Don’t misunderstand diversity.
also should not use literature and art to cover all your eyes.
cholesterol
gay gathering area, hormone-filled beauty hunting resort, alcohol-saturated midnight paradise - when it comes to the word "Shinjuku Nichome", people often smile meaningfully.
is located between the residential area Ichome and the commercial area Trichome. Shinjuku Dichome in Tokyo, Japan is divided into two districts by Shinjuku Avenue. The commonly referred to as "Shinjuku 2chome" actually only refers to the north side of the concentration of same-sex bars. For the permanent residents here, even if they leave the north side, they are "out of the two-chome", they are clearly divided.
is in dichome, and more than 420 bars are distributed along the central main road "Zhongjie", which is about 240 meters long. Street-facing stores only account for a small part, and more are hidden inside buildings along the street.
is located in "cholesterol" in New Chidori Street and is one of the most famous bars in this area. More than 10 meters apart, it opened two stores in succession, with an old store of less than 10 square meters and can only accommodate three or four people. The No. 2 store, which was added four years ago, is only 20 square meters, and up to ten people can sit around the J-shaped bar.
In 2013, the boss Takuya appeared in the "Contradictory duel" unit of the late-night variety show "Tokui Yoshimi's Zipper Pulled Down". In the same year, he appeared on the Taiwanese variety show " Kangxi is Coming " and has since become the famous "Taoya Brother" who "tatizes" in the chat.
almost every night to 10:00 a.m., and Takuya usually entertains celebrities and celebrities behind the thick security doors of No. 1 store. The more spacious No. 2 store is managed by employee Chimama, which hosts ordinary guests.
△ The streets of Shinjuku Nichome under the night (Part 1) and the "Cholesterol" No. 2 store (Part 2) that started business in 2013 (Part 2). "Can take a photo with Takuya" has also become one of the gimmicks for cholesterol to attract customers. Photography | Xia Ying Chong
"After leaving home 20 years ago, I started to do this business." Chimama was busy, and he kept talking with "Article Leaf" (that is, speaking intently using women's common words and tone), "Hate! Don't guess my age." He covered his mouth with his hands, his tone full of teasing.
At the end of the last century when he "debuted", the dichome still had a strong underground edge color. Unlike today's "cholesterol", which is almost a tourist attraction, the customers who come to the store have visitors from Tokyo on weekends, and there are also 40% of the passenger flow, from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. They basically want to take a look at "Brother Takuya".
In order to increase the table turnover rate, "cholesterol" adopts the "one-hour table turnover system" that seems a bit cramped and impatient in the service industry. The entrance fee plus the first drink is 2,000 yen (about 120 yuan). The average consumption of such dichome, with 800 to 1,200 yen, is offered at a higher price.
Dichome
This year marks the 11th year of "cholesterol" operating in Shinjuku Dichome. With the opening of the new subway line "Sub-Tuxin Line" in 2008, land prices around Shinjuku Sanchome Station rose, and stores closed down every month. Under such circumstances, "cholesterol" can be considered a long life.
And "cholesterol" is actually just a small piece of ripple in the long history of Dichome. Japanese scholar Fushimi Qianaki once proposed in "The "Experience" of Homosexuality" that the formation of the homosexual culture of the dichome can be traced back to the opening of the homosexual bar "Ibsen" (イプセン) in 1951. Relevant reports in newspapers at that time brought a large number of customers to the bar "Ibsen". Gradually, more and more similar bars began to emerge near Shinjuku Station.
950s, Shinjuku Station, as a transportation hub in Tokyo's sub-capital circle, developed rapidly, and more women and children appeared near Shinjuku. Against the background of the system of "providing clean, stable, and asexual entertainment", the number of department stores has increased, the living space of homosexual bars has been squeezed, and homosexual bars near Shinjuku Station have gradually declined. 956, the Japanese parliament passed the "Selling Spring Prevention Act", which was officially implemented in 1958, and ended the purpose-buying and selling activities of Shinjuku Nich, a famous red-light district since the Edo period.△ Chidori Street located on the south side of Dichome was once one of the gathering places of gay bar in the early 1960s. In the mid-to-late 1960s, the Shinjuku District road planning caused bars in this area to migrate to the north side of Dichome. Image source | Daily News Agency
The Dichome at that time was "just an empty shell, or a 'ghost town' with no one. But for the gay bar that was quietly moving underground at that time, it was a perfect place." Shi Yuan, the owner of the "New Sazae" bar that witnessed the change of the Dichome, told the "future prediction map". New Sazae is considered a famous store of dichymite gay bar. It has been opened in 1966 and has been called "the tangible cultural property of dichymite".
has few people and cheap land prices. Gay bars are gradually gathering here, and the characteristics of the Shinjuku-ji-chome gay bar area with strong underground colors are gradually taking shape.
Revitalization Association
Japanese bubble economy era also brought Shinjuku II to its heyday, and people came and went on the main roads every night. "There are almost a long queue at the door every night," Zi Yuan recalled. However, Mao, the owner of "Bi Coral" store, which opened in 1989, recalled that after the bubble burst, there were many "Mama Sang" who could not tolerate the gap in living standards and committed suicide.
experienced the ups and downs of the 1990s. On the occasion of the millennium, Hideki Sakugawa, the organizer of the "Tokyo Gay Parade", brought up an interesting idea. He was supported by Akimi Kawaguchi, a veteran who owned many assets in Shinjuku IIchome, who joined hands with some shop operators of Nichome to hold the first "Tokyo Rainbow Festival".
Compared with Europe and the United States where the "gay pride parade" is popular, gender issues are far from fully discussed in Japan. Therefore, it is not just a pride parade that advocates gender power in the traditional sense and is more serious, and the "Tokyo Rainbow Festival" centered on 2chome, which is more similar to a "carnival" that highlights culture.
△ The end of the "Tokyo Rainbow Festival" must be the stage of releasing colorful red balloons. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple represent life, healing, sunshine, nature, art, tranquility and spirit respectively - true love transcends everything. Image source | Shinjuku II Come Revitalization Club
At the "Tokyo Rainbow Festival", people are like visiting a regular summer festival, where they can buy snacks, even drink some wine, and watch the performance of the queen of the dress. The wines and the sounds of people are filled with people. The two-chome during the "Rainbow Festival" is like a large living room.
"The purpose of the Rainbow Festival is to promote the activity of this street, gain the understanding of nearby residents, and deepen the friendly relations between the franchise stores. Because there are many people looking forward to this event, we decided to hold it every year." Toshi, the current third-generation president of the "Shinjuku II Come Revitalization Association", said to the "Future Prediction Picture".
Considering the funding source and procedures of the event, the first organizers of the "Rainbow Festival" established the "Shinjuku II-Chome Revitalization Association" with the "Promoting Regional Revitalization" as the meeting and officially registered with the Shinjuku District Commercial and Industrial Course. Shinjuku District also began to be responsible for part of the funds for the activities.
At present, the Zhenxinghui has absorbed more than 130 stores to join. The annual membership fee is 6,000 yen, which is used to produce "Dichome Tile Board" and other paper media promotional materials issued three times a year are placed in each member store, with detailed information about each store to attract customers. As of 2017, Nichome has held 18 "Rainbow Festivals" in the summer and also tried 4 times in the winter.
Business
On the second floor of an inconspicuous small building in 2017, it is stationed at the men-only bar "Base" that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017. The store is about the same size as the "Cholesterol" No. 2 store, but it is quieter. Its main customer base is a gay man aged 40. The owner of
"Base" is Toshi, the third president of Shinjuku II-chome Revitalization Association. He said to the "Future Predictions", "In fact, whether it is the Revitalization Society or the Rainbow Festival, it is still for the good business." In his opinion, it may be incredible - there are very few chome bar operators who really care about LGBT issues.
What members who participate in the revitalization meeting pay the most attention to is how to bring customers to share such practical benefits by strengthening the contact between stores.
In the past five years, the 2-chome, which was previously mostly gay bars, has welcomed new members, and more than 30 lesbian bars represented by "Lily Trail".
At the same time, the changes in gay friends' ways have also changed the appearance of those guests who pushed open the gate of the Erchome bar. "The Internet is gradually developing, and gays have begun to make friends online. Unlike before, if you want to find a partner, you will get dichome." Takuya told the "future prediction map", "especially in the past four or five years, there have been fewer gays and more tourists. This may be the biggest change in this street."
"Many bars have become tourist bars, just doing business." New Sazae owner Shi Yuan sighed.
New Sazae, a bar that once hosted Japanese writer Yukio Mishima and Queens lead singer Freddy Mercury, still has disco music flowing in her soul, dazzling balls of light shining on the dance floor, people come and go, but time passes, but the store is frozen in the prosperity of the bubble economy. Apart from giving herself a week off and traveling to France in 2016 under the persuasion of guests, Shi Yuan has never had a day off since the opening of New Sazae.
△ Toshi (Part 1) and Shi Yuan (Part 2) are both old people from the dichme. In Shi Yuan's memory, Yukio Mishima always likes to hold a glass of wine and watch the crowd dance silently, while Freddy Mercury comes to New Sazae to sit in almost every time he goes to Japan for a concert. In this area, there are at least 30 old stores that have been in operation for more than 30 years, and about 300 stores that have been in operation for more than 20 years. Photography | Xia Ying Chong
The customers in his store have also changed a little. If it is a working day, the store is almost always frequent customers, including many of them who have been acquainted with 41 years of experience. He even knows what songs old customers like to listen to. But once the weekend comes, tourists will flock in.
"I don't use a smartphone, and I don't care much about how to introduce my bar online." Like some old-school people, Shi Yuan is still using a flip phone now. He said that although he welcomes tourists, he will not change his style for tourists.
Outsiders
Among the tourists with an increasing proportion of tourists from the dichome, many of them are not actually "sexual minority" and do not understand the "rules" of the dichome - such as whether the bar is aimed at women or men, whether it is aimed at all sexual orientations, limited sexual orientations, or has specific sexual preferences, or charging methods. Therefore, although there are many bars, it may be difficult for many people to step in without an insider.
Those who cannot enter the bar often go to convenience stores to buy some alcohol, stand on the street of Nichome or run to Shinjuku Park not far away to drink and make a noisy meal. The surrounding residents could not bear the increasing late-night noise and piles of garbage in the early morning, and ran to protest with the Shinjuku District Government.
People can only sit down and talk. The Shinjuku District Government, Resident Representatives, Nichome Revitalization Association, and Nichome Town Association held two talks. Toshi recalls that he spent too much time explaining the source of the noise and garbage—they were mainly from young tourists and had no necessary connection with existing bars and gay groups, but "it was difficult for residents to tell the relationship." The final solution is to install fences in Shinjuku Park, the "hardly affected area", and completely block them at night to prevent crowds from gathering.
The visit of more and more tourists may have something to do with the large number of women's clothing artists (physiological gender is male) appearing in TV programs in the past decade. "People are used to watching women's clothing artists on TV, find it interesting, and start to care. But that doesn't mean that the LGBT community has been fundamentally accepted, or that people's perception has changed," Toshi said.
But the reputation of dichome is still getting bigger and bigger. There are much more female guests who come together or single than in previous years. "In the whole of Tokyo, the consumption of Nichome Bar is relatively low. And in front of gay, women are very safe, and they can speak freely whether they are in love or work," Chimama said to the "future prediction map".
These "outsiders" make those "sexual minority" originally active in dichy are increasingly "burdened". "Many gays have moved to Shinbashi, Ueno, Asakusa, and Shibuya." In the view of Toshi, president of the Revitalization Association, many gays are worried about meeting acquaintances in Nichome, and the existence of women and tourists makes them unable to get rid of the state of "the self who is desperately disguised during the day" and cannot get real relaxation.
Toshi still imagine the future of dichy-"maybe it will become a place that can accommodate all possible existence states. You can find everything you need here, and all kinds of people can experience happiness here."
Taoya
On July 28, an ordinary summer day, around 9 pm on Friday, the "cholesterol" No. 2 store began to welcome people who came here from all directions for fun. Chimama smiled skillfully at the four Chinese tourists entering the store. "Where is Brother Takuya?"
Chimama Next to his busy figure are several small posters with photos of Brother Takuya with exaggerated colors. He was also used to these visiting guests, "may have to wait a little longer." After several rounds of Q&A in
, he looked at the service priced from 15,000 to 45,000 yen on the menu and "Call the whole bottle of champagne and let Takuya's mother-san receive it", a female guest didn't have the patience to wait any longer and encouraged her companions to order orders. But they eventually lost to hesitation. Takuya did not appear in the No. 2 store where no one ordered the entire bottle of champagne.
article: Xia Yingchong | Visual Design: Wang Fanghong | Editor: Zhao Hui
Editor's Note:
We have modified this article for a while. Still the same sentence - if you want to sit in front of a computer and research an article, it may just be your "imagination." If you go to the live, it will be a little different. If you finally start talking to people, well, it may be a little closer to the real situation (and of course, there is also a risk of proximity). The same is true for this article
. At the beginning, it was just the history of Shinjuku Nichronism, and then there were interviews with bars, tourists appeared, and then there were Shinjuku Nichronism Revitalization Association and residents. If you are in Japan and see the free statements of people on the street or the continuous appearance of women's clothing artists on TV shows, you may think, oh, people will not look at them with strange eyes, this is really a diversified place. This is also the argument I have with the author - is it really diversified? What is diversity?
Although gay bar in dichome accounts for the majority, who is visiting? Mom Sang in the bar has experienced the prosperous era, what are their worries now? Why do sexual minorities go there? Why do tourists go? What do residents think? What changes have happened to the neighborhood? This neighborhood that appears in the song and looks like a gimmick actually reflects too many sociological changes.
I don’t know how many readers feel that they understand the topic of LGBT. LA Pride (Los Angeles Rainbow Festival) has increased the popularity of this topic. People will feel that sexual minorities have more say. Gradually, "I respect your choice" has become a kind of political correctness with a sense of curiosity, and "suggestion and positioning" will easily become a watershed to protect themselves from public opinion.
But this does not conceal the reality that most people still don’t understand the living conditions of LGBT groups. Because of this, so many tourists flocked to Shinjuku II to satisfy their imagination of the life of this group. This curious look also made the guests of Erchum leave here slowly. People are too tacit: if he is not ready to come out, he will definitely not want to meet acquaintances here. He came to chat and complain about relaxing with a glass of wine, not to be visited.
Some people may say that they like and appreciate the courage of coming out artists. But not all sexual minorities have the courage and resources to make their voices, and society's tolerance for LGBT issues is far from what we imagined, as shown in the Moments and Facebook Timeline. The person with a rainbow bar in the SNS avatar may turn around and run to Nichome to experience the gay bar atmosphere.This is actually quite weird - if you really understand and accept something, it will be as natural as the air. You won’t run to a place next door to Wang Erchang to "experience the atmosphere" right? Only when he recommends it, or there is something special about you, will you be willing to contribute your time.
, but we don’t have any intention of criticizing who. It is precisely because of those who are willing to understand the topic of LGBT (the avatar rainbow strip may be the first step), that the rights of minorities are more likely to be gradually valued and protected. In this sense, curiosity is not a bad thing, and it can even be said to be the sociological cost before understanding. But don't understand these as diversity - that's far from it.
