ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how two Taiwanese men relate themselves to Japanese adult videos (AV), pertaining to their biographical and personal life experiences. The two Taiwanese men, Adrian and Henry, share similarities in their background and education, as well as the way they came into contact with, and used, pornography, each of them develops unique relations to it. Adrian sees Japanese AVs as a defiant icon to resist his parents and a replacement for his distant mother, thereby drawing their attention while remaining a dutiful son academically. Although Henry seems to deviate from other Taiwanese male informants in that he embraces both Japanese AVs and American pornography, he in fact follows the cultural preference in identifying more with Japanese AVs. More crucially, it is his family life and personal encounters, including academic pursuits, romance, and male identity, which give his relations to Japanese AVs novel, specific, unexpected and often contradictory dimensions, allowing him to embrace both varieties.
