It’s no secret that if you want to jazz up a mundane product, your best bet is to add some naughty innuendo or imagery. Whether it be Miss Chiquita or the Marlboro man, sex symbols have long been used in advertising to make your run-off-the-mill banana or cigarette suddenly remarkable. But you don’t have to be a cosmopolitan marketing whizz to take advantage of this basic fact. In Taiwan, betel leaf is a popular stimulant for truck drivers during long-haul journeys. Who sells these common plants? Betel Nut Beauties—attractive, lingerie-clad women.
Photographer Constanze Han wanted to take a “visual record of this peculiarity” in her latest documentary photo project, The Betel Nut Beauties. What first stands out is the fluorescent light, pinks and reds so bright that we can almost hear the circuit buzzing. For Han, the colours reflect the deeper subconscious symbols in Taiwanese society: “Red symbolises luck, prosperity, and wealth [and] pink remains a timeless, and obvious, symbol of femininity.” Because of the lantern-like glow, cool wash, and alleyway setting, the photos seem like stills from a Wong Kar-wai film, but the photographer’s main focus is reality rather than aesthetics. She says that she’s “usually just trying to make the most of whatever lighting or settings are available and telling [herself] to be patient enough to wait for a good moment.”
Inside these shops sit the Betel Nut Beauties, preparing leaves for consumption and running out to customers. Han describes Taiwanese culture as rather hostile towards the women; although betel nut leaves are a known carcinogen, it is the saleswomen who come under “the harshest judgement from society and the strictest regulations from the government.” In her photos, Han seeks to capture the women “objectively and without bias, depicting who these women are in an intimate and consensual manner.” We learn from Han’s photos and accompanying captions that while the profession is rarely a first choice, being a Betel Nut Beauty allows financial stability and ambition that otherwise would have been impossible. Yao Yao is able to earn enough to care for her baby, Mong Shuan is saving money for beauty school, and Molly is using this as a financial crutch while she decides what to do next.
In The Betel Nut Beauties, Han captures the real stories that are hidden behind the sensationalised image. As the marketing practice slowly fades –there are already far fewer Betel Nut Beauties compared to when Han was a young child–, the collection serves as a valuable, and beautiful, document of the women who so often disappear from our historical record.
