Comments on: Understanding a Chinese city: map out its sex trade

By: Xilin

Xilin — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 16:14:12 +0000

Gil,
Democratic dictatorship.I always think that’s such a strange term.

King Tubby,
I was reading up on this recently and I came across that story in Zhuahai aswell. It was in 2003. 400 Japanese men, 500 Chinese prostitutes.

But why is prostitution such a big industry in China? Or, rather, why is demand for prostitution so great?

By: King Tubby

King Tubby — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 11:14:46 +0000

China’s sex industry in its various guises probably accounts for 5% of GDP.

Recall, some 4/5 years ago when the Shenzhen police undertook massive raids and then publicly paraded and shamed the working girls in Futian (?). Soon after there was a noticeable drop in bank deposits, after the girls withdrew their savings and retreated to other towns until things cooled off. They also got a degree of public support ie. police seen as infringing on their right to earn a living and the shaming was viewed as a vicious slop-over from the past.

Contrast that to the public response to the Zhuhai incident involving the Japanese construction company and their hotel sex weekend on China’s National Day in either 2000 or 2001. A number of Chinese hotel staff got massive jail sentences and some Japanese businesses just about got torched. It was a wonder the PLA didn’t declare war.

Whatever, most parents are pleased to accept the remittances and tell the neighbors that their daughter runs a successful dress shop or similar.

BTW. The first Gay Pride parade was held in Hanoi last week. Small but colourful and a great step forward in a society every bit as corrupt and authoritarian as the PRC.

Maybe it is just me, but I can’t cope with the obsession to produce male heirs in order to continue the family lineage. Places awful pressures on gay men and women.

And my advice to women intending to marry the eldest son in Korea. Don’t, unless you enjoy being treated as a door mat by your future mother-in-law. (Think I got the terminology right here.)

By: goju

goju — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 02:54:19 +0000

Financial demands do not entirely explain prostitution. If that was the case, how would it account for someone with a college degree, a high paying job and in some cases even a family – becoming a prostitute? The Mayflower Madam was from a wealthy family, as were the women who worked for her.

Granted, the above is not the case for most of the sex trade. Trying to explain prostitution with a one size fits all answer doesn’t work. The lower end of the business is filled with violence and drugs. These workers don’t get to keep the money they earn so earning money is not their primary motivation.

By: Gil

Gil — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 19:36:24 +0000

@Xilin – I can understand why people prefer not to use the term, I myself usually don’t use it (“Mainland China” is good enough to distinguish it from HK/Macau/TW/insert place claimed by the PRC here), but I can’t understand objecting to people who do use the phrase. Yes I know – they’re using the term to point out that China is a dictatorship – but then that is exactly what it is. Just as important, that is how the government describes the country. Here’s the first article of the PRC constitution:

“Article 1. The People’s Republic of China is a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. The socialist system is the basic system of the People’s Republic of China. Sabotage of the socialist system by any organization or individual is prohibited.”

Countries like the US which have written, codified, unitary constitutions like to quote the first article or amendment of their constitution as proof of what their country is about. The drafters of the current PRC constitution, working in 1982,decided it was important to point out to everyone that their country is communist, and that no-one was to try to change that.

By: Xilin

Xilin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 15:48:04 +0000

@Gil – I’ll use that wording in the future, thanks.

I met a Chinese professor the other day and he complained about the Western press always using the word ‘communist’ in relation to China. There’s just no pleasing some people.

By: Gil

Gil — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:45:25 +0000

@Xilin – When did Mainland China stop being communist? Yes, I know what you mean, but it’s better to ask whether prostitution existed before 1979.

By: justrecently

justrecently — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 06:17:22 +0000

I agree with MAC. Foreign visitors were – reportedly – also told in the 1970s that there was “no crime” in China. No Chinese emperor who trusted his officials’ statistics would last in his own country.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 23:56:33 +0000

The eradication of prostitution under Mao really happened — it’s one of Mao’s success stories. One by one the brothels were shut down in the early 1950s, first in Beijing and later in Shanghai. They couldn’t shut them all down too fast because there were so many prostitutes, and there was no way they could be integrated into the workforce all at once. But they were eventually integrated. Many of these women were later brutalized during the Cultural Revolution for their past work, which Mao blamed on “spiritual pollution.” All visible signs of prostitution under Mao were eradicated. Only two kinds of prostitution existed: prostitution that was completely underground and invisible — and it was not a thriving enterprise, Mao’s China was so totalitarian; and prostitution for high-level party members and visiting dignitaries. Those at the top needed their entertainment.

By: MAC

MAC — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 23:14:02 +0000

Well, I had a Chinese teacher who insisted that prostitution was eradicated under Mao. I for one find that HIGHLY unlikely.

By: Xilin

Xilin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 07:12:42 +0000

Forgive me if this sounds like a dumb question, but was there prostitution under communism?