
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


South Korean women, tradition says, are hard-working, respectful to family, and know their place in Korea's Confucian hierarchies. But the country's rapid economic development has meant some startling changes below the surface of that conservative social structure. Perhaps the most controversial is the advent of Host Bars - all night drinking rooms where female customers can select and pay for male companions, sometimes at a cost of thousands of dollars a night. Originally set up to cater to off-duty 'hostesses' and female escorts, they're now proving popular with many other women too. The growth of the industry is throwing up new questions for South Korea's sociologists and politicians as they struggle to reconcile the country's traditional values with the effects of its rapid development. The BBC's Seoul correspondent Lucy Williamson reports.
By BBC Radio 44.7
7474 ratings
South Korean women, tradition says, are hard-working, respectful to family, and know their place in Korea's Confucian hierarchies. But the country's rapid economic development has meant some startling changes below the surface of that conservative social structure. Perhaps the most controversial is the advent of Host Bars - all night drinking rooms where female customers can select and pay for male companions, sometimes at a cost of thousands of dollars a night. Originally set up to cater to off-duty 'hostesses' and female escorts, they're now proving popular with many other women too. The growth of the industry is throwing up new questions for South Korea's sociologists and politicians as they struggle to reconcile the country's traditional values with the effects of its rapid development. The BBC's Seoul correspondent Lucy Williamson reports.

7,588 Listeners

376 Listeners

891 Listeners

1,049 Listeners

5,470 Listeners

1,801 Listeners

959 Listeners

1,758 Listeners

1,043 Listeners

2,091 Listeners

480 Listeners

106 Listeners

44 Listeners

42 Listeners

35 Listeners

297 Listeners

72 Listeners

745 Listeners

852 Listeners

159 Listeners

81 Listeners

4,158 Listeners

3,180 Listeners

39 Listeners