China Sex Workers

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I'm sorry, but this doc could have been much better. First Laura is a good reporter but shouldn't you have used a man with a hidden camera to walk in to all these shops instead of sitting outside in a car saying "that may be a prostitute" about some ordinary dressed woman in a shop?

Also check out the internet first. There are some big web forum sites with loads of info on where to go and how to find sex all over the world.
But if you compare the info on countries like USA; Germany and other western countries with the China section, you will notice that it is hard to find prostitutes in China nowadays.
(Actually you might also wondered why the interviewed girls barely had any customers, but still chose that instead of in a factory.)

In contrary it is extremely easy and sometimes legal to buy sex in the west. (Search for FKK in Germany for example)

I'm in China now and can say that in the small province where I live (Roughly 80 million people) it is very difficult to find even a massage parlor giving HJ.The government cracks down on street walkers every week and prostitutes are afraid. If you are a big pimp you could face death sentence! That's happening every month!

I tried out the famous taxi service one late Saturday night wanting to get some warmth in the night and he (as most taxi drivers over the world) understood my needs very well. Though he said there was barely no service at all within the central city area (1 million people) so we had to drive 45 minutes and came to the back entrance of a normal hotel. There they were so nervous about getting caught so it took me 15 minutes to be approved. (and I am not Chinese) They were terrified. The funny thing was that it was the same place I had found some months before after a long time of searching the net. Almost like it was the only brothel in a city of 5 million? (Probably not, but you see my point.)

So I can assure you that some areas of China is striking down hard on the sex industry.
And you can rest comfortably knowing that most girls are now back at the factory slaving away 12 hours a day in dark poisonous overcrowded factories putting assembling your iPods earning only a tenth salary of what they could make in the bed.

This is the life of prosts everywhere, it's sad and it sucks, but are Chinese journalists coming to the US to film our hookers for Chinese-current-tv? Actually, I'd like to see that.

China, if you're reading this, get on it.

People be TROLLIN'!!

Dear Laura, I registered on this site just to tell you that you are a complete and total idiot.

"Do you see that bitch". My Lord, did you really say that? First of all that's not the language of a journalist, that's the language of a catty, judgmental valley girl. Horrible way to start this clip off. It undermines any hope you have of conveying sympathy, or even impartiality for the the 99% of the movie that follows.

Also, smooth move on the North Korea front. That did us all a whole lot of good, really. Take your weak, substandard quasi-activism back to the gulag, where maybe someone is bored enough to give a crap about what you've got to say.

Is there any way I can still see old documentaries which are not available anymore? Thank you for your reply and happy new year!

Chinese sex industry has thousands years history and which country don't have that. Most public shower only offer massage.
I guess if u been to Amsterdam u can make a travel TV show, but in China u make a some documentary called "sex slave camp" .

if it doersnt take away anothers basic rights life liberty pursuit of whatever makes you happy or there property it should be legal

agreeablestatistic, don't you know that the Chinese have a history of starting off in the wrong place! Give them time. They'll figure out not to start at the foot, especially if they are only being paid for 15 minutes!
;-)

wait... is this why the therapeutic foot message place has bright red green blue flashing lights. it totally doesn't look like a place where people have sex for money.

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

this is another sad and depressing scene.

I've traveled much of SE Asia and have unfortunately seen much worse. All of these women appear to be in there home country and probably were somewhat aware of what type of work they were getting into when they traveled to Bejing....In one of the Souks in Dubai I saw some conditions that make this video look like a commercial for the Ritz..

I'm with you dude. From the video, there were some pretty hot chicks walking the streets that I'd be a player on. On another posting someone asked why men would pay for sex.....four words. Different feel....Different squeal!

Well I know were am moving too!

Laura Ling is especially hot! I'd pay for time with her!

i know that since from the China take the reform ,and open to the world,this matter get rather bad today,the current goverment should do more for these sex worker.they are also the mankind!

Wow, what a hard topic to cover. I was also surprised that the girls were willing to talk. Thank you for shedding some light on this subject.

Sometimes I can't understand the people we are sharing our world are really humans ? I mean, just look at those people, those men and women who are making money out of sex. Yeah I blame men who are spending their money with prostitutes and women who are making money out of it. Why ? Why do people trade their bodies as flesh. I am really sorry for those people. I hope they can find the true way to live.

Prostitution is in every country some are just more discreet about it...... The sex trade is as old as civilization it self. I've been to many countries and it's all the same. I live in England and a hooker is just a call away.

i was totally taken back by the HIV statistic...

Wow that is just crazy, it would be interesting to see a follow up documentary on the sex trade of Chinese girls that are brought here to the states illegally.

Great work Laura!

Peace

I feel so bad for these women. I can't imagine being so far from my family and my community and then on top of all that being forced to prostitute myself to survive.

did you see that bitch funny

Its sad how many people are selling themselfs :(

its like the movie "don't mess with the zohan" they cut hair and make sticky. some people and places are just crazy

I think it will be seen in very country and every city.
Not only in China.

This is so naive. China is not unlike anywhere else in the world so of course it will have prostitutes and red light districts just like everywhere else.

I hope you weren't shocked when the heavies turned up after you were filming everyone. Seriously, what did you expect?

I don't really see the point in this film. You didn't tell us anything we didn't already know and you almost got yourself "disappeared" because of your reckless behavior.

They should also talk about the Sexual Revolution in China. I've heard sex is ridiculous in China. It's really sad.

I saw this on NakedChina...

I enjoyed the pod, but as with Ms. Chang's pod on counterfeits, I seriously think you guys need to be blurring out faces and hiding the identities of your interviewees better. If the local authorities believe you guys are just normal tourists, I can only guess that the people being filmed in these pods believe that you guys are bored tourists (or at most, curious college students) as well. I don't think they have any guess that the footage will be shown on national TV.. and could possibly get back to the local authorities in China. I implore you guys to consider the possible consequences and to protect your sources better.

Outside of that though, I think you guys are doing a great job and have been watching the Naked China special every night since I first discovered the program (and the Current channel) on Tuesday.

Wow to this entire report, however double wow for the piece on marijuana, I never imagined that the business is at the extent that it is.

This reminds me of when I was in Shenzhen for a class I was taking on migrant workers. Our guide was taking us through an alley to show us how dense the apartment blocks are, and we saw about three or four store-fronts for "beauty salons" as we walked around. All of the women were lined up in front on folding chairs so that passers-by could pick and choose the best one. The scariest thing we saw was the back-alley plastic surgeon that was located across from these store-fronts. On the front there were ads for eye surgery, breast augmentation, and skin bleaching. I can't imagine the horrors that must take place behind those doors.

As an almost quarter century veteran of the broadcast and cable television news and documentary business, I'm not used to responding after something that I've worked on has aired, because in the old days, say ten years ago, you worked on a piece and had your say, and then the Los Angeles Times or whatever, had its say, and you could maybe have your wife read the review of the documentary first and decide decide whether or not you would be able to handle reading it yourself, but if you did read it, your response was entirely private, unless you made a photocopy and mailed it to your mom... The L.A. Times reviewer never knew... In this case, however, whatever you think of my work as a producer, or of Laura's work as a correspondent--I've worked with her for nearly nine years and I think she's uniquely brilliant--fair enough, but I can't resist taking advantage of this Internet thing to say that if you don't understand that China is totally the exemplar of free market capitalism, and that all the growth that you see, along with all the degradation that you see--ie, millions of sex workers--is a result of it being the capitalist's unregulated paradise is a huge misunderstanding. Sure, they are ruled by dictators who censor the press--and sometimes make it difficult for people like me to report from there. But they get along just great with Wall Street. Add that to the entire lack of a the kind of social safety net that even austerely non-socialist western societies employ, and you get what you see in this piece.

I had missed the Price of vice part, but I had seen the skit with the bud before, and I'll be checking out "Bud Business" right about now ;p

Sure its sad but wat recourse do they have. It's the easy money they're after in the Middle East. Whats interesting is that the women who leave China for the Gulf states are the ones who would never work as prostitutes in China. Either because of the face issue
some of them are middle/upper class women who've fallen on hard times for one reason or another or are the old hands in thier 40's and 50's who still look young enough to pass for 20 or 30. Most Arabs and westerners haven't a clue how old the women are they're sleeping with so the laughs on them, eh.

There is a stigma for them to be doing this however like I said earlier what choice do they have. There's no way they can make the same amount of money in China. For those who have good language skills and pretty they make as much money as some of the foreign contractors working there. Definitely more than 10 x's more than a legal 3rd country laborer would in the Gulf.

For any woman who goes to the Middle East to work the trade its their way of empowering themselves. No one else will.

This was so sad to watch. But great exposure to something that not many people no about. I didn't know that prostitution in China was so huge.

In bangladesh prostitution is legal, but it's a similar thing. Most of the women that work in hair salons are also part of the industry...

really sad..

Chinese sex workers are also exporting themselves throughout the Middle East. There are thousands of them flying out there on their own accord to make as much money as they can in the shortest period possible. For that matter you can find as many East European, Arabic and African women working in the trade throughout the Gulf states. They all consider themselves as independent business women, but its quite dangerous if and when they get caught by the police or get kidnapped by local or third country nationals.

I hear ya! We have to look at what is going on right now. right now, our country is being destroyed by the Bush Administration. The funding for the war has to stop and Bush and his cronies need to be put on trial for war crimes. I'm not looking for revenge or even justice. but, putting these crooks on trial will give us hope that those who blatanly break our laws will get punished. Also, we have to stop them before they go to Iran. We the people need to take back our country!!

Hey there, mohitz
unless the attack is ad hominem, i dont think ill take offense.
I have several points i guess,
Of course there are free markets, and perfect example of an ever adjusting, self correcting market is the one in which you and I are operating right now. We are using gmail, not microsoft express or hotmail or whatever. You might be listening to an ipod even, or something better. we are using these devices to participate in an intellectual free market in ideas, basically able to say what we want about who. As you eluded to however, there is growing risk of this market becoming regulated by our overfed ever growing leviathan of a government. A pidgeon with no feet living in a cave in the hills of west virginia knows about how grossly this administration is infringing on our and the worlds freedoms. But i think another point is it is not just this administation, its all of them since lincoln. Its a ever expanding federal government which is ultimately leading to this countries horrible end. And the war in Iraq! My goodness! How incredibly horrible! Large federal governments drop atom bombs on Japanese civilians, firebomb innocent citizens of dresden germany. No, there is no utopia. But there is far better than a horrible imperialistic and tyranical government that will come to your door with lots of fast acting guns and take money from you to fund their terrible war if you choose not to pay. I would like to continue this conversation, sorry for the disconnection and rambling. hard to keep this stuff in order in the ol' brain.

Laura,

Good job on your report on China. I lived there as a student in 1993 and returned for a visit in 2004. What I noticed was a HUGE change in those 11 years. Cities have seen extraordinary construction and growth, fortunes earned on a scale that would put to shame the rise of US industrialists, and a social upheaval that can be likened to the 60's and the industrial boom of the turn of the century rolled into one.

While there, though, I couldn’t help feel a little nostalgia for the China I experienced in the early 90’s – it seemed so much more innocent, pure and earnest in its efforts to join a global community as a peer.

Hey boonpraiser - I'm not sure what you mean. no offense, but what's your point?

I understand capitalism - both its pros and cons. like all societies, there is no utopia. Is there any "free markets"? Of course not. My point is even if we have a lot of freedoms, this administration is destroying these freedoms for their own personal gains. Do you agree with that? Or is more spoon fed rhetoric.

peace

A little harsh there pheonix. Yes, in many ways the economic system of china is more free than even the old' US of A, but in just as many ways, there is a frightening amount of government control of the economy and its people. Think ebay when you think unfettered capitalism, not china. Think starbucks, not our health care system. I think people have a fundamental misunderstanding of what capitalism is, and with good reason i suppose. When you are brought up spoon fed info by the nanny state, it makes sense that the regurgitations will reek of misinformation.
A free market is only free when it is free of the bonds of government.
I'll stress that it is capitalism that brought you this socialist show on your fancy fast tv or computer.
sorry about the nit with quip, it was late, though that is no excuse.

Why are there so many men who go to prostitutes? Maybe is should be legal. It's strange though how these women are so matter-of-fact. I think I'd rather steal or starve.

legalize marijuana then it would change things in Moracco and columbia. Hello....hemp has so many values that we could use today to help us in the fight against global warming. The governments around the world use "illegal" drugs to supply their militia. Remember Prohibition? Let's get real.

Not any more, it's not! How do you think we got the trade imbalance with China, you shit for brains?

Unfettered capitalism? China is a communist country you nit wit. Unfettered capitalism brought you the marvels of this message board and current tv. Dear god, you people with your irrational, hypocritical, and selfish hatred of the system that makes your lives so damn good.
I watched these bits tonight. I think the "reporting" of the sex trade was sub-par at best. It seemed to me more like unethical taping of people who may or may not be in the sex trade. I think that the reporter was terrible. If you didn't have the balls to ask the questions that needed to be asked, then why did that bit of film make it past editing?
Also, during the bit on weed, that kid with the "cannibus" plot he and his family were growing was hemp, like he said, not marijuana like you indicated. There is a big difference, that i would think you would be happy to report.
Also, the thing at the end with the big "bust" worth 700,000 dollars or whatever exaggerated numeral that was used, was, to be intellectually honest, complete bullshit. Those weights are of the whole plant, green. the stuff that people buy to consume is just the tiny female flower, that has been dried. Its sad to see even current tv blowing the governments steamy propaganda without doing proper research prior to print.
Sub par all around.
Good stuff as a rule about the war though!

Well put, MitchKoss. Unfettered capitalism is bad for everyone.

Some economic miracle, huh? Women there don't make enough money unless they choose this kind of work. This is a tragedy against humanity on a global scale. The Chinese government ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Everything in China happens on a massive scale--including China’s sex industry. In almost every big city and in many small towns, there is no shortage of women, and increasingly men, who are selling themselves. And since a large percentage of these sex workers are migrants who also service other migrant workers, the prospects for the spread of HIV/AIDS becomes that much more daunting and harder to contain. I was relieved when the young woman we interviewed answered emphatically that she uses a condom and is afraid of contracting STDs. It shows that awareness is increasing. Let us hope.

Since 1994, I've gone to China 15 times to report stories, seven of them with Laura. As we were researching this trip, we focused on something that China's President Hu Jintao has been saying a lot in the past couple of years: China's greatest threat is social instability caused by widening economic inequality exacerbated by governmental corruption. In other words, China's unprecedented economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese into the middle class, but it has left behind even more Chinese, and with the collapse of the social safety net, and large scale abandonment of fair dealing due to pervasive governmental corruption, a lot of Chinese are getting really pissed. The government has taken to tracking the number of "social disturbances," which, by its count, range from 70,000+ to 80,000+ each year... Or put yet another way, the sort of ruthless free market, uncontrolled capitalism that China has embraced seems closest to the capitalism of mid-19th Century Britain, as celebrated by those two well-known London-based authors, Charles Dickens and Karl Marx... What does this mean in terms of China's sex workers, whose numbers have been estimated by the UCLA and Johns Hopkins University schools of public health to estimate in the many millions? We hear a lot about human trafficking, even from the President George W. Bush. But, while heinous, trafficking doesn't seem able to account for the vast number of sex workers in China... But Charles Dickens does... As you see from the women with whom Laura speaks in this story, the main goal is amass some money, by any means, to have a cushion in a society where only money seems to count, and where the social network has disappeared to the point where many ordinary people begin to feel that you could fall over on the street and if governmental institutions took notice of your writhing body it would only because they wanted to harvest your organs for sale? By the horrendous, Dickensian logic of globalization in China, it can make a certain economic sense to be a sex worker, especially since endemic governmental corruption is creating widespread public cynicism and wiping out any sense of public morality... No wonder President Hu is so concerned with heading off the wrath of the Chinese people.

I was struck by the matter-of-fact demeanor of the women interviewed and was surprised that they were willing to talk on camera. Although attitudes are changing, anything having to do with sex is still a difficult topic to broach in Chinese society.