北京で初の大規模ヴォーギングパーティー　ＬＧＢＴにスポットライト

【北京ＡＦＰ＝時事】革製の衣装、ラメやド派手なメーク、ピンヒール、そして気取った足取り──。中国・北京で先週末、「ヴォーギング」と呼ばれるダンスのイベントが行われた。イベントは、同国のLGBTコミュニティーに、自らのアイデンティティーをたたえるための「プレーグラウンド（舞台）」を提供した。（写真は中国・北京で開催されたヴォーギングダンスパーティーでコンテストに参加するドラァグクイーン）
　北京で大規模なヴォーギングのイベントが開催されるのは今回が初めて。遠方からの参加者が多く、会場は中国のＬＧＢＴの若者数百人で埋め尽くされた。
　「Ｂａｚｉ」のニックネームを持つ主催者のリ・イーファンさん（２７）は、「ここは社会の周縁に追いやられた人々のプレーグラウンドです」と語る。Ｂａｚｉさんは、同国でひそかに人気の高まりを見せるボールルームカルチャーの中心人物で、ヴォーギングのレッスンを北京で定期的に開催している。
　この非常に様式化されたダンスは１９８０年代に広く知られるようになった。だが、そのルーツは２０世紀前半の米ニューヨークにある。メインストリームではなかった当時の社交ダンスカルチャーと容姿を競うコンテスト、モデルのポーズ、ダンスコンテストなどが融合して生まれた。
　米歌手マドンナの１９９０年のヒット曲「Ｖｏｇｕｅ」でこの文化にスポットライトが当てられ、ヴォーギングは欧米で大きな人気を獲得するに至った。
　性的マイノリティーでノンバイナリー（自らを男性と女性のどちらでもないと認識する人）と自認する出演者のホアホアさん（２３）は、「ヴォーギングは過去２年間で本当に盛んになりました」と語る。
　ドレッドヘアで羽根飾りの黒いマント姿のホアホアさんは、２０１６年にヴォーギングを始め、すぐにその優雅な動きのとりこになったと言う。ヴォーギングの動きは、古いハリウッド映画や古代エジプトのヒエログリフなどから影響を受けているとされる。
　だがヴォーギングの世界が成熟し商業化が進むことで、そのルーツにある「独自性」が失われてしまうことを危惧する声もある。
　ホアホアさんは「ヴォーギングにはとても悲しい歴史があります。このダンスは人種差別、偏見、絶望を体験した世代の苦しみから生まれたのです」と語り、ヴォーギングに携わった多くの先人たちがエイズ（ＡＩＤＳ、後天性免疫不全症候群）で命を落としたと続けた。
　「一度ヴォーギングを知れば、そのカルチャー（そのもの）に触れないわけにはいきません」とホアホアさん。「（ヴォーギングを）さらに多くの人に知ってもらうなら、その背景にある歴史も知ってもらわなければなりません」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/04/01-12:08）

Leather, glitter, stilettos and a strut -- voguing, the underground dance phenomenon, has seized Beijing and given China's LGBT community a playground to celebrate their identities.
Sashaying down the runway clad in fake-fur, mile-high wigs and dramatic makeup, performers flaunted poses for an ecstatic audience, powered by a pounding house music soundtrack.
Hundreds of young LGBT Chinese, many travelling from far and wide to attend, packed into the cramped venue for Saturday's event -- the first large-scale voguing ball held in Beijing.
With categories including Butch Queen Realness, Drag Queen Lip Sync and Voguing Open To All, performers battled it out to win the judges' approval -- scoring straight 10s -- or were eliminated in cut-throat style.
It's a playground for marginalised groups, said 27-year-old organiser Li Yifan, nicknamed Bazi, a pillar of China's quietly flourishing ballroom scene who teaches regular voguing classes in Beijing.
Homosexuality was only declassified as a mental illness in China in 2001. Most LGBT people continue to lead low-key existences due to a fear of crackdowns on activism and largely conservative social norms.
Attendees at a voguing ball feel a very strong sense of vitality, Bazi said, because a lot of sexual and gender minorities express themselves with a spirit of resistance.
- New York to Beijing -
The highly stylised dance form developed in the 1980s, but traces its roots to early-20th century New York where an underground ballroom culture blended elements of beauty pageants, modelling and dance contests.
Balls became a safe haven for the LGBT Black and Latino community in particular to socialise and express themselves freely.
Performers grouped into houses with a fierce sense of solidarity, which often became a replacement for the birth families that had ostracised them.
Madonna's 1990 hit Vogue spotlighted the culture, and voguing is now hugely popular in the West, helped by American TV shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and Pose.
It travelled to China relatively recently, after making inroads in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
It is a subculture within a subculture, Bazi says, but one that's now on the verge of going mainstream in China, after emerging out of Shanghai.
Voguing has really blossomed here in the past two years, said 23-year-old performer Huahua, who identifies as queer non-binary.
Right now the scene is very young, but it's also very enthusiastic and passionate. It's like cuttings being planted everywhere that are now taking root.
Huahua, who competed in long braids and a black cape studded with feathers, started voguing in 2016 and immediately fell in love with its elegant movements, which draw inspiration from Old Hollywood films, haute couture fashion spreads and even ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
You can express your sexuality, your sensuality, they said, bending down to pose on the floor, making intricate hand movements.
You're serving looks on stage like: I'm beautiful and fierce.
- 'Tragic history' -
For Huahua, voguing offers an escape from the Beijing rat race and made them feel truly liberated and happy for the first time, after an unhappy childhood where they felt marginalised by their gender identity and sexuality.
It's already become a part of my life. Every day when I go to the toilet or drink water, I don't walk normally but in a voguing catwalk style, they told AFP at their home.
But as the voguing scene matures and inevitably becomes more commercialised, some fear it may lose touch with its radical roots.
Voguing has a very tragic history; it's a dance form created out of the sufferings of an entire generation who've experienced racism, bigotry, depression, said Huahua, adding that many forefathers of the scene passed away of AIDS.
In China, it is surprisingly popular with straight women, who like LGBT people are extremely oppressed by the patriarchy, according to Bazi.
Once you learn voguing, you cannot avoid coming into contact with its culture, said Huahua.
If you want more people to know about it, then they also have to learn the history behind it.