User:Lewisga24/Prostitution in China

Male Prostitution
Male prostitution and men’s role in the sex industry seem to be less of a focus in the People’s Republic of China. This may be due to the stigma surrounding gay sex and same-sex contact. On October 17, 2004, Li Ning was convicted of organizing homosexual prostitution services, resulting in a fine of 60,000 yuan and 8 years in jail. The Nanjing City native’s unprecedented conviction commanded international attention, gathering controversy for three major reasons. First, it sparked conversation about the concept of being homosocial—performing sexual acts with someone of the same sex while not identifying as homosexual. Second, the new Chinese legal process came under fire, “rule of law,” as well as their perceptions or violations of individual and sexual rights. Third, it raised questions about how to address homosexual contact in connection to the rise in positive cases of HIV/AIDS.

Ning and his partners were arrested on August 17, 2003 in connection with reports of organizing prostitution, profiting off of requests for male “companionship.” Clients of the Zhengqi Bar generated an estimated 124,700 yuan, but many of the men responding to Ning’s ads were heterosexual and unaware of the line of work they were about to enter. Ning allegedly opened many bars that offered sexual services and he was paid a commission by the patrons. Due to the shocking nature of the allegations against Ning and underlying homophobia, the courtroom hearing was closed to the public and journalists beginning on February 6, 2004. After spending a month in custody, Ning was released but convicted less than two weeks later for seven counts of organizing prostitution. The controversy surrounding his sentence is rooted in the fact that there is no specified gender in the Chinese criminal code on the topic of prostitution, therefore same-sex prostitution did not carry a different penalty.

A debate in the media followed Ning’s conviction about whether it was unlawful or not due to the local officials seeking advice from higher authorities, and if that impacted his ability to appeal. His lawyer, Chen Yi, argued that Chinese law does not criminalize the act of selling gay sexual services, therefore his client’s conviction should be nullified. He refers to the dismissal precedent set by the 1998 case in Chengdu City involving homosocial prostitution.

Those who disagree with Ning’s conviction believe that his case speaks to the faults within China’s legal system. The two biggest complaints are that the conviction points towards China’s homophobic tendencies and disregard for the rights of defendants. It appears that public sentiments surrounding homosexuality were the basis of Ning’s conviction, and these sentiments are further exacerbated by the blame put onto gay individuals for spreading HIV/AIDS. Critics use this as evidence of the government’s lack of care for individual rights, despite there being no previous law on the books discriminating against gay people and consensual same-sex relations.

Those who believe that Ning was rightfully tried and convicted counter these claims by pointing out that the law is strictly anti-prostitution, not anti-gay. Historically, the concept of a male prostitute has been a foreign one, since prostitutes have been assumed to be strictly female, but the selling of sex has always been illegal. However, the 2001 “Reply from the Ministry of Public Security on how to define and handle the exchange of same-sex sexual conduct for money or property” clearly states that, regardless of the sex of those involved, buying and selling sexual services is illegal. Supporters of the conviction contend that at the end of the day, Ning willingly committed a crime that is punishable by law which did not meet the requirements for a change in legislation.

HIV/AIDS Concerns
Another concern that arises from the male-male sexual services industry is the spread of HIV/AIDS. One survey examined questionnaires filled out by gay men in mainland China and found data to suggest that the infection rate of HIV among that population may be higher than rates in Western communities in the 1990s. Many scholars are unsettled by the fact that the stigma associated with male-male sexual relations has prevented information about safe sexual practices from being disseminated to this population.

Public Opinion
One way commentators have tried to combat the negative public opinion surrounding homosocial prostitution is through holding academic discourse and examining studies on homosexual individuals. One study found that those individuals enter heterosexual partnerships to fulfill their obligation to produce children and continue the family lineage. It appears that while China understands that sexual relations are natural and require some sort of outlet, gay prostitution remains an unattractive business. In the age of the Internet, however, it has become slightly more palatable due to the discretion and anonymity of advertising on the web.

Young men from rural areas, known as money boys, seek to profit from the homosocial sexual services market, but China’s gay community sees them as a hindrance to the community’s acceptance within China. The main issue they take with the money boys is that they are distorting the image of homosexuality from the “purity of homosexual love” to a materialistic and criminal expression of gay identity. Scholars strongly believe that the rights of LGBTQ Chinese citizens need to be expanded and protected, and this includes the legalization of gay marriage, criminalization of money boys, and criminalizing male rape and trafficking.

Elaine Jeffreys argues that Ning’s conviction and the Chinese government’s stance on homosexuality are much more nuanced than one would assume. She states that “the relationship between sex and government in contemporary China is not characterized by straightforward repression, official homophobia, and a corollary refusal to embrace the rights and accompanying legal strategies that are associated with progressive, liberal sexual politics.” Rather, she believes that the restrictions on public displays of the “gay lifestyle” and living openly as a self-identifying gay man are what plague China’s public opinion on homosexuals. Lisa Rofel reiterates this point, arguing that while gay men in China understand that there are other gay men around the world, they “do not simply imagine a global community of horizontal comradeship.” Thus, the legalization of gay sexual services and homosocial sex are not likely to be received as simply part of a commercial industry.

Maoist Era
The ascension of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to power in 1949 dramatically and fundamentally changed the course of prostitution in China. During the Mao years, the deliberate measures made by the Chinese State to eradicate prostitution, though in appearance harsh, maintained the mindset that punishment for prostitution ought not to fall, at least primarily, upon the prostitute herself. Instead, punishment for cases of prostitution during this period fell sharply upon those deemed responsible for forcing women into prostitution, such as pimps and other traffickers. The individual prostitutes, however, were viewed by the party as exploited women, victims in their circumstances, and deserving of redemption. Mao Zedong, himself, chose to classify prostitution as an "ugly social phenomenon" of the "old" China, akin to drug use and gambling. Framing the issue through a Chinese-Communist lens, prostitution was seen as a “feudal-capitalist phenomenon” where prostitutes, as individuals, were victims of an exploitative male sexual desire.

That being the case, even while the tone of the state toward prostitutes remained primarily sympathetic, coercive measures such as the arrest of women accused of prostitution, were still used. Such measures retained the ultimate goal of “rescuing” the individual out of prostitution, and their harsh nature was deemed a “necessary evil” in the effort to save them. Women accused of prostitution could be detained at facilities known colloquially as “shelters” (shourongsuo 收容所), where state propaganda detailed the re-education, and training women underwent there.

The responsibility of handling prostitutes fell to designated personnel within the Public Security Bureau, the People’s Procuratorates, and localized members of the Women’s Federation, rather than to the Chinese judicial system, specifically. Over this period, and through more direct legal means, such as the 1957 Security Administration Punishment Act of the People's Republic of China, the transaction of sex for money was codified to carry certain potential penalties for those found to be involved in the practice. A woman accused of prostitution, for example, could face penalties ranging from merely a warning, or could be fined and put in a detention center for up to 10 days. The aim of the measures during this time was to imbibe the moral standards of the new socialist state upon those women found to be prostitutes. The ultimate end to these efforts was the reintegration of these women fully back into Chinese society.

Early Post-Mao Era
The rhetoric of the state remained relatively consistent through the Mao-era in regard to their view of prostitutes as victims. While prostitution, as the act, was wholly condemned, the individual women forced into the practice remained ultimately redeemable in the eyes of the state. The view of prostitutes as victims, and the legal treatment of prostitution as a minor offense rather than a crime for the women involved, continued through the subsequent decades of the early post-Mao era as well, up to the enactment of China’s first modern criminal legal codification, with the 1979 criminal law of the People’s Republic of China. In this legal provision, the laws maintained the longstanding view of prostitutes as individual victims, and established a number of harsh punishments and penalties for those found to be victimizers, including pimps, brothel owners and others who aided in the act of human trafficking. Under the updated criminal codes, someone found to be forcing an individual into prostitution would face a minimum imprisonment sentence of three years, and could face up to a possible sentence of 10 years.

Following the economic reforms which began around 1978, and the subsequent 1979 codification of criminal law, official State-statistics began to more realistically and fully reflect the true numbers regarding the prevalence of prostitution in China. In 1981, the Public Security Bureau, who was the main state agency to deal with the problem of prostitution in China up to that point, issued a document with the urge to “sternly stop prostitution” in the nation. This document emphasized how prostitution was damaging the moral culture of China’s society (pohuai shehui daode fengshang 敗壞社會道德風尚), and how its continued existence in the nation posed a threat to their social order and stability (weihai shehui zhixu de an'ding 危害社會秩序的安定). This harkened directly back to China’s Communist ideological roots, in which sex workers are regarded as victims, while those individuals who help to facilitate sex work, in a number of ways, are seen as exploiters, helping to make society more unstable. Along with this, the 1981 document stressed the presumption that it was those who forced women into prostitution who were the ones criminally responsible for the act, rather than the individual prostitutes themselves. It was an overall affirmation that, when it came to the social-ill of prostitution, the state retained the idea that the victimizers ought to be punished, while the victims of prostitution needed to be rescued, and re-integrated into Chinese society. Concluding on this, however, the document also emphasized how women’s own ignorance was often the main cause for their involvement in prostitution, and noted that those “fallen young women,” (shizu nüqingnian 失足女青年), needed to be patiently re-educated (naixin jiaoyu 耐心教育) in order to properly return to Chinese society.

1990s Onward
While during the Mao era, the state maintained the view that prostitutes were, as individuals, worthy of both sympathy and redemption, as they were deemed victims, after the economic reforms which began in the 1980s, and as China entered the next decade, the State's view toward prostitutes fundamentally changed. By the early 1990s, prostitution had grown into a widespread industry within China that involved a great number of people, and had certain economic impacts upon many communities. With this expansion of prostitution during this period, and a re-emergence of the State's desire to suppress the act, prostitutes were no longer viewed as sympathetic victims, but rather as despicable, morally inept, and deserving of punishment. Consequently, with a change in the State's view toward prostitutes, subsequent adjustments to China's criminal laws underscored a stricter stance on prostitution as a crime.

By 1997, almost 20 years after the initial 1979 codification of criminal law in China, the criminal code surrounding prostitution, and the implications for who was culpable in the act, began to be reevaluated and reshaped by the Chinese State. In response to this growth in prostitution, the State issued the 1997 Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, which included the newly updated Section 358 Offense. In addition to a criminal offense already outlined in the 1979 criminal law, where it mentioned “inducing or sheltering women for prostitution with an intention to gain profit,” Section 358 of the 1997 criminal code added: “anyone who organizes others for or forces others into prostitution shall be punished with between five and 10 years imprisonment.” Apart from making the terms more broadly defined, such as the removal of the phrase “to gain profit,” the update also reflected the State’s acknowledgment of male prostitutes, with the substitution of the word “others” rather than “women.” Also in the 1997 revisions to China's criminal law, as evidence of the State's harsher stance toward crime in general, though also specifically with prostitution in mind, the death penalty was made available, for the first time ever, in certain exceptional cases involving serious aggravating circumstances including but not limited to organizing prostitution and forcing underage girls into prostitution. Further contemporary expansions to prostitution laws in China have also included the penalization of “any sex work organizers,” regardless of if they claim their work is no forced or even voluntary, in an effort to highlight the State's view that any third party involved in sex work was also “perpetrator."

Courtesans
Courtesans, like prostitutes, were classified as outcasts of society and “entertainers,” however, courtesans were perceived at a higher status due to their clientele being predominantly, and sometimes exclusively, men of high status. While prostitutes were sought out specifically for sexual gratification, courtesans were desired for their beauty, musical and literary talents, in addition to their capability to fulfill sexual desires.

Prostitutes were often confined to areas called “pleasure districts,” where patrons would come to solicit sexual favors in exchange for compensation. However, courtesans had the mobility to attend elaborate events, be invited into the homes of high-ranking officials and leaders, or even travel on their own accord.

In regards to payment, it was commonplace and most accepted for courtesans to receive expensive and meaningful gifts in exchange for their company and time. In fact, the favor of the courtesans had to be earned by clients through courting like gifts, engaging conversations, and relationship building. As a result, an equal exchange occurred in which a courtesan’s social value increased per the value of the gifts she received, which consequently raised the status of the men who were successfully able to pursue her. Direct payment in cash was seen as insulting and degrading to the courtesan culture, which was otherwise acceptable and expected in typical prostitution.

Courtesans were often trained and groomed by their families, as courtesanship typically required being well-educated, exposure to classical literature and poetry, and being trained in the arts (singing, playing instruments, or painting). Other times, courtesans were groomed in a brothel by a madam.

Cultural Peak
Courtesan culture can be traced back as early as the Han dynasty, in which rulers would own slave women whose role was to entertain them with music and food, and serve them in the bedroom. However, courtesanship reached its peak during the T’ang dynasty, and had maintained its prominence throughout the Song dynasty as well. With the decline of clanship and the increased utilization of civil service examinations to enlist high-ranking officials, a new wave of elitism had emerged. Because courtesans were long considered as a symbol of wealth and power due to their history of serving men with power,  these new elite men associating with courtesans only validated their high status even then some.

There were two categories of courtesan ownership; government and private.

There were three types of government ownership:


 * The first type were kung-chi, or palace courtesans, whose purpose was relatively traditional to the origins of courtesans. The types would be professionally trained to perform instruments, sing, or stage perform for the emperors. While not formally or publicly recognized for being sexual servants for diplomatic reasons, it was actually very common for palace courtesans to have sexual relations with emperors as part of their duties.
 * The second type were Ying-chi, which were courtesans who were designated to serve military officials. These courtesans were required to perform and entertain at military functions.
 * The third type were Kuan-chi, or official courtesans, who served high ranking government officials. These types of courtesans were bound to a particular military post rather than an actual official, which meant that she could be selected by any official. Kuan-chi often accompanied personnel to public events, performed privately for their personnel or at functions, and sexually served their personnel as well.

There were two types of private courtesan ownership:


 * The first type were Chia-chi, or house courtesans, were courtesans who resided with their clients, or masters, after being purchased. Chia-chi could be owned through either being directly bought or by being gifted from a friend. Like palace courtesans, they were responsible for entertaining their masters with musical or dance performances, in addition to providing sexual gratification. These types of courtesans often lived alongside concubines of the residence, but were distinguished from concubines via role obligations and lack of marital contracts. Concubines were legally bound to their masters through marriage contracts and not required to entertain their masters, though often engaged in sexual servitude. Courtesans, on the other hand, were not legally bound to their masters and could be dismissed from the household at any time with no legal protections.


 * The second type were Min-chi, who were courtesans who lived in brothels that were owned by retired courtesans who had later become madams. These madams acted as mother figures to the courtesan women, housing them, training them, and grooming them to be able to best serve clients of status and bring prestige to the brothel’s name.

Cultural Decline
After experiencing an initial decline in the early half of the Ming dynasty, courtesan culture saw a great resurgence in the later half, before collapsing altogether in the onset of the Qing dynasty. Reasons for the initial decline predominantly leaned on the early Ming regime’s efforts to discourage the presence of courtesan culture in high status spaces in order to endorse hyper-moral neo-Confucian ideals. The resurgence of courtesanship in the later half of the dynasty occurred as a result of intellectualizing criticizing the neo-Confucian ideals and supporting the expressionist culture of earlier times, which benefited courtesan culture greatly. Reasons for the decline in the Qing dynasty era are speculated to be a result of a collection of shifts, including a decreased flow of income among the aristocracy who were common patrons of courtesan culture, and the inflow of literature rejecting the romanization of courtesans, and most significantly, courtesans being banned from attending from official functions, which is where they adopted their high status.