Young people who grew up in 199s must have heard of sauna. In that era when revolutionary culture disappeared and consumption surged, sauna bathing places appeared like new bamboo shoots after the rain, hitting the Chinese people in one fell swoop.

As an enthusiastic observer, photographer Li Qianjin spent four years photographing bath centers all over the country. Within his reach, there are groups of luxurious and mysterious saunas.

In the chaotic times, the most rampaging desires of Chinese people were once here.

Get up economically and lie down after work

Just after the firecrackers were set off on the 1th day of the first month of p>214, cries came from Dongguan, the reception center of the Pearl River Delta. Weibo's clamour to hold on in Dongguan finally failed to meet the police's determination to crack down on pornography.

Since then, the word "Wan" in Dongguan has become intriguing, and people's unreasonable reverie about the word hotel sauna has intensified.

but in fact, the sauna has played a role that is far more than a golden nest for debauchery. Before going astray, it also had a history of popularity worthy of consideration.

In August p>1983, Xinmin Evening News published an article entitled "The First Sauna in Shanghai", which mentioned the opening of the first sauna in Shanghai: there were men's and women's bathrooms, each with 6 cubic meters, which could be used by four people at the same time.

Only at that time, sauna, an imported bath, was still a strange concept to Chinese people, and was only welcomed by Chinese and foreign tourists and athletes.

The real popularity will not come until the 199s, when the economy was at the forefront and the business tide was surging, when the southern tour speech was issued in 1992. The spring tide of emancipating the mind swept across the land of China, and the small hand of making a fortune extended to all aspects of life. At the same time, Chinese people began to make up entertainment classes.

the wind is blowing from the south, wave after wave. First, three-step and four-step cities, bars, dance halls and video halls that don't sleep at midnight; Soon after, karaoke and indoor skating came from behind.

By the early 199s, the sauna also arrived in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province with the plane of Hong Kong tourists, and was quickly promoted to a rookie in the world of play.

In the star-rated hotels around Shenzhen, Hong Kong businessmen have introduced small saunas, and on this basis, they have added leisure and entertainment facilities such as chess room, lounge and health room. Some people say that this is a major upgrade Plus version of the unit baths and community bathhouses in the past.

before that, the people were not mentally prepared at all. Entertainment; , it seems that is playing chess, playing poker, the unit to have a dance, find some Le Er with yourself. These are the original words of Wang Shuo.

In the face of sudden opening up, addiction became the inner voice of the urban class at that time. Taking a sauna regularly is regarded as a kind of enjoyment.

you'd better steam it when it's soaked. when it's time to rub, there will be more goods.

many working-class people throw out a yellow ticket every month, and steam it one by one by dry steaming, wet steaming, infrared steaming and blue steaming, which is what Ah Q said. If you have money, I will also give it to you.

According to relevant sources, the first place that social people go after being released from prison is not their home, but the sauna center.

by the mid-199s, saunas had blossomed everywhere in first-and second-tier cities.

According to Beijing Youth Daily, since the sauna massage was established in Beijing in 1992, by the end of 1995, it had soared to 327, exceeding the growth rate of GDP in one fell swoop. Also in this year, sauna entered the Modern Chinese Dictionary.

Seeing that the bathing market is still a blue ocean, people in the sea seized the opportunity to build a number of sauna centers that are more luxurious than the ancient Roman baths. Even many remote small towns in the mainland are not far behind, and the dazzling neon lights of XX sauna are lit up one after another.

Most of the names are Athena Victoria, which makes people unable to stay at home.

a bath washes away a cow of a farmer

In fact, it was not the people who drove cars and sold pulp that frequently went in and out of the sauna center at that time, but the rich class who rose rapidly in the city in the era of national business.

In the 199s, there was a joke that a billboard on Wangfujing Street in Beijing fell and hit five people, four of whom were the general manager and one was the assistant to the general manager. Relying on their strong economic strength, they became the trendsetter in the consumption field.

In p>1994, the article "Please Bath, New Social Fashion" recorded this change:

The modern bath center used to be a public bath, and each ticket price was only 3 yuan. After Liu Yuangen contracted it, he invested in renovation and opened ten high-end bath types.

Liu Yuangen's target users are the rich class. According to his observation, every weekend, the gentleman came with a brick-like mobile phone, running Santana and running.

not only that, but there was a song called "Fight hard to win", which was quite popular in the big money circle. Three points of luck, seven points of fighting, love to fight will win, this lyric echoed in the karaoke room all night.

If the general public goes to the sauna center to take a bath with the idea that I love to take a bath and my skin is good, then a gentleman's bath is full of consumerism.

Some ladies and gentlemen not only like taking saunas, but also bring milk and eggs into the bathroom. Ding Min, manager of the hot spring bath hall in Chaoyang District, shook his head and said: They thought that milk was picked on the body to whiten, and egg whites washed their hair black and bright. Word spread from mouth to mouth, and men learned from women, making the bath quickly become a western restaurant.

In p>1996, a thai massage in Beijing charged as much as 1,8 yuan an hour, which was a sky-high price in the age of 5 yuan with a monthly salary per capita. If you add back cleaning, massage and ear digging, you can wash off a farmer's cow.

even so, the rich have never stopped. A sauna costs a few hundred and one thousand dollars, and a golf club membership card costs tens of thousands of dollars. As long as they can play superman, they will never frown no matter how much they spend.

It's not enough for them to enjoy themselves. When they are happy, rich people often invite their loved ones to have a feast. Although they work in government agencies, they are just ordinary employees sitting on the bench, in the corner forgotten by the trendy consumption. Once, one of his primary school classmates, who became a rich man, invited him to take a bath in the Imperial Entertainment City. The two of them always spent more than 1,8 yuan, which made him stick out his tongue. The classmates just smiled and said dismissively; A piece of cake; .

in fact, what he is after is the surprising effect of Xiao Dai. After washing the sauna, from time to time, there are people who have been poor for a long time and are vain. They insist on asking the massage lady to drink several glasses of foreign wine, one of which is an ounce, which is nearly 1 yuan. After opening a bottle, you often can't drink it all at once. You should hang a small card on the bottle and write your name on it, so that the waiter can keep it for the next time.

with the help of Mr. Kuan, in 1996, there were as many as 1, saunas in China, and 1 billion yuan was washed away every year.

It's common for a younger brother in a sauna room with a little brilliance to earn 1, yuan a month. If it is a massage or pedicure that directly serves the guests, it can generally reach more than 3 thousand. You know, it was an era when many small inland counties were still talking about ten thousand households.

As long as you are willing to soak mushrooms, your opponents will become friends.

For sauna practitioners, it was really the golden age of sauna. For businessmen and politicians, the sauna room is the fuel for that great process in the era of economic take-off.

In the 199s, apart from being popular in the East, West, North and South, and making a fortune in Guangdong, there was an irrefutable truth: as long as you are willing; Pickled mushrooms; , opponents will become friends.

commercial society is full of mystery. The passive side often has to mobilize all means to hold the other side firmly. So experienced pragmatists summed up a set of principles for negotiation in the 199s:

Before business is discussed, let's make an appointment at the restaurant first.

if you don't refuse to raise money, the business will be 12%.

when you are full of wine and food, you are invited to the karaoke bars for recreation.

I am good at singing and dancing, and my business is 3% to 4%.

stop singing and dancing, and accompany them to the sauna to relieve fatigue.

if he is happy, the business will be 5% to 6%.

After the talk, it is understood that taking a bath of friendship is called "soaking mushrooms", but there are many successful cases in reality.

In the year of Hong Kong's return to China, a sports boss in Guangdong took a fancy to the Shanghai office of a trading company in Anhui, and spent 4, yuan to host a table for the boss in Anhui. Everyone is travel-stained, smiling, and making a brief encounter. Unexpectedly, after eating a meal for nearly three hours, not only did it not work out, but it was also deadlocked.

If you knock the gong again before you get on the pole, the boss in Guangdong perseveres. As soon as he leaves here, he takes the boss in Anhui to Tianlong for a luxurious bath. It is observed that in the bathroom, the tension caused by the negotiation between the two gradually relaxes, and the smoke fills the air, and the words gradually become intimate and warm. In the massage room, the Anhui boss was made comfortable, and the two finally eliminated their business differences and held their hands tightly together.

After the bath, send a set of Goldlion underwear, shirt and tie, which is both beautiful and implies good wishes. What business can't be discussed?

dry steaming is on the left, wet steaming is on the right, Fujia is talking about business in the SPA pool, and politicians are of course discussing state affairs in the washroom.

if you want to get rid of an official, you must meet him shirtless. In the 199 s, the cooperation between officials and businessmen, large and small, was concluded in these baths where day and night were not clear.

And never one of the invoices issued by the sauna room to these customers will state the sauna massage, but all of them will state the meal fee and conference fee.

where there is a sauna, there is a special service.

after the sauna, there are still two customs, nothing more than money and beauty, all of which are accessible, and business is bound to succeed. This is the final principle of the 9' s negotiation mentioned above.

I don't know whether it is truth or accident, but the distance between money power and pornography is so close. Before long, the sauna bath was plated with another color.

At that time, luxury sauna was only sought after by a few people in China. In order to pay for these people's pockets, the bath owner tried his best.

In addition to the milk bath in Nanjing, which caused public outrage in that year, a new term, escort washing, came out in Guangdong in the early 2th century. Some bosses hire some young girls to stimulate them with high salaries and provide customers with too in-depth massage.

The money in the hands of big bosses is so tightly grasped that it is often taken out of their pockets by these young ladies to make the gap between the rich and the poor less wide.

The drunkard's intention is not to drink, which later became an open secret. Wherever there is a sauna, there must be special services.

when I was young, I was miserable, and love was not romantic. Now that I have some money, I can't waste my second youth. Now I have really opened my eyes here. A girl is the same, and a girl has a personality.

not only Adam but also Eve wants to taste the forbidden fruit. As long as you find the right place, you can also find the corresponding service.

gradually, the competition among peers also extends from the business level to the decoration level. The sauna room is getting bigger and bigger, and the more luxurious it is. From nude murals to sexy bedding, there are grass snakes and gray lines everywhere, and everything is an imperial voyeuristic imagination created for the disciples.

This is a big headache for the public security department. Our satellites can go to heaven, but we're afraid we can't control heterosexual massage?

In p>1995, the government made clear regulations on heterosexual massage places. Each massage room should have at least two beds, the doors should not be locked, and transparent glass should be installed. A notice that pornography is not allowed must be posted in the room.

However, a large number of saunas still respect the market rules and are massaged by the opposite sex.

By the end of the 199s, getting rid of dirt and relaxing has become a thing of the past. Like rare and endangered animals, vegetarian saunas are washed less and less. Saunas are almost synonymous with pornography.

Pornography and quasi-pornography, like a storm, swept almost every corner of China.

In p>1999, when a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News went to a small town in the south of the Yangtze River for a private visit, he was surprised to find that there were 3, beautiful women in a town of more than 3, people. They brought great wealth to themselves and the town.

according to their introduction, when business is good, they can earn several thousand yuan a day, and the annual salary of 1, is not a problem. When they came home at the end of the year, each of the 3, beautiful women withdrew 12, yuan from the bank, but they emptied the bank.

besides saunas, various card halls, dance halls, KTV boxes, shampoo shops and tea shows are also swarming. Red lights are shining everywhere in China, and even in remote and desolate towns, signs such as sauna and karaoke room can still be seen.

Zhu Wen, a new generation of novelists in p>95, published "Do People Need Sauna?" in 2, which still exudes breathtaking readability. Look at what's going on outside. You can shoot (harmonious) essence in places where you bathe, eat, drink tea, shave your hair, watch movies and go to the toilet, but you can shoot (harmonious) essence in places where you sing and dance, even in places where you fucking play ball. From a five-star hotel to a roadside shop with two houses, it's a big shot! Last week, I went to the nanny market to find a nanny for our children. As a result, someone came up and asked me if I wanted to shoot (Harmony) sperm. What do you think this is? This is really a power outage in the whole city tonight!

consumer optimists even call it "the spring water is raging, and the peanuts are mixed." But in the eyes of the general public, it can only be vulgar and defiled.

isn't it a pedicure? Why do you treat your hands?

big brother, hands are also feet.

massage little sister's father scolded you angrily. But you don't know, there's another thing that little sister hasn't said: people are animals.

Maybe it's a waste of money. Congratulations on getting rich, the most popular greeting in 1995, turned into good health in 1998.

During the SARS period, Chinese people also restrained their habit of eating and drinking. Sometimes there is a song saying: Karaoke is not singing, Internet cafes are closed today, McDonald's is empty, and the sauna is closed.

However, the virus can't change much. After SARS, many people still remain the same.

The sauna room has been transformed into a sauna hotel and bath center, which continues to nourish the imagination of pleasure until the urban legend named "Public Security Strike Hard" came true in Dongguan in 214.

things are human beings, and geese fly without a trace. Although these bathroom secrets are hard to be recorded in big history, they are the real features of the times, which is a new trick for people who have been suppressed for a long time to release their desires when the country suddenly opens. As the poet Han Bo wrote in the 199s,

it changes the speed of scouring,

it measures the density of happiness,

it testifies to the field of the body.

it's blue soup, it's time,

it's the turbidity that contains my aging.

references:

Bao Kun's video questioning about eroticism in sauna, Bao Kun's research on sauna service projects in modern mainland China, Tianya Forum

Aspects of Big Money Consumption, Oriental Lady

Bathing in this city for a stranger's hometown, selected readings of Han Bo's poems

Good night China.