Female bartenders in China share the reality of navigating their male-dominated profession
Zhou Xiaoyan never liked studying from books, until she took a cocktail class in college. “The teacher would talk about the origin of the wine or spirit, its development and craft,” she tells TWOC over the phone. It was merely a history class, Zhou says, but she was hooked.
Now 28 years old, Zhou is a professional bartender in Chengdu, Sichuan province, with about five years of experience. She has attended and won cocktail competitions—including the 2022 national New Generation of Chinese Baijiu Super Bartending Competition, where she was runner-up. But even though many women in China have been drawn to the profession for various reasons—for Zhou, it was the cool moves of a female bartender she saw on Douyin (China’s version of TikTok), and the potential of a creative outlet—bartending can still look like a man’s world.
Data on gender in bartending in China is sparse, but last year, Dahe.com, an official news outlet of Henan province, estimated the ratio of male and female bartenders in China to be 7 to 3. Though women who tend bar, like Zhou, have striven to bring creativity to the field, with some rising to managerial positions, they often have to endure discrimination, harassment, and misunderstanding.
Xiaoqian Zhu is a Henan writer nurtured by the wilderness and inspired by cities. Her dream is to write a book that gives one the permission to be.
