Johnny Neihu: erotica mole
Dear Johnny,
I am a student at the University of California, Los Angeles and am conducting sex and gender research for one my classes. I just read your article “100% Taiwanese, porn and bred” (Nov. 3, 2007, page 8), which I thought was pretty funny.<>
I was born in Taiwan but immigrated to the US in 1984. I still visit friends and family on occasion.
I have several questions about Taiwan’s adult industry.
Why is it non-existent? Why are there no “Hustlers” or “Vivid Videos” in Taiwan? Does the law allow for distribution and not production?
Are there any popular Taiwanese adult Web sites (I am unable to search since I can’t read Chinese)?
How do Taiwanese usually acquire adult material? By downloading or purchasing pirated titles?
Which government official or office would handle such inquiries?
I appreciate your time and help. It is so difficult to find detailed information on Taiwan’s adult entertainment industry.
Eric Cha
Johnny replies: Well, Eric, some of the answers to the questions you ask are inappropriate for this newspaper, even by my standards, so I’ll stick to the less confronting stuff.
There is an adult industry here, but it is largely made up of massage parlors, prostitution rings and telephone sex services that would not loom large on the Internet (Rule No. 1 for budding researchers: there is a wide world beyond the Web).
What you want to know is why filmed adult entertainment is in short supply. I can only assume this is because the Japanese have the East Asian market by the cajones and that local efforts would appear too provincial even for local tastes. Call it cultural cringe in lingerie.
Mind you, I hear there is a growing head of steam on the Internet of young lassies wanting to get their gear off. I can assure you that none of my granddaughters get up to this kind of nonsense, so I am not the best person to ask (mind you, my gal Cathy Pacific’s sister, Asia, strikes me as the kind of person who would let it all hang out for the hell of it).
Eric, you also need to know that there is a steady supply of modified and unmodified Japanese DVDs available for hire in adult stores dotting the landscape. They tend to be rather tame affairs — the stores, I mean, not the videos.
On adult Web sites, the Government Information Office (which could help you with your inquiries, but don’t tell them I sent you as they have a contract out on me) and the police have a poor opinion of adult Web-based material and a number of sites have been closed down or their operators harassed. But my hairy-palmed friends tell me there are plenty others around.
I suggest you get in touch with Josephine Ho (何春蕤), a splendid feminist academic and activist at National Central University, who would know far more about these distasteful things than I.
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