Lady-like
* Source: Global Times
* [10:27 August 25 2010]
May May knows how to dress you up.
By Michael Gold
http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/english/metro-beijing/lifestyle/fashion&shopping/2010-08/567084.htmlEscapism can come in many forms, from constructive pursuits like sex and drugs to harmful addictions like journalism. And then there are some which, while not dangerous or negative, are just so outside of the mainstream they fall into a class all their own. Enter May May, the founder and sole employee of her eponymous company, a beauty salon and photo studio with a deliciously escapist twist: It transforms your average middle-class man into a beautiful, sensuous, perhaps somewhat scandalously-clad, woman.
"This is a place where a man can become someone else for a little while," May May, still biologically male but with all the external trappings of a woman, told me during a visit to her home salon - a dimly-lit and AC-less apartment that nevertheless exudes a kind of scrappy, bohemian glamour reminiscent of 1970s Manhattan. Resolutely low-key, with no signs, barber shop poles or other common accoutrements announcing the salon's presence, such furtiveness isn't surprising given the still highly marginalized nature of gender and sexual minorities in China, despite what May May described as a burgeoning trend among teenage boys to experiment with cross-dressing.
