Ghost Strippers!
Below is a report I just recieved from my friend, Junjiang Gao. I thought it needed to be passed on to the curious.
“There was a news report about a religious activity held in a Taiwanese city. The picture went along with the article showed a stage with a couple of female pole dancers. The caption writes, ‘One of the most popular activities in Ghost Month, strip dancing, was held in ( ) County. With the police presence, there was no extreme exposure and the audience was somewhat disappointed. However, one of the crowed was quoted as saying, ‘The girls are still as hot as the ones last year.”
“Ghost Month is huge in Taiwan, probably as significant as Lunar New Year or Moon Festival, in my opinion. During this period of time, people have 3 major rituals; on the first, fifteenth, and thirtieth day of the month in the lunar calendar. However, people do not seem strictly to stick to these calendric order and yet hold rituals sporadically, in both time and location. So there was this strip dancing for ghosts yesterday, Aug. 28th.
“Just like in any other ordinary religious rituals, Ghost Month rituals accompany food. If there is one uniqueness to this Taiwanese religious activity, it is the strip dancing. I have asked many of my friends and students here but actually nobody knows exactly why there is this peculiar show so I decided to make sense of it myself.
“I consider holding a strip show for ghosts just as much the same as offering victuals to the deceased good-ol brothers and sisters since it is a way to alleviate hunger in a manner: food for stomach and sexual/sensual pleasure for the reproductive organs. One thing that boggles my mind a little is, there is no strip dancing for female ghosts. Apparently, the female dancers in scanty outfit dancing on the stage are for males, no matter whether they are the living or the dead.
“In South Korea, there are some fisherman-towns in coastal areas. One unique tourist attraction in those towns is the gigantic phallus. It is said that the phalluses are for alleviating sexual frustration of the widows who lost their husbands to the sea. In other areas of South Korea, tourists can participate in activities carving wooden phallus which were allegedly placed on altars for the spirits of young females who died earlier than marital age.
“I do not think South Koreans in earlier days were aware of equal rights between men and women but the phallus stories, at least, sound fair enough for women as well. My opinion might make sense when there are not many stories such as carving out a female statue for a male ghost. In comparison with this information from South Korea, Taiwanese people have a rather sexist religious activity, if sexist mean not giving some goodies to certain type of sex.”