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Sex in the air in
China
By Lin Yueyang
WASHINGTON - Raunchy miniskirted girls in
vans at a popular tourist spot, virgin college
graduates selling themselves to government
officials, and lonely peasant miners spending
their last bit of cash on female company - the
seamier side of urban life - came into focus
during a recent on-air debate on the status of
Chinese women.
"At the moment, in China,
especially in the urban areas, more women are
unemployed or have been laid off," a male caller
from the eastern province of Anhui told a call-in
discussion run by RFA's Mandarin service. "Fewer
women are being employed in the workforce. Many of
them make a living by picking up garbage, selling
blood, or engaging in prostitution."
Zhang
Kangkang, the studio guest on RFA's Democracy
Salon, might have expected to debate ideas from
her book, Uproarious Women, about women who
face the challenges of mass layoffs and rapid
social change by tapping into their creativity.
But instead, she found herself locked in a heated
debate about China's increasingly rampant sex
industry with three male callers.
Quick
cash to no cash
"I just want to talk
about an experience [I had] five years ago... I
went to Haining to watch the tide come in," a
caller from Shanghai told Zhang. "During my stay
there, I constantly heard loud non-stop music...
There was a huge van, with loud music. Girls would
drag you into the van. They wore short skirts and
were very flirty."
Zhang replied: "Who is
watching these strip shows? Do these women simply
perform for other women? Of course not. These
types of sex services exist because there is a
demand or need for these services. I think men
need to take the blame. Sex services exist to
satisfy the needs and demands of men," she said.
Zhang said many women entered the sex
industry out of poverty and lack of education, but
increasingly also out of a desire to get rich
quick. "Some are forced to engage in prostitution
out of the need to survive. Since they don’t have
other skills, [they]...have to choose this trade
to support their families. Most of these women
come from isolated, poverty-stricken regions," she
said. "However...many women take up sex trade as
an easy way out. They may see the sex industry as
a highly profitable business. You don't have to
invest much, but you get a high return fast,"
Zhang added.
Prostitution at all
levels
She said the sex trade had
permeated every level of Chinese society, from
high-class bars serving senior government
officials to women in vans targeting migrant
workers a long way from home. "Migrant workers are
very lonely. For those who work in the mines, they
work in extremely isolated conditions. After work,
they use the little money they have earned to find
prostitutes to satisfy their physical needs,"
Zhang said. "Men from every social class are using
various levels of sex services."
A caller
from northeast China, who identified himself by
his surname, Liu, freely admitted to using the
services of bar girls. "When I have dinner or go
to bar, I myself will invite some girls for
entertainment. It's becoming very common in
China," he said, adding that government officials
are among the most reliable clients of the
industry. "Senior government officials look for
high-quality girls. Most of them are college
graduates. You have to pay between 1,000 (US$121)
and 2,000 yuan," Liu said. "They are young and
pretty. If they are between the ages of 19 and 21,
their price can be as high as 3,000 yuan. If the
girl is a virgin, the price can be as high as
5,000 yuan," he said.
Women lack career
opportunities
Zhang said part of the
problem was a lack of opportunity for women in the
workplace in China - where many well-qualified
female college graduates have difficulty finding
work. "They have a whole family to support in
poverty-stricken regions. They want to change
their living conditions and earn income fast. This
is because poverty has been a long nightmare. At
the moment, the whole of society is now calling
for equal educational opportunities for girls, or
vocational training for women. Otherwise, it will
be harder and harder to find employment," Zhang
said.
The World Health Organization
estimates that six million mainland Chinese women
engage in prostitution. The government
periodically orders raids on sex trade. Since July
2004, they have closed hundreds of phone sex
service stations and launched a nationwide
Internet pornography crackdown. Criminal gangs and
top-level officials are occasionally put on trial
while human trafficking and prostitution rings are
profiled in the state media, but widespread
corruption makes the problem a hard one to crack.
Corruption remains the
problem
"Most bars or bathhouses that
offer sex services in China are connected with the
police or members of branches of the judiciary,"
caller Liu from the northeast said. "All the bars
or bathhouses that have connections with the
public security bureaus hire prostitutes. It's
almost unimaginable to find one without
prostitutes," he said. "If there is going to be a
crackdown, these bars and bathhouses will be
notified beforehand. They will immediately
disperse the prostitutes and their clients. If you
don't combine cleaning up vice with a crackdown on
corruption, you will end up removing the symptoms
without finding a cure," he said.
Copyright (c) 2005, Radio Free Asia.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free
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