In a Guangzhou bar, a modern cocktail twist on the “villain-hitting” ritual is helping young people beat back bad energy.
By Flavia Zhou
Feeling overwhelmed by her work and believing a colleague is pestering her, economic consultant Li Keke, went to the Lotus Lounge bar in Guangzhou to get rid of her bad energy by hitting villains.
“Hitting the villain”, or da siu yan in Cantonese, is a traditional Southern Chinese ritual, commonly found in Hong Kong and Guangdong. Usually carried out under bridges, roadsides, and mountainsides, people will pay CNY¥45-455 (US$6.40-$64.00) to a professional, often an elderly woman, to hit a paper bearing the name of the ‘villains’ with a slipper, chanting to drive away bad luck.
But for Li and her friends, they practised the traditional folk ritual by going to the Lotus Lounge bar in Guangzhou and ordering a drink called “Villain Hitting Cocktail.”
“My five friends and were really stressed at work. ‘Villains’ surrounded us. We saw a ‘hitting-a-villain’ video on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform. We decided to go there in August to let out some of our unpleasant feelings,” she recalls.
The bar is often so busy that a customer who wants to order a “Villain Hitting Cocktail” needs to reserve a seat a week in advance.
After ordering the CNY¥138 (about US$19.36) drink, the waiter brought out a wooden box that contained a glass of cocktail and a plastic female slipper inside.
“The ritual involves a paper slip bearing the name of the ‘villain” and a slipper. The waiter strikers the paper with the slipper, chanting a spell to banish bad energy. Finally, the paper will be burned,” the 25-year-old financial worker recalls, adding that customers can also opt for smacking the ‘villains’ on their own.
Li feels that bad energy is driven away after beating the villain.
“The colleague no longer disturbs my work after I beat the villain at the bar,” she says.
“Hitting the villain wasn’t just about bringing good luck and driving away bad luck; it was the perfect stress release. The drink made it twice as affective, and the feeling lasted days. It’s my new go-to when things go wrong,” she adds.
Liang Jingxi, a musicology major, agrees that she feels happier after performing the ritual at the bar.
“My ‘villain’ is one of my group mates. She did nothing in our group project. And it made our group get a bad grade in that class. I don’t want to work with such people in other group projects,” the 19-year-old student studying at Nangfang University says.
Gao Sheng, one of the operators of the Lotus Lounge Bar, says that the idea of having the “Villain Hitting Cocktail” is to promote traditional folk ritual.
“We developed this cocktail in 2024 by ourselves. I’m from Guangdong. My colleague and I are passionate about promoting traditional Chinese culture. This was our original intention when making this cocktail. We wanted to preserve this tradition by combining the drink and the custom. The drink is made with saffron and ginger, ingredients traditionally used to replenish one’s energy after the ritual,” he says.
“This cocktail is popular among young people. Usually their ‘villains’ are a toxic ex, a difficult boss, or an annoying colleague,” he adds.
Gao adds that videos about the cocktail have received over 1 million likes after being posted on TikTok and Xiaohongshu by customers in April 2025.
“I believe hitting the villain is not just about getting rid of the villains around you, but also about getting rid of the villains in your heart that make you weak,” he says.
His business partner, Li Tong, says it is important to carry forward traditional customs.
“We want to pass down folk rituals in an interesting way by combining them with cocktails. When developing the drinks menu, I want to put traditional customs into our drinks list. Besides the ‘Villain Hitting Cocktail,’ there are also many other cocktails related to festivals or folk customs, such as the ‘Dragon Boat Race’ cocktail with zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) flavour, and the ‘Wedding Cake’ cocktail with fresh red bean paste that has been slowly cooked,” she says.
Edited by Myo Min Htin
Sub-edited by Yilie Lo
