Japan's rules of love brought to Taiwan

The frenzy over Japanese pop culture is no longer the exclusive domain of young Taiwanese. When it comes to relationships, middle-aged Taiwanese now find themselves indulging in the steamy and fanciful world of Tokyo love affairs.

And they are doing it through Liu Li-erh (劉黎兒), a Tokyo correspondent for the China Times who last week published two books that delve into the new and diverse love relationships between men and women: Tokyo, Scenes, Men and Women (東京, 風情, 男女), and Tokyo Erotic Handbook (東京情色手冊).

The books have brought her a long way away from her journalistic writing of the past 17 years, reporting political affairs, and transformed her into a "new erotic queen" in local literature circles.

"My original intention was maybe to titillate myself or my Japanese friends, but accidentally I also titillated the desire of Taipei people and other Chinese readers in the world," Liu says in her book postscript.

Tokyo, Scenes, Men and Women covers an ambitious range of material, from mid-life affairs and changing ideas of love and relationships in Japan, to cellular love affairs, food and emotions. Tokyo Erotic Handbook consists more of social observations on contemporary love and sex in Japan, and Liu delights in writing about the secret of women's hand books, the five rules for having affairs with married men, and stories of housewives who are part-time porno stars.

"Liu not only has a superb sense of smell and diagnosis, but the rhythm of her writing echoes with the brisk melody of urban Tokyo," says literature critic Chen Fang-ming (陳芳明) in the preface of Tokyo, Scenes, Men and Women.

For Chen and other middle-aged intellectuals, Liu's writing is more than vivid, it is tempting, offering Taiwanese a chance to glimpse and consume Japan's erotic world. To others, some of Liu's presentations seem more like scenarios skimmed from Japanese TV dramas, in which women are preoccupied with extramarital affairs (Excerpts follow.)

Asako, my girlfriend, said, "The supply and demand of men and women in the market was considered relatively balanced 10 years ago, but recently that balance has rapidly tipped. Just look everywhere, the good men are all married. That is why a disposition for illicit love affairs has appeared. Girls who were born late are very disadvantaged. They have to love married men."

Sachiko said, "I pressed the redial button of his mobile. The number of my closest girlfriend always shows up. I don't know if I should keep my eyes shut or expose him."

Liu says these snapshots seem all too familiar to Taiwanese, who may find their lives paralleling those documented in her book."Taipei's social life and social structure is getting closer to that of Japan," she says. "So people, especially middle-aged men and women, feel a familiarity when reading my stories. They don't seem to be reading about an exotic or different culture."

Liu believes there is a new flood of middle-aged Japan lovers (中年哈日族), people who like the hot springs of Izu peninsula (伊豆半島), eating yakitori at Japanese pubs, watching the films of Takeshi Kitano, listening to Ryuichi Sakamoto and, more importantly, tuning into Japanese melodramas.

Ironically, Liu has in a small way become part of the Japanese pop culture she is writing about, albeit in a non-erotic way. During the book launch, a lot of Liu's old media friends treated her like a Japanese pop star, requesting interviews, inviting her to start new columns and asking her to autograph old columns.