Global Futures in East Asia: Youth, Nation, and the New Economy in Uncertain Times (Contemporary Issues in Asia and Pacific) by Unknown

This temporal difference plays to Sam’s advantage. For as long as Japan is still ahead in fashion and popular culture, its products will be desired by Taiwanese consumers. As long as Sam can stay a step ahead of the others, keeping tabs on emerging stars, and obtaining products as soon as they are available, he will have business. For those who do not understand Japanese and cannot order merchandise directly from Japan, Sam’s shops and the regular shipments of magazines are the most convenient way to obtain merchandise and concert tickets unavailable in major record stores. However, no matter how frequently Sam travels to Tokyo, the arrival of new goods never seems fast enough now that the Internet has made it easy for fans to track the newest releases and the appearances of their idols in magazines and television shows. Surrounded by posters and concert merchandise (often priced higher than young fans can afford), his customers often find Sam’s shop insufficient to bridge the distance between them and the place where these items come from. Sam laments that he is at best an intermediary between Taiwan and Japan: “Surely we try to satisfy the customers and sell the timeliest items. But we have no control over what the Japanese [record companies] are going to release. What am I to do if their idol just won’t release a new single or go on a tour?” Constantly chasing after Japanese pop stars and products, Sam feels that his only chance in the market is to react to Japanese trends quickly. Yet, if the time lag were to be entirely eliminated, these foreign goods would cease to be different, and Sam’s shop would lose its allure for consumers.
    Eddie was in high school when he discovered hip-hop dance through music videos sold in New Kujiang. After he finished college and military service in the late 1990s, Eddie started moonlighting as a dance instructor in New Kujiang. The studio where he teaches is a space of “America” composed of graffiti and images. One side of the studio is covered by a large mural depicting street scenes. Large signs of Coca-Cola and Sprite are painted on the wooden façade of faux storefront that takes up another side of the studio. In front is a boardwalk reminiscent of buildings from Western movies. When asked why they chose to paint Coca-Cola signs and build the boardwalk, a member of the dance group who founded the studio answered that it was because they are “American,” and America is where hip-hop started. Here, hip-hop dance is promoted as a healthy sport. Eddie explains that, while its “central idea (
zhongxin sixiang
)” originated from the streets of New York, “the whole world is influenced by hip-hop.” Therefore, this global popular culture form could be dislocated from New York and become a neutral medium through which Eddie expresses his life philosophy and imagines his position in the wide world of hip-hop.
    “Hip-hop is about living happily.” Eddie explains. “But you need an economic basis to live happily.” Regrettably, making it as a hip-hop dancer is not easy in Taiwan and even less so in Kaohsiung. Eddie has to travel to Taipei to take part in dance competitions. Adding to his difficulties, record companies prefer foreign dancers to local ones. In this global hip-hop landscape that Eddie has constructed, Taiwan remains at the margin even though it does not have to be so. Working as individuals, Taiwanese dancers cannot compete with foreigners. However, “if we can bring everybody together, we can change the situation.” The solution, according to him, is that someone rich and powerful, “like the government,” has to get involved. Eddie feels that an ordinary citizen (
xiao laobaixing
) like himself has limited resources and power to change things and hopes that, through government intervention such as funding programs for dancers, this distance between Taiwan and the world stage can be crossed. But if the government does not do anything, Eddie would