Post by con's fly is open on Mar 19, 2005 16:59:58 GMT 7
SYLVIA YU:
Is China ready for Hooters?
CBC News Viewpoint | March 17, 2005 |
Every night, locals pack the house at Shanghai's Hooters, an American-based restaurant chain known for its well-endowed staff: bubbly waitresses sporting skimpy white tops and equally tiny orange shorts.
"I came here because this guy told me Hooters is an interesting place and has many beautiful girls. It's great," one male patron says, smiling and nodding in approval of the first Hooters in the Middle Kingdom. Maybe to him, but is China ready for this?
Hooters' manager, Amy Smith answered in the affirmative. She said, "We have been very busy and we're getting busier. The first few days … we noticed a lot of locals just standing outside the window, watching for an hour or two. It seems the locals are really intrigued about the concept."
Indeed, sexual mores have wildly changed in the Middle Kingdom.
One survey on premarital sex from China's Academy of Social Sciences estimates that seven out of 10 young adults now have sex before marriage, compared to the 1980s when it was only one in 10. Sex-dating sites, sex shops and massage parlours are reflecting a generation's increasing obsession with sex. Virtually in any bar, prostitution has become a permanent fixture.
Why is China going through a quiet revolution, a dramatic shift in cultural attitudes? Why now? One reason could be that a rapidly transforming quasi-capitalistic society is leaving people way behind without a structure to cling to, without something to replace the old ways.
A spiritual vacuum, if you will.
Could media and film also be to blame? Li Yinhe, a research fellow from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences thinks so. "People are becoming more and more natural when they kiss, embrace in the public," she says. "In Chinese traditional way, there is a debate on if your sister-in-law fell into the river, should you offer your hand? In the traditional teachings, a man and woman should not touch hands. So the change is great."
Another sign of the revolution is the openly gay population, according to Li. She says in big cities there are bars for homosexuals and fantasy partners. Officials say there are as many as 10 million gay men in the Middle Kingdom. And one televised plastic surgery beauty pageant last November featured a transgender woman as a frontrunner contestant.
However, all this free love has also led to a rise in teen pregnancies, AIDS, STDs. And the divorce rate has soared and increased by a whopping 20 per cent. But some say it's because relaxed laws have merely empowered people to do what they've wanted to do for a long time.
With China opening itself up to outside influences, one young man tells me some of the women here are very eager to land themselves foreign boyfriends or husbands.
Take Eileen for example (not her real name). She's a young journalist working at a major daily in a big city. She's pretty unconventional according to Chinese traditional standards. That's because she lives with her American boyfriend.
"My boyfriend appreciates me a lot, and he opens a new and wider world to me," she says, "there are also many Chinese girls who like hanging out with foreign men. Some of them hang out with them for money because most westerners here are richer than Chinese men. Some of them are dreaming to marry westerners to go abroad."
Eileen's parents have tried to stop her and even went so far as to tell her it was "illegal" for her to live with her boyfriend, Nick.
Surprisingly, despite the new openness towards sex, the shame associated with casual sex or one-night stands is still very strong. Eileen says her local friends are tight-lipped about their love lives. "My Chinese women friends wouldn't admit they have premarital sex because it's considered shameful," she says.
But some women see sex as power. Some students at major universities moonlight as sex workers at the city's most popular nightclubs. "They can make $900 in just one night when they spend it with a rich man," says Michelle Wu, a university student who adds that some students make enough money to afford luxury cars like BMWs. "[The women] feel they're in control because they call the shots."
To be sure, the government is not blind to what's going on. In one of many attempts to reach the younger generation, it's turning to the internet. One government website's manager tells me they're desperately trying to get the right information on sex out there. Their site offers chat rooms, articles and a place for youth to express themselves in, of course, a controlled environment.
In the cities, arranged loveless marriages are out; romantic love as the reason for shacking-up is in. "I think they are happier this way. I did a survey in 1994, one half of the couples surveyed expressed that they are getting along with their life partners," Li said. "They say they love each other. I think it is better than before."
Li, the old guard sociologist, believes the up-and-coming generations will be even more open about the "s word," leading to more crimes of "passion." Perhaps more psychoses. And more antidepressant pill-popping.
And now that Hooters has moved in to Shanghai successfully, rumour has it the Playboy Mansion is getting ready to be welcomed into the neighbourhood.
Is China ready for Hooters?
CBC News Viewpoint | March 17, 2005 |
Every night, locals pack the house at Shanghai's Hooters, an American-based restaurant chain known for its well-endowed staff: bubbly waitresses sporting skimpy white tops and equally tiny orange shorts.
"I came here because this guy told me Hooters is an interesting place and has many beautiful girls. It's great," one male patron says, smiling and nodding in approval of the first Hooters in the Middle Kingdom. Maybe to him, but is China ready for this?
Hooters' manager, Amy Smith answered in the affirmative. She said, "We have been very busy and we're getting busier. The first few days … we noticed a lot of locals just standing outside the window, watching for an hour or two. It seems the locals are really intrigued about the concept."
Indeed, sexual mores have wildly changed in the Middle Kingdom.
One survey on premarital sex from China's Academy of Social Sciences estimates that seven out of 10 young adults now have sex before marriage, compared to the 1980s when it was only one in 10. Sex-dating sites, sex shops and massage parlours are reflecting a generation's increasing obsession with sex. Virtually in any bar, prostitution has become a permanent fixture.
Why is China going through a quiet revolution, a dramatic shift in cultural attitudes? Why now? One reason could be that a rapidly transforming quasi-capitalistic society is leaving people way behind without a structure to cling to, without something to replace the old ways.
A spiritual vacuum, if you will.
Could media and film also be to blame? Li Yinhe, a research fellow from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences thinks so. "People are becoming more and more natural when they kiss, embrace in the public," she says. "In Chinese traditional way, there is a debate on if your sister-in-law fell into the river, should you offer your hand? In the traditional teachings, a man and woman should not touch hands. So the change is great."
Another sign of the revolution is the openly gay population, according to Li. She says in big cities there are bars for homosexuals and fantasy partners. Officials say there are as many as 10 million gay men in the Middle Kingdom. And one televised plastic surgery beauty pageant last November featured a transgender woman as a frontrunner contestant.
However, all this free love has also led to a rise in teen pregnancies, AIDS, STDs. And the divorce rate has soared and increased by a whopping 20 per cent. But some say it's because relaxed laws have merely empowered people to do what they've wanted to do for a long time.
With China opening itself up to outside influences, one young man tells me some of the women here are very eager to land themselves foreign boyfriends or husbands.
Take Eileen for example (not her real name). She's a young journalist working at a major daily in a big city. She's pretty unconventional according to Chinese traditional standards. That's because she lives with her American boyfriend.
"My boyfriend appreciates me a lot, and he opens a new and wider world to me," she says, "there are also many Chinese girls who like hanging out with foreign men. Some of them hang out with them for money because most westerners here are richer than Chinese men. Some of them are dreaming to marry westerners to go abroad."
Eileen's parents have tried to stop her and even went so far as to tell her it was "illegal" for her to live with her boyfriend, Nick.
Surprisingly, despite the new openness towards sex, the shame associated with casual sex or one-night stands is still very strong. Eileen says her local friends are tight-lipped about their love lives. "My Chinese women friends wouldn't admit they have premarital sex because it's considered shameful," she says.
But some women see sex as power. Some students at major universities moonlight as sex workers at the city's most popular nightclubs. "They can make $900 in just one night when they spend it with a rich man," says Michelle Wu, a university student who adds that some students make enough money to afford luxury cars like BMWs. "[The women] feel they're in control because they call the shots."
To be sure, the government is not blind to what's going on. In one of many attempts to reach the younger generation, it's turning to the internet. One government website's manager tells me they're desperately trying to get the right information on sex out there. Their site offers chat rooms, articles and a place for youth to express themselves in, of course, a controlled environment.
In the cities, arranged loveless marriages are out; romantic love as the reason for shacking-up is in. "I think they are happier this way. I did a survey in 1994, one half of the couples surveyed expressed that they are getting along with their life partners," Li said. "They say they love each other. I think it is better than before."
Li, the old guard sociologist, believes the up-and-coming generations will be even more open about the "s word," leading to more crimes of "passion." Perhaps more psychoses. And more antidepressant pill-popping.
And now that Hooters has moved in to Shanghai successfully, rumour has it the Playboy Mansion is getting ready to be welcomed into the neighbourhood.
