The last time I was in China, I heard about this bar. In the tradition of stringing together English words that apart are perfectly fine but together make no sense, it’s called the Merry Everyday Crying Bar (not to be confused with the Christmas Hotel in Narita, which with its black, painted over windows serves as a creepy place to have an affair with your office secretary…but I digress.) The Merry Everyday Crying Bar is where you go to, well, cry. It has a few tables, a sofa, and a whole bunch of boxes of glasses that the customers are encouraged to throw against the wall to vent their emotions. And if you’re not feeling quite sucky enough to cry, or your stiff upper lip prevents you from sobbing your heart out, the bartender has plenty of pepper or onion juice to speed things along.
Or the sad songs they play over the speakers might help.
It seems the proprietor used to run a matchmaking agency. Word has it that he met so many people suffering from broken hearts (not clear if this was his fault or not) that he got the idea in his head that his clients needed a place they could cry their eyes out, naturally…or onion-juice induced.
Who goes there? White collar workers with no other way to vent their pain, migrant laborers looking for an outlet for being treated badly, and airline employees without pensions (okay, taking fictional license with that last part). The bartender never charges the laborers for crying, though, even at a loss of income. They don’t earn enough to pay for the glasses, and besides, their sobbing adds to the atmosphere.
I heard of another new fad sweeping China: beating plastic figures that represent bosses, ex-spouses, or cheating lovers. Oooh, I like this one better. You could have a box with matches and gasoline (could get dicey, though, but there are no fire codes in China), and knitting needles, and pots of boiling oil. Vent all your frustrations for the price of a few drinks. Just think how great you’ll feel at the end of the night!
Think some enterprising entrepreneur should introduce this to the USA? How about a franchise? Who knows, the next Merry Everyday Crying Bar could be opening in YOUR neighborhood.
