Aluba and ‘high’ culture: adolescent male peer culture in play

Abstract

Aluba is a campus activity popular among adolescent males in Taiwan in which four boys lift up another boy by his arms and legs and make a show of pushing or rubbing his genitals against a pole-shaped object. The ‘alubaee’, nearly always a willing participant, is expected to put up a show of resistance for the satisfaction of all involved. It is a type of play for males that promotes closeness as well as competition. This study combines interviews, photographs and video materials with experiential descriptions to describe the aluba process, and analyses the fluidity of participant roles, the subtleties of the interaction among males, and the specific meaning of ‘high’ culture of adolescent males as reflected in the process of aluba.

Keywords:

• social psychology
• cultural studies
• masculinities
• youth culture
• qualitative interviews
• secondary education
• South-East Asia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to give thanks for the help of the 25 interviewees and four research assistants (Wen, Tin, Bo-Han, and Bo-Hau), the useful comments of two reviewers, and the financial support of National Science Council (NSC 99-2410-H-002-161).

Notes

See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/poleracking/summary.

See http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2226030667&topic=2353.

Using one hand from behind to touch and swipe another guy's genital parts.

In Chinese, ‘high’ means feeling excited. It has nothing to do with the difference between high culture and popular or low culture.

See http://www.doh.gov.tw.