Posted on 02/02/2023 1:03:06 PM PST by nickcarraway
Why I Do What I Do is an original AsiaOne series where we showcase people with uncommon professions and what it takes to get there. In Why I Do What I Do: Asia, a nine-part spin-off, we scour the region for more unconventional jobs and the stories of the people behind them.
Donning skimpy outfits like bikinis, these female betel nut saleswomen not only have to cut and prep their product by hand, they also have to endure other people's judging gaze as part of their job.
Known as betel nut beauties in Taiwan, they usually work in flamboyant roadside betel nut retail stores and do so as a side hustle to earn good money.
One of these betel nut beauties, 18-year-old Xing-er shares that she got into this line as a means to pay for her school tuition fees. She shares that during peak season, the most that she can earn up to NT$49,000 (S$2,146).
However, there is a price to pay as a betel nut beauty.
Xing-er - who has been working in the industry for three years - has had to endure being shunned by her school friends after they learn about her job.
"They will ostracise me once they know that we're betel nut beauties and they will avoid talking to us,
"They will avoid talking to us, sometimes it feels like we're being excluded," says Xing-er.
It varies on how it is used. It is like a stronger version of coffee. Traditional Chinese Medicine actually prescribes it, as well as the husks of the nut, as a medication to move Chi and aid digestion.
If you are an old person out of energy with a GI tract that is not moving and making you sick, and you are sitting on the couch all day, a few weeks of it can clear out your intestine, and give you energy as if you were getting shots of adrenaline.
If that gets you moving and at the end of the few weeks of taking it you are active physically and moving about, using your muscles and Cardiovascular system, taking it can be very beneficial.
But there are people who get addicted and end up taking so much they turn their teeth brown, and they cannot live without it.
“ If you are an old person out of energy with a GI tract that is not moving and making you sick, and you are sitting on the couch all day, a few weeks of it can clear out your intestine, and give you energy as if you were getting shots of adrenaline.”
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Sounds interesting. You just described someone I know who could use those benefits immensely.
Great “South Pacific” sub-reference!
It is a mild stimulant that turns your teeth black and makes a mess.
“Betel nut” is a misnomer. The “nut” is from the areca palm. The “betel” part is the leaf you wrap it in. Near Mrs. Flash’s neighborhood in Bangkok is a street “Soi Suan Phlu”, which means “street of the betel-tree farm”.
Betel-leaf chewing is a backward peasant woman thing. I’ve only seen a few older people use it, mostly in Thailand but once in the US by a Vietnamese woman who was visiting.
Tthanks. That’s what I was going for. I was in the chorus in high school.
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