Chewing on Tradition

Every day on my way to work, I would wait for the bus outside of my building. Directly in front of my bus stop would be a lady sitting in a small 500 sq ft room facing the store window rigorously peeling something from the break of dawn until dusk. The lady, dressed in 6-inch heels, an extremely short form-fitting dress, and heavy makeup, would only stop occasionally to hand a driver-by a bag. Then she would walk back to her small desk and continue peeling diligently - extremely focused. I would go to work, come back, and she would still be there, never missing a day.

This isn’t the only store or the only lady I’ve seen doing this. In fact, I had seen it numerous times, throughout Taiwan. It’s almost as if the store including the store tender and activities were copy and pasted throughout Taiwan. I would even go as far as to say that there are just as many Betel Nut stores as there are convenience stores. Let’s put that into perspective! Taiwan has the 2nd highest concentration of convenience stores in the world. On almost every block, you can find a convenience store, and on almost every block you can find a Betel Nut store.

I began to wonder to myself whether they were selling seeds for agriculture? Were they selling drugs? What were they doing?

One day, I asked my colleague. He asked me if the women were wearing really sexy dresses and if the men going in and out of the store looked like they had really bloody mouths?

That was the first time I realized the women’s attire and the men’s bloody mouths. He explained to me what Betel Nuts were and the entire industry surrounding it. I learned that it is a type of Palm Tree nut which acts as a psychoactive stimulant. The locals in Taiwan love it, even though it makes their mouths red. The women dress the way they do to get the attention of their buyers.