Abstract

What is the relationship between truth, sense of self and being a professional in Japanese queer nightlife? For service industry professionals’ spontaneity is not a fruitful quality to cultivate to establish oneself. Instead, commitment to customers’ satisfaction and adaptability to their wants, needs and grudges are considered by customers and providers to be paramount qualities of a service professional. Drawing on my ethnography at Japanese-style gay bars in Shinjuku Ni-chōme (Tokyo) and other Japanese urban centers, and from studies on the Japanese self, religious practice and authenticity, I propose in-sincerity as an analytical tool to describe how service professionals orient their practice. At Japanese-style gay bars, in-sincerity represents a strict approach to work involving withdrawing parts of one’s self and concocting subjunctive selves (customized versions of one’s self that occupied an illusive 'as if’ dimension) for customers’ entertainment. The co-creation and reproduction of bar legends at Zenith bar exemplifies the surfacing of these subjunctive selves by inextricably entangling factual information and the imaginary worlds of both service professionals and customers.

摘要

真相、自我意识和成为日本酷儿夜生活的专业人士之间有什么关系？对于服务行业的专业人士来说，自发性并不是一种可以通过培养来建立自己的卓有成效的品质。相反，客户和供应商认为，对客户满意度的承诺以及对他们的愿望、需要和怨恨的适应是服务专业人员的首要品质。借鉴我在新宿二丁目（东京）和其他日本城市中心的日式同性恋酒吧的民族志，以及对日本人自我、宗教实践和真实性的研究，我提出将真诚作为一种分析工具来描述服务如何专业人士指导他们的实践。在日式同性恋酒吧里，不真诚代表了一种严格的工作方法，涉及撤回部分自我并炮制虚拟自我（占据虚幻“仿佛”维度的自我定制版本）以供客户娱乐。Zenith 酒吧共同创造和再现的酒吧传奇通过将事实信息与服务专业人员和顾客的想象世界密不可分地纠缠在一起，例证了这些虚拟自我的浮现。