Letter from Taiwan	Jump to Update
	Taiwan's Sex Industry	A clear pic of the background

Back to the keyboard for another installment of "David's Letter From Taiwan." Today's topic: Taiwan's unhidden black market sex industry, it sounds a bit of an oxymoron but stick with me on this. As you may have guessed from my last and current letter I am going thorough my second adolescence; my "Beavis and Butthead" period.

In my letter I will answer the following questions: Is prostitution illegal in Taiwan? How to spot an illegal house of ill-repute? Who patrons the establishments? Why do the police not notice the bordellos? Who works at the establishments? What are the tamer alternatives?

Well, to the first question. Prostitution has been illegal nationwide for a long time. With the exception of Taipei, until last year, when the Mayor of Taipei overturned an exception it had held. The bickering between the Taipei city government and the former legal prostitutes is still continuing, though news of the issue has not surfaced in the press for a while. Of course the illegality of the profession has not stopped the oldest trade in the world. But where as other countries might push it to dingy badly lit areas Taiwan has allowed it to flourish in splendor. Spotting a place of ill-repute is therefore not hard once you realize their openness. To the causal observer they are hidden by the fact they are in full view, they are invisible due to their visibility. The high class places mainly front as barber shops, they even use the twirling barber pole to attract custom. The fact that these barber shops often have car parks. Come with chrome and mirrored entrance ways. Have a troop of foyer attendants and a counter, which is staffed my two cashiers. All this. along with a smattering of unoccupied barber chairs, might alert the passerby that something is amiss, such as people having their hair cut. They are invariable two storied palaces and have no windows apart from at the entrance. They are thus as easy to spot as the thumb of an apprentice joiner. Should you miss spotting the place the facade is usually adorned with flashing neon signs. Lower down the chain are the seeder versions that usually forgo the car parks, the welcoming foyer attendants and light bulbs; this class of place goes for poor light possibly to stop photography or the patrons having too good a look at the merchandize. They too have a prominent display of whirling barber pools and flashing lights, but these places are for the small fish. A huckster, come doorman, will prowl the street looking for lucky customers to cajole in to entering the establishment. Their English is not very good so they use Chinese words to form a crude imitation of 'Massage' which in Chinese is 'Horse kills chicken.' Also at this level, are coffee houses that invite the lone customer to stop by and enjoy the house refreshment, and Karaoke parlors that are for individual singers. And after the above, if you want to go further down the scale the you can visit the secluded alleys where ladies stand under pink butcher's lights; for the same purpose butchers use the lamps I assume. Patronage of these establishments is not difficult to imagine. Almost any man with enough spare cash I suppose, though the prices are not cheap as the majority of Taiwanese men seem to consider Bangkok a men's Disneyland. Cultural considerations do not make going to one of these places a taboo. But since men go to these places it might be worth considering who decides what is taboo or not. Many patrons do not go as a choice, but as part of business etiquette. The flash places thrive off the corporate expense card, catering to the well off and the "just clinched the deal and now we have to celebrate." This style of business socializing can have its toll. I assume many corporate businessmen have wished company enterprises did not involve so much back breaking work. Other clients include the many conscripts who find themselves in god forgotten places like the outlying islands to the North-West, or in the many garrison towns that fill up once-a-week then the soldiers get their R-n-R. Old men seeking to relive their youth are also no strangers to these places; "Snake Alley" in Taipei, which is famous for its snake restaurants, has its fair share of KTV parlors. There the old men, after having a snake dinner, often feel the Chinese herbal benefits of the dishes and seek out a place where they can do some private singing. I am sure unscrupulous restaurateurs will start spicing their dishes with Viagra in hope that their snake dinners will become a hit with the old men, and their clientele will start rising (pun intentional.) With prostitution an illegal activity you would assume that it would be less conspicuous. But as already mention their hoardings can often make the golden arches of McDonalds look rather sedate. Culture and money are most likely the main reason. Most Asian cultures view men going to see prostitutes not as a vice put a natural urge, the fact that prostitutes occupy a low status in most these societies highlights the one-sidedness of this viewpoint. Money also has its part to answer, corruption is a major problem in the Taiwanese Police Force. The fact that I once read a news report about the large number of illegal golf courses in Taiwan, alerted me to the insight that the police have a questionable myopia problem. Finding employees for these establishments does not seem to be a problem in today's quick cash society. Girls seem to be more inclined to selling their bodies than a few years ago, as money and not morality are the principals that guide a lot of them. The possession of expensive clothes and mobile phones is more important. Being a working girl is not a enviable position but the money is. Employers litter the newspapers with their ads for girls to work as hostesses and waitresses for high wages. Girls who crowd the road side betel nut stalls can also be led toward the richer pickings found in barber shops and KTV parlors. Taiwan also has its fair share of migrant workers from its poorer neighbors, these women are usually treated badly by all concerned: employers, clients and authorities. Gigolos have a little harder time in Taiwan as the masculine society does not want the women to have a good time. Gay sex though is a very taboo subject and outlets for such are well hidden if they exist. The gigolos are minor celebrities when they are busted by the police. News stations often get over excited at the amount of money the men make in the so called "Friday Restaurants" that these men are found in. So it sounds that they do get a little bit more reverence than their female counterparts. Finally where do men go for titillation rather than total relaxation? Scanning the lines of girls working at betel nut stalls is one avenue, that usually leads my to hitting the kerb. Dingy back-street theaters showing X-rated movies is another. Places offering friendly Waitress service is the most recent. Hostess bars where the girls wore lingerie have been drummed out of Taipei, before my time I am sad to say. These have been replaced by waitress bars full of girls eager to serve. Most of these places are of the "Hooters" variety; "Hooters" arrived here last year and has two branches in Taipei, one of my students is a waitress there and always tells anecdotes of the place with pride. The teachers though maliciously remark that "Peepers" would be a more honest name for the place when you consider the stereotype of the average Asian girls physiognomy. Lots of local bars have gone in for having an abundance of waitress staff. To the extreme that there seems to be more waitresses then patrons. Possible the girls have a union with strict demarcation rules. "Hi, I am Sue. I will be your 'walk to the bar stool' waitress, where Jane will be your 'take the order' waitress. She will be followed by Mary who will bring your drink. And then Ann will idly stand next to you a pop popcorns in to your mouth, so that your hands will be free to grope Lana, your 'jail bait' waitress." In the past few months, there has been an explosion in theme girl bars and restaurants. A lot of them regularly have advertisements in the press, usually including a picture of a bevy of beautiful teenage girls. These are relatively up-front, respectable joints; respectable as far as being with in the law, and up-front as far as Chinese girls can be up-front. Places that offer more than a pretty waitress have been labeled with the adjective 'Spicy.' Tai Chong in the center of Taiwan is notorious for its 'Spicy Tea Houses.' These places are verging on being go-go bars. The press have already salivated a lot of column inches of salacious details on the places. And I am sure you are not interested in the stories of lap dancing and sexy shows. Neither are you interested in tales of bars with Plexiglas floors and a high drinks charges for patrons on the lower floor. Or places where the waitress wear extra short skirts and tend tables that are lower than usual, etc. These places cater to the pervy nature of Taiwanese men. In all Taiwan is like any society. It is the fact that the country prohibits something that its society on the face of it condones. The fact that it is illegal but prospers nearly everywhere you look seems perverse. This is not strange for Asia, Thailand is also in the same situation, but the difference there is that Thailand does not hide its brothels and go-go pick up joints behind any superficial mask. They also do not make a pretence of enforcing its laws, as the Thailand police has its own division for protecting its tourist sex industry. The fact that the Taiwan has laws prohibiting prostitution are merely a face saving measure for its society. Taiwan wants to be seen as a democratic nation. It desires to be seen on par with countries such as America, where there are stronger morals against sex, due to its religious communities that see sex as immoral outside of marriage. In Chinese communities there is not such a strong feeling and as far as I can see Buddhism is not morally against sex as a pleasure though against it as a vice. So Taiwan is held against the ideals of countries that do not share its culture, and thus has created this strange posture of making something illegal that it is not going to enforce. As an aside, I learnt recently a piece of information that might explain why so many brothels hide behind the facade of being barber shops. In Taiwan there is a government system of registering sales through a national sales receipt system. Whenever you buy something you must receive a sales recent that is registered with the government. Each receipt bares a unique nine digit code. Every two months the government publishes receipt numbers, if your receipts match any of the numbers either completely or partially on the published numbers then you will receive a cash prize. Two hundred Taiwanese dollars for three digits, a thousand for four, and so on. The grand prize is two million Taiwanese dollars for a single matching receipt. This system is very popular with purchasers, but some retailers hate it as it means all of there sales are registered and they are liable to pay the incurred sales tax. So some shops do not give their customers receipts, but these places usually charge a little bit less. Now the brothels make a lot of money and therefore do not want their accounts being automatically scrutinized by the government. So what is the solution? Well one course of action is to submit fraudulent tax returns, and the other is to set themselves up as businesses that are exempt from issuing sales receipts. Amongst the businesses that are exempt from the national sales receipts are restaurants, bars and barber shops. Update Pornographic videos have not been something that is new to Taiwan. As with all the other aspects of the sex industry, there is the government's stance on the subject and what everyone does. The official censored porn is soft when it comes to the home produced variety. Imported material, from American and Japan, is censored with the use of re-digitalization, where 'the bits' are fuzzed out, and the sound tracks are left in, so the story lines are not destroyed. Japanese material is widely favored in Taiwan. It usually has some sort of masochism attached to them and invariable involves actresses dressed as high school schoolgirls or nurses. Japanese males usual come over as sadists, who sometimes only seem interested in the humilation of the girls. A new trend in pornography, that has recently attracted a lot of media attention, is the making of peeper porn. This has happened due to the wide availability of cheap miniature cameras, a lot of which come with pinhole lens. These cameras have turned up in a variety of places, most commonly: public and private toilets, saunas, hotel bedrooms and bathrooms, and store changing rooms. Recordings form these cameras have been turning up on the market. Night Markets and vendors, who sell out of parked vans, are the largest outlet for the merchandise. Two vendors made the papers recently when they were caught peddling the videos, late night, near a junior high school. Being near the school was probably their only fault since the stuff is otherwise available anywhere. Newspapers have written articles on how unfaithful spouses have been caught out by the secret cameras. They have complained about the intrusion into the private lives of individuals, but at the same time their classified sections are full of ads for the videos. TV has aired its fair share of condemnation. The news programs have shown department stores and hotel managers using electronic equipment to sweep for cameras. And to help viewers share in the indignation the stations have played footage of the illegally filmed videos, showing healthy young couples romping around motel rooms, and teenage girls sitting on toilet seats, digitized fuzz was of course used. Whether the intentional obscurity of private parts and faces was to save the embarrassment of the filmed people or to save the TV companies from paying royalties was not made clear.

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