Performance of a Korean masculinity in Taiwanese men’s fashionto adopt a heightened aesthetic sense and indulge in beauty, health, and fashion. The notion of
metrosexuality in an Asian context is thus situated in the new breed of wen masculinity shared in
Asia, challenging the traditional “macho man” as the hegemonic representation of masculinity.
The soft and good-looking Asian men can sit well with the traditional notion of wen masculinity
among countries in East Asia, as they show a lack of profanity and sex, as befitting Confucian
morals (Maliangkay 2010).
Notably, while the muscular six-pack “chocolate abs” should be an outcome of correctly
disciplined and endurable exercises and probably dietary control, which has been disclosed
in other occasions, the Men’s UNO’s life narratives on Korean masculinity specially showed a
sign of ambivalence on disclosing the process of these forceful controls. As part of the voyeur-
istic gaze on these Korean celebrities, in comparing their own torsos, readers may experience
narcissistic identification with the images of male bodies. The pleasure derived by men from
looking at images of other men may induce “homosexual panic” (Patterson and Elliott 2002;
Hopkins 2000). The life narratives on all-encompassing efforts to cultivate internal virtues, the
Korean celebrities offer culturally specific interpretations pertaining to Asians “like us” as well
as compulsively reaffirm the male readers’ heterosexuality. In cases where Korean celebrities
manifesting the “beast-like” masculinity by integrating the specifically African-American adds
an additional layer of complexity, as suggested in Tunstall’s research (2014). Although popular
cultural texts often contribute to hegemonic cultural constructions of masculinity (Connell
1987; Darling-Wolf 2006; Hanke 1990), this study illustrates how the site of men’s fashion may
offer potentially contradictory currents operating within a specific social context and leading
to interpretations that fall outside the traditional confines of gender representation (Hall 1980;
Darling-Wolf 2006). With regard to the study of the influence of Korean masculinity on Taiwan,
Men’s UNO can provide powerful additional insights as scholars recognize that masculinity, like
femininity, is a social construct (Bourdieu 2001; Strate 1992) emerging through a complex pro-
cess of negotiation and renegotiation (Saco 1992).
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