Fridae

Located in Red House, Tai Pei City, Hans Sauna is one of Taipei's oldest gay saunas.

The Owner who is now more than 61 year old has the nickname "Grandma". He was forced to suppress his gay tendency on getting married, and his wife left him after ten years. Finally he opened the sauna with his gay friends.

Many old gay men came to the temporary shelter to relax away from pressure of an enforced straight life. In the past twenty years, “Grandma” worked on the front counter, greeting every lonely homosexual man with warmest hugs and even cooking for them on New Year’s Eve.

Elderly men still trapped in marriage and young adults without a certain income, have become his regular customers. The reason why he is so friendly is that he left his family at the age of 17 and never got a chance to meet his beloved daughter. The guests who come back and forth are now his family.

Social worker Zheng Zhi Wei says the newly renamed park and the running of rapid transit traffic, has made it harder for old gay men to gather as they used to.

Young people are using Internet dating or looking for a one-night stand via apps on a mobile phone. Many old gay men have poor sight and cannot use mobile phones so a large number of them to go to the sauna for fun.

At present, Taipei has four public gay saunas. Hans takes advantage of being located near Red House Plaza with the increasing number of gay bars around which tourists from many countries visit almost like a pilgrimage.

In order to cope with the desires of gay men, lighting in saunas is often dark and nasty with yellow or red colors. Hans is an exception to this. “Grandma” treats every customer as a member of his family in order to let the place also have the warmth of home.