Translating Japanese Adult Movies in Taiwan: Transcending the Production-Consumption Opposition

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to reconsider the opposition between consumption and production in social sciences through a detailed analysis of the production of Chinese subtitles for a pirated Japanese adult video (AV) clip in Taiwan. We demonstrate that the way local pirate merchants provide Chinese subtitles is very much guided by the sexual roles of men and women, or what Sahlins calls a cultural code, in Taiwan because this makes Japanese AVs look “natural”, and thus sexually appealing, to Taiwanese viewers. More importantly, the same cultural code also serves as a model for Taiwanese viewers to consume Japanese AVs; otherwise, the reproduction of Japanese AVs will not be sexually appealing to them. Seen in this way, the relation of production and consumption is not as opposed as is commonly thought. It follows that arguments that either production or consumption offers a better mode of investigation of a cultural good are misleading, because they presume that production and consumption entail different lines of logic when in fact both follow the same cultural code.

Keywords:

• Japanese adult videos
• Taiwanese sexual culture
• porn studies
• production
• consumption
• cultural code

Acknowledgments

We extend our sincere gratitude to Asian Studies Review editor Peter Jackson for his encouragement and assistance throughout the revision process for our article. We would also like to thank the two reviewers for their incisive critique and helpful suggestions.

Notes

1. Note that “M” denotes male and “F” denotes female.

2. Kwanghwa Market was a 2-storey electronics market located in Taipei City. It was demolished in 2006 and a new one was opened nearby in 2008.

3. Note that the terms “active male” and “passive female” refer to socially defined male and female genders, not to individual men or women in Taiwan.