Michael P wrote: >I read this to imply that the South Carolina candidate for the >Senate is in trouble.
America taketh and America giveth. Sock threat versus tank top threat. Ken. --- cut here -- . 01:00 AM Chicken, cleavage and changing mores MARTIN REGG COHN ASIA BUREAU TORONTO STAR Oct. 23, 2004 SHANGHAI — The beer is flowing, John Fogerty is singing on the stereo and six scantily clad young Chinese women are doing the hokey-pokey. Hooters Shanghai is open for business. The American restaurant chain opened its first outlet in China last night, bringing its combination of cold beer, chicken wings and skimpily dressed waitresses to one of the world's fastest-growing economies. The outlet, in an upscale mall in the foreigner-friendly Hongqiao district, adds to the more than 375 stores operated by the chain famed for its busty waitresses clad in clingy low-cut tank tops and high-cut shorts. "The people of Shanghai deserve something fun with good service and we're happy to bring it to them," manager Cameron Jiang said as smiling waitresses whisked plates of chicken wings and glasses of cold lager to guests at a launch party. Hooters' arrival marks another milestone in Shanghai's rise as China's commercial hub, but underscores how growth is challenging traditional conservative views on sexuality. For decades after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, traditional male-dominated culture and communist prudishness combined to make showing skin or publicly displaying affection verboten. These days, however, Shanghai boasts hundreds of hostess bars, massage parlours, sex shops and telephone chat lines. Couples kiss and hug openly, while public opinion surveys show broad acceptance of premarital sex among young people. "You see young women on the street wearing skimpy outfits on hot days. I don't think anything could be wrong (with Hooters), as long as customers and waitresses have the right intentions," said an office worker with an American pharmaceutical company, who gave only her surname, Fang. Since opening its first store in Clearwater, Fla., in 1983, the chain has expanded across the United States and into more than a dozen foreign countries from Taiwan to Venezuela. A number of American food chains are competing for Chinese diners; Kentucky Fried Chicken has 1,000 stores in China; McDonald's has 567. with files from associated press
