More Questions and answers with 3PM, Taiwanese adult webmaster
His site is http://pttpppmmm.blogspot.com/ and there now is some stuff in English, just to entertain LIB readers.
What it is like trying to get porn movies in your country? How much do they cost? Are they illegal copies?
Since porn (any kind of penetration, and ever just showing human genitals could consider as pornographic) is illegal in Taiwan (even the censored Japanese porn), the government would consider porn as "no copyright". No one should sell it, buy it, or own it, because porn supposes to be "non-existence".
There are underground markets selling bootleg porn DVDs, mostly Japanese porn, and some western porn DVDs. A lot of bootleg copies are actually made in China (it may be a bit political, though China (communist government) claims that Taiwan (democratic government) is part of China, but Taiwan has its own president, government and military force, and in no way (as of today) is the same country as China. In fact, most Taiwanese would consider China as a totally different country.
The price of bootleg DVD is dirt cheap compares to US. In Taiwan, people can get bootleg DVDs for as low as 2-3 US dollars a piece. But then again, porn is illegal materials and there is no normal/legal way to get porn in Taiwan. The only legal way to pay for porn, I guess would be VOD service thorough oversea websites, but compare to dirt cheap DVDs, most people would get the bootleg copies anyway. Of course another ways to get porn is on all those "free" porn sites, such as youporn and redtube, which is a global problem for this industry and not just happening in Taiwan/Asia.
Are there adult stores that sell movies and toys in Taiwan?
There are adult stores in Taiwan, of course, most of them would sell porn movies and adult toys. It is funny that they can sell and even display adult toys such as dildos and vibrators legally, selling porn is not. I suppose they need to pay the police just to sell porn, yet whenever there is enough people/parents/religious groups/media/senator (most of the times are female)/whoever complain hard about it, the police would try to make some arrests (for show and the mass media) just so the government/mayor/politician(s) does not lose "face", and after a while, those stores will open and do business as usual.
Do you have strip clubs, with naked dancers in Taiwan?
Gentlemen clubs are also another grey area. People do go to these clubs, and a lot of times, police and politicians do visit these places quite often. These clubs are almost always linked to prostitution though, as least under the table. As for strip club, any kind of exposure of nipples and genitals would consider illegal even in a club (if they get caught), yet people are still doing it, as far as police let them open for business ("don’t ask don’t tell" in a way). In the old days, people would call this kind of nudity show theater (singing and dancing in nude) as "beef market". Again, whenever there is a big complain, the police will try to do something and after a short while, things just back to "normal".
Do you have porn stars visit?
One of the ridiculous example that I can tell you is that, in Taiwan they actually invited Japanese porn stars to Taiwan and help promote products and even holding shows (no nudity, bikinis okay) in conventions (such as comi-con) or night clubs, news programs even treat them like a rock star or something, yet talking about porn star is still consider kind of a taboo in certain way. I guess the dilemma is that young people consider porn as a common and normal thing, yet the government and older folks (a lot of them are hypocrites anyway) do not and always blaming porn as "contaminating" the society and "initiated rapists’ desire to action" among other unreasonable claims.
How do you get your information to write stories about the porn industry?
As porn is illegal in Taiwan, internet is the best way to get information of this industry. The good thing about Taiwan is that they do not block any porn websites basically. In Mainland China, they do (though computer savvy persons can get around those Chinese censor thing pretty easily), and I believe that my blog is actually blocked in China, but I still get a lot of traffic from there. I can read as many porn related websites as I like. I use iafd.com and freeones.com among other websites a lot to check for basic information.
Who is the most famous porn star for people in Taiwan? American porn star and non-American?
I guess the first name that came to my mind is the recently deceased Japanese ex-porn star Ai Iijima (1972-2008). She was okay as a porn star for her short porn career, but then she made her way into the Japanese mainstream media by acting sexy and dumb, and gained quite a bit of popularity and fame. And then she wrote an autobiography – Platonic Sex – a few years back which was a bestseller for quite some times. With her mainstream appearances, and the Chinese translation of her book, she gained stardom not only in Japan, but also in eastern Asia, including Taiwan.
I tried to analyze her case on my blog. I borrowed Stephen Jay Gould’s idea when he was talking about american baseball in his book “Full House”. By looking at the sabermetrics, he argues that the lost of .400 hitter actually means the overall improvement in baseball through time. By this rationale, I argue that Miss Iijima gained her popularity at the relatively early stage of Japanese porn, just like those .400 early baseball players. With less competition, she got more opportunities to explore other alternatives, such as mainstream media, and made her name into history. Well, she IS history now, as she died just before last Christmas in her home. Autopsy indicates that she died from long time illnesses and doesn’t seem to have any foul-play involved.
Besides Iijima, there are several Japanese porn stars that are pretty famous in Taiwan, too. I am gonna talk about that later.
As for American porn star, needless to say, hands down to Paris Hilton! Celebrity porn is always on front page and everyone knows. In terms of normal porn star, it is sad to say that even Jenna Jameson and Tera Patrick can not consider as famous in Taiwan at all. In general, western porn is not that popular among local people, as they prefer more oriental looking Japanese porn stars. Within the relatively small number of western porn watchers, not that many are serious enough to remember the name of any porn star. I suppose my blog actually acts like an “educational” website for a lot locals (among other Chinese speaking areas such as mainland China, Hong Kong, and oversea Chinese). One of the hard things to get the locals into western porn is language. English is a subject required to study in school, yet most people are not very good at it, thus watching/reading about American porn do have a big language barrier. Of course, it is kinda ridiculous to say this as Japanese porn actors are still talking/acting in a different language, and Japanese is not required subject in most pre-college schools. Even though sex should not have any language barrier, “style” would be something worth discussing. If you had any experience in Japanese porn, you may have a better idea how different for Japanese porn producers perceived as what porn should be like. Anyway, in short, eastern Asian cultural backgrounds probably just more coherent, even in terms of sex and how sex should be like. Personally I dig more of the straight forward western style, but that’s just me.
I gathered some more information for your question. For Japanese porn stars, the “most famous” title is changing from time to time, of course, in Taiwan. In the past 15 years, the following names are the most frequently asked about: Ai Iijima, Azumi Kawashima, Hitomi Shiraishi, Madoka Ozawa, Mai Asakura, and Maria Takagi. I believe that they all retired from the adult industry.
As for American porn star, even though most people can’t tell their names, there are a few of them still gained popularity in Taiwan and a number of local people would post their pictures and try to find out who they are. The small list includes some probably surprising porn talents: Lexi Belle, Ellie Idol, Lacie Heart, Jenna Haze, Kasuni (well, though she was not born in American), Tera Patrick, and Jenna Jameson among some others. Some of the names are not a surprise, such as both Jenna H. and Jenna J., and more oriental looking Tera and Kasuni. Lexi Belle is amazingly popular, which I don’t quite get. Personally, I don’t find her particularly attractive, but there’s gotta be something special about her look, a lot of eastern Asian males seem to like her face and how she performs. One of the best examples would be just check out how many Japanese porn titles out there that are performed by her. Lexi may be one of the most productive American porn girl in the Japanese adult industry! I think she did may be 10+ scenes with Japanese talents in the past couple years.
I visit this forum and it’s mostly known for it’s Asian porn star talk if you want to join.
http://www.raincoatreviews.com/forums/index.php