To: Shangri-La, Dragon, Rage, and all other "Gay-sian" Clubs
From: My Disappointed Self
Doesn't it bother you that your dance floors and marketing strategies only serve to reinforce negative stereotypes about the gay Asian male? How many times must I be reminded that dragons, yin-yangs, and other Orientalized images are no longer necessary?
I understand that your origins were true and kind hearted. Considering the sexual suppression Asian Americans have faced, it was only natural to hypersexualize our narratives. However, even your approach is flawed. There is such a thing as healthy sexual expression: consistently lying to your target audience about what the Gay Asian male looks like isn't it.
Namely put, not all gay Asians that go clubbing have a six pack, smooth body, and features akin to that of a Korean pop star. Yet, your flyers lead me to believe that "Gay-sian" clubs are the queer meccas of powerbottoms and pretty boys with white bodies and immense amounts of self-Asian hate. To be honest, your venues are anything but that.
A shoddy sweatshack that blasts overplayed Top 40 music that can be likened to a World's Fair exhibition of the exoticized Asian penis. Please, do direct me to where I can pick up my drunken and sexually loose Asian man. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for older white men that are culturally educating themselves about Asian Ams via hip grinding and ass fondling. Apparently, the new White Man's Burden is trying to decide who tops and who bottoms.
Now, here's the thing. Those who partake in your services aren't wrong. Your audience is simply short-changed when it comes to queer social venues. Looking at other clubs and hang outs (Tigerheat, The Crib, FUZ), the queer youth have little to choose from. The pickings--from my standpoint--have little variance or quality.
This memorandum is to inform you that your time is up. Hopefully, our generation will wake up and realize that queer Asian expression isn't limited to pop music, material emphasis, and overt hedonism. Yes, we are a hedonistic generation. And frankly, you're partly to blame. And no, do not blame it on the alcohol.
You may argue that if I don't like it, I shouldn't do it. I agree. It's by this very logic that I choose not to go clubbing that often. Yet, I find it problematic that on a Saturday or Friday night, nearly every queer youth runs to you as their source of entertainment. Check the Downelink Missed Connections: the clarion calls for Rage, FUZ, and The Crib are everywhere. When's the last time you heard the majority go somewhere that wasn't a stereotypical gay club?
What's my point? Our community needs more options than you. You can't be the only ones to monopolize our forms of entertainment. You can't be the dance floors I am forced to grow up with. Your sleaziness masked in dollar drinks, shoddy decor, and flashing lights is getting old now. Maybe my age is showing, but I miss the atmosphere of chill house parties and true kickbacks. I miss just enjoying music and being soulful with other people.
If you're looking for a suggestion, here it is: present me with a new way to intersect Asian Americans, music, art, and fashion. Why not emphasize demographics and identities that don't receive the limelight all the time? Why not make a club that can spin music that necessarily doesn't run at 100 BPM or have auto-tune/trance sounds?
Sure, I may be whining and "holier than thou", but ask yourself this: what do we get out of our gay clubs anymore? Don't we deserve a holistic experience that's worth more than 20 dollars of admission? The clubbing scene has grown stale and your audiences have been the same people every damn week. It's a problem when I go to FUZ and see the same stereotypes emphasized over and over.
And if anyting, a business model that goes unrevised in the presence of changing times is doomed to fail.
ADDENDUM:
I may be biased in my approach, but I'm also asking that maybe the clubbing scene should now move over to the lounge scene. Perhaps it's high time that our generation learned how to chill rather than seek cheap thrills.
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7 comments for this post
Why not start your own club like those of us now in our early to mid 30s did called Jaded? It was a cogendered queer Asian club in SF from 1997 to about 2003 that played bomb ass music had incredibly, and is the standard that I measure all other clubs to. I'm sure there's a demand if you can get some cool dykes and fags to join you in this.
Amen. Many of us are hungry for substantive alternatives. Lounge vs club sounds interesting!
totally agree...
great post :)
I've only been to Rage once, and my experience was pretty uninspiring, for the reasons you mentioned. Then again, as a half-White half-Filipino who doesn't visibly have Asian blood, I shouldn't have even assumed any part of Rage or the club scene would have acknowledged my presence in the first place. It's nice to know I'm not alone in my frustrations with this fragment of our community.
Speaking of mixed, I once sent you a friendly message and got no reply. I'm hoping you didn't assume that having White in me meant I couldn't possibly be progressive, educated, or interesting enough for your time.
@Efren: I wish I had the money, connections, and resources to open such a place. It's always been a dream of mine to provide such a space in San Francisco.
If someone can hook me up, then I'd be happy to put in the effort. Haha :]
@ Sion: I'm glad there are others who are hungry for alternative places of entertainment. Gotta keep things fresh and exciting, right?
@ Genial: Thank you! I really do appreciate the compliment :]
@ Adam: I've only been to Rage once as well. Although I had fun, the atmosphere and inherent climate wasn't really healthy.
As for sending me a friendly message, where did you try contacting me? Sometimes, I let messages slip through without me noticing. I'm terribly sorry! And no, I don't think you being white prevents you from being progressive, educated or interesting.
Please do contact me sometime again! :]
Amen about Top 40s and trance hits. I went to Dragon once and did not hate it only because I was inebriated from the cheaper drinks next door and my little green friend. Lounge is win as well as other genres that fall under the EDM umbrella. I was spinning electro house at a little shindig I had at my apartment, and all I got were requests for Lady Gaga. -___-
I'm a bit late but I just wanted to say that I feel like there's a time and place for anything and that clubs serves a purpose for a part of the community. I know that if I went it'd be new and exciting and lusty and weird and flaily (I love flaily), which is something I've never done before, and I'd think it very neat since I know of no other comparable environment (which is fine, I guess, because there probably isn't any other environment in which it is appropriate for one to rub up against boys that happen to be cute and Asian, if you're into that kind of thing.) If you suggested on a way in which one could improve those qualities I was looking for, I think it'd also be interesting. I think, definitely, that this might be an age thing since I haven't done all of this yet (and I still think talking is boring. Is that infantile of me?)