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38 / Lif
38 / Lifestyle / 39
estyle
The bar is often so busy that a turbs my work after I beat the villain
eeling overwhelmed by customer who wants to order the at the bar,” she says.
her work and believing “Villain Hitting Cocktail” needs to
a colleague is pestering reserve a seat a week in advance. “Hitting the villains wasn’t just
Fher, economic consultant about bringing good luck and driv-
Li Keke, went to the Lotus Lounge After ordering the CNY¥138 ing away bad luck; it was the per-
bar in Guangzhou to get rid of her (about US$19.36) drink, the waiter fect stress release. The drink made
bad energy by hitting villains. brought out a wooden box that con- it twice as effective, and the feeling
tained a glass of cocktail and a plastic lasted days. It’s my new go-to when
“Hitting the villain”, or da siu female slipper inside. things go wrong, “she adds.
yan in Cantonese, is a traditional
Southern Chinese ritual, commonly “The ritual involves a paper slip Liang Jingxi, a musicology ma-
found in Hong Kong and Guang- bearing the name of the ‘villain’ and jor, agrees that she feels happier after
dong. Usually carried out under a slipper. The waiter strikes the paper performing the ritual at the bar.
bridges, roadsides, and mountain- with the slipper, chanting a spell to
sides, people will pay CNY¥45–455 banish bad energy. Finally, the pa- “My ‘villain’ is one of my group-
(US$6.40 –$64.00) to a profession- per will be burned,” the 25-year-old mates. She did nothing in our group
al—often an elderly woman —to financial worker recalls, adding that project. And it made our group get a
hit a paper bearing the name of the customers can also opt for smacking bad grade in that class. I don’t want
‘villains’ with a slipper, chanting to the ‘villains’ on their own. to work with such people, in other
drive away bad luck. group projects,” the 19-year-old stu-
dent studying at Nangfang Univer-
But for Li and her friends, they prac- sity says.
tised the traditional folk ritual by
going to the Lotus Lounge bar in “Beating the villains helps me
Guangzhou and ordering a drink vent my bad emotions. It also gives
called “Villain Hitting Cocktail”. me courage to carry on and face dif-
ficulties ahead, “she says.
“Hitting the

villains wasn’t

just about bring-

ing good luck

and driving

“Villain Hitting Cocktail.”
(Photo courtesy of Zhao Siyuan) away bad luck;
A waitress performing the
A Cocktail to Beat your
A Cocktail to Beat your “My five friends and I were really “Hitting the Villain ritual. (Pho- it was the perfect
stressed at work. ‘Villains’ surround- to courtesy of Zhao Siyuan) stress release.
Villains
V illains ed us. We saw a ‘hitting-a-villain’
video on Xiaohungshu, a Chinese

By Flavia Zhou social media platform. We decided Li feels that bad energy is driven
By Flavia Zhou
to go there in August to let out some
of our unpleasant feelings,” she re- away after beating the villain.
calls. Gao Sheng, one of the operators
In a Guangzhou bar, a modern cocktail twist on the “villain-hitting” ritual is
In a Gu angzhou bar, a modern cockt ail twist on the “villain-hitting” ritu al is “That colleague no longer dis- of the Lotus Lounge Bar, says the
helping young people beat back bad energy.
helping y oung people bea t ba ck bad energy .