A controversial trial nyotaimori (eating sushi from a naked human plate) feast was held on April 2 at Hefengcun (Yamato Wind Village), a Japanese-food restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan Province. The restaurant manager said the two college girls who worked as plates were meticulously selected and required to pass strict body examinations and hygiene requirements. She refused to say whether the two sushi girls were Japanese.

In consideration of Chinese traditions, the girls did not serve the sushi completely naked, as is usually done by their counterparts in Japan. Reportedly, both of them enthusiastically support the nyotaimori concept, and served as platters without charge.

The feast costs 1,000 yuan (US$120) per person and three days’ advance notice is required for reservations. No reservations have been booked.

Most local citizens expressed either doubt or antipathy toward the idea. Some had heard of it before, but could not believe it would be done in China. Many were indignant, claiming it is humiliating to women. But others were curious and tempted to have a try.

An official from the Kunming Culture Bureau expressed concern, saying that office held a policy of “no approval, no support and no advocacy.”

A local hygiene supervision squad conducted an inspection of the restaurant yesterday. Finding nothing out of order in the kitchen, they trained their sights on the human bodies in question, saying there was no valid measurement to declare the female body satisfactorily hygienic to serve as a food vessel.

Wang Yunkun, chief of the Food Safety Supervision Department of the Yunnan Hygiene Supervision Office, concluded that nyotaimori violates the Food Hygiene Law of the People’s Republic of China. Declaring that the food service workers had no health certificates and dressed improperly, the nyotaimori business was shut down.

(China.org.cn by Li Liangdu, April 6, 2004)