A special guest in man’s room – take an inside look at China’s sex industry

What is in the image, a guy or a girl? Who knows. But one thing is for sure – the background is in a man’s room, so let’s name the guy “she”.

Could she be a guy who dressed like a woman? Maybe, her strong muscle on the arm somehow suggests that. Could she be a real woman who likes guy’s position? Maybe, she does have couple skinny legs. Could she be bisexual? Maybe. It looks like she is pulling something out of her skirt.

She was indeed a woman, a real woman; she did also pull something out from her skirt – more precisely, from her underwear. But the thing she pulled out was not what you would think at that particular location – she even doesn’t have it. So, what’s that thing? Answer: money.

This happened in the man’s room of an entertainment bar in China, where resided a large crowd of escorts, or in a better term, accompanying girls. She was one of them. The bar had a strict rule prohibiting girls from taking tips directly from customers – boss needed to make some profits. So, whenever customers gave under-stable tips, they would hide money inside underwear.

She was counting money just got from a customer. She didn’t want her colleagues know so couldn’t use lady’s room; she must count the money because she had to decide what services to provide.

Just like what’s in this image, entertainment industry in China has been developed rapidly into a big mess. Officially, anything that touches “porn” even a little bit is unambiguously illegal. However, when the night comes, the law seems to lose its power completely. When you walk on major streets of any cities, bright signs of a variety of entertainment places will jump into your vision one after another. Some are pretty healthy, like tea bar, coffee houses and foot massage spas. Some are right along border lines, like pub bars and dancing halls. But many are regarded as “gentleman’s dream world”. Karaoke bars (excluding few prohibiting escorts), massage parlors, romantic bars….. finding a place for a ultimate “relaxation” is as easy as finding a restaurant.

Sex industry in China is booming. Authorities have repeatedly raided porn houses in attempts to clean up streets, but results were all short-lived. In the capital city of a northern province, one overnight raid virtually paralyzed city’s banking network the next day when a huge crowd of girls swarmed into every bank in town to withdraw their savings before departing for their hometowns.

Whether to legalize sex industry was debated among officials in China for a while. In order to prevent AIDS from spreading, many municipals have issued city ordinances, requiring all entertainment places to install free condom vending machines, with government subsidization in some areas. This indirectly places the legitimacy of sex business into a grey area.

More interestingly, one of the largest cities in China passed a local legislation, penalizing those who provide sex services without demanding their customers to wear condoms. The penalty was set at 5000 yuan, or roughly 732USD, for each violation.

China’s entertainment industry just like this special guest in the man’s room. Where it is heading to remains unclear at this moment. However, sex-related business can must go either way between legal and illegal. There shouldn’t be a middle ground for the issue. If Chinese government keeps such an ambiguous attitude, sex business could become legalized soon. That would write a unfortunate chapter in the history book of human being.