S1E4 - China's Heaven & Hell: Working as a pimp - Part 4

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China's opium war shame has shaped its modern approach to drugs and nightlife in ways few outsiders understand. From the death penalty for drug distribution to mandatory rehabilitation programs that leave permanent marks, these policies directly impact entertainment venues like KTVs (karaoke television clubs).

Walking into these establishments as both a manager and reluctant "duck" (male companion), I witnessed firsthand how money drives an elaborate ecosystem where youth and perceived inexperience command premium prices. Behind closed doors, competition for clients creates constant tension, while unwritten rules warn against forming attachments with colleagues – advice I sometimes failed to heed as a newcomer to this world.

The surprising gender balance of this industry struck me most. While KTVs appear designed for male pleasure, women clients seek companionship too. My first experience serving a female client – a heartbroken woman in her early thirties driving a yellow Porsche – taught me more about navigating this complex terrain than any training could. From mixing expensive wine with Sprite (a peculiarly Chinese habit) to understanding the subtle differences between "chickens" and "ducks" in cultural slang, these intimate details reveal much about contemporary Chinese nightlife.

Most poignant were the stories behind the glamour – mama-sons supporting children while hiding their profession, managers dispensing hard-earned wisdom, and the constant awareness that age eventually ends these careers. As I stood outside those private rooms contemplating my choices, I never imagined the education I'd receive about human nature, cultural shame, and the lasting impact of historical trauma on modern entertainment.

Want to hear more unfiltered stories about China's entertainment industry? Follow Asian Uncle for weekly episodes that pull back the curtain on experiences rarely shared publicly.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back again to Asian Uncle.
Now back to our second topic.
It's worth mentioning here thatChina has a zero-tolerance
policy towards drugs, andthey've been very successful at
it, something I believe the USshould learn a thing or two.
This, I believe, is a result ofthe shame our culture had to
endure because of the opium war.

(00:21):
For the first time in China'shistory, we were attacked by
Westerners foreigners on oursoil.
They looted our capital andforced China to sign unfair
treaties.
This was perhaps worse inChinese people's minds than the
Japanese invasion during WorldWar II.
During World War II, why?

(00:47):
Because these countries gotaway with it, all eight of them
Russia, uk, america, germany,hungary, italy, japan.
They put the Chinese to shameand eventually ended Chinese
imperialism, ended the 300-yearreign of the Qing Dynasty.

(01:07):
Walking through the BritishMuseum now feels like walking
through a souvenir collection ofcountries that were once
invaded.
So, as a result of all thishistorical background, the
Chinese hate drugs and they lookdown upon people who use them.
So imagine if US had the samezero drug policy as China the

(01:32):
death penalty for distributionand six months mandatory
state-operated rehab.
These rehabs are no joke, notlike the American ones where you
can go in because of a courtorder and just leave if you want
to.
You're not leaving one of theseplaces and once you're done,
this leaves a permanent mark onyour record.

(01:53):
If found guilty of distribution, processing of drugs, smuggling
, whatnot, you will be trialedas if you committed murder.
The chances of you getting awaywith a death penalty are slim
to none.
They will shoot you as a result.
Clubs like ours did.

(02:15):
We have drugs, yes, but it wasvery limited.
You barely noticed it.
The management procedures atthe KTV also was very detailed
and it made very good businesssense in terms of we didn't have
to beat or force any of thesegirls to make them listen.

(02:35):
Money alone was enough.
So the less mileage quoteunquote you have meaning the
less you slept around or theyounger you looked, the more you
can charge a premium.
Everybody knew how they mademoney, where they made money.
Typically everyone was happy,but when the customers left, the

(02:58):
club didn't turn quiet.
Instead, it gets more rowdy.
Why, instead, it gets morerowdy?
Why Everybody's drunk, tipsyand yelling at each other about
stealing each other's customers.
That was something you couldnot avoid, or hard to avoid.
Is that somebody's?
For instance, I have a customercoming in.

(03:19):
I'm not too familiar with themand one of the girls takes them
and then they book their roomsfrom the girl and not from me.
From now on, that's stealing my, my customer.
So there would be some tensionregarding that between mommies,
between managers.
For the most part it was justbullshit.
Everybody was drunk, whatever.
Always some bullshit to dealwith.

(03:41):
But what was really bad was theladies' room.
You know that hidden room wementioned way back.
Every night there'll always be Imean always some drunk girl
crying in the corner Saying howmuch she hates her life, her
parents, her boyfriend, whatever.
But the manager always told mein Chinese, rabbits don't eat

(04:06):
the grass around their nestAnother way of saying don't shit
what you eat.
Why?
It's simple.
Not only will they get specialtreatment from you, but they'll
probably start asking you to payrent.
That's what always happens.
And he always tells me Dude,what if your dumbass falls in

(04:27):
love with one of them?
Are you okay with seeing someslimy dude take her out, or are
you going to just pay her rentand marry her?
Don't be stupid.
That was my lesson.
That was how I was taught.
I admit openly that I did payrent, sometimes Once or twice,

(04:48):
but I was young and this was allso new to me.
A couple months into work I'vealready gotten used to it.
I could still wake up drunk andfunction at work the next day
and for some reason I started tolike working these night shifts
.
Every night would be differentand it wouldn't be long until I
had some of my own clientsclients that I made good

(05:09):
impressions on and I startedbooking my rooms instead of the
PR girls.
It worked the other way aroundfor the most part, because if
you keep booking that girl'sroom, you have to keep calling
her to chill with you in thatroom.
You're not going to book herroom and then call other girls.
That would also, I don't know,some girls might get jealous as

(05:31):
a result.
They would like to book themommies and above because we can
show them different girls allthe time.
No one except my manager knewthat I had a day job and that I
didn't do this for a living.
If everyone knew, then theywould treat me different and I
wouldn't learn as much.
I didn't even use my real name,because if my company or my

(05:55):
colleagues found out, that wouldhave just been embarrassing.
It's kind of like if you wereworking as a prostitute and your
friends walk in on you one day.
That's not something you wantto have happen.
It's probably one of my worstnightmares, for me as a manager
and even for the PR girls.
Good thing is I was new inChina.

(06:19):
People didn't know me.
I walked around freely andpeople in my company were
probably too poor to affordcoming to these places, and the
only person that actually camethat I knew to visit me was my
dad.
He came sometimes just to chill.
He would come alone, order likea bottle of red wine, grab a
girl and just chat, drink alittle, sing a little and leave.

(06:45):
It was a what would you call it?
A different lifestyle, and KTVssounds like a paradise for men.
There's a lot of differenttypes of KTVs.
There's also a lot of differenttypes of places where you can
go if you don't want to find aprostitute, but these were all
in one sector.

(07:05):
They all were used to pleasemen, but, on the contrary, we
actually serviced women as well.
At the time I just didn't knowabout it.
This was the first time I hadever done something like this
getting paid to be someone'scompany and even though people
didn't say it.
But it was something degrading,especially in our culture.

(07:29):
So Chinese, we have a slang forfemale prostitutes we call them
chickens or 鸡 in Chinese.
And men, it was just asdegrading.
We call them ducks or 鸭子 inChinese.
And as I stood outside the roomabout to go in, a lot of
thoughts spun in my head.
Was I ready to take that stepinto the dark side?

(07:50):
I was both excited and worriedat the same time.
In the back of my head, Iimagined a hideous old lady that
was going to eat me alive.
It wasn't anything about myreputation.
It was more of what I wouldhave to endure, but I couldn't
have been more wrong.
She was young and pretty for herage at the time she was in her

(08:14):
early 30s, I would guess.
And when my manager took meinto the room, I didn't have to
try out like the ladies.
I'd have to stand there andhave them pick because I was the
only one.
She had some criterias right.
Like I mentioned last episode,she was still singing at the
time, so she was finishing upher song, but she politely waved
, smiled and asked me to sitdown, and while she was singing,

(08:37):
I could tell from her lyricsthat she's been heartbroken
plenty, and as she was singing,I could almost feel her cry.
And by then I'd been around somany women that at least I
learned how to read their mood.
And she had two girlfriendswith her at the time, but they
didn't call anyone, they didn'thave any company.

(08:58):
My manager would bounce in andout to entertain them, but again
, I was the only one gettingpaid to do this and I remember,
as I was sitting there she wasstill singing.
I had this fake smile on andmany thoughts ran through my
head again and again like bro,did you just become a fucking
gigolo?
But I waved those thoughts offreal quick because she just

(09:21):
finished her song and herfriends were relatively quiet
and you could tell who waspicking up the tab.
They probably just came out tocomfort her or something I don't
know.
And they just took turnssinging.
And she asked politely wouldyou like to order more food?
And I gazed at the table.
There was a nice bottle,expensive bottle of red wine and

(09:44):
plenty of food.
Like the hoe that I am, I shookmy head and I smiled back no,
I'm good.
She picked up the wine, I didmine, she took a sip and I drank
all of mine.
I was very nervous.
And one thing to note that'svery interesting when I first
got to China is that they liketo mix their red wine regardless

(10:04):
if it's cheap or expensive withSprite Okay, like the Coke
Coca-Cola Sprite.
Okay, I'd like to mix it withsoda.
It made it taste great, but italso creeps up on you very high
in sugar.
Right, if you're diabetic,don't do it.
We didn't have much importedred wine back then.
We had a china great wall brand.
It was not bad, but you know itwas not good either.

(10:27):
Mixed with sprite, it wasactually okay.
Some people would even mix itwith, like green tea, and it
would just get you hyper anddrunk at the same time.
It really, really wasn't a goodfeeling, especially as your
body ages.
Right, I prefer whiskey thanRemy, but wine and Sprite was

(10:47):
the most common, then it wasbeer.
So, anyways, she mentioned thatshe's a light drinker and asked
me to sing something to her inEnglish, and I think I picked a
classic like Right here, waiting, or Tears in Heaven, something
like that, and in the middle ofmy song she walked up and began

(11:09):
dancing with me.
She didn't have any strongperfume on, it was mostly like
fruity lotion smell, and she wasvery gentle and I could tell
she had a lot on her mind.
She placed her head on my chestand just kind of dwelled into
the moment and I was just ayoung dude and she could

(11:31):
conveniently tip me for thecompany and comfort.
Afterwards we sat down, wedrank a little more and she
started to ask questions likewhere did I go to school, high
school, college, and where did Ilearn my english, what it was
like living in america, new yorkcity?
You know, I don't want tooffend her at the time by asking

(11:54):
her the same questions back,because it just felt impolite
because I was getting paid forit.
So I felt like the bitch.
So I tried to act like one.
And she didn't stay too long.
It was maybe around like 11o'clock.
We only sat for maybe threehours and she said she was tired
and she had to get back.
She had work the next day.

(12:15):
So after she got the check wewalked downstairs, I sent her
out and she asked me if I wantedto go for a midnight snack.
I didn't know how to respondBecause she just said she had
work the next day.
She had to leave early.
Yet she asked me out for asnack.

(12:40):
I was confused Because in myknowledge, if somebody asks that
, it means that they might wantto take you back home or
seriously just get food with you.
I turned to the manager.
He was right behind me.
He could tell I was shook.
He was such an asshole.
He started giggling and then hewhispered into my ear he's like
yo, this girl is going to workyou tonight.

(13:01):
And while he said that, somehowshe probably got the idea that
I was uncomfortable, so she saidit's okay, maybe another time.
It was a very embarrassingmoment for me.
My face was red and at the timethe valet driver already picked
up her car and it was in frontof the door.
It was a bright yellow Porscheand instead of waving or kissing

(13:26):
me goodbye, she squeezed mycheek like a grandma would do
and said in Chinese oh, you'reso cute.
I smiled back, but the onlythought in my head at that time
is when is this bitch gonna tipme right?
I was my first time and aftershe left, my manager quickly
pulled me over and said good job.

(13:47):
And I said for what he said,for playing hard to get.
Afterwards he said she left mea nice tip on the tab.
She never pays cash.
So I get t tipped twice tothree times as much as the most
expensive lady.
So if they got 70 bucks I wouldget 200 around, or 150, 200 for

(14:11):
just three hours of being asubmissive boyfriend.
It's not a bad deal.
After that experience, one ofthe nights I had a drink with my
manager and he told mesomething I would never forget.
He's always telling me storiesor giving me life lessons that I
would never learn otherwise.
He said I understand, you'reyoung.

(14:34):
If you want to sleep around, doit with the mama sons.
Why?
Because they're a part of theteam.
We have the same interests.
You have your needs, they havetheirs.
Pr girls, on the other hand,they're trouble.
They come and go.
The last but not least neversell yourself short or cheap to

(14:54):
a female client.
It was hard for me tounderstand what he meant back
then, especially the third partnever sell yourself cheap.
I was only 23 at the time.
What do you mean sell myselfcheap?
Like should I ask for rent too?
There was a system for the PRgirls, but there wasn't a system
for people like me.

(15:17):
I kind of want to give a littlebit of time to mention the mama
sons.
First of all these mama sons.
They were not old either.
Some of them had wear and tear,mostly were PR girls themselves
, but they had a sexy, maturefeel to them, as if they didn't
care anymore, like they couldjust take out one of their tits

(15:38):
and just walk around like thatkind of I don't care anymore,
meaning I'll sleep with whoever.
I want Everything for them,from drinking to making
perverted jokes.
It was very casual for them.
They had nothing to hold back.
They knew they only had acouple of years to make money
before age takes a toll on them.
The heavy drinking every nightmakes you age like no other and

(16:03):
sometimes I felt bad for them.
I had a mama son that had a kid.
She didn't tell anybody aboutit, but the kid was three years
old.
She hired her nanny to takecare of him while she worked.
And did she sleep around andmake money otherwise?
Yeah, because her husband lefther and she had no choice.
So these were some of thethings that we would see, even

(16:24):
from our peers, and it was verydisturbing at times.
That's all the time we have.
We'll pick up next episode.
Thank you again for tuning inand follow for updates.
Have a great rest of your week.