Published by Swiss James on 26 May 2008 at 12:41 pm
Speaking of mirrors
This weekend I broke a mirror and interviewed a prostitute.
In The Beaver, a classy bar for gentlemen, I’d just won a game of table football that was pretty much a play-by-play re-enactment of the 1966 World Cup Final. When the ball hit the tin for the final goal I went bananas with joy, banged my head against the mirror, knocking it to the ground.
If Kit from The Beaver reads this, I’m sorry. Oh and whilst we’re chatting, can I have a VIP card?
It was time to make a quick exit after that, and via a couple of bars on Tongren Lu I ended up with my boss’s nephew in one of the lower class bars on Julu Lu.
It was the kind of bar that is filled with very friendly, very thirsty girls. In fact the girls are borderline prostitutes, and I’m being pretty generous with the borderline.
At some point during the evening, one of the girls saw my name card for a website called Shanghaiist
Oh you’re a journalist!
She says
Hmmm. Yes!
Said I, (not 100% truthfully).
Well after that there was no more flirting and asking me to buy her a drink, and lots more of her telling me all about the lifestyle of Shanghai (borderline) prostitutes and me asking what seemed like insightful questions at the time.
Here are the facts that I remember:
- If you pay 45RMB for a girl’s drink, she gets 15
- Most of the girls come from the provinces and work to send their money home
- The girl I spoke to sends home between 500-2000RMB per month.
- Her momma don’t ask where the money comes from (and baby don’t tell)
- Rum makes you drunk
I swear you’ve attached velro to those name cards (and your finger), every time you put your hand in your pocket one comes out “by mistake”.
That reminds me of the gentlemen’s clubs that I used to frequent in Houston. You’d think they’d be full of whist playing men, perhaps reading Somerset Maugham, or smoking a pipe. And you’d be wrong. These Gentlemen’s Clubs were also full of very friendly women, but not so thirsty. Apparently too poor to afford clothing, though.
dingle- I don’t know what you mean, I hardly ever mention that I’m a hugely important pseudo-journalist for Shanghai’s premier news source.
T- that sounds ghastly, it’s like I always say No Maugham, no dice.
Also I have had zero entries for reader’s shoes and we all know what day tomorrow is.
Just you wait. I had to dig through my boxes (and I have a lot of boxes) to find my babies.
You didn’t beat one of the borderline prostitutes at table football did you? They are unbeatable!
rum makes one drunk??! pish posh!
“Thirsty Girls” is the name that we have at work for the bar girls in Shanghai. I laughed when I saw you had used that phrase.
I shall be coming out again to Shanghai for 3-4 months in June, so I might have to do some more research…
“Rum makes you drunk”. That should be my first experiment.
Don’t the girls have fee’s or services outside of the bar? to make some xtra cash or do they leave that to the pink barber shops? better to get pissed+shagged in one place then trying to find your way after the bar for some hooch, hmm “Pink Bar” ©, now theres a nice nickname for some “thirsty hooch” ©. Yes I claim both of those phrases, sue me.
James - If you needed to know this information, why did you not ask me?
To be honest I don’t find it funny at all that you’re trying to make this post as a joke, maybe my english is too poor to understand your real meaning of this post, but I personally find it rather inappropriate to talk about those topics and joking at the same time.
Those girls are forced to do this as they have no other choice, so they have to accept losing their integrity, it’s really sad.
Actually Shopgirl many of these girls *do* have a choice and choose to make money by scamming unsuspecting foreign visitors (and the occasional foreign resident) into paying 45 rmb for a third of a glass of orange or Coke in return for a share of the proceeds.
Stefan- I think we should ask Wiggy!
Wiggy-t is it possible to get a carry out from these bars? Or is it strictly drink in?
T- still waiting for these shoe photos….
Killban- thirsty girls sounds about right!
Liam- nope, I don’t even play them any more, too depressing
Angie- try a controlled scientific experiment, you’ll find I’m correct.
Shoppers- It’s not like there’s some evil gangboss kidnapping girls from Anhui province and forcing them to work until they die and are sold for meat. They could work in McDonald’s if they wanted, but I guess some girls prefer to sit around getting paid to talk to gullible menfolk.
WoAi- it was funny to see this lad in there on his first visit- three or four girls pounced on him asking for drinks before we even got sat down. The combination of lust and panic in his eyes was quite something.
stefan as far as I’m aware this kind of thing doesn’t happen. I’ve seen girls leaving the bars with men, generally significantly older western men, but I’m told that the reasons are entirely innocent, i.e. the girl is helping the man to book tickets to the ballet, at err 4am, maybe there’s a queue.
Shopgirl - To be honest I do find it funny because James makes me laugh but good on you for standing up for the girls.
James and Woai - It IS a bit like there’s an evil gangboss but it’s more like young women with some of a secondary education who’ve never been out of their village before being offered a job waitressing in the big city and signing themselves up without knowing what’s going on.
Chinese employment contracts usually contain “punishments” for leaving the company so not everyone can quit and work in McDonalds.
Yes, I believe they do offer a takeaway service.
Dingle - Less of the old!! I love the ballet!