Some friends asked if I encountered any interesting stuff during the round-island tour in Taiwan. In fact I did. One of them was the Betel Nut Girls (檳榔西施), which is a unique Taiwanese phenomenon. Betel nut, a.k.a. Bettlenut, Paaku, Pinang, Areca nut is very popular among Taiwanese community, especially the truck drivers.

Taiwanese betel nut kiosks, heavily decorated with bright neon lights, are most common on highways and suburban roads in the western part of the island, such as around Taichung. The main clientèle is composed of truck drivers who chew the mildly addictive nuts for the stimulant to help them stay awake on long trips. The high profitability of betel nut production and commerce has led to a multiplication of such kiosks, and as competition for customers’ attention has increased, the girls staffing them have been wearing less and less. In 2002, local governments began to ban nudity and excessively revealing clothing in betel nut kiosks, first in Taipei City, then in neighbouring Taoyuan County. As of 2004, although betel nut beauties still exist, they are now more modestly dressed than in previous years.

Betel nut girls are usually from working-class backgrounds. Some are secondary-school dropouts; others may have been forced into the work by their families, in which they are the primary wage-earners. Most have had difficulty finding jobs in such places as chain convenience stores owing to their low levels of education or their youth; or else they (or their relatives) prefer the comparatively higher wages earned from working the kiosks.

話説有一個老外一天走在街上，忽然看見有一個司機開了車門往地上就吐一口紅色唾液。老外看了嚇一跳，對身邊的友人說：“臺灣人對事業真有夠拼的，司機大哥還駕車駕到吐血了呢！” 殊不知那位司機大哥嘴裏嚼的正是檳榔。