Rain, Karaoke, and Little Girls

Ok, first, I apologize for not posting for  a while, things have been very hectic around ChinaFubar's area of the Middle Kinkdom,  what with dealing with father-in-law, copious amounts of rain, and day to day dealing with balky customers.

On a personal note, the father-in-law is back home from the hospital after having 3 surgeries to un-clog his blocked arteries.  Bit of an adventure getting home, as the rains in Guangdong had many of the roads flooded, as well as the in-law's village, so we were stranded there for a while. One way in and out, and it was under a couple feet of water.  Not the first time I've had to deal with this. Now I know why the Landwind dealer tried to sell me on the "high water" option, which consisted of waterproofing the engine and air intake snorkel. 

Seems a bad year for natural and man-made disasters in China,  Snow, fire (Olympic torch fiasco) earthquake, and now floods.  And it's not even full on into typhoon season yet, so wind has yet to take a bow.

Other random notes, just read an article by Emily Flitter entitled  "With Karaoke, a Deal in China for a Song"  A lot of the people making comments, including myself thought the article was a bit naive with her idea that most of the young women in Karaoke clubs aren't sex workers, and that business visitors wouldn't be taken to those sort of low end clubs.  Uh, try again...

From what I've seen, the whole dinner and karaoke thing, especially when it involves the factory, is a good excuse for the factory boys, who are usually living in a factory dorm to begin with, and normally pretty boring lives, to have a night out on the company.  If you watch close, usually they'll eat before going to the dinner and actually eat very little at the dinner. You on the other hand will be treated to all sorts of delicacies not normally associated with your everyday meal in China. 

Luckily, these days it's more common to have female visitors, and many factories have female management, so another option of "bonding with the hosts" might be foot massage.  Somewhat less seedy, and women can go to separate rooms from the men, and all are happy. . 

I've been on the "host" side of some of these, and while I'm not sure what goes on for interaction in the women's rooms, the guys' rooms  usually winds up with a macho thing of who can take the most pain at the hands of the masseuse.  A proper done foot massage can get pretty painful to the uninitiated, and I've seen some pretty "macho"  American guys cry like little girls by the end of it all.  I'm always amazed at how such small women can inflict so much pain.

Anyway, it's been a long time since ChinaFubar's been treated to a "factory night out" so luckily, China's karaoke girls are safe from having to listen to him sing "Casablanca" yet again.