S1E3 - China's Heaven & Hell: Working as a pimp - Part 3

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The shadowy economics of high-end Chinese nightclubs comes into sharp focus through this unflinching firsthand account. Taking us behind the velvet curtains of KTV establishments in early 2000s China, our host reveals the carefully orchestrated hierarchy that kept these businesses profitable and protected.

We journey through the nightly routines of an assistant manager, from prioritizing rooms based on liquor expenditure to the clever tricks staff employed to avoid intoxication while maintaining appearances. The podcast exposes how 25% alcohol cuts, strategic room assignments, and relationships with security personnel (who handled police connections) created a complex web of financial incentives for everyone involved.

The most revealing segments explore the after-hours economy that emerged once the drinking concluded. With unflinching honesty, our host details the negotiation process for "taking girls out" - explaining how willing participants could earn $200-300 per night while reluctant ones faced increasing pressure from management. Through terms like "steel asses" (late-staying, non-spending customers) and detailed descriptions of psychological manipulation tactics, we witness how economic pressures shaped behavior throughout the ecosystem.

What makes this episode particularly valuable is its lack of sensationalism despite the provocative subject matter. The host simply presents the reality as it existed: a business model built on maximizing profit margins through alcohol sales and additional services, with unwritten rules governing every interaction. Whether you're interested in shadow economies, cultural insights, or understanding power dynamics in unregulated industries, this episode offers rare insights into a world few outsiders ever truly comprehend.

Ready to explore more hidden aspects of Asian culture and business practices? Subscribe now and join our growing community of listeners seeking unfiltered perspectives on topics rarely discussed in mainstream media.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yo, what's up everyone?
Welcome back to another episodeof Asian Uncle.
Let's start where we left offlast time.
The general rule is that wewould start from the rooms that
ordered the most expensiveliquor, obviously, and make sure
we took care of them more,spent more sober hours there.
The cheap ones that orderedbeer, we'd make a stop, maybe,

(00:22):
chug a little bit and then leaveand, mind you again, we took
25% of the cut.
So obviously we'd rather chugwhiskey and Remy more than beer,
and that would not be our onlyway to make money.
Some mommies took cuts off tip.
Some girls were not that goodlooking or subpar, but they

(00:43):
would give the mama-san part oftheir tip, the mommy part of
their tip, to be able to try out.
So it was a dark side to it too, and some clients even liked
the mommy and tipped her morethan they would tip the girls,
and so the mommy would kind ofhustle them at times.
They would arrange some oftheir trips, they could send

(01:05):
girls.
If they were traveling, let'ssay on a business trip, she
would be able to arrange girlsto fly in and she would also be
able to help you gamble.
And they would set up during,like World Cup or during soccer
games.
That's what the Chinese peoplelove gambling World Cup or

(01:25):
during soccer games, that's whatthe Chinese people love
gambling.
So there are hustles of alltypes.
And, last but not least, therewas also the security guards,
and they were in charge of notonly the security but they were
also in charge of making theconnections with the cops, and
these would be the people thatare normally triad or mafia
related, and we subleased thatprotection to them.
So they're in charge of makingsure people don't fuck around at

(01:49):
our facility and also makingsure the cops don't raid our
shit.
So there was a mutualunderstanding and we paid them
pretty well, I would say, as aresult.
They're also in charge ofbringing in some drugs too, if
the customer wanted.
But at that time, to be honest,drugs were not a big thing in
China, yet it was very illegal,meaning if you got caught

(02:13):
dealing you would probably servea death sentence.
So because of that, because ofthe capital punishment, a lot of
people just preferred alcoholinstead.
So it was rare instances thatmaybe some young kids wanted to
come and do some molly.
We had maybe one or two of themeven do ketamine, but from my

(02:37):
recollection that was about it,probably not even 1% of the
clients that I came across.
And it's funny to mention too,especially when you went to the
pool room, right, the beerchuggers, the girls.
They were never happy, fromtryout all the way to when they
sat down.
You can see them rolling theireyes like fuck, beer is just

(03:00):
filling, you can't drink a lot,and they never tip extra.
So the girls hated it and sodid we.
During these patrols, we rollup to the room, we cheer
everyone, one by one.
If the situation was accountedfor right, if they were talking
about business, we wouldn'tinterrupt.
Then we find somebody who'sbored typically the boss or the

(03:20):
person next to him and startplaying drinking games.
I knew all sorts of weird games, from dice, from you know.
Just, I can't even explain withcards, with even fucking
pencils.
I knew it all, and we weretaught that by the head manager
and all the other mama sons,because they knew it all too,

(03:42):
and for you not to know, itdidn't like it.
So besides cursing, that wasprobably the first thing I
learned when we did thesepatrols.
The or the young masters, thewaiters and the princesses would
know to take care of us.
So we had a trick.
They bring us some tea in a teaglass that was not transparent.

(04:07):
Obviously there would be teainside, but only maybe a quarter
full.
We would drink and then spitthe alcohol back into the tea so
we wouldn't get drunk as quick.
And of course that did not workwith beer.
Another reason why we hatedgoing to those rooms and we
saved those for last.
That was how we cheated.

(04:29):
Weekdays often end early, maybearound 1 or 2 am.
People will start making theirways either back home or for
late night snack.
Weekends would be shaky.
Some would be all-nighters 4 or5 in the morning, we never know
because we couldn't leave untilall our rooms have left.
We all fucking hated the peoplewho didn't leave, rich or not.

(04:50):
We called them steel asses,tiepi, gu, because they would
sit and not get up.
They would just talk aboutthemselves or sing and not order
any alcohol later into thenight.
If they were ordering alcoholwe would understand, but they
just keep talking.
Wouldn't shut the fuck up.
The girls hated them too,obviously because they don't get

(05:11):
tipped for overtime.
So if you were there from eighto'clock till five in the
morning, they just sat with yourass for nine hours and still
get tipped 70 bucks.
They would get pissed becauseif you left, for instance,
instance, at 11, they might havethe chance to.
We call it Fentype, meaningthey would flip to another room
and make double the tip in onenight.

(05:33):
But there are other ways tomake extra money for girls,
obviously, and we'll get intothat.
By the end of the nighteveryone's drunk and ready to
leave.
That's when they get the checkand the pimping actually starts
from there.
So before the check actuallycomes, they would signal to
their mommy or to me thatthey're ready to pay.

(05:55):
Obviously we knew what theywanted next.
Sometimes they would pat thesofa next to them, signaling for
us to sit down.
They would whisper in my earhey bro, how much for her
tonight.
So they wanted to bring thegirls out for whatever reason,
and these reasons could beplentiful.
It might not just be takingthem out to have sex

(06:16):
prostitution, it could be takingthem out to eat for a couple
hours, but normally it would befor that reason.
There was even a time I recallthe 20-something-year-old white
collar just came to Shenzhen,came to our club, fell madly in
love with this girl and paid herfor three days to take her home
to her parents, just so herparents would stop bickering

(06:39):
about him not getting married.
That's crazy, but these thingsdo happen.
That's crazy, but these thingsdo happen.
From my experience, especiallypersonal feeling, this is
perhaps the most difficult todeal with in terms of the part
of the night, because back thenthe demographics were split.
What I mean by demographics isthe willingness for a girl to

(07:02):
sell themselves.
Back then it was 50-50.
Some girls didn't care, wantedto make the extra money.
Some of them even had kids tofeed, but some did.
They had boyfriends at home.
Maybe they were a little youngand they were new to this
industry.
So the bargaining for those thatwanted to sell was very easy.
Two options quickie orovernight was very easy.

(07:25):
Two options quickie orovernight.
And there was an unspoken baseprice.
But they'll tip if you'respecial or if they like you.
And they made around $200-$300at a high-end club in the early
2000s for a night of company.
At present day, to be honest,that's not enough to pay for a
girl to sit next to you to drink.
The money doesn't go throughthe company either.

(07:48):
We as managers, assistantgeneral managers, mommies, we
help negotiate, but whateverhappens after they leave, it's
pretty much none of our business, unless they hit a girl or beat
them or cause unnecessarytrouble.
Has it happened yet?
Yes, okay, has it happened yet?

(08:10):
Yes, but we'll get into that.
The second thing is do we get acut?
Of course pimps should get acut and if you wanted to, you
could.
Back then it would be around 20to 30 percent 20 for quickie and
30 for overnight and given thatthey make 200 to 300 bucks
average, you can kind ofcalculate how much cut you would
get, maybe like $150 to $100per girl.
However, it was an unspokenrule that the guys the general

(08:35):
managers, assistant generalmanagers if you were a guy, you
wouldn't take a cut.
My manager told me that inChinese it's in China,
especially for the Chinese it'sbad luck to make money off
prostitution for a guy.
But the mommies, the mama sons,were different.
They took the cuts.
So they were very happy and onsome good nights, if they had 20

(08:56):
girls go out under their name,they could easily make a couple
of thousand dollars US dollars anight.
Back then it was very highincome a night.
Back then.
It was very high income.
That's what people made aliving off of back then.
If you chose this type of oryou chose this line of work.
The negotiation for going outalso had a certain procedure to

(09:17):
it.
We would of course sit downawkwardly between the girl and
the guy and after the guywhispers how much she is, we
already know.
We will look over to the girland we whisper into her ear are
you convenient tonight?
So that's our cue, that ifyou're on your menstrual cycle
or if you didn't want to go, youbetter speak now.

(09:38):
For the most part customers areunderstanding.
If the girl doesn't want to go,they would normally not force
them.
The trouble came with the girlsthat didn't want to sell and
customers that wouldn't cave inwhom had money.
The sad truth is most of thesegirls would eventually cave in

(10:01):
for whatever reason.
My manager man, he would getpissed when these conversations
would go on and because it woulddrag out time.
So, for instance, if the girlwouldn't go but the customer
insisted, we would have to takethe girl to the next room and
then talk to her, and if shestill didn't want to go, then we
would have to tell the guy,tell the customer like look, she

(10:24):
doesn't want to go.
May I find you another one?
For the most part they would belike fine, these horny bastards
just want to get laid.
So we would go down to theladies room again in that big
room and then find whoever'sleft in there that needed to
make quick cash Sometimes girls.
When they flip tables, thecustomers leave early and they

(10:45):
want to go out and these girlswill stay left behind at the
room and we will pick them outto do another round of tryout,
just to go out.
And when the customers find itsatisfied, they leave.
And this process could take along time and there's even
instances where the customerjust wants that girl, no matter
what we say, he's just sittingthere, not leaving, and that
would really piss us off.

(11:05):
Like I said before, girls wouldeventually cave in and my
manager, he didn't like to do it.
He also told me that's theworst part of his job.
So he leaves it to the mommyson to normally convince them.
But I did hear him a couple oftimes talk to girls.
He'd take them to another roomand start the craziest verses
I've ever seen, likejaw-dropping shit, and of course

(11:29):
, eventually I found myselfdoing the same.
It kind of goes like Yo, it'snot your first time, don't you
want to make some extra money.
Mr Lee really likes you.
If money's the issue, I'll talkto him.
I'll raise the price for you.
Or, oh shit, you have aboyfriend at home.
Well, he's not a real man if helets this girl come out and

(11:50):
drink with strangers.
Now is he we would give guilttrips.
We could go back andrenegotiate the pricing.
There'll be all sorts of tricksand tactics that you can use,
depending on how the girlresponds.
At first it was very intriguingto me, but in the end all their
problems kind of just accumulateinto a pool and there was a way

(12:15):
to deal with all sorts ofreasons whether you're on your
period, whether whether your momwas home, whether you were a
student, and sometimes therewould even be underage girls,
and that was where my managerwould draw the line and find
somebody else for them.
And it's hard to tell sometimestoo, because the girls will not
show you their IDs and it's notup to us to check.

(12:36):
If the talk didn't work thefirst time, there would be a
second time, a third time, andit doesn't pass for a girl to
not ever go out without pissingpeople off.
And the way the system, the waythe management works, there is
pissing off the managers or themommies didn't do them any good,

(12:57):
because next time we just won'tbring you to try out, right?
If you're going to just be aglass vase sitting there and not
work, then we don't want youthere.
My client, my rules.
No one dared to cause troubleat the club not talking about
the girls, but the customers aswell.
That's all the time we have fortoday.

(13:17):
Thanks for tuning in andremember to follow.
Have a great rest of your day.