Taiwan

Taiwan’s rope scene dates its public history to a single run of shows, and that history is tied to BDSM activism. The full account, including the debate about presenting rope as art or as sex, is in Kinbaku in Asia-Pacific; this page gives the national outline.

A first public show

In a 2019 article in a gender studies journal of National Taiwan University, the organizers 漉露 and Shin Nawakiri describe how the BDSM support group 皮繩愉虐邦 invited the Japanese rope master Kannagi to Taiwan in spring 2005 for five shows over three days. As far as the group knew, it was the first public rope performance in the country. The group had been founded only in mid-2004, with an advocacy aim and a strong social-movement character.

The authors measure the growth that followed. In 2005 the group could hold a gathering only about once a season, and each one was a major event; by 2018 several different organizers held events every weekend, and the community had become large enough to sustain itself.

Salons and cities

Rope salons, small studios for regular practice, workshops and shows, are one center of today’s scene. Cats Downstairs, a rope practice space founded in 2018, began in Ximen, moved to Wanhua in 2021 and opened a new studio near Yuanshan MRT station in 2024. Taiwan’s community BDSM calendar lists about forty organizers in all. The rope organizers on that list are based in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Tainan and Hsinchu, and the rope artist Soa is listed as teaching in the north, center and south of the island. The Taipei guide describes the capital’s studios and the languages they teach in.

Stages and critique

Rope has also reached Taiwan’s festival stages. In 2019 the Taipei Arts Festival presented Bunny, a rope performance by the Singapore artist Daniel Kok and the Australian Luke George, which had premiered in Singapore in 2016 and played Shanghai shortly before Taipei.

Local writers have also questioned how rope is framed. In a 2020 talk at National Central University, Shin Nawakiri described how an early Western authority on shibari linked it to Eastern philosophy with claims that were unknown in Japan’s rope community, and argued that an Orientalist view of Japanese rope has been reinforced and put to use in both East and West.

The community calendar is published in Chinese. For advice on joining rope events abroad, see Rope when you travel.