In my forthcoming novel "The Rice Queen Spy" I pay homage to a British Caucasian homosexual who spent his whole life having sexual encounters only with Asian men. In essence "No Caucasians need apply" was his motto. A rice queen is a Caucasian or a black gay man who is either partially or completely devoted to Asian men. It is something of a slangy term as is the term potato queen which signifies an Asian man fond of white men.
I have even heard Asian men who were partial to black men called sweet potato queens or yam queens. Don't blame me. This is all part of the argot of gay life. Gay terminology and slang have always been a lively and rapidly evolving feature of the gay sub-culture.
Up until the middle of the nineteen eighties, before there was a national crackdown, rice queens were going to the Philippines in large numbers. For quite some decades now Thailand has been the preferred location for rice queens. Sex junkets to Thailand have been organized not only for gay men but for large numbers of straight men who are after female sex partners. Often sex partners who are too young. Many gay Caucasians have moved permanently to Thailand because of the availability of sexual encounters with Thais.
After the Second World War Japan was a haven for rice queens. Then when the economy improved markedly there was a falling off of the availability of Japanese men for rice queens. Also in those early post-war years there was still a great reverence for the elderly; that's why so many older Western gays felt so at home there. The young people's compassionate attitude toward seniors became somewhat of a casualty to the youth culture, Westernization and now globalization.
That leads to one conclusion. Many gay men became or were labeled rice queens because they went to Asian countries where the economies and poverty forced some of the men into the sex trade. The Caucasian gays went to those poor Asian countries because there was an availability and abundance of sex partners. Not all Caucasian-Asian gay sex is financial, but a considerable portion of it is.
But for a rice queen, why an Asian man? Numerous reasons are given: Asian men are less hairy, have smoother, silkier skin; many are smaller and less intimidating and threatening than white men; they are better, more accommodating lovers; they are often willing to play a less than dominant role, be more subservient to their Caucasian partners; ascetically they are more attractive; if they do ask for money often it is for food purchases and to support their families because they are so badly in need of financial assistance; the gay Asian men often look much younger than they actually are; there's less b.s. with Asian men, and on and on.
Some of it may be rationalization. Sex and sexual motivation is a often a labyrinth and a maze of contradictions and obfuscations. It often boils down to a simple "It feels good to me."
In my most recent novel, "The Daemon in Our Dreams," I dealt with the rice queen phenomenon, but in a somewhat tangential fashion, and in my first novel, the terrorist thriller "Nine Lives Too Many," I dealt with it not at all. However in "The Rice Queen Spy" it is, in many ways, the central theme of the book. It is what makes the hero tick, the motivating force in his life. If you read the book, you'll see the truth to the statement: there would be no Philip Croft (the hero) were it not for his rice queen persona. (For a full discussion of my novels, please visit my website at http://www.senneffhouse.com.)
The full-blooded rice queen makes no apologies for being a rice queen; on the contrary he is proud of it and boasts about it. Lifelong loving relationships have been formed between gay Caucasian and Asian men.
Often what the rice queen encounters in Asia is the young man who is masquerading as gay for economic reasons. One gay stripper club in Bangkok had over thirty straight men who were entertaining and dating gay customers. Their jobs involved a great deal of acting and role playing. There is even an informal school for hustlers to learn what to say and how to act and perform. One thing they learn to do is to roll their tummies in what some people think is a provocative manner.
The rice queen often may wish to sort out the hustlers from those men who are genuinely gay. The percentage or ratio of gays in the populations of Western countries and Asian countries is probably just about the same.
From the nineteen eighties on in some of the Asian countries where there was a great deal of commercial sex and the commingling of Westerners with the indigenous population there has been a serious epidemic of HIV/AIDS. The spread of the disease has been acute among gay hustlers and their families. This consequence of sexual activity was completely unexpected and devastating.
Since the first rice queen spotted his first love object, this syndrome has been growing and enticing outsiders with questions as to the meaning of it all. The explanation is really simple. It is the desire and need for one human being to find love, compassion, friendship, kinship and sexual gratification from another human being. Love makes the world go round, and, in the end love will conquer all. The real rice queen is a lover, plain and simple.
John (Jack) Rooney’s latest novel is “The Rice Queen Spy.” His first book was the thriller “Nine Lives Too Many” featuring his series detective Denny Delaney pitted against the arch-terrorist Felix the Cat. That was followed by the suspenseful “The Daemon in Our Dreams” a blend of the naturalistic and the paranormal. His work schedule includes “Clawed Back from the Dead” a new Delaney effort.
He was born and educated in Springfield, Massachusetts (Classical High and American International College), went on to receive a master’s degree in English from Columbia University, and finished course work for his Ph.D. at N.Y.U. He has written book reviews, and feature and travel articles for newspapers and magazines. He served in the U.S. Army as a military policeman in AWOL apprehension and in Times Square and Vienna, Austria. Rooney’s website is http://www.senneffhouse.com
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