Betel Nut Beauties
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In Taiwan, we call them "BIng Lang Syau Jays"
Vendors like Mong, who left the job in February, are known locally as “betel nut beauties.” The phenomenon emerged in the late 1960s, when the Shuangdong Betel Nut Stand, a stall in rural central Taiwan, successfully marketed their products with a campaign centered on its “Shuangdong Girls.” By the turn of the 21st century, tens of thousands of the neon-lit booths, which dot roadsides and industrial neighborhoods across the island, were staffed by young women.
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While the scenes of women, scantily clad in glass booths, might resemble brothels, selling betel nuts is not widely linked to prostitution in Taiwan. In fact, the women rarely leave their stalls except to approach drivers in their high heels. Nonetheless, the very existence of provocative betel nut beauties seemed strange in “a quiet, conservative culture” like Taiwan’s,
It is a disgusting habit, kind of like chew tobacco in the US. Always see these "splotches" of red on sidewalks, etc where people spit out the betel nut juice. Definitely decreasing as the number of people chewing betal nut has also decreased.
https://www.cnn.com/style/taiwan-betel-nut-beauties-constanze-han/index.html
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Link to video
Bloody Mary's chewin' betel nuts.
She is always chewin' betel nuts.
Bloody Mary's chewin' betel nuts.
And she don't use Pepsodent!
Now ain't that too damn bad!In Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific," he comments on how betel nut juice discolored "Bloody Mary's" teeth - hence the "Pepsodent" (toothpaste) lyric.
“She was, I judge, about fifty-five. She was not more than five feet tall, weighed about no pounds, had few teeth and those funereally black, was sloppy in dress, and had thin ravines running out from the corners of her mouth. These ravines, about four on each side, were usually filled with betel juice, which made her look as if her mouth had been gashed by a rusty razor. Her name, Bloody Mary, was well given.”
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I once had to chaperone to meetings in Calgary some oil men from Oil India following the International Oil Show in Calgary. One of them constantly chewed betel nut. It reeked. Have no idea how the agency got the smell of out of the rented van we used. Awful stuff and I was a cigarette smoker in those days!
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Documentary:
Link to videoInterviews:
Link to videoIt's a sunsetting industry, more betel nut beauties have to change jobs, some become YouTubers/TikTokers or equivalent. The video mentions that the Taiwanese government has released health reports that link betel but chewing to oral cancers.
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At any given time, my wife has at least a couple of habitual betel nut users as head and neck cancer patients. She says though she has far fewer now than when she started 20 years ago.
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Yes, my wife has to deal with the results of radical surgeries followed by radiation therapy. Sometimes there is little left to
work with as far as rehab med goes.@Renauda said in Betel Nut Beauties:
radical surgeries
