Restaurant fined for offering body sushi
(Agencies/Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-04-20 09:35

A restaurant in southwestern China had been fined for offering to serve sushi on the bodies of near-naked women, a newspaper reported Monday, after advertisements for the meal sparked a rush of both indignation and curiosity.

The "feast-on-a-beauty's-body" service was launched several days ago by a sushi restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan Province.[sina.com.cn]

Health and industry authorities in the city of Kunming, Yunnan, fined the Yamato Wind Village restaurant, or the Chinese name of Hefengcun Huaishi restaurant, 2,000 yuan (US$240), the Beijing Daily Messenger newspaper reported.

Authorities said the restaurant’s action violated the law protecting women’s rights, the law on advertising as well as the law on food sanitation. They also said the dinner was against Chinese moral standards and was humiliating for women.

The health authorities banned the dinner before it was held early this month, saying that the women lacked required health certificates for restaurant employees and were improperly dressed.

Some Kunming residents "were indignant, claiming it is humiliating to women," the China Daily reported at the time. "But others were curious and tempted to have a try."

Red light On Body Sushi

Health authorities in Southwest China's Yunnan Province has called an end to the service of the Japanese-style "feast on a beauty's body" four days after its debut.

The "feast on a beauty's body" service in Japan. [File photo]

A sushi restaurant with the name of Hefengcun Huaishi located in provincial capital Kunming last Friday launched a service in which sushi and other food are displayed on nearly naked bodies of two women, both models with college diplomas.

Health authorities from both the province and the provincial capital launched a sanitation investigation Monday and ruled that the two women, who acted as dishes, did not have health certificates which are a must for workers in the restaurant industry in the country.

The service triggered a heated debate once it was launched last week.

The "feast on a beauty's body" service in Japan. [File photo]

Some media reports said the service meant an unbearable insult and shame to women and posed a serious assault to the traditional value of the Chinese nation.

The management of the restaurant contended that they launched such a service to introduce the special Japanese food culture to Chinese people.

However, Qian Ning, a sociologist with Yunnan University, said that as once a fashion in the Japanese royal court, "the feast on a beauty's body" reflected women's humble social status in a certain period of history.

"The reappearance of such a culture is totally a historical retrogress," Qian said.

Qian also said that any introduction of exotic culture should by no means surpass the tolerance bottom line of the native culture.

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