In the dim light of a basement, a loads perfectly groomed young guys kneel in rows, calling out their names.
Muscle, with shiny boy-band hairdos, they cram side by side into the narrow room, awaiting us to make our selection. Outside in the hallway, even more of their colleagues are getting here for another evening at the office. It is 2am, and also we are their initial customers.
Concealed underneath the pavements of Seoul's ritziest postal code, Gangnam, the men at Bar 123 are part of an expanding sector, which outgrew the long practices of Japanese geisha as well as Korea's kisaeng homes however with one essential difference - the consumers right here are all females.
Understood as "host bars", these all-night drinking spaces provide women clients the opportunity to pay as well as pick for male buddies, in some cases at an expense of countless pounds a night.
One of the females I satisfy at Bar 123 is Minkyoung, a waitressing supervisor for a five-star resort. As soon as or twice a month, she claims she comes to host bars.
The allure of host bars can be refined. Below, she says, she has even more interest from her male buddies, even more choice and also, crucially, more control.
PROMOTION
" In normal bars the men who consume with me have just one objective - to have a casual sex. I do not desire that, so that's why I come here, I want to have fun," she states.
Hosts are hired by bars similar to this one to provide friendship and also amusement. Formally that means putting drinks for their consumers, chatting as well as dancing with them, and also vocal singing karaoke.
Host bar in Seoul
Sex is not officially available in a lot of host bars. That would certainly be prohibited yet also Minkyoung seems satisfied to touch as well as flirt with her host, and also the men below estimate that around half the clients wish to pay for sex, either on or off the facilities.
James has actually been operating at Bar 123 for a number of years. In Korean society, he claims, there is a whole lot of satisfaction and also negotiating a price for sex is never done explicitly. Rather, he informs me, it is all down to the host's own assessment.
" The people here are pros - we understand what we're doing," he says.
" After talking with a lady for an hour we generally understand just how much cash she makes as well as what she does for a living. We've already analysed her personality and also what she agrees to give."
James as well as other hosts claim their clients include several of South Korea's elite, which the cash and also rewards available are extraordinary. One customer James fulfilled, during his first week in the work, asked him to sign himself over to her for 2 years.
" She stated 'allow's make a contract. I've got this piece of paper and also I've numbered it 1-5. Whatever you make a note of following to those numbers, I'll obtain you.'".
James claims at the time he took it as a joke however given that located out the same lady spent 60,000 ($ 97,000) on one more host.
" If it took place now, Iwould certainly do it - I 'd be believing straight.".
Actually probably, host bars grew out of among Korea's most established and also, some state, misogynist company practices - the room beauty parlor. These are exclusive drinking rooms where groups of guys pick, and also are offered by, eye-catching women hostesses.
It was the hostesses' need to allow off vapor after job, claims expert host Kim Dong-hee, that developed the preliminary need for host bars, with all-male personnel.
These girls are compelled to do points they do not desire to do for money.
" I think a great deal of them are in pain, and a lot really feel lonely. Put simply, they want to buy our time and our bodies.".
Hostesses still compose a large percentage of the customers at host bars below, but at Bar 123, for instance, as much as 40% of the customers on a provided evening are currently from other strolls of life.
The factors for that expanding charm are connected up in South Korea's quick financial surge. Within 50 years, the nation changed from post-war destruction to OECD member.
But, according to Jasper Kim, head of the Asia-Pacific Global Research Group in Seoul, something essential was lost in the process.
" I assume that with all this fast growth comes rapid change, and also Koreans just do not recognize exactly how to manage it. Increasingly, commercialism is surpassing standard social standards that you would anticipate a number of decades earlier.".
Jasper Kim says South Korea's notoriously long working hours have actually left several Korean females really feeling lonely, while the country's technological breakthrough has actually left many individuals feeling removed.
" The human aspect of Korean society that existed previously simply does not exist today. Individuals are concentrated on innovation, people are concentrated on their work, they aren't concentrated on human connections anymore.
" In many means, Korean culture today kind of advises me of 1960s society in the United States, where it's on the edge of some type of social change.".
The grandpa of Seoul's host bar scene, Kim Dong-hee, concurs that a number of the ladies who come to host bars are not spending for sex but for companionship, which is why he opened up a new chain of freshly-marketed electrical outlets intended at the mainstream market - called Red Model Bars.
Red Model Bar hosts.
Photo caption,.
Hosts at Red Model Bars can not touch customers.
" Men want to have visual enjoyment as well as want to really feel points, they're tactile. Ladies like to speak as well as to pay attention. Which's why I believed of opening a bar like this - a kind of dialogue bar.".
Red Model Bars are various to traditional host bars in one vital regard - there is a no-touching policy. Hosts remain on one side of the table, consumers on the various other, and also no physical call is enabled, and certainly no sex.
Probably as an outcome there is an absence of furtiveness among the individuals that work or drink right here - the lights are low, the style primarily dark red and the space is divided right into discreet cubicles, however it is an open-plan area as well as customers and also hosts are divided in each cubicle by a big table.
This new business model depends entirely on ladies paying the equivalent of hundreds and even hundreds of dollars to speak with attractive boys over a beverage. Still, it seems to be working - three brand-new branches are due to open this year.
Sitting at a table at one end of bench was among their routine clients, a floral designer called Kim Nayu. She tells me she comes right here everyday to fulfill her preferred host and talk about issues she is having at job.
The price for this slice of male attention is $487-650 ( 300-400) a day.
" Talking to friends would certainly be less costly" she confesses, "but they do not pay attention as much. They're hectic, as well as in a rush to speak about themselves. Here, people will certainly take note of me as well as they'll listen to me.".
" I invest a lot of cash yet it deserves it of what I obtain emotionally. People pay to go to see a psycho therapist or psychoanalyst, so it's similar yet less demanding.".
Nayu's favourite host Sung-il states it can be difficult to maintain his expert as well as individual life separate.
" Honestly Iwould certainly be lying if I state I have not been attracted to take points additionally with some clients, due to the fact that we're human, we're men, however there are regulations.".
One of his clients yapped to her spouse about him as well as when the three of them satisfied, Sung-il and the other half ended up being close buddies.
" No one conceals - the employees don't conceal that they work right here, as well as clients can be open as well.".
This visibility is presenting a brand-new sort of difficulty to South Korean culture, different from the sometimes sleazy abyss of conventional host bars as well as their hinterland of male hooking.
By supplying ladies a "respectable" method to challenge traditional gender duties and also bend their economic power, these new bars ask concerns of Korean culture that are coming to be more difficult to ignore.
Listen to the complete record on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents. You can listen via the Radio 4 internet site or by means of the Crossing Continents podcast.
The attraction of host bars can be refined. Below, she states, she has even more attention from her male friends, even more choice and, most importantly, more control.
James has actually been functioning at Bar 123 for a couple of years. Rather, he tells me, it is all down to the host's own analysis.
As well as that's why I believed of opening a bar like this - a kind of dialogue bar.".
