Why did enjo kosai anchor in Taiwan but not in Hong Kong? Or the convergence of "enjo" and "kosai" in teenage sex work

At the lunch table today before this presentation, we were discussing how should we translate the Japanese term “enjo kosai”. Someone suggested translating it as freelance teenage sex work; it is indeed a very good translation, however, I still find some elements missing. The English term cannot capture the dimension of “fun” and “leisure”, as well as the existing phenomena of “enjo kosai” as a subculture rather than just another kind of work. This is how the idea of separating the term into “enjo” and “kosai” comes to my mind while writing for this paper. “Enjo”, with the meaning “assist”, is in the sphere of economic; while “kosai”, meaning socializing and entertaining, is in the sphere of social and culture. By separating the term, it destabilizes the term by showing the distinctive convergence of two spheres in such phenomena. It is a result of capitalism(s), but at the same time, it remains at the verge of the dominant capitalist order that seeks to separate the two spheres. Embedded in such paradox is the internal conflicts or subversive-ness of capitalisms, the fissures of the system for us to look into and reflect upon. The context of the convergence is of course related to the development of the society of consumption and youth’s role in such society. However, looking at the issue in a cross border perspective, it is too simplified to say that such a phenomena is a result of economic force. There are different actors for shaping the convergence. In the case of Taiwan and Hong Kong, I can see that the power of mainstream media, politicians, NGOs and youths/ teenagers are at work. These forces are governing, resisting, negotiating, expelling the activity. And it results in different landscapes of the “convergence”. In Japan and Taiwan, sex work is not recognized by the society as a form of work, and it is in this context “enjo and kosai” are likely to converge, as sex work needs to get its momentum from subculture rather than from the institution for its spreading. In Japan the convergence is an active claim of a subjectivity by teenage girl in response to the material desires and the gaze of the society, while in Taiwan it is a process of active searching and interpellation of a governed object that later turns into a resistant subject. In Hong Kong, sex work is recognized as a work, though highly stigmatized in the society. The frame is set and “enjo kosai” cannot anchor (become popular). Yet in another sense, there is another process of convergence between the two spheres in the form of cultural resistance carried out by a coalition building process among various governed/resistant subjects, including “sex workers”, “women”, “teenagers” and “gay & lesbian”. In this paper, I start with a very simple question of “why enjo kosai anchors in Taiwan but not Hong Kong? ” In the process of investigating the question, I also address the following questions: how does a subculture travel to another place through popular media? How is it being decontextualized through the global media and the interpellation of the mainstream and recontextualized in different destinations? Who contributes to the cultural