So Thursday was interesting.
I had my independent study with my Chinese professor, who is a HUGE fan of
Yueju, and is actually FRIENDS with one of the actresses who plays male roles.
Knowing that she was a fan, I had told my other professor (who is... friends with a cellist in the Takarazuka orchestra) that it would be my goal to get her addicted to Takarazuka.
Sooo... after my independent study, we basically traded showing each other clips on Youtube and Tudou of Takarazuka and Yueju. And we geeked out about theatre, and the phenomenon of fan culture, and gender presentation, and other nerdy/geeky stuff. And I admit to being envious that she was FRIENDS with one of the actresses (they correspond very frequently), and that I didn't think that I'd be able to act professionally, haha. She responded that 1)she WAS older than the actress she admired, and 2)she and I are certainly of different generations. Haha.
She's about to do research on Yueju, so I recommended Jennifer Robertson's book on Takarazuka, because it would be interesting to compare it to Yueju.
And... this is the part that cracks me up. She was describing her attempts to convince one of her friends to watch Yueju, and her friend replied that she was "like a missionary!" about Yueju...
I had this moment of instant kinship with my professor. Yes, you know the one. Where you recognize that you are an utter geek in how persistent you are in trying to convert your friends, and the strange looks and "uh huh, yeah okay, whatever"s that you get in response, and then you find that someone else has had that experience, and THEY UNDERSTAND THE OBSESSION, and oh you are NOT ALONE IN THE WORLD anymore.
Yeah. That feeling. I had it. About my professor.
And we also talked about whether we thought the internet helped or hindered the development of Yueju/Takarazuka's popularity. Haha, and we both agreed that it didn't, and my professor expressed that she feels that Yueju should release English subtitles on its DVDs, and that she herself was willing to do them, ahah, if it meant that it would make Yueju more accessible to more people. Lol, I feel the same way about Takarazuka, but alas, I am not a professor who has any say with the powers that be and cannot make such suggestions, nor can I translate Japanese to English. Haha.
Anyway, I am sure we will talk about are respective obsessions in the future as well. XD
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