On Culture: Mistresses in China an South Korea

Asia News Network reports that:

Seoul - The increasing popularity of "ernai," or mistresses among wealthy men is emerging as a problem in Chinese society, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Amid the rapid development of the country's economy, large numbers of those fortunate enough to enjoy the prosperity are having affairs with mistresses, making it the symbol of the rich.

"Keeping a mistress is just like playing golf," a man told the New York Times concerning the issue, adding "both are expensive hobbies." Those seeking such liaisons offer lavishing apartments or cars as well as monthly allowances.
However, the public is angered by the trend. Chinese prosecutors believe about 90 percents of governmental executives accused of corruption have mistresses, sometimes more than 10.

In December a government employee allegedly murdered his mistresses and abandoned the body in a river when she asked for $3 million in return for putting end to the relationship.

Zheng Beichin, a lawyer who had defended a mistress, told the New York Times "the nation's elite, including judges and government officials, have little desire to tinker with the status quo."
Meanwhile, a similar phenomenon exists in Korea covertly under the name of "sponsor contract," where rich men provide money and a home to women in return for relationships.

The Red Capital Club

Mao's favorite watering hole is now a boutique hotel, restaurant, and bar called the Red Capital Club. It's hard to find down a little hutong, but if you're persistent, as we were, you'll find a cab to take you there.

Inside the bar has a comfortable feel as it's full of Mao era kitsch: worker figurines, guns, old leather chairs, posters, Mao pins. The drink menu features signature cocktails inspired by Mao and his cronies. I tried the White Cat Black Cat based on Deng Xiaoping's famous quotation: No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice. (Actually, that may be a Sichuan proverb that he just used.)

I liked my White Cat Black Cat drink, though it was pricey at 800 rmb. Sometimes I'll break down and splurge.

Found Treasure of Travel Writing

I recovered this post from the void of cyberspace.* Since Donald Richie, as I stated, is such a remarkable writer on culture, I thought I'd share it here.

Monday, June 30, 2008
By Donald Richie
Donald Richie is one of my favorite writers on Japan. Every Sunday he writes a book review in the Japan Times. Here's this week's

THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Having faith in traveling

EXCURSIONS IN IDENTITY: Travel and the Intersection of Place, Gender and Status in Edo Japan, by Laura Nenzi. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008, 267 pp., illustrations IX, $57 (cloth)
During Japan's Edo Period (1603-1867), Dr. Laura Nenzi tells us, "physical mobility (traveling along horizontal lines) was tightly regulated and social mobility (traveling along vertical lines) . . . was not always a viable option."

This was because "parameters based on status and gender permeated every facet of one person's life, and to a certain extent travel was no exception." Officials meddled with every major move, and actual checkpoint barriers periodically closed the major roads.

However, what became known as recreational travel changed all this, and altered some of these parameters. By the 19th century, travel had already become a part of consumerism and though religious pilgrimages were often the excuse for travel, the new mantra, suggests the author, was "I buy, therefore I am."

Besides being pious and visiting noted shrines and temples, the new travelers could take advantage of quite a menu, one which in the author's words rested on the relationship between "faith and fun, prayer and play, sacred and profane."

As the Edo Period matured (if that is the word) into an age when money mattered more than pedigree, travel generated its own economic power. Thus the pilgrimage, far from being a mere act of faith, became an enterprise that required a monied infrastructure to pay for the advertising, the lodgings, the making and marketing of all those amulets and charms.

Landscape (something to look at and admire rather than something to simply tramp through) was invented, and citizens flocked to gaze at Mount Fuji, not as an object to avoid by going around it, but as a presence that was to be thought beautiful and, eventually, divine.

And when the traveling crowds got too big, they could go see the miniature Fujis that, Disney-like, spotted old Edo. The most famous of these imitations was in Meguro. It was only 12 meters tall but visitors admired the blend of the sacred, the leisurely, and the convenient.

The Japanese discovered many reasons for travel, once travel had become a possibility. Among these one of the most interesting to the modern mind (at least, to this modern mind) is what we would now call sex tourism. Though there were eventually many guides to various venues, there is also one literary monument. This is Jippensha Ikku's 1814 "Tokaidochu Hizakurige" translated into English as "Shank's Mare."

In its picaresque pages the two friends Kita and Yaji make a mock pilgrimage, the real purpose of which is to eat and drink a lot and to enjoy the other sensual pleasures as well. Every pretty girl is noted and the Tokugawa military checkpoint at Hakone is barely acknowledged.

Ikku quotes the old proverb that "shame is thrown aside when one travels," and Kita and Yaji go out of their way to illustrate this. Their travels are punctuated by their realizing it on a purely physical level and in the form of instant gratification.

And they knew just where to go, since by this time brothels and baths loomed large on travel maps and cruise guides. As Dr. Nenzi informs us: "To the erotic traveler, interaction (and intercourse) with local prostitutes served a purpose similar to what lyrical or historical recollections did for the educated and what the acquisition of material objects did for other wayfarers in the age of commercialism." And it is true that sex makes a memorable souvenir. Or, as phrased by the author: "Intercourse, like the recovery of historical and lyrical precedent, or like shopping, facilitated the seizure of the unfamiliar."

Nenzi is an academic and manages to squeeze out most of the juice before presenting the pulp, but, on the other hand, such a dry delivery benefits the text in that, by contrast as it were, it beckons the salacious (this reviewer among them) to re-imagine the pleasurable dimensions of free travel in straight-laced Tokugawa times.

*It's magically cached after my cyber attack.

Overnight Trains

I really like traveling by train in Asia where I've had good experiences traveling up and down Thailand, Malaysia and China. Yet not all trains are the same and sometimes obtaining a ticket can be complex.

I like the feel of a train ride and the possibility of good conversation with fellow travelers.

In Thailand, it's easy to get a ticket. The main station is easily accessible by the metro and the agents speak English. You can easily get tickets without much advance notice. The second class cars have bunks that are roomy enough and have curtains that give you some privacy.

The Malaysian service connects with Thailand and Singapore. Again it's easy to get tickets and you can even buy them online now. The trains from Kuala Lumpur can get you to Butterworth, near Penang or to Singapore overnight saving you on accommodations. It's an efficient, affordable system that provide a fun experience.



In China getting a ticket is harder. You can't buy a ticket more than 5 days in advance and you can't buy a ticket that originates in another city. So if you're in Beijing, you can purchase a Beijing - Shanghai ticket, but you can't buy the Shanghai - Xi'an ticket till you're in Shanghai. There are agencies online that will buy all the tickets for you, but the commissions seem excessive to me and delivery and payment are problematic. Credit card acceptance isn't widespread.

Another problem is travel agencies. I've gone to agencies in Beijing looking for a ticket to Jinan. I knew there were several trains a day to Jinan and wanted one for an average Wednesday, not a holiday time. The agent said there were no tickets available for days. He could sell me an airline ticket. "Yeah, I bet you can," I thought. I walked out and went to the south train station where I got a ticket myself. There were loads available. I saved $70. I lived in China and knew the ways of some merchants. Most travelers don't have time to mess around so I suggest working with your hotel or hostel to avoid such problems.

The easy route is to book through your hotel or hostel. Usually, the booking fee is 5 rmb. The second class bunks going between Shanghai and Beijing are fine. The restrooms will get dirtier as the ride goes on, but they aren't horrible. The bunks are three high and the lower bunks are more expensive. Sometimes there are video monitors in every section. They're blaring some ads. Look around for a volume control. You can turn these off.

The routes between Shanghai and Chengdu or Chengdu or Chongqing and Chengdu have second class cars that are quite old. Here you might want to splurge on first class. Those first class cars are on par with the Shanghai/Beijing route. It's all a matter of your comfort level. There are fast trains and flights between the eastern coast cities and the west, but they are pricier.

Review: Udee Hostel, Bangkok

Udee Hostel, part of the International Hostel group, is a sleek, modern, friendly place in a residential neighborhood. The rooms are the best I've stayed in for a hostel. Both the single rooms and the dorms are spotless and this hostel won a cleanliness award. Downstairs by reception is an open air terrace where you can watch cable TV, read one of the many English books or magazines, eat or drink. A simple breakfast is free: tea, juice, cereal, toast and fruit. It's not far from the Skytrain. I'm going back next week for Chinese New Year. There are coin laundry machines and a rooftop patio.

During my first visit I shared a room with an interesting woman from Indonesia who'd just quit her job as a reporter for the Jakarta Post and was studying Thai for a month. She already spoke English and Chinese well.

Prices: Dorm bed - 350 Baht (so $12) Single room 1100 Baht (so $37ish).

Members get a 10% discount and you can charge your lodgings, but there's a 3% surcharge.

Bangkok has several beautiful looking hostels with high ratings (90% and up).