ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a discussion on the stereotype of an exclusively sexual/eroticized image of tango by introducing class and race into the erotic game. It attempts to historicize exoticism and thus to denaturalize the exotic identities attributed to peasants, the urban poor, and foreign others. The book is also concerned with "autoexoticism." Tango's popularity in the main capitals of the world, and its acceptance, primarily by the foreign elites, as a modern "exotic" product, generated local scandals. The book analyzes the tango scandal in Argentina in terms of a complex dispute among local sectors over the legitimate representation of the nation. It also analyzes the ways in which the competing French, English, and argentino tangos have been appropriated by the Japanese themselves as markers of internal social distinctions.
