Learn more about women-only host bars in Gangnam, Korea

South Korea's quick financial advancement has actually implied some startling modifications within its conservative social structure, consisting of the rise of supposed host bars, where rich ladies pay the matching of thousands of bucks for male company.

In the dark light of an underground space, a lots completely brushed boys kneel in rows, calling out their names.

Muscular, with glossy boy-band hairdos, they pack side by side into the narrow area, waiting for us to make our selection. Outside in the passage, even more of their coworkers are arriving for an additional night at the office. It is 2am, and we are their initial consumers.

Hidden beneath the sidewalks of Seoul's ritziest postcode, Gangnam, the men at Bar 123 belong to an expanding market, which grew out of the long traditions of Japanese geisha and Korea's kisaeng homes yet with one crucial difference - the customers below are all ladies.

Called "host bars", these all-night alcohol consumption areas provide female customers the chance to pay as well as choose for male friends, occasionally at a cost of countless pounds a night.

Among the females I fulfill at Bar 123 is Minkyoung, a waitressing manager for a five-star resort. Once or twice a month, she states she comes to host bars.

The appeal of host bars can be refined. Below, she claims, she has more interest from her male friends, even more choice as well as, most importantly, more control.

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" In normal bars the guys who consume with me have just one goal - to have an one-night stand. I do not want that, so that's why I come below, I desire to have fun," she says.

Hosts are hired by bars similar to this one to give friendship as well as amusement. Officially that implies putting beverages for their customers, talking and dancing with them, as well as singing karaoke.

Host bar in Seoul

Sex is not officially on deal in the majority of host bars. That would be prohibited however even Minkyoung appears pleased to touch as well as flirt with her host, as well as the guys here estimate that around half the clients wish to spend for sex, either on or off the properties.

James has actually been operating at Bar 123 for a number of years. In Korean culture, he states, there is a whole lot of pride as well as working out a price for sex is never ever done clearly. Instead, he informs me, it is all to the host's own analysis.

" The individuals here are pros - we know what we're doing," he states.

" After speaking to a woman for an hour we basically recognize exactly how much cash she makes and what she does for a living. We've currently analysed her personality and also what she wants to offer."

James as well as various other hosts state their clients include several of South Korea's elite, which the money and rewards available are extraordinary. One customer James fulfilled, during his initial week in the task, asked him to sign himself over to her for two years.

" She claimed 'let's make an agreement. I've got this piece of paper and also I've numbered it 1-5. 분당룸 Whatever you make a note of beside those numbers, I'll get you.'".

James claims at the time he took it as a joke yet because located out the same woman invested ₤ 60,000 ($ 97,000) on another host.

" If it happened now, I would certainly do it - I 'd be believing straight.".

Actually perhaps, host bars outgrew one of Korea's most established and, some say, misogynist service traditions - the room salon. These are personal drinking spaces where groups of men select, and are offered by, attractive female people hosting.

It was the people hosting' requirement to allow off heavy steam after job, claims professional host Kim Dong-hee, that developed the preliminary demand for host bars, with all-male personnel.

These women are forced to do things they do not want to do for cash.

" I think a whole lot of them are in discomfort, as well as a whole lot feel lonely. Just put, they wish to acquire our time as well as our bodies.".

People hosting still make up a big percent of the customers at host bars here, however at Bar 123, as an example, up to 40% of the consumers on an offered evening are currently from other walks of life.

The factors for that growing allure are locked up in South Korea's fast economic increase. Within 50 years, the country shifted from post-war destruction to OECD member.

But, according to Jasper Kim, head of the Asia-Pacific Global Research Group in Seoul, something crucial was lost in the process.

" I assume that with all this fast growth comes rapid change, and also Koreans simply do not understand exactly how to handle it. Increasingly, industrialism is surpassing basic social norms that you would certainly anticipate a number of years ago.".

Jasper Kim says South Korea's notoriously lengthy functioning hrs have left several Korean ladies feeling lonely, while the country's technological development has left lots of people really feeling detached.

" The human aspect of Korean society that existed in the past simply doesn't exist today. People are concentrated on technology, individuals are concentrated on their work, they aren't concentrated on human relations any longer.

" In several methods, Korean culture today kind of advises me of 1960s society in the US, where it's on the edge of some kind of cultural transformation.".

The grandpa of Seoul's host bar scene, Kim Dong-hee, agrees that much of the women that concern host bars are not paying for sex but also for friendship, which is why he opened a new chain of freshly-marketed outlets focused on the mainstream market - called Red Model Bars.

Red Model Bar hosts.

Photo subtitle,.

Hosts at Red Model Bars can not touch customers.

" Men desire to have aesthetic satisfaction as well as desire to feel points, they're tactile. Ladies like to talk and to listen. Which's why I assumed of opening up a bar similar to this - a kind of discussion bar.".

Red Model Bars are various to conventional host bars in one crucial regard - there is a no-touching guideline. Hosts sit on one side of the table, customers on the other, and also no physical get in touch with is enabled, as well as absolutely no sex.

Probably as a result there is an absence of furtiveness among the people who work or drink here - the lights are reduced, the style generally dark red as well as the area is separated into discreet booths, but it is an open-plan area and also clients and hosts are separated in each booth by a large table.

This brand-new business design depends totally on females paying the matching of hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars to speak with good-looking boys over a drink. Still, it appears to be functioning - 3 new branches are because of open this year.

Resting at a table at one end of bench was one of their normal customers, a flower designer called Kim Nayu. She informs me she comes below every day to satisfy her much-loved host and also go over problems she is having at job.

The cost for this piece of male interest is $487-650 (₤ 300-400) a day.

" Talking to buddies would certainly be less costly" she admits, "however they do not listen as much. They're active, as well as quickly to discuss themselves. Right here, people will certainly take notice of me and also they'll pay attention to me.".

" I invest a great deal of money however it deserves it of what I obtain mentally. Individuals pay to visit see a psychologist or psychiatrist, so it's comparable but much less stressful.".

Nayu's much-loved host Sung-il says it can be hard to keep his individual and professional life different.

" Honestly I 'd be existing 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 regulations.".

Among his customers yapped to her hubby concerning him and when the 3 of them met, Sung-il and also the partner came to be friends.

" No one conceals - the workers don't conceal that they function below, and also customers can be open too.".

This openness is positioning a new kind of difficulty to South Korean culture, various from the in some cases seedy abyss of traditional host bars as well as their hinterland of male prostitution.

By offering ladies a "decent" means to test traditional gender roles and flex their financial power, these brand-new bars ask questions of Korean society that are coming to be harder to disregard.

Listen to the complete record on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents. You can pay attention through the Radio 4 site or via the Crossing Continents podcast.

The appeal of host bars can be refined. Here, she says, she has even more interest from her male friends, even more choice and also, crucially, more control.

James has actually been functioning at Bar 123 for a couple of years. Instead, he tells me, it is all down to the host's own assessment.

And also that's why I believed of opening a bar like this - a kind of discussion bar.".