I just read a book called Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club. [Amazon reference] I recommend it to those interested in how and why hostess clubs operate and their role in Asian society. I make this recommendation despite the horribly inappropriate cover art.
Nightwork is a somewhat scholarly work by an associate professor and one-time acting chair of the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, Anne Allison. Apparently she took work as a hostess in a top tier club in Tokyo in the 1980’s as part of her research.
There are a few quibbles I have about the book and its broad academic generalizations about gender and social roles, but for the most part when it stays factual it is a good analysis and description of what goes on in a hostess club. The club where she served was in Roppongi and although it is often called a top club in the book, she admits that the quality of hostesses actually ranked it in tier two (of eight). The location would also be a factor.
What might surprise a western reader is that there is no sex at hostess clubs, at least at the reputable ones. It is all about women who know how to entertain, create conversation, and flirt, engender, provoke and otherwise cause socio-emotional responses. There is definitely a sexual undercurrent, but it is not about the sex act. For that, there are many other kinds of establishments to visit.
4 comments:
Is this have to do with the famous KTV places?
I've always been fascinated to hear about it, ever since a good friend of mine started doing business in China and Singapore.
Supposedly the drinking games there are pretty intense ;) And the women, very pretty.
The oddest, funniest strip club I have ever been to (and considering I danced at more than 50, this in no small feat) was in Honolulu. It is a combination of Asian style hostess bar and Western gentlemen’s club. I wanted to visit with several girls pals I had heard were working there, but after searching for an hour could find none of them about.
Finally, after a call to one on her cell, they came to my booth explaining they had been upstairs in VIP. What had been occupying their time up there? Table dancing? Or the wink-wink activities that can occur in the private areas of a club?
No. They had been singing karaoke! Fully clothed, I might add.
Smiles,
Alice
Yes, this is similar to KTV places, although most of those are downscale versions. In particular, places of those ilk are almost exclusively private rooms, whereas many of these hostess clubs are in a finely furnished common area with only partial privacy. I'll post more about the experience there later and the subtle but important differences. Seduction without satisfaction is indeed a downside, but it is the feature of these places -- the high end places at least are optimized for lubricating the social and business interactions of the men at the high end of society.
Thanks for the clarification!
I'll be checking back to read on the diffences.
And something else...Sigmund, you've been tagged. Please check my latest post to find out :)
Cheers,
Sasha
Post a Comment