MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

The paper I propose will show that in Asian gay-male films, pools serve a complicated role as sites not only of recreation, but of profound scrutiny and reflection. My analysis will demonstrate that “Gaysian” male films represent a full gamut of human situations and emotions that all converge in the waters of different kinds of pools, from upscale urban swimming clubs, to pools in wealthy private residences, “watering holes” in poor villages, local community pools, and pools at resorts. In all of these contested sites, gay Asian men are portrayed as discovering various aspects of their identities either in the water or at the side of a pool. In most cases, these “eureka” moments are not just significant, they are, in truth, the moment of climax (no pun intended) when the protagonists realize the full implications of their gay identities. I will analyze these situations in a variety of films from different Asian nations, demonstrating that these “Gaysian” male films are proof of the growing sophistication, maturity, boldness, and intellectual depth that have come to characterize the gay-male film industry in Asia, both in smaller independent film companies and in those larger film companies that have chosen to make “gay-themed” films. Finally, it is something of an irony to note that pools – which do not outwardly appear to be “complicated” areas – serve as a marvelously apt metaphor for the need to “plunge into the deep waters” of “contested sites” like the body and the mind of the gay Asian male. These films make it clear that their Asian filmmakers recognized this fact long ago, and have successfully brought their (perhaps) unsuspecting audiences into deep meditations on questions of extreme import, but all through settings that are easy on the mind and the eyes!