K-clubbing

[kasia]

How do you all feel about the concept of booking? Do you think it's degrading to females? Or do you think it's all in the name of fun? How many of you have actually dated or had a serious relationship with someone you met at a Korean club? Elaborate.

[achtungbaby]

Hmmm...maybe the question should be, "Has anyone ever been booked?"

[kasia]

[quote:b9fca85016="achtungbaby"]Hmmm...maybe the question should be, "Has anyone ever been booked?"[/quote:b9fca85016]

i know you have. did you feel degraded?

[kboy75]

If the non-Koreans want a good article on what booking is, read:

http://cba.fiu.edu/mgmt/batesc/WSJ3.html

It focuses on booking in Korea, not here in the US, but it is informative for the uninitiated.


Booking... I take it for what it is. Not much relationship potential there, but it can be fun if you get past the $$$ that you throw down.

[achtungbaby]

[quote:d3baef2d0a="kboy75"]It focuses on booking in Korea, not here in the US, but it is informative for the uninitiated.[/quote:d3baef2d0a]

Good word choice there, "uninitiated"... :D

[quote:d3baef2d0a="kboy75"]Booking... I take it for what it is. Not much relationship potential there, but it can be fun if you get past the $$$ that you throw down.[/quote:d3baef2d0a]

And that's the way it should be looked at. It's not the Holy Grail or anything. It's all bullshit, but bullshit can be fun, too.

[kasia]

if you call being told by a korean guy to pour his drink fun.

[wylin]

alota korean girls/other girls just come up after their booked and jack ur drinks. jack ur fruit and drinks!

=)

[Arex]

[quote:52cb1e7e56="kasia"]if you call being told by a korean guy to pour his drink fun.[/quote:52cb1e7e56]

Some dude told you to pour his drink? Did you?

Alex

[kasia]

[quote:5a176aa16a="Arex"][quote:5a176aa16a="kasia"]if you call being told by a korean guy to pour his drink fun.[/quote:5a176aa16a]

Some dude told you to pour his drink? Did you?

Alex[/quote:5a176aa16a]

well, he said that was how it was done in korean culture. so i told him i was chinese. and he said, "so?" and so we sat there, me kinda silently laughing at the situation...and then finally he lets out a huge sigh and reaches for the bottle of crown.

and he poured my drink for me. bow down, korean boy.

[kboy75]

[quote:569560e5b1="kasia"]if you call being told by a korean guy to pour his drink fun.[/quote:569560e5b1]

I never do that. I just try to be really chill and meet people, and don't get all caught up with all the etiquette BS.

[kasia]

[quote:97bce3af11="kboy75"][quote:97bce3af11="kasia"]if you call being told by a korean guy to pour his drink fun.[/quote:97bce3af11]

I never do that. I just try to be really chill and meet people, and don't get all caught up with all the etiquette BS.[/quote:97bce3af11]

i agree. i was just joking. i actually had a fun time.

[achtungbaby]

[quote:da3fd4d57f="kasia"]i actually had a fun time.[/quote:da3fd4d57f]

Lame.

[kasia]

[quote:34c926a591="achtungbaby"][quote:34c926a591="kasia"]i actually had a fun time.[/quote:34c926a591]

Lame.[/quote:34c926a591]

you told me to go!

[iris]

I wasn't aware this existed, but I don't live in L.A. and haven't seen it around NYC. Then again, I haven't really partied in NYC's K-town. L.A.ers input?

Korean Booking of Women (http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/hong/booking/)
By Cathy Hong

In Los Angeles, Koreatown is less an ethnic enclave than an overwhelming sprawl of salmon-hued bungalows and remodeled strip malls that rent out to acupuncturists, pool halls and karaoke bars. The minute you exit the 10 freeway and drive north just shy of Melrose, all you see are neon Korean characters advertising noodle shops and Korean Air stewardesses smiling beatifically from billboards. It's a disorienting hybrid of old and new. Booking is boy-meets girl on reverb.

Le Prive, K-town's biggest nightclub, fits right into the landscape. With its flashing neon floor, velvet banquettes and studio apartment-sized mirrorball, the place has all the accoutrements of the cheesy urban superclub, with an added element of sideshow. On any weekend night, almost every female patron will be "booked" — dragged by a waiter, usually against her will — to a table of waiting men.

On a recent Saturday night around 11:30, a waiter is pulling two bleach-blonde Korean girls across the dancefloor. The girls are protesting as mightily as their anorexic frames will allow: their stretchy miniskirts buckle; their Prada stillettos skitter across the marble floor. One of them grabs onto a faux marble pillar, pleading as if she's being forced into a Stalinist gulag. The waiter nonchalantly extricates her, and the three of them disappear into the crowd.

I'm sitting at a booth a few feet away, surveying the scene with Clara Lee. Blonde, slender and pretty, Clara is twenty-one, a community college student who started making the rounds of K-town clubs when she was seventeen. This is the first visit to Le Prive for both of us. "See! Another one!" Clara cries. She points to a different waiter, who's dragging a busty Asian girl in tassled boots. Before long, another waiter descends on our table and whispers in Clara's ear: "Can you help me out?" Clara looks at me and shrugs. She nods at the waiter, who takes her hand and whisks her off to a group of boys, who greet her with cheers.

I settle back into the booth, trying to process my first experience with booking. It's a bit like watching Wild Kingdom, I decide: you can never be too comfortable as a spectator.

Booking is boy-meets-girl on reverb, speedier than speed dating, a hook-up that's sparked and extinguished as fast as you can down a shot. It's a mating ritual that occurs almost exclusively in expensive nightclubs in Korea or Los Angeles, where Crown Royal is tossed back like Budweiser and cash is casually produced to pay for $2,000 drink tabs. In these clubs, Boy doesn't have to put his ego at risk and sidle up to a girl with a stammering line; instead, Boy leaves it all up to his waiter. This is how it works: at a guy's request, a waiter approaches a girl's booth. He might ask politely if she'd like to be booked. More likely, he'll grab her by the arm, drag her to a table and force her to sit down. Boy offers Girl a shot of Crown Royal and small talk ensues. But before Boy can offer another drink, Girl blurts, "I should get back to my friends" and leaves. Boy shrugs it off, knowing that another struggling girl will be delivered to his table within minutes.

Things rarely work the other way around. If a girl books a guy, she's considered a ho. When getting booked, a girl feels compelled to drag her feet and act spectacularly uninterested. "When the girls see a guy they think is hot, they'll go, 'Take me over there,'" says Romeo, a waiter at Le Prive. "So I'll take her, but she'll play the whole dragging bit. Then she'll put her head down and won't even say hello until the guy says something." He considers this. "They don't want to look easy."

The evening we visited Le Prive, Clara and I got to the club around ten. We were greeted at the entrance by Romeo, who introduced himself as our personal waiter for the evening. Chatty and cute in a silk-tuxedo-and-Duran-Duran-bangs kind of way, he led us to a table and produced a tray loaded with a half-bottle of Crown Royal, four Cokes and an elaborate platter of fruits. Normally, this treatment costs $200, but if you arrive before 10:30 in an all-female group, it's free. You just have to promise to book.

Around eleven, Le Prive begins to fill with girls in J. Lo-style encasings and stiff-haired boys in baggy button-down shirts. Most of them are college students in their early twenties; some are gangbangers, but they dress interchangeably. The DJ is playing last year's Hot 97 hip-hop hits: Missy Elliot's "One Minute Man," Nelly's "Hot in Herre." The girls are all pretty and skinny. The boys look as homogenous as frat brothers. "Losers," Clara confides. "Some of them are nice and cute and can't help it when waiters bring girls. But the ones who request booking? Total sleazebags."

Sitting in a corner booth is Jeff, an overtanned guy with so much gel in his hair you can see each follicle. A former stockbroker who owns a Melrose boutique, he's twenty-seven but likes to tell girls he's younger. At his Midwestern college, Jeff was a jock but had a hard time competing with his white buddies for girls. In the booking clubs, it's pyunei (comfortable); he's with his own people. There's just one disadvantage. "Booking makes you lazy," he says, tipping back a beer. "I've lost all my pick-up skills."

[Fireblade]

Damn.. that's weird. I've heard of booking, but not like that. At least from what I hear from my friends who are korean, it's just usually the guys who tip their waiters to relay messages to the women. But it's never against her will. But things are different everywhere I guess.

[himura-dono]

Originally posted by kasia@Jun 18 2002, 10:18 PM


well, he said that was how it was done in korean culture. so i told him i was chinese.

and he poured my drink for me. bow down, korean boy.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

go kasie!

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Originally posted by kasia@Jun 18 2002, 10:18 PM
[quote:5a176aa16a="Arex"][quote:5a176aa16a="kasia"]if you call being told by a korean guy to pour his drink fun.[/quote:5a176aa16a]

Some dude told you to pour his drink? Did you?

Alex[/quote:5a176aa16a]

well, he said that was how it was done in korean culture. so i told him i was chinese. and he said, "so?" and so we sat there, me kinda silently laughing at the situation...and then finally he lets out a huge sigh and reaches for the bottle of crown.

and he poured my drink for me. bow down, korean boy.
I need to get to know you better. You're always so busy, dangit.

[kasia]

Originally posted by Fireblade@Mar 10 2003, 11:32 AM
Damn.. that's weird. I've heard of booking, but not like that. At least from what I hear from my friends who are korean, it's just usually the guys who tip their waiters to relay messages to the women. But it's never against her will. But things are different everywhere I guess.

thx iris for the article.

i think clara hong's article is a bit exaggerated. it's never really against the girl's will. the fact that she's going to a korean club in the first place kinda implies consent. most girls who go there are regulars and are very well-aware that they will be booked. and you don't have to do anything with the guy. it's certainly not like being a hostess at a hostess bar. you just sit and talk. and get free drinks. it's also rarely a table of 'waiting men'. most people go in groups of guys and girls.

though girls fake a struggle - often times they don't even bother - i have never seen a girl grab onto a marble pillar for dear life. and if you really don't want to be booked - and i've tried this before - all you have to do is say the magic words, "i'm here with my boyfriend." superman will leave you alone. most girls know that this works.

and guys get booked, too. i have never heard of the idea that a girl is considered a 'ho' if she books a guy. it's all in the name of fun.

still, it is true that girls are the ones who are booked for the most part. and despite the fact that they are consenting, i still find the concept of booking itself pretty sexist. i remember a friend told me that it was practiced in korea because both men and women were shy; booking helped them meet new people. perhaps.

i'm curious as to whether clara hong is korean.

[amietron]

Originally posted by kasia@Jun 18 2002, 11:53 AM
if you call being told by a korean guy to pour his drink fun.
Sometimes I like being subservient. Is that bad?

[himura-dono]

Originally posted by amietron@Mar 10 2003, 01:18 PM
Sometimes I like being subservient. Is that bad?
never :D

[VV o n g B a]

"thou dost protest too much."

the only thing that i find really shallow is the acting part. i usually support multiculturalism and all, but thats just kinda sad.

[golden_buns]

I've seen so many feminist complaining about this. But if hot girls go there so much and so often knowing what's gonna happen, is because they like it

[SunWuKong]

wait... if the girls that are booked don't have to do anything... why don't guys go to a hostess bar instead??? :confused:


by the way, can we charge a fee to book YW girls out?

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by kasia@Mar 10 2003, 03:54 PM
despite the fact that they are consenting, i still find the concept of booking itself pretty sexist.
what does that say about the women who are consenting?

[moschikat]

oh! :o

so THAT's what was happening!!! i couldn't understand for the life of god why some waiter was taking me to a table of unknown strangers!

well, i guess i didn't play my "not easy girl" part too well . . . . derf. :P

[deez nuts]

Bathe her and bring her to me!

My sophomore year in college we went to UB's here in NYC. A waiter came up and asked me about these two girls sitting at this table and asked me what I thought of them. I didn't understand a word of it since he spoke in Korean. My friend translated for me. And I said: "Oh! Those two. They look like they're 13 years old." I did not know I was about to be "booked" by a thirteen year old.

Not my shiniest or proudest moment.

[VV o n g B a]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Mar 10 2003, 05:20 PM
what does that say about the women who are consenting?
it means they don't mind being viewed in a sexist manner. but certainly, simply consenting to a booking is less sexist than being an adornment to a machine like the car show models are. i really feel sorry for those women because they're bodies aren't even the main object being viewed. at least a porn girl's body is the center of attention...

[golden_buns]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Mar 10 2003, 04:30 PM
Bathe her and bring her to me!

My sophomore year in college we went to UB's here in NYC. A waiter came up and asked me about these two girls sitting at this table and asked me what I thought of them. I didn't understand a word of it since he spoke in Korean. My friend translated for me. And I said: "Oh! Those two. They look like they're 13 years old." I did not know I was about to be "booked" by a thirteen year old.

Not my shiniest or proudest moment.
I've never seen anyone getting asked for the ID at any K-clubs or bars in the States. So yeah, they were probably 13

[deez nuts]

Originally posted by golden_buns@Mar 10 2003, 08:25 PM
Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Mar 10 2003, 04:30 PM
Bathe her and bring her to me!

My sophomore year in college we went to UB's here in NYC.   A waiter came up and asked me about these two girls sitting at this table and asked me what I thought of them.  I didn't understand a word of it since he spoke in Korean.  My friend translated for me.  And I said: "Oh! Those two.  They look like they're 13 years old."  I did not know I was about to be "booked" by a thirteen year old.

Not my shiniest or proudest moment.
I've never seen anyone getting asked for the ID at any K-clubs or bars in the States. So yeah, they were probably 13
Yup agreed.

Brother bun.

[artsfartsyjanet]

if i'm interpreting this article correctly, it just seems really awkward if some waiter pushed me over to a guy i don't know just to get to know him.... The element of money and some degree of pressure/coercion is what I don't like about it. Perhaps, in the United States, people get tips for delivering a message, but I think the idea of a relationship following through is highly unlikely. Eh, booking just sounds a bit shady, but that's because I haven't given it too much thought.

[mr. x]

heres an idea, instead k-clubbing, kavemanclubbing...where you pick a girl you like, bash her over the head with a club, and then take her home with you. That'll overcome her shyness...

[mr. x]

that is a joke btw, as i know that is not a feasible business plan

[golden_buns]

Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 17 2003, 04:09 PM
heres an idea, instead k-clubbing, kavemanclubbing...where you pick a girl you like, bash her over the head with a club, and then take her home with you. That'll overcome her shyness...
isn't that called abduction and rape?

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by golden_buns@Mar 18 2003, 08:54 PM
isn't that called abduction and rape?
hey come on, the man said, he knows it's not a feasible business practice. So he doesn't intend to do it on a large scale to make money, only on a small scale for personal pleasure. :P

as for booking itself, well there's nothing particularly more shady about it than anything else that goes in a bar ... simple form of introduction with social intermediary. Might even serve a useful discrimination function; the waiter won't book a guy with some women who seem outta his league, saving everyone's time. though personally i'm all for picking up girls myself rather than getting a waiter to do it for me, cuz it cuts out the middleman, saves money, and at least for the personality type of girls I'd go for it's probably pareto-efficient.

[golden_buns]

Originally posted by AliBabaIncorporated@Mar 18 2003, 06:16 PM
hey come on, the man said, he knows it's not a feasible business practice. So he doesn't intend to do it on a large scale to make money, only on a small scale for personal pleasure. :P
I know, I know. Just picking on the guy

[kasia]

Originally posted by mr. x@Mar 17 2003, 04:09 PM
heres an idea, instead k-clubbing, kavemanclubbing...where you pick a girl you like, bash her over the head with a club, and then take her home with you. That'll overcome her shyness...
are you insinuating that the concept of booking only brings us back to the caveman days - in terms of how women are treated? keep in mind, though, booking is based on the idea that both parties are two shy to approach one another.

[mr. x]

i meant it tongue in cheek (like the stupid mammogram thing)

the first thing that popped in my mind when i read "dragged her away while she pleaded no" was caveman

in no way did i mean offensitivities to the people of Corea or the Hans, or those of Corean descent currently residing in the United States of America or to those who participate in K-clubbing

[kasia]

i think it can be seen as pretty caveman-like too. i was just hoping that you would elaborate on that.