By Tao Jun, Le Diem
HO CHI MINH CITY, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Normally Thu Phuong is as timid as a mouse, afraid of standing in front of a group of people. But last weekend here, her persona changed as she took the microphone and belted out a love ballad before her colleagues.
In Vietnam, karaoke venues are becoming an increasingly popular choice of entertainment with establishments offering more and more luxurious spaces and themes, such as the inside of a modern spacecraft and an ancient Egyptian tomb, and increasingly powerful music systems as the Vietnamese society develops.
Karaoke began to find popularity in Vietnam in the 1980s and was characterized by poor audio equipment and small venues. A karaoke box, the most popular type of karaoke venue, is a small or medium-sized soundproofed room, nicely decorated with paintings and pictures, which can be rented by the hour, providing a private venue for group entertainment.
As karaoke has grown in popularity, a variety of different establishments have sprung up, including luxury facilities boasting up to 50 rooms which can cater from two to 200 people. "We currently have 46 karaoke rooms, many of which have an area of 40-60 square meters, and some up to 200 square meters," said Thanh, who works at X-Men Club in Hanoi.
"'Clean' karaoke venues, not 'hugging' ones, are now much more common than the illegal establishments with their dodgy managers and dubious customers who frequented the older karaoke lounges in Vietnam's capital city of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City," Thanh told Xinhua recently.
Karaoke may conjure up alcohol-tinged images of dimly-lit rooms with poor acoustics, with shady reputations as brothels and drug dens. "In some 'hugging' karaoke bars, customers can hug, touch, kiss or even have sex with female staff, but such activities are illegal, and these establishments are becoming fewer and fewer due to police raids," said Pham Van Long, manager of VIP karaoke lounge in Ho Chi Minh City.
The audio equipment, including amplifiers, microphones, sound systems and LED or LCD wide screen TVs, has dramatically improved in quality and even the worst singer can hide behind some super-enhanced reverb. "If 'hugging' karaoke establishments lure customers with long-legged girls, we, clean karaoke lounges, attract customers with our high-quality audio equipment," Le Van Thang, owner of Chieu Tim (Violet Afternoon) karaoke bar in Hanoi's Thanh Xuan District, said, noting that each wireless microphone at his bar costs 400 U.S. dollars.
Besides enhanced audio technology, the playlists, mainly in Vietnamese, English and Chinese, are continuously updated, and the videos screened along with the song lyrics have become increasingly sophisticated.
Average prices vary from 100,000-200,000 Vietnamese dong (4.5-9 U.S. dollars) an hour, exclusive of drinks, to up to 10 times more for up-market options. Luxurious karaoke venues have sophisticated decor, including rooms decked out like a palace, or entire dance floors and flashing lights, bearing more resemblance to a disco.
Many hotels provide luxury karaoke boxes, while coffee shops bring the delight of karaoke to the general public as some allow patrons to grab the microphone and entertain the crowd.
But such public proficiency does not come without practice, and many families, especially in big cities, own their own karaoke equipment to keep themselves and their friends, as well as neighbors entertained in the comfort of their own living room.
Young accountant Thuy Tien from Ho Chi Minh City is a self-confessed karaoke addict. "My work is dominated by figures and calculations, so a visit to karaoke with friends is a welcome relief. I often hanker for a visit to karaoke," she said. Some foreign visitors to Vietnam said they really like this form of entertainment due to the fact that it did not exist in their hometowns.
Vietnamese psychologist and sociologist Pham Manh Ha said that karaoke has become a good form of spiritual food for many local people during a time of increasing living standards. It is not only a good way to reduce stress, but people like it as the group camaraderie combined with some arm-twisting and emotional blackmail can force the most reluctant singer to take the microphone.
Holidays and special occasions are another opportunity for friends, colleagues, business partners and families members to spend quality time together, with room bookings in good karaoke bars being especially hard to get.
However, some karaoke establishments have developed a bad reputation, including for drug use, especially ecstasy, where young people have held sardine-packed raves which have descended into orgies. Some others, called karaoke "om" (hugging), recruit good-looking young girls to perform massages or sexual services for customers. At "hugging" karaoke bars, prostitutes are often introduced to karaoke goers who can either have sex with them in the room or elsewhere.
On some websites and social networks, especially Facebook, there are advertisements which say: "We need more karaoke waitresses. We don't need your experience or household registration documents. We offer attractive monthly salaries: 15-30 million Vietnamese dong (670-1,300 U.S. dollars). Call or contact us via Zalo (local online messaging application)."
"I know that some young girls, especially those from Ho Chi Minh City's countryside or neighboring provinces have been lured by fraudulent advertisements. They have been tricked into working for 'hugging' karaoke bars, or even worse, for brothels," said Long.
The associated scandals have led to increased government surveillance of karaoke business practices. Now, every karaoke room must have an area of at least 20 square meters, transparent glass windows, and only one waiter or waitress aged above 18 serving the guests, with none of the rooms being locked.
In April 2017, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health proposed a ban on selling alcoholic drinks, including spirit, wine and beer, in karaoke venues.
"If the ban is placed, our business will be affected, but we always strictly obey the law. More and more people are enjoying clean karaoke, not dirty karaoke," Thang, who employs no girls as waitresses and sometimes serves special guests himself, said recently, breaking into a broad grin.
