Betel nut beauty
Encyclopedia
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
: a young woman selling betel nut
Betel nut
The Areca nut is the seed of the Areca palm , which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. It is commonly referred to as "betel nut" as it is often chewed wrapped in betel leaves.-Description:...
s and cigarettes from a brightly lit glass enclosure while wearing revealing clothing (Openshaw). The Mandarin term names the women after Xi Shi
Xi Shi
Xi Shi was one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China. She was said to have lived during the end of Spring and Autumn Period in Zhuji, the capital of the ancient State of Yue....
, the legendary beauty of imperial China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
's Spring and Autumn Period. Though betel nuts are chewed in many regions of the Asia-Pacific, the betel nut beauty phenomenon is distinctly Taiwanese.
The original betel nut beauties were the "Shuangdong Girls" who, in the 1960s, brought glamour to the opening of the Shuangdong Betel Nut Stand in Guoxing Township
Guoxing, Nantou
Guoxing is a rural township in Nantou County, Taiwan. It has a population total of 21,037 and an area of 175.7042 square kilometres.-External links:*...
(國姓鄉), Nantou County
Nantou County
Nantou County is the second largest county of Taiwan. It is also the only landlocked county in Taiwan. Its name derives from the Hoanya Taiwanese aboriginal word Ramtau. Nantou County is officially administered as a county of Taiwan....
(Huang Wan-tran, Taipei Times, 2007 March). The success of the marketing strategy led competitors to follow suit, and by the end of the century betel nut beauties and their neon
Neon
Neon is the chemical element that has the symbol Ne and an atomic number of 10. Although a very common element in the universe, it is rare on Earth. A colorless, inert noble gas under standard conditions, neon gives a distinct reddish-orange glow when used in either low-voltage neon glow lamps or...
-topped kiosks were a trademark feature of Taiwan's cities and countryside. The kiosks appear in urban, suburban and rural settings alike.
As icons of Taiwanese culture, betel nut beauties appear frequently in art and film. Betelnut Beauty is the English title of the 2001
2001 in film
The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
film Ai ni ai wo
Betelnut Beauty (film)
-Cast:* Chang Chen as Feng* Angelica Lee as Fei-fei* Leon Dai as Tiger* Kao Ming-chun as Guang* Tsai Chen-nan as Ming-Awards:The film premiered in competition at the 51st Berlin International Film Festival. Lin won the Silver Bear for Best Director...
(愛你愛我, literally "Love you, love me"), and betel nut beauties figure prominently in the 2007 art film Bangbang wo aishen (English title: Help Me, Eros
Help Me Eros
Help Me, Eros is the second film from director Lee Kang-sheng, following his directorial debut in 2003, The Missing....
).
Social questions
Controversy surrounding betel nut beauties generally centers on two questions:- the propriety of their revealing dress in public places and
- whether their dress marks them as victims of exploitation.
Betel nut beauties often hail from agricultural and working-class sectors of Taiwanese society. This has led some critics to regard their revealing dress as a sign of exploitation. Other observers take a more benign view. If most betel nut beauties come from agricultural and working-class backgrounds, so do their customers and employers. Betel nuts are, after all, an agricultural product. These observers are more inclined to see these betel nut vendors as self-empowering: young women with few resources who better their economic situation by employing a marketing technique that requires confidence. The same approach is evident, they say, wherever trade show and fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
models
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
do their work. Ordinances that target betel nut beauties exclusively, say these observers, smack of hypocrisy
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
and class discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
.
The Center for the Study of Sexualities in National Central University
National Central University
National Central University is a national comprehensive university in Taiwan .National Central University was founded in 1915 and originated in 258 CE at Nanjing, China. After NCU in Nanjing was renamed Nanjing University in 1949, NCU was re-established in Taiwan in 1962...
has been promoting the self-empowerment of betel nut beauties. Citing other occupations that also involve female nudity, for example, show girls, female liquor promoters, nude models for artistic purposes, pole dancers, or even popular Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai
Jolin Tsai
Jolin Tsai was born on 15 September 1980. She is a Taiwanese Golden Melody Award-winning Mandopop singer, dancer and actor. She is managed by Mars Entertainment Ltd .-Career:...
. The underlying question is whether there are differences in degrees of female nudity.
See also
- Betel nutBetel nutThe Areca nut is the seed of the Areca palm , which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. It is commonly referred to as "betel nut" as it is often chewed wrapped in betel leaves.-Description:...
- Areca catechuAreca catechuAreca catechu is the areca palm or areca nut palm, , a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. The palm is believed to have originated in either Malaysia or the Philippines...
- Bikini baristaBikini baristaA bikini barista is a person who prepares and serves coffee drinks while dressed in scanty attire such as a bikini or lingerie. This marketing trend developed in the Seattle, Washington area of the northwestern United States in the early 2000s, and gained international attention by early 2007.-...
- Café con piernasCafé con piernasCafé con piernas is a coffee shop style popular in Chile where normal bartenders or waiters are replaced with females dressed in scanty clothing. Coffee shops with waitresses serving in miniskirts and heels to businessmen had long been popular, but bikinis and similar attire accelerated the trend...
- Red Envelope ClubRed Envelope ClubA Red Envelope Club is a form of Cabaret in Taiwan that originated in Taipei in the 1960's as an imitation of Shanghai Cabaret. In these cabarets, female singers sing old Chinese songs from the 1920's to 1950's to mostly older men, many of whom were soldiers in General Chiang Kai-Shek's...
External links
- Betelnut Beauties. An extensive Flickr photo set and discussion by Tobie Openshaw, who has been researching and documenting the girls for many years.
- Taiwan's 'betel nut beauties' drum up business, and debate LA Times Jan 22, 2009. By Mark Magnier
- "Photographer Tobie Openshaw’s Betelnut Beauty exhibition." Taipei Times, March 2007
- Video Promo video for a proposed documentary by Tobie Openshaw on Betelnut girl culture
- Audrey Wang. "Betelnut Culture Turns Over a New Leaf." Taiwan Review, 2008-02-01.
- Huang Wan-tran. "Why Pick on Betel-nut Beauties?" Taipei Times, 2007-03-12.
- Venkatesan Vembu. "The Betel-nut Beauties of Taiwan." Daily News & Analysis, India, 2007-01-30.