From Colonial Gazes to Global Fantasies: Gender, Desire and Visual Culture across Asia

You are cordially invited to "From Colonial Gazes to Global Fantasies: Gender, Desire and Visual Culture across Asia" featuring Dr. Thomas Baudinette (Macquarie University) and A/P Mary Dorothy dL. Jose (University of the Philippines Manila). This seminar is organised by the FASS Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster (GSRC).

Event Details
Date and Time: 16 Sep 2025, Tuesday, 10.00am to 12.30pm
Venue: NUS FASS Research Division Seminar Room, AS7 06-42

About Dr. Thomas Baudinette's Talk

This presentation draws upon longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork of Japanese women’s fandom for K-pop idol groups between 2015 to 2025 to develop a theory of the gendered nature of consumer space in Japan. Through careful attention to the Linguistic Landscape (LL) of Tokyo’s so-called Koreatown of Shin-Ōkubo, I explore how this district has conspicuously transformed from an ethnic enclave into a “K-pop space” due to the heavy penetration of K-pop related linguistic and other semiotic resources across the neighbourhood over the past decade. In particular, I argue that the materiality of K-pop merchandising in Shin-Ōkubo and its ties to other markers of “Koreanness” transform the district itself into K-pop content to be consumed by fans who are presumed to be heterosexual women. In so doing, I unpack how the LL of Shin-Ōkubo is specifically coded as feminine, considering how the study of LL can expand and nuance our understanding of the gendered nature of consumer culture in contemporary Japan. Through my attention to the role of Shin-Ōkubo’s LL in naturalizing specific fantasies of Korea and related (heterosexual) desires central to the broader Korean Wave in Japan, I consider how the neighbourhood thus represents a space where one’s gendered identity as a K-pop fan is negotiated through the very act of visiting and experiencing the district. I conclude the presentation by reflecting on the potentials of K-pop spaces in Japan to function as sites where female fans can exercise their agency and produce feminist solidarities designed to combat heteropatriarchy.

About A/P Mary Dorothy dL. Jose's Talk

This talk explores how the Philippines' colonial histories -- particularly Spanish and American rule -- shaped Filipino gender ideals as reflected in Filipino women's images in colonial photography, focusing on the evolution of womanhood from the passive, idealized "Maria Clara" figure to the complex realities of the modern woman. Special attention is given to colonial photography as a tool of visual control and ideological framing, showing how images shaped perceptions of race, femininity, ethnicity, and class during colonial times. While visual cues such as setting and background, posture and body language, props and symbols, as well as gaze (who is looking where?) are considered in analyzing women's images, the manner of clothing will be given consideration especially in relation to unpacking these women's agency through the symbolic meanings of clothing as a form of resistance. By utilizing postcolonial theory and feminist visual analysis, this study attempts to show how colonial photography can be a powerful tool not only in creating racial and gender stereotypes but also in challenging them, and how these constructs continued to be internalized, resisted, and redefined over time.

About the Speakers

Dr. Thomas Baudinette is Senior Lecturer in Global Cultures at Macquarie University, Australia. A
cultural anthropologist, his research explores the role popular culture plays in shaping knowledge
about gender and sexuality across East and Southeast Asia. His first book is Regimes of Desire: Young
Gay Men, Media, and Masculinity in Tokyo (University of Michigan Press, 2021). His second book is
Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023). Thomas is currently working on two book projects: an edited collection titled
Riding the Thai Wind: Globalising Thai Media, Transnational Fandom, and Soft Power and a monograph titled Queer Fantasies of Asia: Japanese and Korean Media Fandom in the Philippines.

A/P Mary Dorothy dL. Jose is an Associate Professor with the Area Studies Program, Department of
Social Sciences at the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila. She previously served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at UP Manila’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Her gender advocacy has earned her several awards, including the Gender Advocate Award from the UP Manila Center for Gender and Women Studies in 2013 & 2014, respectively, and the UP Diliman College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Distinguished Alumni Award for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in 2023. She was a Research Fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan in 2018, where she explored representations of Filipino women in the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, and at the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC), National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2024, where she examined the rhetoric of 20th-century Filipina suffragists. She also served as a Highly Technical Consultant for the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs in 2021, helping promote Philippine Studies programs internationally.