Taipei

The Taipei scene

In Taiwan, public rope performance is closely tied to the history of BDSM activism. An early milestone, a run of public rope shows in 2005, and the debates that followed are told in Kinbaku in Asia-Pacific. This page sets out how the scene in and around the capital works today.

From occasional shows to weekly salons

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, founded in mid-2004 with an advocacy aim, invited the Japanese rope master Kannagi in spring 2005 for five shows over three days, which they consider the first public rope performance in Taiwan. In 2005, they write, the group managed about one gathering a season, and each was a major event. By 2018 several different organizers held events every weekend.

Today much of Taipei’s rope happens in rope salons, small studios where people meet regularly to practice, take workshops and watch shows. Taiwan’s community BDSM calendar lists about forty event organizers. Rope is one strand among them.

Studios and their approaches

Cats Downstairs was founded in 2018 by ArTong and Noir Fix as a space for shibari practice. It began in Ximen, moved to Wanhua in 2021 and in 2024 opened a studio near Yuanshan MRT station with many suspension points and a rooftop. It describes itself as multicultural, gender-friendly and centered on women. Its program includes an all-women’s salon and a men-only salon, figure drawing with rope, rope experiences at markets and workshops with visiting artists. It shares the new studio with The Suspended Canvas, a group Noir Fix and Yisi set up in 2023. That group works on rope beyond the usual frame: figure-drawing sessions with aerialists, dancers and self-suspenders as models, self-tying workshops and self-suspension classes. It also publishes a minimum fee for its models.

The rope artist Soa teaches at Cats Downstairs. Soa has planned or performed in more than a hundred rope shows since 2016, advised several theater productions and a 2024 television series on rope and SM, and runs a monthly salon and group courses.

Salon Isshion, curated by Miss Lina, keeps up an exchange with Japanese kinbaku culture. Its workshops build up the Tenma-ryū ushirote, a hands-behind-the-back tie, from fundamentals to applied technique. They alternate weekly with open rope gatherings, and the salon also runs a reading club on BDSM topics. In neighboring New Taipei, Shushi, run by MOrE, combines a rope studio with a photo studio. Its courses run from an introductory workshop through tie breakdowns and suspension to one-to-one lessons, by appointment.

Languages

Many class listings are in Chinese. Soa’s group classes, for example, are taught only in Mandarin, with English offered for private lessons on request. Several venues publish in more than one language: Cats Downstairs has English versions of most of its site, and Salon Isshion’s site carries parallel Chinese, Japanese and English text. Visitors who do not speak Mandarin should ask before booking. The Asia-Pacific history covers the debate about presenting rope as art or as sex, which runs through Taiwan’s scene.