Towards a contemporary queer pop theater in Taiwan: the feminine fascinations of Dress in Code

Abstract

ABSTRACT Premiered in 2016, Ear East Ensemble’s Dress in Code sets its stories across the late Ming Dynasty, the White Terror period, and contemporary Taiwan, weaving together issues of queer and national disidentification. Critics question the legitimacy of actress Ying-Xuan Hsieh playing a cross-dressing male Kuomintang detective, arguing that her comedic dansō reijin performance eclipses the themes of political and sexual violence as imposed by authoritarian regimes and patriarchy. Yet this essay argues that her presentation ironically enables the theatricality of a multilayered gender performance to reach its climax through the feminine fascinations mobilized by the audience and the performer and, simultaneously, activates wild femininities that problematize the logocentric progressivism promoted by pro-China officials since 1949. Specifically, this essay investigates the theatrical and the performing texts, as well as analyzing the ways in which the multilayered gender performance, as a parodic tactic, protests a possible contemporary queer pop theater that not only amplifies the diverse critiques of queer studies but also responds to the current impasse of feminist movements in Taiwan.