Openshaw said most of the girls he interviewed were happy with their lot and others worked for a short time and moved on. He countered rumors of prostitution by saying he had heard of cases but didn't see how it could work practically. “It's just not the same kind of business. This is about selling nuts.”
And sex sells nuts. This much is obvious from a quick tour of the exhibition. A girl in a skimpy pink ensemble and towering heels stares into the camera, arms crossed, leaning against her glass-fronted booth. In the next picture two girls patrol the areas in front of their betel-nut stands. Their attitudes appear to be bashful, playful and come-hither. Outside the same stand, in another image, one girl is seated while another balances on one leg and we can see panties under her skirt.
These kinds of pictures are eye candy, like flicking through a lifestyle magazine and finding the occasional titillating shot. They are not pornographic because they do not “cross the line,” according to Kloie Picot, a Canadian photojournalist and videographer. “These girls offer the illusion of sex.”
There was one picture, however, which she objected to. It was of a young woman dressed in a practically non-existent bikini, taking a picture of herself with a mobile phone. “She's crossed the line, she's feeding herself to the guys and making it so the other girls have to keep up [by wearing less],” Picot said.
Point taken, but it was one of the most interesting shots, more documentary than lifestyle. It offers a different insight into the mind of the betel-nut beauty and the business she is in. Pretty shots of young women framed in mirrors and posing by the roadside in nurse costumes do not reveal any more than we see in a car passing by a betel nut stand.
This is not necessarily a criticism as Openshaw's stated intention is to shine a light on the “art, the beauty and heart” of the business. The exhibition does not look behind the smiles, even if they are fake. As a result the girls look like models or pop singers.
Unlike the club promoter and his convoy of amateur photographers, Openshaw has focused on the aesthetically and morally pleasing facets of the betel nut girl business. “Skinny crack-ho messes with just two teeth” and child brides from Vietnam selling betel nut have no place here.
The Hung Chong Gallery (恆昶藝廊) is at 1F, 396-1 Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei (台北市仁愛路四段396-1號1樓). It is open daily 10am to 6pm and the exhibition is until March 8.
Also see www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJo7ZkLwkng&mode=related&search=betelnut and www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJWxs6eRNvY&mode=related&search=betelnut
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