Desiring one an-Other: Japanese Adult Video as a Site of ‘Hope’ in East Asia

• In Event: Ambivalent Hopes, Gendered Desires: The Potential of Japanese Pornography

Abstract

The relationship between China and Japan is often typified as volatile and threatening. Yet, amidst these fraught relations, landscapes of desire also exist. Within this paper I trace the effects and affects made possible by Japanese adult video (AV) stars within East Asia. Focusing on Aoi Sola, one of the most popular social media celebrities in China today, I explore how a former AV star can reflect and redirect desires within East Asia. In particular, I argue that the transnational reception of Japanese AV celebrities in East Asia increasingly stands as an alternative site of ‘hope’ for everyday consumers. Aoi Sola has been informally given the title ‘the people’s cultural ambassador for China and Japan’ online, and has successfully shifted her career from AV star to transnational diva. She has a lingerie line, album, and is a major spokesperson for sexual health awareness in China. Her rise signifies desires for cosmopolitan, sexually expressive, consumerist lifestyles among young Chinese, as well as a desire for Japan as an alternative East Asian modernity. The shifting meanings that surround her also suggest new possibilities for Japanese AV stars themselves. Aoi Sola has developed a hybrid post-AV persona since breaking into international markets. She has demonstrated the potentialities and limitations found within the image of the sexualized Japanese woman, and stands as a symbol of ‘hope’ for many Japanese AV performers. Rather than facing the precarity of Japanese AV’s notoriously short careers, Aoi shows that there is potentially life after porn beyond Japan’s borders.

Author

• Jamie Coates, University of Sheffield