Organizer and Chair: Ricardo D. Trimillos, University of Hawaii
Discussant: Tong Soon Lee, Emory University
Gender categories and behaviors in Asia form a counter
discourse to globalized and Western notions of gender, which usually conflate
it with sex and sexuality. Asian constructions of gender are often independent
of the other two, as manifested in performing arts, which are often the primary
indicator of a society’s
cultural identity and sensibility. As a populist platform for cultural analysis
and critique, they constitute a principal site for self- reflexivity. In addition,
the arts represent one form of culturally "knowing." As commentator
on and codifier of gender, the performing arts preserve established gender codes
and at the same time promulgate change in its definitions and practices. The
global circulation of gender models of the First World through mass media contest
indigenous categories and behaviors. The arts comprise a means of resistance
to such incursions. The panel examines diversity in gender construction through
four case studies from China, Indonesia and the Philippines, followed by one
discussant. Each of the four speakers explores a different aspect about gender:
the enactment of masculinity by males or by females, and the enactment of femininity
by males as entertainment or as religious act. The panel requests a “Crossing
Borders” designation, because it includes two regions —East and
Southeast Asia; three nations—Indonesia, the Philippines, and China; four
cultures—Tagalog, Aklanon, East Javanese, and Cantonese; four disciplines—culture
studies, ethnomusicology, anthropology and dance ethnography; and three nationalities
among its speakers—U.S., Philippines, and China.
Ricardo D. Trimillos, University of Hawaii
Traditional masculinity in Filipino culture is more readily defined by behaviour
than by physical appearance. Filipina social scientist Mary Racelis Hollnsteiner
defines paglalake masculinity performatively, with siring children as one
principal definer. Pervasive globalized notions of masculinity based upon physical
appearance have origins in Western first-world societies, particularly the U.S.
In the Philippines they are promulgated nationwide through the mass media, including
film, television, and print advertising. As objects for domestication within
Filipino consumer society, they pose a source of tension with “indigenous” paglalake
as performance. The tension problematises Connell’s distinction between
hegemonic and marginal masculinity. In the paper I argue that traditional
religious and community events are sites for codifying and enacting Filipino
qualities of paglalake masculinity. In the religious domain, Filipinos usually
characterize women as being more religious and men less so. However, I claim
there is a Filipino masculine religiosity. This religiosity is more frequently
expressed in religious folk practices such as during Holy Week rather than in
the established orthodox rituals of Roman Catholicism such as the mass or the
Rosaries. Most dramatic is the practice of penitente flagellants during Holy
Week in Central Luzon. The sarsuwela urban theatre, the komedya community theatre,
and the balitaw song competitions comprise secular forms of public performance
for paglalake masculinity. I also suggest causalities of change in Filipino
gender constructions through contemporary globalization and the global circulation
of Filipino labor.
Priscilla Tse, University of Illinois
Cross-dressing is a distinguishing performing practice of many operatic genres
across China. Paralleling the well-known male dan (a female role-type performed
by a male actor) of Beijing Opera, in Cantonese Opera in Hong Kong, cross-dressing
is characterized by female performers enacting a male role-type, known as wenwu
sheng. The practice of cross-dressed operatic performance, together with its
gender ambiguity, dates back to the early twentieth century, and remains hugely
popular among contemporary audiences. In this paper, I examine the change in
gender identity presented by the iconic figure YAM Kim-fai (1912-1989) and her
successors, through analyses of their stage performances, movies, websites,
and reception by their audiences. I observe that, over the past two decades,
there is an increased trend of feminizing the wenwu sheng role-type. Impersonation
of males by actresses in performing arts, as frequently suggested, is closely
related to female subordination in traditional Chinese society. I further argue
that, along with the rising status of females in Hong Kong society, female wenwu
sheng have attempted to negotiate power with males through their female bodies,
rather than by both acting as a man on-stage and behaving like a man off-stage.
Carl J. Hefner, University of Hawaii
In the itinerant folk theatre of East Java, Indonesia the tandak ludruk cross-dressing
male transvestites play all the female roles. Cross-dressed males are found
elsewhere in Indonesia in a variety of venues, but it is within the context
of the artistic and performative staging of ludruk that we can examine the
unique symbolic role the transvestite plays in juxtaposition to notions of “maleness:
The tandak ludruk occupies a gender liminal role (a betwixt and between) character
and presents a unique figure of cognitive ambiguity. Today’s tandak ludruk,
while acting in the persona of a female, challenge conceptualizations of male
and female gender in East Javanese society and engage the audiences in their
gender transforming symbolic dialogue, especially when the audience implicitly “accepts” their
convincing female persona, yet at the same time possessing the knowledge that
the person portraying the female is biologically male. I contend that the transvestite
character implicitly tempts the audience to ponder definitions of gender and
traditional social notions of sexual morality, accomplishing all this by creating
a paradox in human reasoning. I argue that the role of the transvestite in ludruk
does much to contest the established norms of gender domains and, in essence,
creates a symbolic “figure of resistance” to notions of power, and
dominant and submissive gender roles.
Patrick P. Alcedo, York University, Canada
Anyone who is familiar with Philippine festivals considers the internationally
renowned Ati-atihan of Kalibo, Aklan to be one of the most carnivalesque
and at the same time most religious events in the Philippines. Ati-atihan, which
means to imitate the atis or the Negritos, is an annual street dancing festival
that recalls the Philippines pre-colonial past; honors the Filipinos’ putative
ancestors, the atis; and above all celebrates a community’s devotion to
the Santo Niño or the Holy Child Jesus. Most Kalibonhons know the Santo
Niño to be both a mischievous Boy and a King, who is endowed with power
to grant devotees, tourists, and festival participants their wishes. Only in
His pre-pubescence, the Santo Niño is also known to be gender ambiguous.
This paper argues that the paradoxes between the carnivalesque and the religious
and between the Santo Niño’s being a Boy and a King—coupled
with His own gender ambiguity— make it possible for participants to perform
gender in exploding ways. During Ati-atihan, for instance, half a dozen agi
(roughly equivalent to gay men) transform themselves into Folies Bergère
chorus girls. The paper focuses on this group of agi and describes the paradoxes
in their street dancing at the Ati-atihan 2000. It maintains that their festival
participation had established for them a much more intimate relationship with
the Santo Niño that opened ways in coming to terms with their non-heteronormative
behavior and in performing acts of resistance to the homogeneous heterosexuality
the Roman Catholic Church has always imposed.
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