I will be asked to answer some questions as to how you perform as a maid in this cafe. This interview was designed to be approximately an hour in length. I am encouraged to expand the topic ifI want. I am also entitled to decline to answer questions ifI don't feel combatable. 3) I understand that I won't be identified by name in any research outcome using the information obtained from this interview, and my confidentiality as a research participant will be kept secure. Subsequent uses of records and data will be subject to standard data
22 This was the original title of the thesis, which was changed later. The content form was written before the change of thesis title. 118
use policies which protect the anonymity of individuals and institutions. 4) Managers and co-workers won't be present at the interview and they won't have the access to raw-data or transcriptions. This precaution will prevent my individual comments from any negative repercussions. 5) I have read and understood the explanation provided to me. I have all my questions answered to my satisfaction, and I volunteer to participate in this study. 6) I have one copy of the consent form.
Participant's signature Date
Interviewer's signature
^,rn,,-,,nnt,,m^u r-- 1 ' •" ^i^»»..WiriiivrTrfa^^^u.^i-»^nni'*y"^^»-***• - «•**«••> '"" *"*^**^"丨"_"‘""1 ' "-"1 "1111 ^1 "111 ^1 ^^-.-r*rtr丨_川a. ,m..^r^<^^- ~»-»«^..r .ni-r — ” ~—^ni ~' 『' 丨旧•'..““ 119
Appendix B
Question List for In-Depth Interviews:
Part 1: personal information 1) Would you please introduce yourself first? (age, occupation, family background, hobbies, dream and plan, etc.) 2) Are you interested to ACG, or maid-relevant subculture? 3) Have you ever purchase or create ACG products? 4) Have you ever participated in ACG conventions? 5) Before working here, have you had any working experience? 6) How come you wanted to work in Maid Date? Did you have any expectations or imaginations of the maidjob? Part 2: times spent in Maid Date 7) When did you come to Maid Date for ajob? Was there any interviews or exams? 8) How long have you worked here? Is there any change in the development of Maid Date? 9) Which day(s) ofthe week do you usually come to work, and why? 10) Are you satisfied with the salary? Is the salary important for economic activities? Is there any other ways of gaining financial supports? Part 3: working as a maid 11) What is your maid name? Have you attached any special meanings to your maid name? 12) How did you learn to be a maid? Do you remember the feelings ofyour first time being a maid? . 13) is there any training program in Maid Date to help you adjust to the maid role? Do you always follow the guidance of the managers? Have you ever improvised during your work? If yes, how did others respond to your activities? • 14) Is there anything you consider crucial in the performance ofmaid character? (voices, gestures, costumes, languages, actions，and facial expressions) Is there any difference between maid and waitress or cosplayer? 15) Do you like the costumes in Maid Date? Which set do you like the best? How does it feel when wearing them? 16) Which one do you prefer, working in the bar or reception? 17) Could you please introduce the work routine? 18) What do you usually do to cure the masters? Is there anything you particularly like or dislike in the curing process? 19) Is there any kind of master you particularly like or dislike, and why? 20) Have you every turned down masters requests? If you have, please tell me the details. 21) Have you ever been offended by masters? 22) ^i general, how do you like working in Maid Date? 23) Do you think you behave in a similar/different way in Maid Date comparing to your behavior in other places? 120
Appendix C
List ofInterviewees:
Gender Age Occupation Time spent in Maid Date
Lucky 12 hours/week F 16 High-school student (maid) for three months
: 12-30 Lunar Administrative officer in a p 21 hours/week for two and a (maid) sports company half years
Miwako F 17 High-school student 15-25 (maid) hours/week for one year
Little •, 12 hours/week for eight Sunflower F 17 High-school student months (maid) gj^j " 18 hours/week for two F 16 High-school student (maid) months 12-24 Yumi Design assistant in a clothes F 19 hours/week for eight (maid) factory months
18-24 Budding F 20 Office clerk in a hotel hours/week for (maid) one year
Zorro M 30 Owner ofMaid Date 20-40 121
~~(manager)~~ hours/week for one year
and eight months . “ 25-35~~‘ Happyboy M 25 Assistants in medical service hours/week for two (master) years
Bug 5 hours/week one M 17 High-school student (master) year and a half
Mr. Tam 10-15 hours/week M 28 Civil service (master) twoyears 122
Reference
1 lth ACGHK 2010. (2010). Retrieved May 7, 2010, from http://www.ani-com.hk/front.htm: http://www.ani-com.hk/front.htm Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, ^(2),139-158. Adams, M. Y. (2006). The fantasy principle: Psychoanalysis of the imagination. East Sussex, UK: Routledge. Ahrentzen, S. (1997). The meaning ofhome workplaces for women. In J. P. Jones III，H. Nast, & S. Roberts (Eds.)，Thresholds in feminist geography : Difference, methodology, and representation Q)p. 77-92). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefleld Publishers. Alcoff，L. M. (1996). Feminist theory and social science: New knowledge, new epistomologies. InN. Duncan (Eds), Bodyspace: Destabilizing geographies of gender and sexuality Q)p. 13-26). New York: Routeldge. Allison, A. (2001). A type of woman. In W. O. Staff (Eds), Organizational studies: Critical perspectives on business and management Q)p. 1287-1304). New York: Routledge. Allison, A. (2003). Portable monsters and commoditycuteness: Pokemon as Japan's new global power. Postcolonial Studies, 6 (3), 381 - 395. Allison, A. (2006a). The Japan fad in glabal youth culture and millennial capitalism, hi F, Lunning (Eds.), Mechademia 1: Emerging worlds of anime and manga ^>p. 11-22), Minneapolis, MN :University ofMinnesota Press. Allison, A, (2006b). Millennial monsters: Japanese toys and the global imagination. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Andrew, A., & Sedgwick, E. K. (2004). Introduction to performativity and performance. In H. Bial (Eds.), The performance studies reader ^)p. 167-174). New York : Routledge. Angerer, M. (1999). Space does matter: On cyber and other bodies. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2 (2), 209-229. Anime. (2010). Retrieved April 6, 2010, from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.conVdictionary/anime Armitt, L. (2005). Fantasyflction: An introduction . New York: Cotinuum Azuma, H. (2009). Otaku: Japan's database animal. (J. E. Abel, & S. Kono, Trans.) Minneapolis, MN: University ofMinnisota Press. Barlow, A. (2005). The DVD revolution: Movies, culture, and technology. Westport CT: Praeger. Barnard, C. I. (1968). The functions of the executive. Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press. Becker, H. S. (1996). The epistemology of qualitative research, hi R. Jessor, A. Colby, & R. A. Shweder (Eds.), Ethnography and human development: Context and meaning in social inquiry @p. 53-71). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago. 123
Befu, H. (2002). The global context ofJapan outside Japan. In H. Befu, & S. Guichard- Anguis (Eds.), GlobalizingJapan: Ethnography of the Japanese presence inAsia, Europe, andAmerica ^)p, 3-22). New York: Routeldge. Bell, D. (2001a). An introduction to cybercultures. New York: Routledge. Bell, D. (2001b). Pleasure zones: Bodies, cities, spaces. New York: Syracuse University Press. Bell, D., Binnie, J.，Cream, J.，Valentine, G. (1994). All hyped up and no place to go. Gender, Place & Culture, 7(1), 31-47 Bell, E., & Taylor, S. (2004). From outward bound to inward bound: Theprophetic voices and discursive practices ofspiritual management development. Human Relations, 57 (4), 439-466. Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. London: BBC. Bondi, L., & Davidson，J. (2003). Troubling the place of gender. In K. Anderson, M. Domosh, S. Pile, & N. Thrift (Eds.), Handbook of cultural geography Q)p, 325-344). London: Sage. Bondi，L., & Davidson, J. (2005). Situating Gender. In L. nelson, & J. Seager (Eds.), A companion tofeminist geography ^>p. 15-31). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Bordo, S. (2003). Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western culture, and the body, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Bryce, M., & Davis, J. (2006). Manga/Anime, media mix: Scholarship in a post-modern, ,global community. In M. Atherton (Eds.), CAESS (the College ofArts, Education andSocialSciences) Conference: Scholarship & Community. University ofWestern Sydney. Bryman, A. (2004). The Disneyization ofsociety. London: Sage. Burgin, Y. (1982). Photography, phantasy, function. In V. Burgin (Eds.), Thinking photography Q)p. 177-216). London: Macmillan Education. Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theater Journal, 519-531 • Butler, J. (1993a). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of"sex". New York: Routledge. Butler, J. (1993b). Critically queer. GLQ: A Journal ofLesbian and Gay Studies, 1 (1), 17- ‘32, Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble. New York: Routldge. Casey, E. (1993). Getting back into place: Toward a renewed understanding oftheplace- world. Bloomington, JN: Indiana University Press. Casey, E. S. (1996). How to get from space to place in a fairly short stretch oftime: ,Phenomeologicalprolegomena. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press. Chandler, D. (1998). Introduction. Retrieved July 3, 2010, fromNotes on "the gaze": http://www.aber.ac.uk/mediayDocuments/gaze/gaze01.html 124
Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering : Psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Chua, B. H. (1992). Shopping for women's fashion in Singapore. In R. Shields (Eds), Lifestyle shopping: The subject of consumption Opp. 114-135). London: Routledge. Colebrook, C. (2009). From radical representations to corporeal becomings: The feminist philosophy ofLloyd, Grosz, and Gatens. Hypatia, 15 (2), 76-93. Conquergood, D. (2006). Rethinking ethnography: Towards a critical cultural politics, hi D. S. Madison, & J. Hamera (Eds.), The Sage handbook of performance studies Cpp- 351-365). London: Sage. Cooper, R.，& Burrell, G. (1988). Modernism, post modernism and organizational analysis: An introduction. Organization Studies, 9 (1), 91-112. Couldry, N., & McCarthy, A. (2004). Introduction- orientations: Mapping mediaspace. InN, Couldry, & A. McCarthy(Eds.), MediaSpace: Place, scale, and culture in a media age Q)p. 1-18). New York: Routledge. Craik, J. (1993). Theface offashion: Cultural studies in fashion. London: Routledge. Crang, P. (2004). It's showtime: On the workplace geographies of display in a restaurant in 'southest England. In A. Amin, & N. Thrift (Eds.), The Blackwell cultural economy reader &p. 307-326). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Dahlgren, P.(2001). The public sphere and the Net: Structure, space and communication. Jn W. L., Bennett & R M., Entman ^ds.), Mediated politics: Communication in the futureofdemocracy Q)p. 33-55). New York : Cambridge University Press. Daily, A. (2007, August 7). First Hong Kong maid cafe totally copying from Japan. Apple Daz7y,p.A18. de Beauvoir, S. (1973). The second sex. (H. Parshley, Trans.) New York: Vintage Books. de Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life. (S. Rendall, Trans.) Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2004). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (2004 Edition ed.). (B. Massumi, Trans.) New York: Continuum. Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2005). Mroduction: The discipline and practices of qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research Q)p. 1-33). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Don. (2008, November 16). Otaku Ippiki goes abroad: Cafe review "maid date" in HK. Retrieved March31, 2010, from Don's blog annex: http://don777-ax.cocolog- nifty.comA)lo g/2008/11 /title-otaku-ipp.html Dorn, M., & Laws, G. (1994). Social theory, body politics, and medical geography: ‘Extending Kearns's invitation. The Professional Geographer , 106-110. Drazen, P. (2003). Anime explosion!: The what? why? & wow! ofJapanese animation. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. Duncan, N. (1996). Renegotiating gender and sexuality in public and private spaces . Jn N. Duncan (Eds.), Bodyspace: Destabilizing geographies ofgender and sexuality Q)p. 127-145). New York: Routledge. 125
Edmonds, A. (2007). 'The poor have the right to be beautifol': Cosmetic surgery in neoliberal Brazil. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 13 (2), 363-381. Emerson, P. M,, Fretz, R. I., 8c Shaw, L. L. (2001). Participant observation and fieldnote. In P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland, & L. Lofland (Eds.), Handbook of ethnography Q)p. 339-351). London: Sage. England, P., & Farkas，G. (1986). Households, employment，and gender: A social, economic, and demographic view. New York: Aldine. F&C. (1998, August). Pia�Pia 牛亡 口 [Welcome to Pia maid cafe] [video game]. Tokyo, Japan. Featherstone, M., Hepworth, M., & Bryan S.，T. (1991). The Body: Socialprocess and cultural theory. London: Sage. Fiske, J. (1989). Understanding popular culture. New York: Routledge. Fiske, J. (1992). The cultural economy of fandom. Li L.A. Lewis (Eds.), The Adoring audience: Fan culture and popular media ^)p. 30-49). New York: Routledge. Fleming, P.，& Spicer，A. (2004), You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave: Spatial boundaries in a high, commitment organization. Human Relations, 57 (1), 75-94. Fornas, J, (1995). Cultural theory and late modernity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Foucault, M. (1977). Displine andpubishment (A. Sheridan, Trans.) London: Allen Lane. Fung, Y. H. A. (2005). Hong Kong as the Asian and Chinese distributor ofPokemon. International Journal of Comic Art 7(1): 432-448. Gagne, L (2008). Urban princesses: Performance and "women's language" in Japan's Gothic/Lolita subculture. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 18 (1)，130-150. Galbraith, P. W. (2009, October 31). Moe: Exploring virtual potential in post-millennial Japan. Electronic Journal ofContemporary Japanese Studies. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from Ejcis: http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk>/articles/2009^Bryce.html Gelder, K. (2005). Introduction: the field of subculture studies. Jn K. Gelder (Eds.), The subculturer reader (2 ed., pp. 1-18). Londen, New York: Routeldge. Gravett, P. (2004). Manga: Sixty years of Japanese comics. London: Lawrence King Publishing. Gregson, N., & Rose, G. (2000). Taking Butler elsewhere: Performativities, spatiaiities, subjectivities. Environment and Planning D; Society and Space, 18 (4), 433-452. Grosz, E. (1994). Volatile bodies: Toward a corporeal feminism. Bloomington, JN: Lidiana University Press. Grosz, E. (1995). Architecturefrom the outside: Essays on virtual and real space. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Grosz, E. (1998). Bodies-cities. In H.J, Nast & S, Pile (Eds). Places through bodies ^p. 42- 51). New York: Routledge. 126
Guarassi, V. (2001). Paradoxes of modern and postmodern geography: Heterotopia of landscape and cartographic logic. In C, Minca (Eds.), Postmodern geography: theory and praxis ^)p. 226-237). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Halford, S. (2005). Hybrid workspace: Re-spatialisations of work, organisation and management. New Technology, Work and Employment, 20 (1), 19-33. Halford, S., & Leonard, P. (2006). Place, space and time: Contextualizing workplace subjectivities. Organizational Studies, 27(5)，657-676. Hall, S., & Jefferson, T. (1976). Resistance through rituals: Youth subcultures in post-war Britain. London: Hutchison. Hammersley, M.，& Atkinson，P. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in practice (3rd Edition ed.). New York: Routledge. Harvey, D. (1996). Justice, nature and the geography of difference . Malden, MA: Blackwell. Hassard, J., Holliday, R., & Willmott, H. (2000). Introduction: The body and organization. In R. H. John Hassard (Eds.), Body and organization ^)p. 1-14). London: Sage. Hebdige, D. (1979). Subculture: The meaningofstyle. London: Methuen. Hebdige, D. (2001). (i) From culture to hegemony; (ii)Subculture: the unnatural break, hi M. G. Durham, & D. Kellner (Eds.)，Media and cultural studies: keyworks ^)p. 198-216). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Hesse-Biber, S. N.，& Leavy, P. (2010). The practice of qualitative research Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Heyl, B. S. (2001). Ethnographic interview. In P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. ,Lofland, & L. Lofland (Eds.), Handbook of ethnography Q)p. 369-383). London: Sage. Hills, M. (2002). Fan culture. New York: Routeldge. Hjorth, L. (2005). Odours ofmobility: Mobile phones and Japanese cute culture in the Asia- Pacific. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 26 (l&2), 39-55. Hlozek, R. (2004, May 24). Cosplay: The new main attraction. Retrieved May 10, 2010, from jrVEmagazine: http://www.jivemagazine.comy^article.php7pid=1953 Hochschild, A. R. (2001). Feeling management: From private to commerical uses. In W. O. Staff(Eds.), Organizational studies: Critical perspectives on business and management Q)p. 1210-1243). London: Routledge. Hochschild, A. R. (2003). The managed heart: Commercialization ofhumanfeeling. Berkely, CA: University of California. Hodkinson, P. (2002). Goth: identity, style and subculture. New York: Berg Holstein, J.A.，& Gubrium，J. F. (1995). The active interview. London: Sage. Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J. F. (1997). Active interviewing. In D, Silverman (Eds.), Qualitative research: Theory, method and practice Q)p. 113-129). London: Sage. Hughes, B., & Peterson, K. (2004). The social model of disability and the disappearing body: Towards a sociology ofimpairment. Li A. Blaikie (Eds), The body: Critical concepts in sociology Opp. 146-163). New York: Routledge. 127
Hume, K. (1984). Fantasy and mimesis: Responses to reality in Western literature. New York: Methuen. Hung, M. (2001，August 2). Tooned in to anime. Retrieved April 23, 2010, from Houston Press: http://www.houstonpress.com/2001 -08-02/news/tooned-in-to-anime/ Huq, R. (2006), Beyond subculture:Pop, youth and identity in a postcolonial world. New York: Routeldge. Iwabuchi, K. (2002a). From Western gaze to global gaze: Japanese cultural presense in Asia. In D. Crane, N. Kawashima, & K. Kawasaki (Eds.), Global culture: Media, arts, policy, and globalization ^>p. 256-273). New York: Routeldge. Iwabuchi, K. (2002b). Recentering globalization: Popular culture and Japanese transnationalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press Iwabuchi, K. (2002c). "Soft" nationalism and narcissism: Japanese popular culture goes global. Asian Studies Review, 26 (4)，447-468. Jackson, J. B. (1984). Discovering the vernacular landscape. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Jackson, P. (2004). Inside clubbing: Sensual experiments in the art ofbeing human. New York: Berg. Jackson, R. (1988). Fantasy: The literature of subversion. New York: Routledge. Jackson, R.L. (1999). White space, white privilege: Mapping discursive inquiry into the self. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 55(1), 38-54. Jess, P., & Massey, D. (1995). The contestation of place. In P. Jess, & D. Massey ^ds.), A place in the world? : Places, cultures and globalization Q)p. 133-173). Oxford: Open University Johnston, L. (1995). The politics of the pump: Hard core gyms and women body builders. New Zealand Geographer, 51 (1), 16-18. Johnston, L. (1998). Reading the sexed bodies and spaces of gyms. In H. J. Nast, & S. Pile (Eds.), Places through the body ^)p. 244-262). New York: Routledge. Jupp, V. (Ed。），(2006). The Sage dictionary of social research methods. London: Sage. Kaplan, C. (1989). The thorn birds: Fiction, fantasy, femininitty. In V. Burgin, J. Donald, & C. Kaplan (Eds.), Formation of fantasy Q)p. 142-166). New York: Routledge. Kawamura, Y. (2006). Japanese teens as producers of street fashion. Current Sociology, 54 (5), 784-801. Kazuki. (2007, August 5). MAID CAFE�maid date�遊言己幸艮告[1>隱1 report ofmaid date: a maid cafeJ. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from 舊住所未定^0{ yet settled down the old house]: http:/M:.myblog.yahoo.comMuvLuv- Alternative/article7mid=245&prev-280&next=243 Kinsella, S. (1995). Cuties in Japan.LiB. M. Lise Skov OEds.), Women, media and consumption in Japan ^)p. 220-254). Surrey, UK: Curzon Press. Kinsella, S. (1998). Japanese subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the amateur manga movement. Journal of Japanese Studies, 24 (2)，289-316. 128
Lai, C. S. L., & Wong, D. H. (2001). Japanese comics coming to Hong Kong. In H. Befu, & S. Guichard-Anguis (Eds.)，GlobalizingJapan: Ethnography ofthe Japanese presence in Asia, Europe, andAmerica Q)p. 111-120). New York: Routledge. LaMarre, T. (2006). Otaku movement. Li T. Yoda, & H. D. Harootunian (Eds.), Japan after Japan: Social and cultural life from the recessionary 1990s to the present Q)p. 358- 394). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Landzelius, M. (2004). The body. In J. S. Duncan, N. C. Johnson, & R. H. Schein (Eds.), Companion to cultural geography ^)p. 279-297). Oxford: Blackwell. Lee, D. (2006, June 15). Maid cafes - the expanding industry in Japan. Retrieved March 22, 2010, from UNIORB: http://uniorb.conVATREND/Japanwatch/maidcafe.htm Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production ofspace. (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.) Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Lent, J. (1999). Local comics books and the curse of manga in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. Asian Journal of Communication , 9 (1)，108-128. Lessig，L. (2004). Free culture: How big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity. New York: Penguin Press. Leung, L. Y. (2002). Romancing the Everyday: Hong Kong women watching Japanese drama. Japanese Studies, 22 (1), 65-75. Li, X. (2009, June 6). Causeway Bay Maid Date cafe, Male maids are more fun. Ming Pao , p. D07. Lloyd, M. (2007). Judith Butler. London: Polity Press. Longhurs, R. (2001). Bodies:Eexploring fluid boundaries. New York: Routledge. Lorber, J. (1996) Beyond the binaries: Depolarizing the categories of sex, sexuality, and gender. Sociological Inquiry, 66(2), 143-159. Low, S,M. (2003). Embodied space(s): Anthropological theories ofbody, space, and culture. Space and Culture, 6 (1)，9-18. Lowenthal, D. (1961). Geography, experience, and imagination: Towards a geographical epistomology. Annals of the Association ofAmerican Geographers，51 (3), 241-260. Lugosi, P. (2009). The production ofhospitable space: Commercial propositions and consumer co-creation in a bar operation. Space and Culture, 12 (4), 396-411. Lunning, F., & Bolton, C. (2006). Anifesto. In F. Lunning (Eds.), Mechademia 1: Emerging worlds ofanime and manga ^>p. 1-10). Minneapolis, MN: University ofMinnesota Press. Macias，P., & Machiyama, T. (2004). Cruising the anime city: An otaku guide to neo Tokyo. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. Malpas, J. (1999). Place and experience: A philosophical topography. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Manga. (2010). Retrieved March 22，2010, from Li Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manga 129
Markham, A.N. (1998). Life online: Researching real experience in virtual space. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira, Marshall, H. (1996), Ourbodies, ourselevs: Why we should add old fashioned empirical phenomeology to the new theories of the body. Women's Studies International Forum (19(3)), 253-256. Martinez, K. Z. (2008). Girl, digital culture and new media. In C. Mitchel, & J. Reid- Walsh(Eds.), Girl culture: An encyclopedia, Volume 1 ^p. 94-100). Westport: Greenwood Press. Massey, D. (1994). Space, place, andgender. Minneapolis, MN: University ofMinnesota Press. Massey, D. (1995). Masculinity, dualism and high technology. Transactions ofthe Institute ofBritish Geographers, 20 (4)，487-499. Massey, D. (1998). Blurring the binaries? High tech in Cambridge. In R. Ainley (Eds), New Frontiers ofSpace, Bodies and Gender ^>p. 157-175). London : Sage. Massey，D. (2005), For Space. London: Sage. Mathews, R. (2002). Fantasy: The liberation of imagination. New York: Routledge. Mattsu & Asu, T. (2004). Korega Watashi no Goshujin-sama [He is my master], J^)an: SquareEnix. McCarthy, H. (1999). Hayao Miyazaki: Master ofJapanese animation:fllms, themes, artistry. Berkeley, CA : Stone Bridge Press. McCaughey, M., & French, C. (2001). Women's sex-toy parties: Technology, orgasm, and commodification. Sexuality & Culture, 5 (3), 77-96. McDowell, L. (1993). Space, place and gender relations: Part I. feminist empiricism and the geography of social relation. Progress in Human Geography, 157-179. McDowell, L. (1999). Gender, identity &place. Minneapolis, MN: University ofMinnesota Press. McDowell, L. (2009). Working bodies: Interactive servic emplyment and workplace identities. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. McDowell, L., & Court，G. (1994). Performing work: Bodily representations in merchant banks. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space} 12 (6), 725-750. McKenzie, J. (2001). Perform or else: From discipline to performance. New York: Routledge. McLelland, M. J. (2000). The love between 'beautiful boys' in Japanese women's comics. Journal of Gender Studies, 9 (1), 13-25. McVeigh, B. (1996). Commodifying affection, authority and gender in the everyday objects of Japan. Journal of Material Culture , 1 (3), 291-312. Merleau-Ponty, M (2002). Phenomenology of perception. New York: Routledge. Meyer, U. (2010). Hidden in straight sight: Transgressing gender and sexuality in BL. In A. Levi, M. McHarry, & D. Pagliassotti OEds.), Boys' love manga: Essays on the sexual 130
ambiguity and cross-cultural fandom of the genre ^)p. 232-255). Jefferson, NC: McFarland Company. Millett, K. (1978). Sexual politics. New York: Ballantine. Monden，M. (2008). Transcultural flow of demurea esthetics: Examining cultural globalisation through Gothic & Lolita fashion. New Voices, 2, 21-40. Mulvey, L. (1992). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In J. Caughie, A. Kuhn, & M. Merck (Eds.), The sexual subject: A screen reader in sexuality. Q)p. 22-34). London: Routledge. Nagar，R. (1997). Exploring methodological borderlands. In J. P. III, H. J. Nast, & S. M. Roberts (Eds), Thresholds in feminist geography: Difference, methodology, and representation @p. 203-224). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Nakamura, A. (2006，April 24). Turning the tables on "maid cafe": Forfemale "otaku", a coffee house all their own. Retrieved May 22, 2010, from The Japan Times Online: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-binAm20060424fl .html Napier, S. J. (2001). AnimefromAkira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing contemporary Japanese animation. New York: Palgrave. Napier, S. (2006). The world ofanime fandom in America. In F. Lunning (Eds.), Mechademia 1: Emerging worlds of anime and manga (pp. 47-64). Minneapolis, MN: University ofMinnisota Press. Napier, S. (2008). Lost in translation: Train men and dolls in millennial Japan. In F. Lunning ,(Eds.), Mechademia 3: Limits of the human ^)p. 259-261). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnisota Press. Nast, H. J. (1998). The body as "place": Reflexitivity and fieldwork in Kano, Nigeria. Li H. J. ,Nast, & S. Pile (Eds.)，Places through the body ^p. 93-116). New York: Routeldge. Nast, H. J., & Pile, S. (1998).Introduction: Making places bodies. In S. Pile, & H. J. Nast (Eds.)，Place through the body. New York: Routledge. Nietzsche, F. (1968). The will to power. (W. Kaufinann，Trans.). New York: Vintage Books. Nippert-Eng, C. E. (1995). Home andwork: Negotiating boundaries through everyday life. Chicago, IL:The University of Chicago. Newitz, A. (1994). Anime Otaku: Japanese animation fans outside Japan. BadSubjects, 13, ,1-12. Ng, W.M. (2002). The impact ofJapanese comics and animation in Asia. Journal of Japanese Trade and Industry, 21 (4), 30-33. Ng, W.M. (2003). Japanese Elements in Hong Kong Comics: History, Art, and Industry. International Journal of Comic Art, 5 (2), 184-193. Ng, W.M. (2006). Imagining and consuming Japanese food in Hong Kong, SAR, China: A study of culinary domestication and hybridization. Asian Profile ’ 34 (4), 299-208. Ng, W.M. (2008a). Hong Kong young people and cultural pilgrimage to Japan: The role of Japanese popular culture in Asian tourism. Jn J. Cochrane, Asian tourism: growth and change ^)p. 183-192). Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Elsevier. 131
Ng, W.M. (2008b). Video games in Asia. In M. Wolf (Eds.), The video game explosion: A history from Pong to playstation and beyong. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Ng, W.M. (2010). The Consumption and perception of Japanese ACG (Animation-Comic- Game) among young people in Hong Kong,. International Journal ofComic Art，12 (1)5 460-477. � “ Norris, C. (2000). Australian fandom of Japanese anime (animation). In A. Ien (Eds), Alter/Asians : Asian-Australian identities in art, media and popular culture ^)p. 218- 231). Sydney, Australia: Pluto Press. Norris, C., & Bainbridge, J. (2009). Selling Otaku? Mapping the relationship between industry and fandom in the Australian cosplay scene. Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and thePacific, 20. Oakley, A. (1985). Sex ,gender and society. London: Maurice Temple Smith. O'Connell, M. (1999). A briefhistory ofanime. Retrieved March 22，2010, from Corneredangel: http://www.corneredangel.conVamwess/papersMstory.html Ogawa, M. (2001). Japanese popular music in Hong Kong: Analysis of global/local cultural relation. In H. Befu, & S, Guichard-Anguis (Eds.), GlobalizingJapan: Ethnography of the Japanese presence in Asia, Europe, andAmerica ^)p. 121-130). New York: Routledge. Ogawa, M. (2004). Japanese popular music in Hong Kong: What does TK present? Li A. J. Chun, N. Rossiter, & B. Shoesmith (Eds.), Refashioning pop music in Asia: Cosmopolitan flows, political tempos, and aesthetic industry ^)p. 48-60). New York : Routledge. ON.CC.{nA). Retrieved April 5，2010, from maid date cafe: http://food.on.cc/searchy'detaiLphp7rest_id=7920 Pan, G. (2005). Cheng shi xue: Xianggang wen hua biji [Urban studies: Notes on Hong Kong culture]. Hong Kong: Kubrick. Patten, F. (2004). Watching anime, reading manga: 25 years of essays andreviews. Berkeley,CA: Stone Bridge Press. Perakyla, A. (1997). Reliability and validity in research based on transcripts. Li D, Silverman (Eds.), Qualitative research: Theory, method and practice ^>p. 201-220). London: Sage. Perlow, L. A. (1998). Boundary control: The social ordering of work and family time in a high-tech corporation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43 (2), 328-357. Pine, B. J., & Gilmore.，J. H. (1998). Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review, 97-105.
Pine, B. J.? & Gilmore, J. H. (1999). The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Boston, MA: Havard Business School Press. Poitras, G. (2001). Anime essentials: Every thing a fan needs to know. Berkeley, CA:Stone Bridge Press. Price, J., & Shildrick，M. (1999). Feminist theory and the body: A reader. New York: Routledge. 132
Ransom, J. S. (1997). Foucault's discipline: The politics ofsubjectivity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Redmond, D. (2007). Anime and East Asian culture: Neon Genesis Evangelion. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 24 (2), 183-188. Rivera, R. (2009). The Otaku in transition. Journal ofKyoto Seika University (35), 193-205. Rodway, P. (1994). Sensuous geographies: Body, sense, and place. New York: Routledge. Rose, G. (1993). Feminism and geography: The limits ofgeographical knowledge. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Rose, G. (1995a), Making space for the femaile subject of feminism: The spatial subversion ofHolzer, Kruger and Sherman. In S. Pile, & N. Thrift (Eds), Mapping the subject: Geographies ofcultural transformation &p. 322-354). New York: Routledge. Rose, G. (1995b). Place and identity: A sense of place. In D. Massey, & P. Jess (Eds.), A place in the world? Places, cultures and globalization ^p. 87-132). Oxford: Open University. Rubin, G. (1987). Thinking sex: Notes for a radical theory of the politics of sexuality. In C. S. Vance (Eds.), Pleasure and danger: Exploringfemale sexuality ^p. 267-319). London: Pandora Press. Serreli, S. (2008). Urban landscape and an ecology of creativity. In G., Maciocc (Eds). Urban landscape perspectives ^p. 123-144). Berlin: Springer Science Schensul, S. L., Schensul, J. J.，& LeCompte, M. D. (1999). Essential ethnographic methods: Observations, interviews, and questionnaires. Wakiut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Scheper-Hughes, N. (2002). Bodies for sale-- Whole or in parts. In N. Scheper-Hughes, & L. J. Wacquant (Eds.), Commodifying bodies ^)p. 1-8). London: Sage. Schodt, F. L. (2002). DreamlandJapan: Writings on modern manga (3rd ed.). Berkeley,CA: Stone Bridge Press. Shigematsu, S. (1999). Dimensions of desire: Sex, fantasy, and fetish in Japanese comics. In j, A. Lent (Eds.), Themes and issues in Asian cartooning: Cute, cheap, mad, and sexy ^p. 127-163). Bowling Green, KY: Bowling Green State University Popular press. Shilling, C. (2003). The body and social theory. London: Sage. Shilling, C. (2008). Changing bodies: Habit, crisis and creativity, London: Sage Shiokawa，K. (1999). Cute but deadly: Women and violence in Japanese violence. In J. A. Lent (Eds.), Themes and issues in Asian cartooning: Cute, cheap, madandsexy ^p. 93-126). Bowling Green, KY: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. Soja, E.W. (1998). Thirdspace: Joumeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places. ‘Capital & Class, 22(1), 137-139. Sosteric, M. (1996). Subjectivity and the labour process: A case study in the restaurant industry. Work Employment and Society, 10(2), 297-318. Stage, C. W., & Mattson，M. (2003). Ethnographic interview as contexualized conversation. In R. P. Clair (Eds.)，Expressions of ethnography: Novel approaches to qualitative methods Q)p. 97-106). Albany,NY: State University ofNew York. 133
Stahl, G. (1999). Still 'winning space?': Updating subcultural theory. In Visible Culture (2). Stone, A.R. (2001). Will the real body please stand up?: Boundary stories about virtual cultures. In D，Trend (Eds.), Reading digital culture ^p. 185-198). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Sullivan, S. (2001). Living across andthrough skins: Transactional bodies, pragmatism, and feminism. Bloommgton,^: Lidiana University Press. Terkenli, T. (2001). Towards a theory ofthe landscape: The Aegean landscape as a cultural image. Landscape & Urban Planning, 57, 197-208. Terkenli, T. (2005). New landscape spatialities: The changing scales offunction and symbolism. Landscape and Urban Planning, 70 (1-2)，165-176. Thornton, S. (1997). General introduction. In K. Gelder, & S. Thornton (Eds.), The subcultures reader �.4) Ne. w York: Routledge. Thrift, N. (1996). Spatial Formation. London: Sage. Thrift, N. (2004). Performance and performativity: A geography of unknown lands. In D. 'James, N. Johnson, 8c S. Richard (Eds), A companion to cultural geography ^p. 121-136). Oxford: Blackwell. Thrift, N. (2006). Space. Theory Culture & Society, 23 (2-3), 139-155. Timmerman, J. H. (1983). Other worlds: The fantasy genre. Bowling Green, KY: Bowling Green University Popular Press. Tuan，Y.F. (1975). Place: An experiential perspective. Geographical Review, 65 (2)，151- 165. Tuan, Y.F. (1976). Humanistic geography. Annals of the Association ofAmerican Geographers, 266-276. Tuan, Y.F. (1991). Language and the making of place-: A narritive-descriptive approach. Annals ofthe Association ofAmerican Geographers, 81 (4), 684-696. Tuan, Y.F. (2003). Space and place: The perspective of expeirence (3nd Edition ed.). Minneapolis, MN: University ofMinnesota Press. Xurkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York : Simon & Schuster Turner, B. S. (2008). The body & society: Explorations in social theory (3rd Edition ed.). London: Sage. Udagawa, Y. (2007). Compensated dating in Japan: An exploration ofanomie andsocial change (Master's thesis). Available from ProQuest Dissertation & Thesis. ^JMl NO.: 1441081) Valentine, G. (1996). (Re)negotiating the 'heterosexual street: Lesbian production ofspace. In N. Duncan (Eds.), Bodyspace: Destabilizing geographies of gender andsexuality ^p. 145-154). London: Routeldge. Vischer, J. (2005). Space meets status: Designing workplace performance. Oxon,UK: Routledge. 134
Walkerdine, V. (1989). Video replay: Families, films and fantasy. In V. Burgin, J. Donald, 8c C. Kaplan (Eds.), Formations offantasy ^p. 167-199). New York: Routledge. Warhurst, C.，Nickson，D, Witz, A., & Cullen, A.M. (2000). Aesthetic labour in interactive service work: Some case study evidence from the 'new' Glasgow. The Service Industries Journal, 20 (3), 1-18. Wasko，J. (2001). Understanding Disney: The manufacture offantasy. Cambrige, UK: Polity Press. Weinzier, R., & Muggleton, D. (2003). What is 'post-subculture studies' anyway? In D. Muggleton, & R. Weinzierl (Eds.)，The post-subcultures reader Opp- 3-24). New York: Berg.Wen, X.R. (2009，August 2). Why do I do Compensated Dating? Ming Pao, pp. 01. Williams, S. J.，& Bendelow, G. (1998). The lived body: Sociological themes, embodied issues. New York: Routledge. Winge, T. (2006). Costuming the imagination: Origins of anime and manga cosplay. In F. Lunning (Eds.)，Mechademia 1: Emerging worlds ofanime and manga ^)p. 65-77). Minneapolis, MN: University ofMinnesota Press. Wittig, M. (1993) One is not born a woman. In H, Abelove, M. A,Barale, & D. M. Halperin ，(Eds.), The lesbian andgay studies reader^. 103-109). New York: Routledge. Witz, A.，Warhurst, C., & Nickson,D.(2003). The labour of aesthetics and the aesthetics of organization. Organization, 10 (1), 33-54. Wolkowitz, C. (2006). Bodies at work Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Wong, W. S. (2002). Hong Kong comics: A history of manhua. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Wong, W. S. (2006). Globalizing manga: From Japan to Hong Kong and beyond. In F. ,Lunning (Eds.), Mechademia 1: Emerging worlds ofanime and manga ^)p. 23-46). Minneapolis, MN: University ofMinnesota Press. Wu, H. (2007). Approach to push forward the cosplay industry of Guangdong. Journal of Guangdong Polytechnic Nomal University, 5. Yana, T (2009). Kuroshitsuji [Blackrecord]. Hong Kong: Jade Dynasty Yanlee. (2007, August 3).女僕咖啡店登陸香港-maid date[Maid cafes boards on Hong Kong — maid dateJ. Retrieved March 30, 2010, from CR Pipahu Zhishe: http://www.cuhkacs.net/-yanleey^log/read.php7533&page=l Yano, C. (2004). Kitty Litter: Japanese cute at home and abroad. In D. B. Jeffrey H. ，Goldstein (Eds.), Toys, games, and media Q}p. 55-72). Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates. Yomata, I. (2007). Ke Ai Li Liang Da[Cute is powerful] (G.F. Chen,Trans.). Taipei: Tianxia Yuanjian Press . Young, I. M. (1989). Throwing like a girl: A phenomeology of feminie body comportment, 'motility, and spaticialty. In J. Alle, & I. M. Young (Eds.), The thinking muse: Feminism and mordern French philosophy Q)p. 51-70). Bloomington, JN: Miana University Press. 135
Yukari, F. (2004). Transgender: Female hermaphrodites and male androgynes. U.S.-Japan Women'sJournal, 27, 76-117.
CUHK Libraries
____ : 004779379