Taichung police orders 'betel nut beauties' to cover up

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taichung police has ordered the city's scantily-clad betel nut saleswomen to dress more conservatively to help reduce car accidents, it was reported.

Under the new dress code, women peddling spicy chewing betel nuts at roadside stands are barred from revealing their bodies in sexy transparent clothes or soliciting business on the streets, the local TVBS station reported.

"Don't put on any dissipated poses such as dancing outside the sales booths," a policeman said while promoting the new dress code.

Instead, he suggested several young saleswomen to don white navy tops, tight short pants and the same type of hats worn by singer Feng Fei-fei, a local diva in the 1980s.

Taichung police consider the so-called "betel nut beauties" a likely cause of traffic accidents in the central city as drivers are often diverted by saleswomen in flashy revealing clothes, the report said.

A young sales girl told reporters the tighter dress code sounded reasonable. "But it's really not my business, it's my boss's problem," she shrugged.

Betel nut beauties thrive in central and southern Taiwan.

A Health Department study two years ago reported one-tenth of Taiwan's population regularly chew the indigenous nut, the seed of a palm tree, as a stimulant.


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