Some migrant workers who lost factory jobs in Suzhou, Jiangsu, due to the global economic downturn have found new work in the city's dance halls. Hundreds of laid-off migrant women - and thousands of Suzhou natives - have flooded about 10 large dance halls in the heart of the city.
On a recent Saturday night, more than 1,000 people queued in freezing rain to crowd into a dance hall on the second floor of a commercial building in Shi Road. Admission was just 7 yuan (HK$8) and included a cup of tea. The ventilation did not seem to work and many patrons ignored 'No smoking' signs, puffing away on each side of the hall despite repeated fire-danger warnings broadcast over loudspeakers.
With the hall covering at least 3,000 square metres, it's no small business. Open from 9am to 9pm, it can rake in 35,000 yuan a day with a total attendance of 5,000 people.
It's obviously a successful business model, but dancing is not the main attraction. More than 300 women, most aged below 30, waited for partners. Most wore simple clothes - shirts, boots and coats - and cast furtive glances at passers-by, eager for their patronage.
The lights are turned off for each eight-minute dance. Several women said they charged 10 to 30 yuan for a dance. Patrons are allowed to hug and kiss them for 10 yuan but, as the price rises, hands are allowed to wander further. When the lights go back on, the men look around for a new partner for the next dance. Sometimes the women take the initiative, greeting men passing by or dragging them onto the dance floor.
Some of the women said they began working in the dance hall after being laid off last year. One, from Anhui , said she thought of it as a temporary job initially, only to find it was a lucrative business. She came to Suzhou two years ago to work in an electronics factory. But she lost her job a year ago.