流動女體的跨國敘事:旅英台籍女性的身體美學與文化認同

Abstract

本研究聚焦於旅英台籍女性的身體美學和文化認同之間的動態關聯。移群女性的身體是跨國的權力被生產、被銘刻、甚至被挑戰的重要場域。置身於倫敦地區高等教育當中的台灣移群社會網絡，本研究發現身體美學以及其所型構的文化認同總是是情境式的，「移群台灣女性特質」的內涵，在不同時間、空間、觀眾等等脈絡當中，需要與新的情境協商。面對兩種相異的身體想像──台灣的西化理想女體論述，和西方空間中對東亞女體的東方主義式凝視──台灣移群女性在英國的身體美學實踐指明了移群文化認同的動態性和情境性。

The study explores the dynamic relations between the body aesthetics and the formation of cultural identities among Taiwanese women in Britain. The bodies of migrant women are a key site where transnational power is produced, inscribed, and sometimes challenged. Using primarily ethnographical data, the present research engages in depth with the everyday bodily practices of these women, examining the body aesthetics and identities formed in the diasporic community. It is found in the study that bodily aesthetics and the related cultural identities are rather situated in this community, as what ‘migrant Taiwanese femininity’ means needs to be negotiated and re-negotiated with specific audiences and located in cultural, temporal and spatial contexts. I argue that constantly caught between the tensions of the highly westernised bodily discourses in Taiwan and the Orientalist gaze that ‘Asianizes’ their bodies in Britain, these migrant women’s bodily aesthetics is theoretically significant for it foregrounds the volatility and situatedness of both body aesthetics and cultural identity among diasporic women.