As mentioned in previous posts, sex work was largely eradicated in socialist China. After Mao's regime ended and President Deng Xiaoping began his neoliberal reform in 1978, sex work reappeared almost overnight (Farrer 2002; Osburg 2013; Zheng 2007, 2010). The reasons are complicated and multifaceted and it will be beyond the scope of this blog post to offer a detailed account (as if there had already been a consensus) of the reasons behind it. However, a brief summary of some of the possible reasons may be helpful.
First of all, the neoliberal reform laid off many Chinese people, many of them were women who did not have enough skills to be re-hired. Because the state was no longer interested in securing life-long employment for everyone, and the vacancies in the job market far exceeded unemployed people, many people then turned to the shady economic sectors for livelihood. For many women, the sex industry was where they ended up. Second, the local governments actually didn't (still don't) have incentives to ban sex work, because the large amount of revenues brought by the industry in various ways. Third, and I personally think it's the most important reason why sex work can never be, theoretically or practically, eradicated, is because that sexual transaction has been increasingly normalized. Even though one does not need to adopt radical scholars' idea that all sex can be considered work (see, e.g. Ghose In Press), a relatively big number of women who don't usually work as sex workers occasionally accept offers of money or other benefits in exchange for sex (Farrer 2002).
Indeed, sex workers provide an interesting and important perspective to cut into China's gender and sexualities. A genealogy of the definition of meaning, a study on the terminologies on women who sell sex, and an exploration of their social status, etc. can all allow us to engage in meaningful conversations to understand more about Chinese gender and sexualities (for works on Chinese prostitution, see, for example, Hershatter 2002). In China (and worldwide), "sex workers" is never a category that captures all the nuances within this single profession. There are various kinds of sex workers, all of whose definitions differ across time and locations. In China, specifically, there are courtesans (who, in ancient China, represented artistic, knowledgeable, and higher-class, objects), and there are lower-classed "whores." In contemporary China, there are street walkers, karaoke bar hostesses, and closer to the higher end of the spectrum, higher escorts.
One can only too easily assume that these people are all alike, that they all have the same reasons/motives to enter the industry, that they are responsible for STI/HIV, and regardless of their positions within the sex work spectrum, their lived experiences are all the same. I argue, instead, it is high time we brought back the nuances to the discussion. For, it is never too much to assume that male sex workers have different life trajectories than their female counterparts. LGBT sex workers experience traumatization differently than heterosexual ones. Not to mention that "sex worker" is never the one and only identity these people have. How would the bringing together of different identities influence their life choices and subjectivities? These are all necessary should one want to explore the life of, and try to understand, se workers. It requires extensive and multiple ethnographic research, and discussion and debates about norms concerning gender and sexualities in China.
Sex work is a topic that deeply fascinates me. I have explored elsewhere the topic about women sex workers who are also college students in China (unfortunately, it seems it's not yet time for an ethnographic research with this specific group of sex workers, considering its sensitiveness and practicality of conducting a research like this.). I will keep working on the topic of sex worker, even though I will switch my attention to other sex workers. The first topic I will explore is about "Green Tea Bitch" (绿茶婊 ,lvcha biao).
REFERENCES
Farrer, J. (2002). Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Ghose, T. (In press). Teaching about a Sex Community in India: Towards a Postcolonial Pedagogy. Joournal of Social Work Education.
Hershatter, G. (2002). Modernizing sex, sexing modernity: Prostitution in early-twentieth-century Shanghai. In S. Brownell & J. N. Wasserstrom (Eds.), Chinese femiminities/Chinese masculinities: a reader (pp. 199–225). Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.
First of all, the neoliberal reform laid off many Chinese people, many of them were women who did not have enough skills to be re-hired. Because the state was no longer interested in securing life-long employment for everyone, and the vacancies in the job market far exceeded unemployed people, many people then turned to the shady economic sectors for livelihood. For many women, the sex industry was where they ended up. Second, the local governments actually didn't (still don't) have incentives to ban sex work, because the large amount of revenues brought by the industry in various ways. Third, and I personally think it's the most important reason why sex work can never be, theoretically or practically, eradicated, is because that sexual transaction has been increasingly normalized. Even though one does not need to adopt radical scholars' idea that all sex can be considered work (see, e.g. Ghose In Press), a relatively big number of women who don't usually work as sex workers occasionally accept offers of money or other benefits in exchange for sex (Farrer 2002).
Indeed, sex workers provide an interesting and important perspective to cut into China's gender and sexualities. A genealogy of the definition of meaning, a study on the terminologies on women who sell sex, and an exploration of their social status, etc. can all allow us to engage in meaningful conversations to understand more about Chinese gender and sexualities (for works on Chinese prostitution, see, for example, Hershatter 2002). In China (and worldwide), "sex workers" is never a category that captures all the nuances within this single profession. There are various kinds of sex workers, all of whose definitions differ across time and locations. In China, specifically, there are courtesans (who, in ancient China, represented artistic, knowledgeable, and higher-class, objects), and there are lower-classed "whores." In contemporary China, there are street walkers, karaoke bar hostesses, and closer to the higher end of the spectrum, higher escorts.
One can only too easily assume that these people are all alike, that they all have the same reasons/motives to enter the industry, that they are responsible for STI/HIV, and regardless of their positions within the sex work spectrum, their lived experiences are all the same. I argue, instead, it is high time we brought back the nuances to the discussion. For, it is never too much to assume that male sex workers have different life trajectories than their female counterparts. LGBT sex workers experience traumatization differently than heterosexual ones. Not to mention that "sex worker" is never the one and only identity these people have. How would the bringing together of different identities influence their life choices and subjectivities? These are all necessary should one want to explore the life of, and try to understand, se workers. It requires extensive and multiple ethnographic research, and discussion and debates about norms concerning gender and sexualities in China.
Sex work is a topic that deeply fascinates me. I have explored elsewhere the topic about women sex workers who are also college students in China (unfortunately, it seems it's not yet time for an ethnographic research with this specific group of sex workers, considering its sensitiveness and practicality of conducting a research like this.). I will keep working on the topic of sex worker, even though I will switch my attention to other sex workers. The first topic I will explore is about "Green Tea Bitch" (绿茶婊 ,lvcha biao).
REFERENCES
Farrer, J. (2002). Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Ghose, T. (In press). Teaching about a Sex Community in India: Towards a Postcolonial Pedagogy. Joournal of Social Work Education.
Hershatter, G. (2002). Modernizing sex, sexing modernity: Prostitution in early-twentieth-century Shanghai. In S. Brownell & J. N. Wasserstrom (Eds.), Chinese femiminities/Chinese masculinities: a reader (pp. 199–225). Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.