A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation (Perverse Modernities: A Series Edited by Jack Halberstam and Lisa Lowe) - Softcover

Nguyen, Tan Hoang

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822356848 ISBN 13: 9780822356844

Publisher: Duke University Press, 2014

Synopsis

A View from the Bottom offers a major critical reassessment of male effeminacy and its racialization in visual culture. Examining portrayals of Asian and Asian American men in Hollywood cinema, European art film, gay pornography, and experimental documentary, Nguyen Tan Hoang explores the cultural meanings that accrue to sexual positions. He shows how cultural fantasies around the position of the sexual "bottom" overdetermine and refract the meanings of race, gender, sexuality, and nationality in American culture in ways that both enable and constrain Asian masculinity. Challenging the association of bottoming with passivity and abjection, Nguyen suggests ways of thinking about the bottom position that afford agency and pleasure. A more capacious conception of bottomhood—as a sexual position, a social alliance, an affective bond, and an aesthetic form—has the potential to destabilize sexual, gender, and racial norms, suggesting an ethical mode of relation organized not around dominance and mastery but around the risk of vulnerability and shame. Thus reconceived, bottomhood as a critical category creates new possibilities for arousal, receptiveness, and recognition, and offers a new framework for analyzing sexual representations in cinema as well as understanding their relation to oppositional political projects.

About this title

About the Author

Nguyen Tan Hoang is Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies at Bryn Mawr College. He is also a videomaker whose works include K.I.P, Forever Bottom!, PIRATED! and look_im_azn.  His videos have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art, The Getty Center, and the Centre Pompidou.
 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A View from the Bottom

Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation

By Nguyen Tan Hoang

Duke University Press

Copyright © 2014 Duke University Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8223-5684-4

Contents

PREFACE, 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, 
INTRODUCTION, 
CHAPTER ONE The Rise, and Fall, of a Gay Asian American Porn Star, 
CHAPTER TWO Reflections on an Asian Bottom, 
CHAPTER THREE The Lover's "Gorgeous Ass", 
CHAPTER FOUR The Politics of Starch, 
CONCLUSION, 
NOTES, 
BIBLIOGRAPHY, 
VIDEOGRAPHY, 
INDEX, 

CHAPTER 1

The Rise, and Fall, of a Gay Asian American Porn Star

In an article in the Asian American pop culture zine Giant Robot, journalist Claudine Ko (1999) recounts her search for Brandon Lee. She refers not to the son of Bruce Lee, who gained cult stardom after dying mysteriously and tragically at a young age while shooting The Crow (dir. Alex Proyas, 1994), but the other Brandon Lee, the gay porn star. Ko reports on rumors that Brandon Lee the porn star had been discovered while delivering Chinese food to a gay porn set. As the story goes, the director asked to see his egg roll and was so blown away by the sight that he immediately cast Lee in a porn video. Later in the article, Ko tracks down Chi Chi LaRue, one of the best-known directors in gay porn, who straightened out the story. LaRue claimed to have discovered Brandon Lee at a gay bathhouse in Los Angeles. Impressed by Lee's good looks and ten inches of manhood, she brought him to Catalina, the popular gay video company, which promptly signed him on, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I am not particularly interested in ascertaining which version of the story about Lee's discovery is true. Rather, what I find compelling is the way the two versions can be read as emblematic of how the image of Asian men in gay North American porn has shifted with the appearance of Brandon Lee. Before Lee, Asian porn actors performed the roles of karate masters, Chinatown grocery boys, or their cousins, Chinese food delivery boys, which is to say, they constituted racialized sexual stereotypes. In contrast, Lee is frequently portrayed as West Hollywood boyfriend material, cast in mundane roles as well as pornotopic parts such as real estate agent, young man who inherits a gay brothel, army recruit, porn star, sex party host, biker dude, and most commonly West Hollywood twink. In other words, Brandon Lee could well be just another random (American) gay guy one could easily find cruising in a West Hollywood bathhouse. He has left his parents' grocery store in Chinatown to live with his white boyfriend in the gay ghetto. This movement from one ghetto to another parallels Lee's transition from ethnic niche to mainstream gay video pornography.

By beginning my study of Asian American masculinity and sexual representation with an examination of gay male video pornography produced in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, I address the common grievance about the representation of Asian American masculinity in American culture, registered in the complaint that mainstream media depict Asian men as effeminate and asexual. At first glance, it would appear that as a top porn star, Brandon Lee is a model of masculine sexual prowess and potency, the rhetorical and flesh-and-blood penis that Asian American cultural critics have been searching for. Put differently, his success would seem to satisfy the goals of Asian American media activism and scholarship. However, in what follows, I look at the ways in which the privileging of topness and remasculinization in the work of Brandon Lee serve to reinforce normative discourses of race, class, gender, nation, and sexuality. The chapter's investigation of contemporary gay male video porn shows how those modalities of difference get articulated through top-bottom sexual positionings. At the same time that I unpack Lee's claim to fame as an Asian top, I also point to the instabilities of his top status by highlighting significant moments in his videos when topness topples as well as instances when bottomhood exceeds its coding as Asian abjection. In addition, I suggest that Lee's emergence marks out a space for a queer, resistant Asian American porn spectatorship that enlarges previous models of porn viewing. Though not without its contradictions, Lee's exceptional porn persona proffers a new sexual visibility for gay Asian American men. His rise, and fall, unlocks heretofore unexplored possibilities for gay Asian men's social and sexual subjectivity, not least by animating new ways of thinking and doing bottomhood. To be sure, the instabilities of his topness illustrate how Lee maintains multiple boundaries (e.g., Asian/American, bottom/top) even as he embodies their blurring.

In his analysis of gay male porn videos employing Asian actors—the one arena where Asian men are depicted engaging in explicit homosexual sex—Richard Fung interrogates the "role the pleasure of porn plays in securing a consensus about race and desirability that ultimately works to our disadvantage [as Asian men]" (1991, 158). Fung describes the feminization of Asian men in gay porn within the context of racialized power relations. Examining the work of Vietnamese American porn actor Sum Yung Mahn, he demonstrates how pornographic depictions of Asian men focus on their submission to the pleasure of white men. In these tapes produced in the mid-1980s, Asian men almost always adopt the bottom role in relation to a white top. In Asian Knights (dir. Ed Sung, 1985), the only exception where an Asian top fucks a white bottom, the Asian character is portrayed as serving the white character domestically and sexually as a houseboy.

The intended audience for these Asian-themed videos is primarily gay white men. A sex scene between two Asian men in Asian Knights is edited to conform to the point of view of a white man. What appears to be an Asian-Asian sexual scenario is undercut when the white man enters the scene and occupies the center of the sexual attention, much the way the man enters into a "lesbian" number in heterosexual porn. Most significantly, the white male fear of being fucked is displaced onto the bodies of Asian men. A scene in Below the Belt (dir. Philip St. John, 1985) has an Asian actor step temporarily into the role of a white character in order to articulate his anxiety about getting fucked. In this sequence, the Asian male body substitutes for the white male body to receive the punishment represented by anal sex.

Despite the critical attention and popularity of Asian male actors in Asian cinemas and their successful crossover into Hollywood (e.g., actors such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Chow Yun-fat in the late 1990s), as well as the more recent spotlight on Asian American actors Kal Penn, John Cho, Daniel Dae Kim, and Harry Shum Jr., the depiction of Asian men as sexually appealing scarcely figures in mainstream American popular culture. In the realm of explicit sexual representation, one finds that in marked contrast to the overwhelming presence of Asian and Asian American women in heterosexual pornography, there is a notable absence of Asian American men. Thus, the popularity of Brandon Lee as a gay Asian American porn star represents a startling and unique achievement that demands special attention.

Brandon Lee is the only male Asian American porn actor with the distinction of having a "best of" video compilation, The Best of Brandon Lee (dir. Chi Chi LaRue and Josh Eliot, 1999; figure 1.1). Starting in 1997, at the ripe age of eighteen, Lee began acting in gay videotapes geared toward an Asian niche market in Catalina's Far East Features series, in such popular titles as Asian Persuasion (dir. Josh Eliot, 1997), Fortune Nookie (dir. Chi Chi LaRue, 1998), and Asian Persuasion 2 (dir. Brad Austin, 1998). He then quickly crossed over into mainstream gay porn, appearing in Dial "S" for Sex (dir. Chi Chi LaRue, 1998), Stag Party (dir. Chi Chi LaRue, 1998), Harley's Crew (dir. Chi Chi LaRue, 1998),Big Guns 2 (dir. Josh Eliot, 1999), Throat Spankers (dir. Josh Eliot, 1998), and Peters (dir. Dane Preston, 1999). After a brief stint in the U.S. Navy, he returned to making porn in 2004 as a Rascal Video Exclusive actor, appearing in a number of videos in 2004–2005. The most significant of the videos produced after his comeback is Wicked (dir. Chi Chi LaRue, 2005), in which he bottoms for the first time. Concentrating on his work in the period before his comeback, I am interested in looking at the racial packaging of Brandon Lee in the Asian videos where he is depicted as American in relation to his Asian costars and how this process changed in the mainstream videos, where he is the only Asian (and frequently the only person of color), while his racial and ethnic difference is not remarked on. I argue that the making of this gay Asian American top porn star is accomplished through the coding of Brandon Lee as an assimilated (Asian) American. The case of Brandon Lee the porn star shows how American masculinity underlies topness, which then confers the status of gay porn star. His work serves as an exemplary "border study" of the conflicting categories of "American" and "Asian" as they are enacted and performed in top and bottom sexual roles in contemporary gay video porn. An analysis of Brandon Lee's star text demonstrates how the two national categories have been constructed in mutual opposition and the manner in which their dichotomous differences manifest themselves through sexuality and gender. But before zooming in on Lee's racial packaging in the porn videos, we need to consider an earlier groundbreaking intervention in the visual representation of Asian masculinity in mainstream American popular culture.

From Kicking Ass to Fucking Ass

It is not insignificant that an Asian American adult performer takes as his nom de porn the name of Brandon Lee, son of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. This choice of name clearly activates the one "positive" place Asian men occupy within the American popular imagination. The martial arts cinematic genre is set within a visual economy where Asian men are seen as physically powerful, energetic, and graceful. Yvonne Tasker (1997) has noted the importance of a remasculinization of Chinese national identity in the star text of Bruce Lee. The cultivation of the hard and muscular fighting body counteracts the view of Chinese men as soft and delicate, and thus foregrounds a Chinese national identity based on a macho muscularity. Tasker describes a scene in Fist of Fury (dir. Wei Lo, 1972), in which a Chinese go-between, a traitorous character affiliated with the Japanese martial arts school, comes to the Chinese school to offer a challenge by taunting the students there as the "Sick Men of Asia." Responding to this insult, Lee's character goes to the Japanese school and defeats the students there to proclaim that he and his Chinese schoolmates are not sick men. Tasker writes, "This assertion of nationalism is very clearly inscribed through the revelation of Lee's body—as he ritualistically removes his jacket—so that discourses of masculinity and nationhood are complexly bound up together in his star image" (1997, 318). In other words, Lee's well-trained and disciplined hard body plays a crucial role in the assertion of national identity.

The most striking feature of the Bruce Lee star image in relation to our discussion of the eroticized representation of Asian men is his portrayal of an ascetic, sexually naive working-class hero. In most of Lee's films, his relationships with women are platonic and lacking in sexual tension. In The Way of the Dragon (dir. Bruce Lee, 1972), the main female character is his cousin, who first doubts Lee's ability to help her fight against the Italian gangsters. Once she sees him in action, however, she develops a soft spot for him; but their relationship stays on a tender, familial level. The asexuality of the Lee character is especially pronounced in a sequence from Enter the Dragon (dir. Robert Clouse, 1973). In a brothel scene, Lee's cohorts, John Saxon and Jim Kelley, readily pick out several women from a lineup to join them for the night, while Lee requests only one woman to come to his room. The prostitute chosen by Lee turns out to be a fellow secret spy; needless to say, no romance ensues between them. Hsiung-Ping Chiao (1981) has observed that sex in the Bruce Lee oeuvre is seen as the "corrupting force" associated with decadence and linked with brothels, prostitutes, and slave trafficking. Lee's films subscribe to a puritan sexual morality, continuous with traditional Confucian values. Nevertheless, a contemporary viewer, who may already be cognizant of the work of recent Asian male action actors such as Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, or Jet Li, can still be struck by the awesome erotic intensity of Lee's onscreen presence, which remains uneclipsed by other Asian actors working today. Chiao comments on the way in which the desexualization of Lee's fictional characters at the thematic level is undercut at the level of audience reception: "Puritan sexual morality have [sic] been paradoxically decoded by audiences as sexual stimulants.... It has been pointed out that his fights resemble sexual behavior. The open-legged posture before attacking, the slow-motion shots of his tense body, and the expression of excitement and elation intermingle to imply sexual provocation. The subtle tie between violence and sex thus transcends the overt layer of sex-inhibition and becomes emotional retribution for Lee's ill-fated destiny and plight" (1981, 40–41). While Chiao calls attention to viewers' resistant reading of Lee's eroticism within his films, it should also be noted that Lee's fans, before and after his death, have been fully aware of his off-screen reputation as a ladies' man. They idolize his status as both a lover and a fighter (Nguyen 2007). According to Tasker, the martial arts genre, like the American Western and the action film, allows for the traditionally taboo looking of men at other men. However, Western critics' overemphasis on the aggression of Bruce Lee's films effectively downplays the sensuous and homoerotic force of his performances. These critics' exclusive attention to the gory violence in his films disavows the homoeroticism of Lee's handsome face, onscreen charisma, and his half-naked body under duress.

Like the masculinist project of the martial arts film genre, the question of remasculinization in gay Asian American pornography occupies a central place in our discussion of Brandon Lee. Like the martial arts superstar, Brandon Lee plays a performer who acts on the bodies of other men, in the narratives and the reception of the videos. Thus, it is fruitful to examine the thematic correspondences and divergences between these two Asian American male stars. Bruce and Brandon Lee both work within film genres where spectacle and performance command more attention than narrative complexity. The decisive moment of transformation underscores their emergence as physically powerful and sexually potent stars. Parallel to Bruce Lee's shift from nerdy country bumpkin to powerful kung fu master, the transformation of Brandon Lee from asexual Asian man to American porn star takes place when the motivating porn narrative gets established and the sexual episodes begin to unfold. While the kung fu movie builds up the viewer's anticipation of the moment when Bruce Lee finally decides to fight, gay pornography provides only minimal preparation leading to the performance of sex and thus offers the viewer little in the way of suspense. The selectively concentrated and distracted mode of porn viewing, the fast-forwarding and zooming in to where the real, exciting sexual performance occurs, calls to mind the kung fu viewer's anticipation of the instant when Bruce Lee, no longer able to contain his anger over the injustices surrounding him, exposes his muscular upper body and shows off his masterful martial arts skills. In the case of Brandon Lee, the metamorphosis from asexual Asian man to porn star is the thrilling moment when he finally exposes his hidden asset. In the words of the Adam Gay Video Directory 2001: "He can act, he's good sex, he's a top, and in case you hadn't noticed ... that dick" (2000, 52).

The visual revelation of the martial arts star's compact, muscular torso and the porn star's erect, sizeable dick, as evidence of each man's "veiled" masculine prowess, is buttressed, and undermined, by aural effects. Accompanying Bruce Lee's exhibition of visually stunning movements is the involuntary eruption of convulsive grunts and wrathful yells, evoking intense rage. The overdubbing of Bruce Lee's films at these impassioned moments echoes the porn convention of postdubbing of dialogue and sex sounds: the generic dirty talk and repetitive moans in gay pornography. The porn soundtrack offers evidence of authentic sexual pleasure, provides proof of the final delivery of satisfaction, and adds realism by fleshing out the visual performance. But, as in the martial arts movie, the low-budget, out-of-sync, and poor verbal performance also suggests the sex sounds are excessive and faked. In the same way that Bruce Lee's animalistic shrieks are not commonly heard for their piercing sensuality, Brandon Lee's and his Asian costars' obligatory moans and groans are not perceived as adequately convincing sexual responses. (I will have more to say about the complicated relationship between this lack of a perfect match between the audio and visual tracks in the concluding section of this chapter.)

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822356848
• ISBN 13: 9780822356844
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304