Feature: Foreign `hostesses' gain popularity

"We play guessing games with guests and play dice with them. And when we lose the games, we take off our clothes and let the guests touch us."

--- `Apple,' Vietnamese hostess in Kaohsiung

"Hostess bars" have existed in the country for decades, but recent incidents suggest an increasing number of the bars are hiring foreign women from Southeast Asian countries and that bars with foreign hostesses are gaining popularity.

Immigration recently warned that there is a surge in the number of foreign women who disappear after arriving in Taiwan. Many are forced into prostitution, while others find employment at hostess bars.

Hostess usually have private rooms with karaoke TVs and sofas, with customers paying for the company of a hostess. Hostesses sing, drink, or dine with customers. It is illegal for the hostess and customer to have intercourse or engage in other sexual activities, although this often occurs.

Kaohsiung officer Yeh Ming-te (葉銘德) said most foreign hostesses were either Vietnamese or Indonesians. The bars hire foreign hostesses, who get paid less than Taiwanese hostesses, to offer cheaper prices to customers, which explains their growing popularity, he said.

Yeh bars with foreign hostesses were found in townships and city suburbs.

A man surnamed Yan who requested anonymity told the Taipei Times that he often visited a bar in Nanliao (南寮) Township, near Hsinchu, with Indonesian hostesses because the price was cheaper, costing approximately one-forth of what he would pay in bars in Hsinchu with Taiwanese hostesses.

Hsinchu earlier this month announced they had arrested three Vietnamese hostesses playing a sexual game with their guests. Taichung prosecutors last week also indicted three Taiwanese who operated a hostess bar and two Vietnamese hostesses found naked in a room with customers.

Police they are cracking down on illegal activities at hostess bars regardless of whether the hostesses are Taiwanese or foreign.

Proving a hostess bar offers illegal services is difficult because hostesses and customers must be caught engaging in an illegal act, police said.

A Vietnamese hostess nicknamed Apple at a popular hostess bar called Vietnamese Coffee in Kaohsiung told the Taipei Times a few weeks ago that she had been living in Taiwan for nine years and working at the bar for more than three years.

"We play guessing games with guests and play dice with them. And when we lose the games, we take off our clothes and let the guests touch us. When guests lose the games, they give us tips," she said.

"We learn to sing Mandarin and Taiwanese pop songs. We sing with guests. We want a better atmosphere in the rooms," she said. "If we perform wilder, it will be easier for us to get good tips from the guests. We earn good money."

Several Vietnamese hostesses were present at the interview and spoke in simple Mandarin and Taiwanese. Their cellphones were new, expensive models. On the sidelines of the interview, Apple and her colleagues chatted about their plans to go shopping at Hanshin, one of Kaohsiung's biggest department stores.

Apple she was not lonely in Taiwan because she had many Vietnamese friends here.

A research paper presented by police officer Chen Ming-an (陳明安) last week in Taipei at an International Conference on Human Trafficking focused on Vietnamese sex workers in Taiwan. Among Vietnamese women who arrive in Taiwan and become sex workers, more than 80 percent entered the country on marriage visas and willingly went underground upon arrival.

Most Vietnamese sex workers hoped to earn as much money as possible in a short time, expecting to be caught and deported not long after arrival, Chen said.

A small percentage of sex workers were tricked by traffickers into marrying Taiwanese men and coming to Taiwan, at which point they controlled the women and forced them into prostitution, Chen said.

Others to Taiwan for legitimate jobs, but were kidnapped by traffickers after arriving and forced to work in brothels.

In 2002, the number of missing Southeast Asian immigrants of both sexes totaled 8,135, Chen said.

Last year the figure of missing Indonesians, Filipinos, Thais, Vietnamese and Mongolians was 16,142, nearly double the number just four years earlier.