After spending five years in Iowa, Big Brother Luo finishes his escapist life from his grieve in New York and comes back to New York. “Disco was never played in Tea for Two, no hard rock either” (7). However, Big Brother Luo only finds out a new gay bar and pub, “End Up”, now replaces the previous Fairyland and Tea for Two. I would argue that Pai uses the image of remodeling to criticize promiscuous contemporary gay subculture. “Contemporary” refers to newer generations of emerging gay subculture after the AIDS raids. “Promiscuous” refers to gay cruising and clubbing subculture. In Pai’s narrative, contemporary gay cruising and clubbing subculture is viewed as lack of disciplines.
The following passage shows Pai’s nostalgic attitude toward pre-AIDS gay culture. Pre-AIDS gay culture is embodied by Hollywood movie stars and Broadway music.
All the framed photographs of old movie stars had been taken away, including, I was pleased to note, Garbo. Our gay queen could not have tolerated the racket.
Now decorating the wall were large paintings of half-naked, muscular men with ridiculously large genitals and asses. (25)
Gay queen Greta Garbo cannot tolerate the newer generation of gay culture,
implying that “quaint décor with heavy mahogany walls” (6-7) in Tea for Two are better than the remodeled place. The nostalgic Broadway Musical in Tea for Two is also better than disco music. The ill-taste decoration embodies the contemporary gay subculture. Criticism on contemporary gay subculture is revealed because the well-organized and disciplined decoration in David and Tony’s time are replaced by seeming lively but tasteless interior furnishing.
Tea for Two had been remodeled, with a big dance floor; the heart-shaped bar was gone, its replacement confined to a corner of the room, separated from the dance floor by a railing that locked in a rail-thin bartender with shoulder-length hair (25).
As indicated in previous section, bodybuilding is a practice that requires disciplinary lifestyle. However, the previous bartender, Gino the bodybuilder, is now replaced by this “rail-thin” bartender. The rail-thin character implies the lack of such disciplinary traits. Similar bodybuilding that requires discipline and stamina, these disciplinary traits also appear in Tony’s hair. As Pai depicts: “He kept it short, no more than an inch in length, but it was so soft it lay across his scalp and because of the straight cut over his forehead, had the appearance of a skullcap, which lent his a slightly
mischievous air” (4). Tony’s hair is short and tidy with style. However, the hair of this new bartender is much longer than that of Tony’s. The rail-thin body of the new bartender also makes a strong contrast to the bulky bodybuilding shape of Gino’s.
This ill-formed body is also a metaphor for disease as the following passage indicates that Gino is dead because of AIDS. Readers would thus assume the connection between the illness and the contemporary gay culture.
Compared to clients in Tea for Two, these new clients in End Up, again, show no taste for elegance. They are “sloppily dressed” (25), indicating their life is lack of disciplines. Pai describes Tony and David’s Tea for Two and Fairyland as a place for
gay men to find long-term romance. However, End Up is a place for gay men to find chances for one night stands, a strong contrast to the long-lasting relationship between Tony and David, and to the romance between Big Brother Luo and Andy.
Gay pornography is broadcasted in End Up, and these clips of gay pornography are rendered derogatory in Pai’s narrative.
I went out back to find Fairyland. It had been turned into a TV room; a gay porn video was playing on a gigantic screen, with the tangled bodies of naked men all repeating the same movements. In the semi-darkness of the room, a mere three or four men were sprawled in chairs, beers in hand, as they watched, passively, what was going on in the video, the same thing over and over — no more Fairyland. Tea for Two had been eradicated, without a trace. (25)
Even though gay nudity in gay pornography is a crucial subculture, it is rendered derogatory in Pai’s narrative. This derogatory demonstration is again contested against by the reencountering of David with Big Brother Luo five years later: “As always, he was neatly dressed – an expensive black velvet coat and a blue silk ascot with flecks of gold – and though his hair was neatly combed, it had turned almost completely white” (27). Even after the raid of AIDS, David remains chic in his appearance. The appearance of David’s well-organized grooming at the end of the story may indicate the very last utopia for gay men to stay.
V. Conclusion
This chapter explores Pai’s representations of a variety of gay sartorial practices.
These representations carry moral lessons and these sartorial practices work as metaphors for moral symbols. The first group of gay men, Tony and David duo, embodies the flamboyant sartorial practices. They are from wealthy backgrounds and they continue to be successful business partners. Their sartorial practices a show their
good discipline. Even though considering gay communities as the trendsetter is a stereotypical myth, the sartorial practices show that this group of gay men obtain a high social status and they are rid of stigmatization of being gay. The second group of gay men don’t wear flamboyant sartorial items; instead, they wear mainstream
sartorial items. Big Brother Luo and Andy embody the straight-acting and mainstream images. Their sartorial practices may help them pass as straight to keep their sexual inclination invisible status in a male-privileged society.
Pai holds strong criticisms on contemporary gay communities, as masculine sartorial practices in the contemporary gay culture is rendered messy and without any disciplines. Gay nudity and gay pornography are rendered derogatory in end of the narrative.
This chapter analyzes the exotic sartorial practices of Chinese American gay men and their sartorial influences on Taiwanese gay men. Russell Leong’s “Phoenix Eyes” describes gay communities in Taipei in the 1970s from the viewpoint of a Chinese American gay expatriate. On a flight to Taipei, Terrence, a Chinese American and the narrator of the story, falls in love with a Taiwanese male flight attendant.
Terrence decides to go to Taiwan to pursue his love even though his family expects him to get a job and work in the States with his double major in business and
performing arts. However, when Terrence arrives in Taiwan, he soon realizes that he is not the only lover that the flight attendant has. Penniless, Terrence starts to make a living through male prostitution. He is recruited by the “Hung Kung Hsien”, an international call station. He becomes a male sex worker and makes a lucrative business. Terrence is popular because he is considered exotic. After making enough money, Terrence leaves the call station and returns to the United States.