Wu Chung-hua's "Pretty Women"
© AFP/Wu Chung-hua-HOTAIPEI (AFP) - But the scantily-clad young women are Taiwan's "betel nut beauties" who tout spicy green nuts at roadside stands that have flourished since the trade underwent an image makeover in the 1990s.
The unique sight has proved the inspiration for artist Wu Chung-hua who recently held an exhibition in central Taichung city to display her mixed media portrayals of "bin lang hsi shih" as they are called in Mandarin Chinese.
"The girls are very pretty, like Barbie dolls, and I think they also have a lot of guts to wear so little clothes in public," says Wu, 54, a visiting associate professor at American Purlinton University in Pomona, California
"Betel nut beauty is unique to Taiwan. I see in them the consumer culture in our capitalist society and the culture of the working class that inspired me," adds the soft-spoken and fashionable artist, also head of the Taiwan Female Modern Arts Association.
Wun Chung-wua
© AFP/File Patrick LinIn their heyday, betel nut girls worked at an estimated 100,000 booths all over the island, mostly along the streets near highways catering to truck drivers who chewed the nut, the seed of a palm tree, as a stimulant.
There are now about 60,000 booths, with Wu attributing the decline to the economic slowdown.
When the nuts are plentiful in summer a bag of 20-30 nuts costs about 50 Taiwan dollars (1.56 US), with the same sum buying about eight nuts during the off season.
A paste made from lime and plants or fruit is inserted in the nut for flavouring. The nuts are chewed, turning saliva and lips red as the stimulant is released.
Wu began interviewing betel nut girls in 1995 and put her observations into watercolors, oil paintings and multi-media installations. She is also keen on experimenting with unconventional materials such as lace, beads, buttons, and sequins.
"Betel nut girls are competing against each other for business. The more cleavage they show and the fewer clothes they wear, they get more customers. Sometimes they have to compete fiercely ... and wear only a white gossamer shirt and a thong," she says.
Wu Chung-hua's installation "Super Competitions III"
© AFP/Wu Chung-hua-HO An example of Wu's bright and bold art portraying the phenomenon is an installation called "Super Competitions IV" featuring two walls made of some 200 close-up photos of breasts and a manikin in the betel nut beauty outfit of tight sleeveless top and shorts.
"Betel nut girls don't reveal their whole breasts so my work is more exaggerated to satirize the reality that female bodies are used as a marketing tool," she says.
Seven women Wu befriended during her field researches posed topless for this work in her studio in the southern city of Kaohsiung.
Another installation, "Super Competitions III", features a large three-walled stage in the likeness of a betel nut booth. Pictures of betel nut girls Wu has collected over the past decade decorate the walls and the floor of the stage is a mirror fringed with neon lights.
"This work marks my interactions with betel nut girls over the years and it is also interactive as viewers can step onto the stage while recordings of my conversations with the girls will be played and their reactions will be taped."
Wu has introduced the grassroots betel nut beauty to the arts circle with her works on display in solo or joint exhibitions in galleries and art museums in Taiwan and abroad. She has also collected several arts awards in South Korea and Japan.
Taiwanese artist Wu Chung-hua's installation "Super Competitions IV"
© AFP/Wu Chung-hua-HO"I like Wu's works because they are very special. I think no one except for her cares to research betel nut beauties and treat us as a subject of art. Her exhibitions help people to see our trade in a more positive light," says Shan, a 22-year-old college student and betel nut girl in the central Taichung city.
After talking to more than 230 betel nut beauties, Wu says the process was touching though difficult and dangerous in the beginning.
"Many girls I met in the first few years were drop-outs or scarcely educated or from poor families and they became betel nut beauties to survive," she says.
"They wanted to hide their jobs from their parents because people deemed betel nut girls vulgar and sensual and discriminated against them so it took many weeks to get them to talk to me."
She faced other obstacles too. Some betel nut stands in the 1990s were operated by gangsters who suspected Wu of trying to steal their trade secrets by talking to the saleswomen and threatened to beat or kill her.
But Wu was not deterred. She continued her interviews and even successfully encouraged 21 girls return to school. She is planning to publish a book on the stories of ten girls later this year.
Her latest exhibition "Pretty Women", which deputed in February, depicts a woman in an elegant period attire next to a girl in a sexy dress and platforms shoes holding a plate of betel nuts.
"Now more young women willingly enter the business, even some college students work part-time as betel nut girls. They are happy to be their own masters and I think they represent modern women," she says.
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