Each letter highlighting an aspect of Taiwanese culture, society and lifestyle. The hope is to be informative and humorous. But I think I will stick to informative, and you can find the humor in the truth.

So, where to start? I imagine one of my popular bar room topics will do, it being Betel nut. Betel nut and all its associated material: such as its sale, use, disposal, and marketing; which is mainly fronted by girls, or as they are colloquially called 'Betel Nut Beauties.'

What is Betel nut? Well, facts first: "Betel nut - the astringent seed of an East Indian palm, the betel palm, used for chewing with betel leaves and lime." The effects of chewing seem to be a slight feeling of warmth over the body and a warm tight feeling across the forehead; those are my lab findings. Chewing is mildly addictive. A side effect is an increase in salivation, which is dyed red with the betel juice. The disposal of the spittle and nut husk will be dealt with in a following paragraph. The consumption of the nut has no known beneficial effect and is seen as a habit of the lower classes and tradesmen. It is in effect Taiwanese chewing tobacco.

Betel nut is sold nearly everywhere in Taiwan. I think some of the cities have ordinances prohibiting their sale in their limits, but I am sure people get around this by touting the nuts out of bags in any area that likely consumers congregate, such as bowling alleys and karaoke parlors. Small family convenience stores might sell them as a sideline, but mostly they are sold at small stalls, booths and kiosks. Popular locations are at road intersections, traffic lights, near bowling alleys, outside hospitals (especially those treating mouth cancer, says David cynically, honest I have seen them outside hospitals but I can not vouch for the cancer part) and pubs. If you chew the stuff you can rest easily knowing you are never far from an outlet. And usually where there is one, you will most likely find a couple of others. Market survey in Taiwan means, if someone is selling Betel nut at a location it must be a good spot; if three stalls have set up pitches then it must be a damn good spot.

Normally a stall will have a full time attendant, who sends his or her time preparing the betel nuts. The ma and pa convenience stores usually have the mum or dad doing the dirty work. There are two preparations: one splits the nut and pastes in mash of the betel nut along with a small slice of lime: the second preparation is the 007, where two nuts are wrapped together is a betel nut leave. The main roadside stalls use 'Betel Nut Beauties' if the owner is lucky enough to get a young girl. If no young girls are available he might have to settle for a 'Betel Nut Oh-Bah-San' (A common Japanese word that means old woman) or if the owner does not have anyone a 'Betel Nut Oh-Gee-San' (Japanese for old man) by which I mean he has to do it himself.

The said 'Betel Nut Beautities' are the retail part of the betel nut market. The nut's own selling point is not enough in Taiwan's bustling market. Competition is stiff, and the owners of the stalls, which stick like barnacles to every roadside, need every trick they can use to have a share of the large profits to be made. Hence the oldest trades involvement with the betel nut.

Roadside betel nut stalls are the abodes of the 'Betel Nut Beauty,' the pedestals from which they can display their beauty and a few other things as well. The times I have nearly been involved in accidents for the lack of a pair of blinkers are too numerous to be mentioned. The stalls are the first tool in the Betel Nut Beauty's arsenal. A beacon to attract the attention of the driver in want of his (and I will stay with the male third pronoun, as betel nut is not the preferred vice of the average woman) next hit. They stick out like neon sore thumbs. Resplendent in flashing lights and mirrors. Fighting to be more easy to notice than the surrounding traffic signals, they can be a sever irritation.

The next tool in the girls' weaponry is their clothing; peck-a-boo dresses that catch the driver's attention faster than a wonderbra ad, short skirts, or more truthfully thick belts, dresses split to the armpits, hot pants, scorching hot pants and knee high boots all make a Betel Nut Beauty's wardrobe. The girls sit all day, out in the open or in glass booths, on their high stools, which because of the stall's pedestal is already evaluated to the height of the passing lorry cabs. While not selling to the drivers who stop, the girls spend the time reading comic books, chatting with their mates, talking on the phone, or most commonly preparing betel nuts for sale.

A Betel Nut Beauty will work a twelve-hour shift and normally six days a week. They are reported to earn more than NT$60,000 a month (US$1,800 or UK 1,100.) This may well be higher as I doubt the average stall owner submits any correct tax forms, or even submits any tax forms at all. The girls get a cut of the betel nut profits, so the harder they work or the more beautiful they are the higher their likely earning. The stalls also offer cigarettes and drinks to supplement the cash from the nut sales. As an extra, the girls are reported to offer a few other services to comfort the customers. These extra services can only be mentioned as reported, as evidence is hard to find but easy to believe. The regularity that the girls are seen talking on the phone or sitting in the cabs of the customers can be interpreted as meaning the girls show more than free willingness to extend hospitality to the customers.

Betel Nut is usually sold in boxes. There are two sizes of boxes. Ones that contain about fifty nuts and those that contain about twenty-five; the nuts are about the size of a hazelnut. Purchases are for either fifty or hundred Taiwanese dollars. The number of nuts in a box varies according to the season, as there is no method of freezing. The nuts have to be eaten relatively fresh. So, in low season a single nut can be about five dollars, while in high season they are a dollar each.

The betel nut boxes themselves are quite characteristic. They are palm sized and usually bare a picture of a girl. The majority of the girls are Chinese and semi clothed. There have been reports, that girls who have innocently allowed their boyfriends to take few holiday snap shots, had found themselves later adorning betel nut boxes. Also as a gimmick, some of the boxes show clothed girls whose attire evaporates in the presence of a hot flame. I can not verify this as my research into the boxes has been confined to those boxes I have seen scattered by the roadside, usually being damp I have found them difficult to heat. In the name of journalism, I will continue my investigation.

Betel nut chewers are easy to recognize. Apart from their constant mastication, there is a distinctive odor similar to licorice, which is noticeable when a user is around. On the more visual front many users have reddish lips and discolored gums and teeth. As the average user tends to be a smoker as well, the effect of being close to the open maw of a one can be quite unpleasant. I imagine kissing one is not a barrel of laughs either. My dedication to journalism has its limits at times.

An unpleasant side effect of chewing betel nut is the saliva produced when chewing it. The nut seems to promote increased salivation and the chemicals in the nut dye the saliva a strong red color. Disposal of the saliva is usually through excessive spitting on part of the user. Some people swallow, this was the option I tended to use when I tried the stuff out of curiosity. The taste is not that unpleasant, but I assume that if you spend all day chewing the stuff it might become mildly nauseating. One of my past students found he was unable to go without chewing during class so spent the day swallowing the juice. He did though have a problem when it came to the husk of the nut. The rather less polite quarter of the chewing population liberally spit great gobs of the reddish stuff all over the place. Pavement gutters are always spotted with dried red splashes. Many drivers, while stopped at lights, open their car doors lean out and gob on the road. Some might use disposable plastic cups, which are usually used to deposit the husks, then at a convenient moment the cup and its contents are chucked out into the gutter. You can see them littering the roads as often as the betel nut boxes.

It's popularity means a large profit for those supplying the market. Hence the relatively recent appearance of Betel Nut Beauties; the inclusion of the sexual aspect is merely a part of Chinese culture. The worry is the involvement of the gangster element in Taiwan. Whether they are bothered, if they run protection racket, etc., can be only guessed at. Where normally selling is involved the trade might be too well established. As the sex apart there maybe more concern. The ages of the some of the girls has reportedly got lower and owners are always on the lookout of girls to work for them. And as the wages are high many girls with poor education become embroiled in the business.

Farmers have also gotten on the bandwagon big time. Betel nut is easy to grow. The warmer the climate the better, but betel nut trees can be seen everywhere, the South being the most popular area by far. The trees take five years to reach maturity and begin producing nuts. The only downside is the fact that they are very tall and slender and are prone to toppling over in high winds. So, a strong typhoon can destroy an old orchard of trees quite easily. Also the roots of the trees sap all the nutrients out of the surrounding soil and leave the ground empty of goodness. This though does not stop a large number of farmers from growing the stuff.

So, in the end what is the attraction of betel nut? It is difficult to fathom. I suppose it is a mixture of peer pressure and a belief in the herbal properties of the nut to rise the body temperature. Certainly it is very popular amongst the working classes who work outdoors; and replaces smoking as a habit for those you can not smoke for the majority of the time, bus drivers being an example. Many ex-conscripts complain the only thing they learn in the army was how to smoke, I imagine the social environment that surrounds the majority to betel nut users was the main reason they started.

I can not see it being so popular in England, it would be impossible to supply an European market as the nuts would have to be air shipped in for them to remain fresh. Plus the culture is not suited, spitting being such a social faux pas. Betel nut is on par with chewing tobacco.

Could I be at risk from getting hooked to it? Well, working as a professional rules out chewing the stuff as personal appearance is of utmost importance, you know users by their red mouths. And anyway I can give it up anytime I choose.

References:
1. Picture of a betelnut box

2. Web site of pictures of betelnut beauties

3. Article by Ieuan Dolby

4. Collection of links to photos and articles at "David's Guide to Taiwan" (A different David to this author)

Update

An interesting development in the selling of Betel nut has recently occurred in my neighborhood. I am unsure if this is just a localized phenomena, but the Betel nut girls have started wearing costumes.

I first noticed a change when I started to see girls, who were working the same kiosk, wearing the same attire. I imagined the boss was trying to created some kind of identity and had made up a uniform for her or his girls. But I dispelled that idea when I noticed the uniforms regularly changed. It seemed more likely the proprietor was just trying to make the girls' appearance special and memorable.

The strategy of wearing the same clothes has been superceded by a newer development. This one entails the wearing of fancy costumes by the girls, most notable bunny girl uniforms and nurse uniforms.

The connection of bunny girls and Betel nut is logical, both are service industries and both focus on male patronage. The nurse uniforms shows a stronger focus on sex, and highlights the use of sex as a selling tool in the Betel nut retail sector (Or maybe, that should be Sextor.) I may be missing the real point, since I am rather one-sided in the way I think, and the real connection between Betel nut and nurses might be health, thought the uniforms are rather short.

The connection of Betel nut and health seems absurd, but so does chewing something that makes you constantly spit red gobs of saliva.

A colleague of mine told me that as he and a friend passed a Betel nut stall, they noticed that it was only manned by a man. This led my colleague to remark 'Maybe he is pretending to be a doctor.'