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Locate out even more concerning women-only host bars in Gangnam, Korea
South Korea's rapid financial development has implied some shocking changes within its conventional social structure, consisting of the rise of so-called host bars, where rich women pay the equivalent of hundreds of bucks for male business.
In the dim light of a basement, a lots flawlessly brushed young men kneel in rows, calling out their names.
Muscular, with glossy boy-band hairstyles, they stuff side by side into the narrow room, waiting on us to make our selection. Outside in the corridor, even more of their colleagues are showing up for an additional night at the office. It is 2am, and we are their very first clients.
Surprise below the sidewalks of Seoul's ritziest postcode, Gangnam, the males at Bar 123 become part of a growing industry, which outgrew the long customs of Japanese geisha as well as Korea's kisaeng houses but with one important distinction - the clients below are all females.
Understood as "host bars", these all-night alcohol consumption rooms provide women clients the opportunity to pay and pick for male buddies, occasionally at a price of hundreds of pounds an evening.
Among the females I meet at Bar 123 is Minkyoung, a waitressing supervisor for a first-class hotel. She states she involves host bars as soon as or two times a month.
Minkyoung is really quite and also her garments are immaculate. She does not look like someone that would need to spend for male firm. The attraction of host bars can be refined. Right here, she says, she has even more attention from her male buddies, more selection and also, crucially, even more control.
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" In regular bars the guys who consume alcohol with me have just one goal - to have a casual sex. I don't desire that, so that's why I come right here, I want to have enjoyable," she claims.
Hosts are worked with by bars like this one to give friendship and entertainment. Formally that indicates pouring beverages for their consumers, speaking and also dancing with them, as well as singing karaoke.
Host bar in Seoul
Sex is not officially available in most host bars. That would certainly be illegal however even Minkyoung seems delighted to touch as well as flirt with her host, as well as the males here approximate that around half the clients wish to spend for sex, either on or off the properties.
James has been operating at Bar 123 for a couple of years. In Korean culture, he states, there is a great deal of satisfaction and also negotiating a rate for sex is never ever done clearly. Rather, he informs me, it is all to the host's very own evaluation.
" The guys right here are pros - we recognize what we're doing," he states.
" After chatting to a girl for a hr we essentially recognize just how much money she makes and what she does for a living. We've already evaluated her individuality and also what she wants to give."
James and other hosts claim their consumers include some of South Korea's elite, and that the cash and also advantages on deal are astonishing. One customer James satisfied, throughout his initial week in the task, asked him to authorize himself over to her for two years.
" She said 'let's make a contract. I've got this item of paper and I've numbered it 1-5. Whatever you write down next to those numbers, I'll obtain you.'".
James claims at the time he took it as a joke yet because discovered the very same woman spent ₤ 60,000 ($ 97,000) on one more host.
" If it happened now, I would certainly do it - I 'd be believing straight.".

Paradoxically possibly, host bars outgrew one of Korea's most entrenched and, some say, misogynist business customs - the room hair salon. These are exclusive drinking rooms where teams of males choose, and also are served by, eye-catching women hostesses.
It was the hostesses' requirement to allow off vapor after job, claims expert host Kim Dong-hee, that created the initial demand for host bars, with all-male personnel.
" What these hostesses want is to [make us] do the exact same thing they needed to carry out in their very own office. These ladies are compelled to do things they do not intend to do for money.
" I believe a great deal of them are in pain, and also a great deal really feel lonely. Simply placed, they intend to get our time and also our bodies.".
Hostesses still make up a large portion of the consumers at host bars below, yet at Bar 123, for instance, as much as 40% of the clients on an offered night are now from various other profession.
The factors for that growing appeal are locked up in South Korea's fast financial increase. Within 50 years, the country changed from post-war destruction to OECD member.
According to Jasper Kim, head of the Asia-Pacific Global Research Group in Seoul, something essential was lost along the means.
" I think that with all this quick growth comes quick modification, and also Koreans just don't recognize how to deal with it. Increasingly, industrialism is surpassing fundamental societal standards that you would certainly expect a number of years earlier.".
Jasper Kim says South Korea's infamously long working hrs have left numerous Korean ladies feeling lonely, while the nation's technological development has left many individuals feeling removed.
" The human element of Korean culture that existed previously merely doesn't exist today. Individuals are concentrated on innovation, people are concentrated on their tasks, they aren't focused on human connections any longer.
" In many ways, Korean society today type of advises me of 1960s culture in the United States, where it's on the brink of some type of social change.".
The grandfather of Seoul's host bar scene, Kim Dong-hee, concurs that numerous of the women that come to host bars are not paying for sex however, for friendship, which is why he opened up a new chain of freshly-marketed outlets focused on the mainstream market - called Red Model Bars.
Red Model Bar hosts.
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Hosts at Red Model Bars can not touch clients.
" Men wish to have visual satisfaction as well as wish to really feel points, they're responsive. Women like to chat and to listen. And that's why I considered opening up a bar like this - a sort of dialogue bar.".
Red Model Bars are various to standard host bars in one crucial respect - there is a no-touching regulation. Hosts rest on one side of the table, customers on the various other, and no physical call is enabled, and also definitely no sex.
Maybe therefore there is an absence of furtiveness amongst individuals that work or drink here - the lights are low, the decor primarily dark red and also the room is separated into discreet booths, but it is an open-plan room and also hosts and consumers are divided in each cubicle by a big table.
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This new organization design depends totally on females paying the matching of hundreds and even countless dollars to speak to fine-looking young males over a beverage. Still, it appears to be functioning - three brand-new branches are because of open this year.
Resting at a table at one end of the bar was just one of their routine customers, a florist called Kim Nayu. She tells me she comes right here everyday to fulfill her much-loved host and review problems she is contending work.
The price for this slice of male attention is $487-650 (₤ 300-400) a day.
" Talking to good friends would certainly be less expensive" she confesses, "but they don't listen as much. They're hectic, and also in a rush to speak about themselves. Right here, people will certainly pay attention to me and they'll pay attention to me.".
" I invest a great deal of cash however it's worth it of what I get emotionally. People pay to go to see a psychologist or psychoanalyst, so it's similar but much less stressful.".
Nayu's preferred host Sung-il says it can be hard to maintain his specialist and individual life different.
" Honestly I would certainly be existing if I say I haven't been attracted to take points additionally with some customers, because we're human, we're males, however there are policies.".
One of his clients yapped to her partner concerning him and also when the 3 of them satisfied, Sung-il and also the spouse came to be close good friends.
" No one hides - the employees don't conceal that they function here, and clients can be open as well.".
This visibility is posturing a new kind of difficulty to South Korean society, different from the sometimes shabby underworld of standard host bars and also their hinterland of male hooking.
By providing ladies a "reputable" method to challenge standard gender functions and also bend their financial power, these new bars ask questions of Korean society that are ending up being more challenging to ignore.
Listen to the complete report on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents. You can listen through the Radio 4 internet site or using the Crossing Continents podcast.
The allure of host bars can be refined. Below, she states, she has more focus from her male friends, even more selection and also, most importantly, even more control.
James has actually been functioning at Bar 123 for a couple of years. Instead, he informs me, it is all down to the host's own evaluation.
And that's why I thought of opening up a bar like this - a kind of dialogue bar.".


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