White ‘men’ and their Chinese ‘boys’

Lowrie, Claire

doi:10.1080/14490854.2013.11668445

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Hence, much more of the domestic labour in the tropics was provided by servants than wives. 75 These observations further illuminate the role of menswear in sustaining specific gender and racial inequities and the colonialisms to which they were related in Australia. While the settler-colonial mode found expression in ready-made serge suits cared for by wives, the tropical-colonial mode materialised in tailor-made whites primarily cared for by dhobi-men and 'houseboys'.…”

Section: Tropical Whites As An Agent Of Hegemonic Masculinitymentioning

confidence: 86%

Tropical whites: Hegemonic masculinity and menswear at the crossroads of Australia and Asia, 1900–1939

Bellanta

Cramer

2022

Gender & History

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This article explores the social and gender history of ‘tropical whites’ – all‐white men's suits worn with pith helmets in tropical societies colonised by European powers – between c.1900 and 1939. Focusing on two northern Australian ports with multiple connections to Asia, the article shows that tropical whites helped to sustain inequities of race, gender and class in the colonial tropics. The fashion did this by helping to produce hegemonic masculinity in the region. Tropical whites served this function by symbolising racial whiteness and imperial mastery, but also because of their material dimensions: who made and maintained them, and the bodily influence they exerted on their wearers. Underlining the embodied dimensions of hegemonic masculinity, the article explores the multidimensional relationship between menswear and power in the Australian tropics; at the same time showing that racially subordinated men transformed aspects of the fashion for their own ends.

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Section: Tropical Whites As An Agent Of Hegemonic Masculinitymentioning

confidence: 86%

Tropical whites: Hegemonic masculinity and menswear at the crossroads of Australia and Asia, 1900–1939

Bellanta

Cramer

2022

Gender & History

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“…52 Despite the paucity of hard evidence, cases where Chinese, Malay, Indian, and, very occasionally, European men were convicted of socalled 'unnatural acts' in the Southeast Asian region illustrates that homosexuality was part of life. 53 While there is no direct evidence of sexual relationships between masters and their male servants, homoerotic depictions of Malay and Javanese 'houseboys' can be found in white men's fictional accounts and letters. 54 In addition, Chinese 'houseboys' were often condemned by European colonists for allegedly engaging in sodomy.…”

Section: Visions Of Power and Questions Of Legitimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘What a Picture Can Do’: Contests of colonial mastery in photographs of Asian ‘houseboys’ from Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, 1880s–1920s

Lowrie¹

2018

Mod. Asian Stud.

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The archives of colonial Southeast Asia and northern Australia contain hundreds of photographs of masterly white colonizers and their seemingly devoted Asian ‘houseboys’. This article analyses this rich photographic archive, drawing on examples from the Netherlands Indies, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Northern Territory of Australia. It explores how photographs of ‘houseboys’ worked as a ‘visual culture’ of empire that was intended to illustrate and immortalize white colonial power, but that also expressed anxieties about colonial projects. As well as a tool for understanding the assertions and insecurities of white colonizers, the article argues that photographs of servants can be used to illuminate the working lives of these Chinese, Malay, Javanese, and Filipino men. Drawing on a remarkable studio portrait that was commissioned by three Filipino servants and an oral history account from a Chinese servant, I conclude that both masters and servants used the photographic medium to assert their power in the home and the colony.

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LGBTQ+ Asian body image: U.S. and globally

Le,

Pease

2025

Body Image and the Asian Experience

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White ‘men’ and their Chinese ‘boys’

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Tropical whites: Hegemonic masculinity and menswear at the crossroads of Australia and Asia, 1900–1939

Tropical whites: Hegemonic masculinity and menswear at the crossroads of Australia and Asia, 1900–1939

‘What a Picture Can Do’: Contests of colonial mastery in photographs of Asian ‘houseboys’ from Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, 1880s–1920s

LGBTQ+ Asian body image: U.S. and globally

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