Locate out even more regarding women-only host bars in Gangnam, Korea South Korea's quick economic growth has actually implied some shocking modifications within its conservative social framework, including the surge of so-called host bars, where wealthy women pay the equivalent of hundreds of dollars for male firm.
In the dark light of a basement, a loads flawlessly brushed boys stoop in rows, calling out their names.
Muscular, with glossy boy-band hairdos, they stuff alongside right into the narrow space, waiting on us to make our selection. Outside in the passage, more of their associates are arriving for one more night at the office. It is 2am, and we are their initial clients.
Concealed beneath the pavements of Seoul's ritziest postal code, Gangnam, the guys at Bar 123 are component of a growing market, which outgrew the long customs of Japanese geisha and also Korea's kisaeng houses yet with one critical distinction - the consumers here are all women.
Recognized as "host bars", these all-night drinking rooms provide women customers the opportunity to pay and select for male friends, often at a price of thousands of pounds a night.
Among the ladies I meet at Bar 123 is Minkyoung, a waitressing supervisor for a first-class hotel. Once or two times a month, she states she comes to host bars.
Minkyoung is extremely rather and her clothes are immaculate. She does not look like someone that would certainly require to spend for male company. The appeal of host bars can be subtle. Below, she claims, she has even more interest from her male buddies, more option as well as, most importantly, more control.
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" In routine bars the people who consume alcohol with me have just one goal - to have an one-night stand. But I don't want that, to make sure that's why I come below, I intend to enjoy," she says.
Hosts are hired by bars similar to this one to give companionship as well as enjoyment. Formally that suggests pouring drinks for their customers, dancing and speaking with them, as well as singing karaoke.
Host bar in Seoul
Sex is not formally available in the majority of host bars. That would be illegal yet also Minkyoung appears happy to flirt as well as touch with her host, and the guys here approximate that around half the customers wish to spend for sex, either on or off the properties.
James has actually been operating at Bar 123 for a couple of years. In Korean culture, he says, there is a great deal of satisfaction as well as bargaining a price for sex is never done explicitly. Rather, he tells me, it is all to the host's own evaluation.
" The individuals here are pros - we understand what we're doing," he states.
" After speaking to a lady for a hr we essentially recognize exactly how much money she makes as well as what she provides for a living. We've already evaluated her personality as well as what she's willing to offer."
James as well as various other hosts state their customers include some of South Korea's elite, and that the cash as well as benefits on offer boggle the mind. One client James met, during his very first week in the work, asked him to sign himself over to her for 2 years.
" She said 'let's make an agreement. I've obtained this paper and also I've numbered it 1-5. Whatever you jot down beside those numbers, I'll get you.'".
James states at the time he took it as a joke but because learnt the same lady spent ₤ 60,000 ($ 97,000) on one more host.
" If it took place now, I 'd do it - I 'd be thinking straight.".
Paradoxically maybe, host bars expanded out of one of Korea's most entrenched and, some say, misogynist organization traditions - the space beauty parlor. These are personal alcohol consumption spaces where groups of guys choose, as well as are served by, eye-catching women hostesses.
It was the hostesses' need to allow off vapor after job, states veteran host Kim Dong-hee, that produced the preliminary need for host bars, with all-male staff.
" What these hostesses desire is to [make us] do the same point they needed to do in their very own workplace. These women are compelled to do things they do not intend to do for money.
" I think a great deal of them are in discomfort, and also a lot feel lonesome. Just placed, they wish to acquire our time and also our bodies.".
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People hosting still compose a huge percentage of the customers at host bars right here, but at Bar 123, as an example, up to 40% of the consumers on an offered evening are now from various other strolls of life.
The factors for that expanding appeal are connected up in South Korea's quick financial increase. Within 50 years, the nation moved from post-war devastation to OECD participant.
According to Jasper Kim, head of the Asia-Pacific Global Research Group in Seoul, something important was shed along the method.
" I believe that with all this rapid growth comes fast change, and also Koreans just don't understand how to cope with it. Increasingly, commercialism is overtaking fundamental societal standards that you would anticipate a pair of years earlier.".
Jasper Kim claims South Korea's notoriously long working hours have left many Korean ladies really feeling lonesome, while the country's technological advancement has actually left numerous individuals really feeling removed.
" The human component of Korean society that existed in the past merely doesn't exist today. People are concentrated on innovation, individuals are concentrated on their tasks, they aren't focused on human connections any longer.
" In numerous means, Korean culture today kind of reminds me of 1960s culture in the United States, where it's on the edge of some kind of social revolution.".
The grandfather of Seoul's host bar scene, Kim Dong-hee, concurs that most of the ladies who come to host bars are not paying for sex but also for friendship, which is why he opened up a brand-new chain of freshly-marketed electrical 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 aesthetic enjoyment and wish to really feel points, they're tactile. Women like to chat as well as to pay attention. And also that's why I thought about opening a bar similar to this - a type of dialogue bar.".
Red Model Bars are different to traditional host bars in one vital respect - there is a no-touching policy. Hosts remain on one side of the table, customers on the other, and also no physical call is permitted, and also absolutely no sex.
Perhaps because of this there is an absence of furtiveness among the people who work or consume below - the lights are low, the decoration primarily dark red and the space is split right into very discreet cubicles, yet it is an open-plan area as well as consumers and hosts are divided in each booth by a large table.
This new business version depends totally on ladies paying the matching of hundreds and even thousands of dollars to speak to good-looking boys over a beverage. Still, it appears to be functioning - 3 new branches result from open this year.
Sitting at a table at one end of the bar was one of their normal consumers, a florist called Kim Nayu. She tells me she comes here daily to fulfill her favourite host and go over issues she is contending job.
The cost for this slice of male interest is $487-650 (₤ 300-400) a day.
" Talking to good friends would certainly be less expensive" she confesses, "but they do not listen as much. They're active, and in a rush to discuss themselves. Below, individuals will focus on me and they'll listen to me.".
" I spend a great deal of cash however it's worth it of what I get emotionally. People pay to visit see a psycho therapist or psychiatrist, so it's comparable yet much less demanding.".
Nayu's favorite host Sung-il says it can be difficult to keep his professional as well as individual life different.
" Honestly I would certainly be lying if I state I haven't been tempted to take points additionally with some consumers, due to the fact that we're human, we're men, but there are guidelines.".

Among his clients yapped to her other half about him and also when the 3 of them met, Sung-il and the spouse became friends.
" No one hides - the employees do not conceal that they work right here, and customers can be open also.".
This openness is posing a brand-new type of challenge to South Korean society, various from the occasionally shabby abyss of standard host bars as well as their hinterland of male hooking.
By providing ladies a "decent" way to challenge standard sex roles as well as bend their financial power, these new bars ask inquiries of Korean society that are becoming more difficult to neglect.
Hear the full record on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents. You can pay attention by means of the Radio 4 web site or by means of the Crossing Continents podcast.
The appeal of host bars can be subtle. Below, she claims, she has even more interest from her male buddies, even more option as well as, crucially, even more control.
James has actually been functioning at Bar 123 for a pair of years. Instead, he informs me, it is all down to the host's very own evaluation.
And also that's why I believed of opening up a bar like this - a kind of discussion bar.".