Wei-niang, originated from subcultures (ACG) in the late 20th century Japan, refers to male crossdressers who wear women's clothing. Since 2010, crossdressers in Taiwan began to adopt this word calling themselves. Studios and community also emerged in urban areas. As a category relates to gender transgression, however, wei-niang is not an identity constructed in the context of the LGBTs social movement. Wei-niang is not completely the same as the "transgender" introduced from the West at the end of the 20th century. Viewing wei-niang as a self-reform project of feminized aesthetics and entertainment, this study emphasized the part-time characteristic of the dressing practice. Transgender people who tend to change their gender identities formally, in contrast, these crossdressers seem to maintain their "ordinary" straight male identity meanwhile seeking for opportunities to step into another time and space.

Based on online/offline fieldwork including interviews and participant observations in northern Taiwan, this study attempt to (1) describe how men perceived their preference for feminized aesthetics then established new identities; (2) analyze the wei-niang by focusing on the concepts of masquerade and temporality in Butler's performativity theory, and develop a discussion about culture and local intervention; (3) locate Taiwanese wei-niang through queer anthropology framework inspired by Galbraith's ethnography about otaku (ACG fans) in Japan, and illustrate how businesses providing favorable conditions for male crossdressers thus shaping the community and their "sisterhood"; (4) interpret "parallel universe" and "games" as key metaphors expressing the meaning of part-time gender transgression to wei-niang. Crossdressing implies an alternative temporal imagination though the practice causing problems of time management. The case of wei-naing reveals multiple ontology of gender, questioning dualism such as truth or false, the internal or the external.