Pink Lights, Working Girls
Trip Start
Mar 02, 2004
1
17
34
Trip End
Apr 02, 2005
Seoul,
Korea Rep.
Sunday, October 31, 2004
A short, circuitous subway ride from my apartment is Cheongnyangni, one of the largest and most notorious pink-light districts in Seoul. My accomplice--a fellow ex-pat whose privacy I shall respect--and I make the trip on a rainy Sunday night. From a bright and bustling avenue, we stroll toward dark back streets lit only by neon signs and lurid pink bulbs in the distance.
In the alleys where pink fades to black, mama-sans troll for second or third-rate business
Crackdown
. They may be geriatric, but these female pimps are tougher than most men; humourless, volatile, and quick-tempered, even at arms length. One must at least show respect. A mama-san's pinch leaves a nasty bruise. Past the small gauntlet of grannies the street unfolds pretty in pink. It's a quiet night. Or not. Most of the plexiglass booths, like pink-lighted bus shelters, are empty. The girls we do see, reclining in their stalls, smoking, swearing, carrying-on, are some of the most beautiful women I've seen in Korea.
These are not the burned-out shells of beings you see plying trade on the streets of Toronto or Vancouver. These girls are the stuff of models or actresses or fantasies. It's inconceivable that they are whores; the word seems all wrong, but here they are, decked out in resplendent near-nakedness.
In Korea sex is big business. Something like 50 percent of Korean men admit to having had at least one experience with a prostitute. But the street is not a free-trade zone, and the women in Cheongnyangni show little interest in westerners. Their disinterest only heightens the effect of the place, and leaves us free to wander back and forth as if browsing in a jewelry store with no clerks
Dress Shop
. Despite the rain there's steady traffic, and the girls tap furtively on the plexiglass with their cell phones to get the attention of passing suits. A police car drives through without stopping. A twenty-something Korean man in a t-shirt and shorts neatly folds his umbrella before ducking into a booth and disappearing behind a pink and beige curtain.
Further down the street a girl in a bra and hot pants steps out of her booth and spits a load of mouthwash onto the street. We walk out of the pink, through the darkness into the light, just ahead of a gathering downpour.
Postscript: Since my visit there in late August, Cheongnyangni and other pink-light districts across the city have been shut down as part of a nation-wide crackdown on prostitution. The one exception seems to be Hooker Hill, in the largely ex-pat neighbourhood of Itaewon.
While periodic government actions tend to simply drive things further underground, there's a feeling that authorities are finally serious about reining in the skin trade. Laws have been passed, and have been widely protested by sex workers. For now, the lights are off. Time will tell if the party is truly over.
