In something akin to the 'pansey craze' that swept major U.S. cities in the waning days of Prohibition, South Korea is in the throes of a Pretty Boy Craze, according to recent reports. Beautiful, feminine-looking young men have been hired as greeters in restaurants and karaoke bars. They hug the incoming clientele, fraternize with them, sing for the karaoke crowd in private rooms, and have male fashion shows in restaurants. Matrons and young fans jostle camera phones to get their picture taken with their effete hosts. According to George Chauncey in his 1994 book Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940, this is the kind of thing that happened in the 1930s when straights would clamor to have their photographs taken with 'pansies' in Times Square.
KBS-TV Channel 41 in Chicago aired a video journal segment featuring Lee Jungki, the beautiful male star of the film that set off the phenomena. Their English subtitles label the light-hearted costume drama The King's Man, but an April 4 New York Times article calls the film The King and the Clown. The costume piece is set in the Chosun dynasty and involves a love triangle between the king and a pair of itinerant clown-acrobats. The traveling troupes of the day were all male, and Lee plays a female lead, entrancing both his partner and the king. The KBS-TV segment shows a clip of the moment when the eyes of the Lee and the king meet for the first time. 'Their eyes met' is a common subtitle in Korean soaps used to delineate falling in love.
Other portions of the KBS-TV segment show Lee in street clothes being all but mobbed by young female fans, and telling reporters that he doesn't mind being told he is a pretty as a woman. Another side effect of the film was the increased enrollment in acrobatic schools. One old-timer applauded the line of middle-aged women lined up to learn tightrope walking at his facility. Younger women are going in for tumbling and plate spinning as well. The New York Times article noted that the oldest surviving itinerant clown confirmed the 'intense relationships' in the all-male troupes that lived, worked, and traveled together. Kim Gi Bok is quoted as saying, 'The masculine clown showed his love by buying his partner, called biri, a watch.' He further noted that some married clowns left their wives for their biri.
Chauncey equated the 'pansey craze' with the increased visibility of gay men in the U.S. While gays in South Korea have always existed sub rosa, it is only recently that they have surfaced in popular culture without approbation. According to a lonelyplanet guidebook, visitors should be aware that even though there are no overt laws against homosexuality, the behavior is considered bizarre. They list a half dozen gay venues within cruising distance of each other in the Itaewon area of Seoul, and one lesbian bar some distance away near Hongik University. ( Interestingly, one male bar is called the Why Not? A similarly named institution existed in Chicago's notorious Levee district in the early 1900s, and a gay bar here a half-century later reprised the name. )
'Happy House,' a Korean serial of a few seasons ago, had the traditional grandfather asking the family's still single eldest son if he was 'that way.' The implication was, if so, just tell us so that the younger sons won't be waiting around for their turn to marry. Several soap operas, aired locally, have foppish male characters, usually plump, often with blonde or streaked hair ( another phenomenon observed in 'pansies' by Chauncey ) who often are employed in the fashion, entertainment or home shopping industries. In addition, a number of popular music groups have androgynous leads or backups; although that is much like the industry worldwide. A popular comedy revue regularly includes gay-type characters in its ensemble. But the 'pretty boys' have taken it a step further, in that they are beautifully feminine in appearance, but much less of a caricature.
As in Shakespeare's time, male actors in Asia have periodically assumed female roles. Best known in the States perhaps is the Japanese Kabuki popularized in gay culture by the tragic film of several years ago, M Butterfly. Less well known are the all-woman Japanese Takarazuka troupes, whose female stars are more akin to the cross-dressing women of British music hall fame around the end of the 19th century. The Takarazuka troupe began performing in 1913 and persists today. At its peak, performers would develop followings of passionate fans; some women even committed suicide over the unrequited love of their idols. Jennifer Robertson in her book Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan ( 1998 ) , notes that little mention is made of male fans 'though they did and do exist.' The reverse is true for the Korean 'pretty boy' phenomenon. Robertson's book has many photos of 'otokyoaku,' as the male-appearing actors are called. They are often stunning and androgynous on stage and off. Some have fallen in love with fans, and a few cases of double suicides are recorded. In a footnote to Robertson's book, mention is made of the Marlon Brando film based on James Michner's novel Sayonara, and James Melville's 1986 murder mystery Go Gently Gaijin, both involving otokyoaku.
In his New York Times article, 'Gay-Themed Film Gives Closet Door a Tug,' Norimitsu Onishi observes that homosexuality was removed from a list of 'socially unacceptable' acts only in 2004. He notes that The King and the Clown has been seen by one out of every four South Koreans and is the most popular film ever in the industry. In our country, this development is comparable to a film with the buzz of a Brokeback Mountain wedded to the box-office bucks of a Titanic. With the popularity of U.S. and South Korean films in the Asian markets, one might expect that the dialogues engendered by Brokeback Mountain and The King's Man ( which is planned for international release ) will take the discussion of sexuality and gender to a wider audience.
Copyright 2006 by Marie J. Kuda
