Akiko Takeyama, "Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club" (Stanford UP, 2016)
Welcome to Tokyo's Kabuki-ch\u014d red-light district, where Professor Akiko Takeyama started her 'affective ethnographic' fieldwork to explore the\xa0host clubs in which\xa0ambitious young men seek their fortunes by selling love, romance, companionship, and female clients look for self-satisfaction. Her book\xa0Staged Seduction: Selling Dreams in a Tokyo Host Club\xa0(Stanford UP, 2016) facilitates an intimate\xa0look at this mysterious love business, providing an insightful window into the lives of hosts, clients, club owners, and managers.\nWith rich details from her fieldwork,\xa0Takeyama reveals that the host club is a site of aspiration, desperation, and hope, where both hosts and clients are eager to take a chance. The hosts employ their exceptional sales skills to create a fantasy world for their clients who seek an escape from their everyday lives. In this world, 'the art of seduction' plays an important role to bring in the actors and actresses in a play staged at the club. The role of 'seducer' and 'seducee' are interchangeable in the host-client and manage-host relationship which are the core factors of the 'Affect Economy'.\xa0\nAkiko Takeyama is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Kansas.\nBing Wang receives her PhD at the University of Leeds. Her research interests include diasporic Chinese cultural identity\xa0and critical heritage studies.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies