Booking (clubbing)

Korean name
Hangul	부킹
Revised Romanization	Buking
McCune–Reischauer	Buk'ing

Booking (Korean: 부킹) is a common practice in South Korean night clubs of forced socialization. Booking is a practice in which waiters bring female patrons, sometimes forcibly, to a table to sit with men. Both parties are free to leave at any time, or depending on mutual interest, they can continue to sit together and drink and talk. Although outwardly similar, to outsiders, these are not hostess clubs, and although the men are expected to tip and pay their waiters to bring women to their table, the women are not employees nor are they prostitutes but fellow clubbers.

Confucianism in Korea has had a profound effect on social interactions, in traditional Confucianism one was expected to give proper deference and respect to one another based on one's position within a five level hierarchy, only the bottom of which was of one between equals, one's position in this hierarchy was based on a mix of one's ancestry, family position, official offices if any and social status. With regards to marriage one was expected to find a partner of the same social status as one's own, an appropriate partner being one whose status was neither above nor beneath one's own, to facilitate this there was the traditional matchmaker.

As South Korea urbanised and industrialised, the hierarchical stratification of society remained, in addition to ancestry one's social position in Korean society now includes the level of one's education, alma mater, profession, which company one works for and one's position and seniority (whether one is a seonbae or hubae) within the company. Increasingly less so, social interactions would become paralysed unless people were properly introduced and so could determine one's social position with regards one another, fear of behaving inappropriately to one's own position leading to an outright refusal to interact with strangers. With regards to marriage meeting people outside one's established social circle is difficult, and within this circle, for example with colleagues, one is constrained by what would be considered appropriate and inappropriate relationships depending on one's seniority and position in the hierarchy. The old professional matchmakers still exist, and friends and family will act as informal matchmakers, however even when both parties are interested in meeting a member of the opposite sex, such as when clubbing, a Korean would find it difficult to ask a stranger for a dance, a date, or more, and those who do would be seen negatively by the more conservative.

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