Life in the Grey: The Secret Lives of Barmaids in Chengdu

Editor’s note: The following article was translated and edited from a report that first appeared in the Sichuan Legal System Report. The report looks at the typical life and struggles of girls employed as barmaids in Chengdu. The report finds that these barmaids, although able to earn decent wages at first, ultimately suffered many disadvantages as a consequence of the questionable legality of their profession.

Photo: 028fb

After the sun sets on Chengdu, and the curtain of night sweeps in, there's a group of women that are just then getting ready to go to work at Bars and KTVs around the city. Dressed in a way to maximize their sex appeal, these youthful beauties, deemed "barmaids" (陪酒女郎) earn a living keeping guests company as they drink, sing and chat the night away. But this lifestyle is far from romantic – these girls, exist in society’s "grey area", mostly separated from the law, and they suffer many hardships as a consequence.

The life and dreams of barmaid Xiao Die

As she bids farewell to the last of the guests, it’s approaching 03:00. After cleaning up the empty bottles, cups and fruit platters remnants in the KTV room, 22-year-old Xiao Die, although a bit dizzy from all the loud noise, is not tired in the least. She grabs a late night snack on the road with some girlfriends, and then returns to her apartment at Shuangqiaozi in Chengdu. By that time, much of the city is already awake and preparing for the new day. 

Xiao Die is from a small town outside of Guangyuan. Last summer, she graduated from a professional school in Chengdu. Unable to find a job, she shared a "humble abode" with some classmates that cost each person 190 RMB per month. Even with this less-than-stellar arrangement, Xiao Die didn’t want to move back home, believing that in a big city, at least there were opportunities. After six months spent looking for a decent job, Xiao Die finally lowered her standards and looked at positions in the service industry. In a newspaper, she spotted a classified for positions at a newly opened KTV. Xiao Die sent in her resume, was contacted for an interview, and had become a KTV attendant all in the blink of an eye. At first, Xiao Die was just an ordinary attendant at the KTV, going room-to-room delivering drinks and snacks. The basic monthly salary for her position was 1,200 RMB per month. In the KTV / bar industry, its common for pretty young girls to be sent to KTV rooms to keep the guests company. These barmaids can earn 300-500 RMB per night (working a single room), and occasionally, a generous guest will tip extra. These girls can earn around 10,000+ RMB per month.

Yet, this generous income did not initially tempt Xiao Die, who considered herself quite conservative. She felt that working as a barmaid was something that most people looked down upon. However, a series of unforeseen events eventually caused Xiao Die to change her mind. First, after discovering that her boyfriend of three years, whom she loved, had been seeing other girls, they broke up and she went a bit wild, hanging out and drinking with unseemly men. Then, her father, a poor small business owner in Guangyuan became ill and was hospitalized. They paid for the treatments by going into debt with family and friends. Liberalised, and in need of a substantial income, Xiao Die quite her former job as a KTV attendant and became a barmaid at a bar on Jiuyanqiao Bar Street. Six months later, she’d already helped her family pay off most of their debt, purchased an iPhone, and had built up a collection of clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. Xiao Die’s dream is to own an apartment in Chengdu, and to have her parents move in with her. These days, she's mastered dice and other bar games, drinking fake alcohol (although she still gets drunk and sick often), and flirting with guests, some of whom Xiao Die has become "interested" in. Perhaps a consequence of her constant inebriation, Xiao Die frequently gets stomachaches. As a barmaid, she’s still quite capable, but where she sees herself outside that life is less clear.

The three "levels" of barmaid

The reporter headed over to a bar on Jiuyanqiao Bar Street. It was 23:00, and the bar was crowded. The lights were dim, and people were drinking and being typically rowdy. After sitting down to drink a beer, the reporter noticed that all the pretty girls in the bar were sitting by themselves; literally no one was trying to chat them up. The reporter was later told by an industry insider, that true to rumour, the cute girls you’ll see in these kinds of places are all yǐnkè "隐客" (hidden customers) – girls who are employed by the bar to sit around by themselves eating or drinking, and subliminally encourage other real patrons to do the same. Because yinke don't accompany other guests or perform on stage, theirs is a relatively "safe" profession. The insider divulged that yinke generally each about 200 RMB per night to sit there and be eye candy. Going one step further than yinke are sùtái "素台", who are the girls that are paid to drink with you. In a given night, these girls generally earn 300-600 RMB. Last up are the chūtái "出台", which are the bar’s version of prostitutes. For their extraordinary looks (at least as pretty as any paid girl in the bar) and their… services… chutai can earn as much as 2,000-4,000 RMB per time.So how do you spot a barmaid in a bar? Yinke are the easiest to spot – look for any small group of cute girls sitting together eating fruit and not paying attention to anyone else. As for the latter two types, sutai and chutai, they’re quite adept at blending in so its much more difficult to spot them. According to the industry insider, "Basically, there isn’t a bar in China that is not filled with beautiful girls that are being paid to be there".

The disadvantages of becoming a barmaid

According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 10,000 bars, KTVs and dance halls in Chengdu, employing nearly 100,000 people. The annual consumption of alcoholic beverages in Chengdu is over one million metric tons, which in total is worth several billion RMB. While this is surely a huge number, the people who run the massive supply chain behind it undercut barmaid’s rightful earnings. For alcoholic beverage sales, you could say that barmaids act as the lowest level of that link in the supply chain, as they are directly dealing with specific consumer groups. Their sweet talk nets an annual sales volume of at least 10,000 tons of beer, wine, imported liquor and other beverages, for which they sometimes receive a decent sales commission. But, because barmaids are not beverage suppliers, their wages and insurance are not guaranteed long term. Working as a barmaid is a profession for young girls, and once these girls leave the profession, they are left with nothing. Also, generally speaking, barmaids are not considered to be employed by the bar either – bar owners will not normally sign labour and employment contracts with these girls.

According to Xiao Die, at least in some places, barmaids sell drinks with no promised commission. Instead, they only earn the flat rate of 300 RMB per night, of which the girl’s "matriarch" will take 100 RMB for her own commission. And then there are the few occasions when a generous guest will privately tip the girl, although this is generally done assuming some sort of sexual favour in return. The real money can be found by accompany guests home, which quite a few barmaids will do from time to time. The standard going prices for a kuàicān "快餐" (a quickie) is 300-500 RMB; if the barmaid spends the night, it can cost between 600-1000 RMB (the really good looking girls, such as the chutai above cost much more). But going home with a guest is also much riskier for the barmaids. The police could come and arrest them (girls arrested for prostitution are not only fined, but often sent to labour camps as well), or they might be hurt by the person with whom they went home. Safety, in these instances is not guaranteed.

As the profession of barmaid continues to ride the fine line between legal and illegal in China, the problems that these girls encounter while on the job can rarely be dealt with under the current law.
 

Source: gcpnews
 

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