Chinese Sex Workers Research Articles

Antecedents of Job Satisfaction for Migrant Chinese Sex Workers.

This study is an empirical response to the scholarly debate regarding sex work and sex worker empowerment. It drew on job satisfaction literature to derive a theoretical model of pathways for job satisfaction in sex work. It tested this model with data from 96 migrant sex workers from China. It used Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to examine the conjunctive pathways among workers who reported that they were satisfied with their vocation. Of the 96 women interviewed, 12 experienced job satisfaction. QCA identified three antecedent conditions as necessary for producing job satisfaction and two additional conditions, either one of which was also necessary. Job satisfaction required: (1) full awareness of the nature of their work prior to starting, (2) perceived agency, and (3) enjoyment of earnings, beyond meeting survival needs. It also required at least one of two additional antecedents: perceiving workplace autonomy or having a favorable workplace environment. This study demonstrates that, while genuine job satisfaction may be relatively rare for sex workers, there are pathways that make it possible.

Sexually transmitted infections' epidemiology and knowledge, attitude and practice survey in a set of migrants attending the sexual health clinic in Malta.

The number of international migrants is estimated at 272million people worldwide. In Europe, migrants face the disproportionate burden of infectious diseases, including hepatitis B and C, HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). High-risk behaviours, sexual abuse, poor living conditions and barriers to accessing health care may affect migrants' sexual health, leading to infections. The study evaluates STIs and HIV prevalence and knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) in non-European migrants attending the sexual health clinic in Malta. It also seeks to explore situations of human trafficking (HT), sex/gender-based violence (S/GBV) and female genital mutilations (FGM). This is a mixed-method study, based on quantitative and qualitative research within a single centre. An anonymous pretested questionnaire was administered to non-European migrants attending the genitourinary clinic (GUC) with the assistance of an ethnocultural agent. Demographics, STI diagnoses and risk behaviours were collected from the GUC database, linked to the questionnaires and analysed. A total of 143 migrants took part in the study, 73% were young male and 16.7% men who have sex with men (MSM). Forty-one different nationalities were recorded, and the top ones were Nigerian (12%), Filipino (7.4%) and Chinese (5.4%). Concerning risk behaviours, 33.8% of respondents had never used a condom and 76.5% had had sex with multiple partners in the 6months prior to the study. STI prevalence was 73.1%. Of the patients interviewed, six females were Chinese sex workers employed in massage parlours, potentially trafficked to Malta. The study outcomes support the need of improving awareness about STIs/HIV risk and testing. In migrants at particular risk for HIV, combination prevention strategies should include access to pre-exposure prophylaxis and antiretrovirals independently from migrants' legal status. Finally, STIs/HIV prevention in migrants should be linked with interventions tackling HT and other forms of S/GBV.

Sex and the transnational city: Chinese sex workers in the West African city of Douala

The present paper deals with Chinese transnational sex labour migration in the city of Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon and the country’s major city. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the prostitution milieu of Douala between 2008 and 2012, and on information collected from both scholarly and popular literature, this contribution shows how the development in this African city of what can be called Chinese sexoscapes has induced the reconfiguration of the local geography of commercialised sex work, which for so long was dominated by native sex workers. The paper also demonstrates how many disgruntled Duala sex workers dealt with the so-called Chinese sex invasion of their city by relocating their business to popular entertainment areas commonly characterised in Cameroon as rue de la joie (street of enjoyment). The research argues that this local geography of sexualities has become a site for asserting ethnic, racial or national identity, and especially a space of both inclusion of people profiled as autochthon populations and the exclusion of those branded foreigners.

Indigenous HIV Prevention Beliefs and Practices Among Low-Earning Chinese Sex Workers as Context for Introducing Female Condoms and Other Novel Prevention Options.

New interventions to reduce HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) among female sex workers are introduced into the context of women's existing prevention beliefs and practices. These indigenous practices affected implementation of our program to introduce female condoms to women in sex-work establishments in southern China. We used ethnographic field observations and in-depth interviews to document common prevention methods women reported using to protect themselves before and during intervention implementation. Individual, sex-work establishment, and other contextual factors, including sources of information and social and economic pressures to use or reject prevention options, shaped their perceptions and selection of these methods and affected adoption of female condoms as an additional tool. Efforts to improve uptake of effective prevention methods among low-income sex workers require attention to the context and spectrum of women's HIV/STI prevention practices when introducing innovations such as female condoms, microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis pills, and others, as they become available.

A Chinese Whore Making Good Business on Gold Mountain: Using Historical Research to Create Historical Fiction

For the 2011 – 2012 school year, I engaged in a year-long research project on Chinese sex workers in the “Wild West” during the Antebellum period. Typically brought to the United States under false pretences by members of Chinese tongs, Chinese sex workers were kept in homes and brothels starting from a very young age. Missionary groups attempted to "free” Chinese sex workers from these brothels, educate them and raise awareness of their plight. Historical accounts of these activities come exclusively from the perspective of the missionaries themselves, rather than the perspective of Chinese sex workers, which results in a biased account of Chinese sex workers as helpless girls. However, the research that I did indicates that there may have been examples of agency amongst Chinese sex workers. In order to share my research on agency amongst Chinese sex workers during the Antebellum period, I opted to write a historical fiction (a short story which was eventually published in the Queen’s Undergraduate Review). It is the process of translating historical research into historical fiction which I will focus on presenting. I rewrote the story and plot a number of times in order to maintain a balance of historical fact and creative license, and I struggled with the ethics of portraying historical characters and events for creative purposes. I learned what’s valuable for writing a successful historical fiction: exhaustive research, the understanding that realism is more impactful than sensationalism, and constant awareness of personal agenda or bias.

The “Fake Marriage” Test in Taiwan: Gender, Sexuality, and Border Control

According to many reports, migrant sex workers often use marriages of convenience to cross national borders in order to avoid laws criminalizing commercial sex in many destination countries. Taiwan is one of the countries developing strategies to prevent this illicit migration, particularly through the application of a fake marriage test. Based on in-depth interviews with eighteen Chinese migrant sex workers and thirteen officers of Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency (NIA), this article argues, first, that the discourse of “national security” has been widely drawn on to justify Taiwan’s rigid border control at the expense of stigmatized Chinese prostitutes who have been scapegoated. Border control is therefore not only racialized or classed but also sexualized, to the extent that all Chinese migrant women are considered potential prostitutes. Second, this article reveals how the exclusion of and hostility toward Chinese sex workers are simultaneously linked with a gender regime that seeks to exclude Chinese spouses who deviate from Taiwanese gender and social norms. The border is therefore a contested site where gender, sexuality, and nationality are interwoven.

P14.24 Multicultural survey – asian female sex worker demographics, migration and sexual health in sydney

Theme Social policy, behavioural change, psychosocial or psychosexual issues related to sexual health. Background Sydney Sexual Health Centre (SSHC) provides dedicated clinics, outreach services and bilingual health education staff to Chinese and Thai sex workers. We aimed to assess characteristics of these sex workers. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted between August 2014–March 2015 using a structured questionnaire in Thai and Chinese, offered to female sex workers attending SSHC and within parlours visited by outreach staff. Results 338 participants were recruited: 106(32%) Chinese and 232(68%) Thai. Overall median age was 31 years. More than half (56%) did not attend high school, with Chinese participants less likely to have attended high school than Thai (67% vs 50%; p = 0.003). Compared with those attending the clinic, women seen on outreach were older (42% >35 vs 20% from clinic; p = 0.00) and less likely to have done sex work previously (90% vs 71% from clinic; p = 0.00). Compared to Thai, Chinese participants were more likely to report “poor” English skills in speaking (61% vs 27% Thai), reading (70% vs 31% Thai) and writing (78% vs 39% Thai) (p While the majority of participants were not on a sex work contract (92%), those who were contracted were more likely to be Thai (10% vs 3% Chinese; p = 0.017). Significantly more Thai participants worked in massage (n = 84,36%) compared with Chinese (n = 16,15%) (p Chinese participants were more likely to check clients for signs of STIs (n = 75,70% vs Thai n = 115,50%; p Conclusion There were significant differences in the characteristics and behaviours of Thai and Chinese sex workers surveyed. Essential education within culturally appropriate health promotion programs should include douching, checking clients for STIs and using condoms for oral sex. Disclosure of interest statement No conflict of interest.

Book Review: Going down to the sea: Chinese sex workers abroad

Book Review: Going down to the sea: Chinese sex workers abroad

"Magic body" and "cursed sex": Chinese sex workers as "bitch-witches" in Cameroon

"Magic body" and "cursed sex": Chinese sex workers as "bitch-witches" in Cameroon

Subjectivity, Hygiene, and STI Prevention: A Normalization Paradox in the Cleanliness Practices of Female Sex Workers in Post-Socialist China

This article illuminates the principal mechanisms that increase the risk of STIs for female sex workers in China. It draws primarily on my 26 months of ethnographic fieldwork (2006-2009) in red-light district neighborhoods in Haikou that have become centers of internal migration in post-reform southern China. Chinese sex workers here challenge dominant representations of them as illegal, immoral, and unclean subordinates and understand themselves also as sacrificing, capable, and modern women. I show how the women's conflicted subjectivity, continuously shaped through social networks, affects their personal health decisions and, significantly, leads them to adopt clinically risky practices. I conclude by arguing that public health interventions in southern China in and around certain red-light districts should take these conflicted subjectivities into account in working to improve sex workers' health.

New Perspectives from the Oldest Profession: Abuse and the Legal Consciousness of Sex Workers in China

Although prostitution is illegal, millions of women sell sex in China. In the process, they experience significant abuse and harm at the hands of clients, madams, pimps, the police, and health officials. This article examines the legal consciousness of Chinese sex workers through their interpretations of these abusive experiences. It reveals how they think and talk about them, and how their reactions sometimes translate into concrete actions. My evidence shows that sex workers name abuse as harmful, blame others for it, and occasionally make claims. They also have strong opinions about prostitution policies, and the relationship between these regulations and their experiences of abuse. These findings place scope conditions on previous theories of marginalized people and the law, which suggest that powerless individuals perceive a more peripheral role of the law in their lives. In addition, this evidence enriches our understanding of legal consciousness in China by showing how debates around the concept apply more broadly than previously recognized.

Knowledge of HIV seropositivity is a predictor for initiation of illicit drug use: Incidence of drug use initiation among female sex workers in a high HIV-prevalence area of China

Background Drug use and sex work have had facilitative roles in the transmission of HIV/AIDS in China. Stopping drug use among sex workers may help to control the growth of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among Chinese sex workers. Methods From March 2006 to November 2009, female sex workers (FSW) in Kaiyuan City, Yunnan, China were recruited into an open cohort study. Participants were interviewed and tested for drug use and HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevalence. Follow-up surveys were conducted every six months. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model with time dependent variables was used to measure the associations between independent variables and drug initiation. Results During the course of the study, 66 (8.8%) FSWs initiated drug use yielding an overall incidence of 6.0 per 100 person years (PY) (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.67–7.58). In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model, being HIV-positive and aware of positive serostatus (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 2.6, 95% CI 1.24–5.55), age at initiation of commercial sex work <20 years (AHR 1.8, 95% CI 1.12–3.01), and working in a high-risk establishment (AHR 1.9, 95% CI 1.14–3.04) were associated with illicit drug initiation. Conclusions Being HIV-positive and aware of positive serostatus was the most salient predictor for the initiation of illicit drug use. Interventions offering sources of education, treatment, support, and counseling to HIV-positive FSWs need to be implemented in order to help promote self-efficacy and safe behaviors among this group of high-risk women.

Scarlet Alliance Brings Sex Worker Migration To Canberra

Sex work is work.... Travel is dream of sex workers. I think it not only dream of sex workers.... It is a dream, it means it is like, they can make money to support their family, but they can't money to go to holiday, because there is no money to go on holiday, they work in Thailand, but they have not enough money to get family getting better - just for survive and little bit of support. But when they see some worker goes to overseas, not just only Australia, they go to America... when they come back, this family have a good life, have a big house, have some fulung, husband, come to support them, they think, I want to go overseas. Me too. When I am in Thailand first time.... I think 'One day I think I want to go overseas.'... My cousin she come to Australia, and she always support us. We are big family, and I think, I need to help her to support my family, and I need to have good life for my family, I going to come to Australia.2 Globalisation has created an internationalised labour force who visualise themselves within an international market. Migrant sex workers are a subset of this labour force, their patterns of migration correlating with general migration trends and their motivations similar to those of other international workers, such as a favourable exchange rate in the destination country or changes to visa accessibility. Sex worker migration can also be influenced by sex industry trends and policing practices in their home countries, where the prospect of violent raids and criminal charges may encourage sex workers to seek a safer working environment elsewhere. Examples of this include Hong Kong police keeping migrant sex workers in public cages in June 2005.3 2006 raids in southern China resulted in over 100 Chinese sex workers and clients being publicly shamed on the streets of Shenzhen.4 In 2004 red light districts in South Korea were closed down, and more recently police arrested over twenty thousand sex workers and clients in massive raids of businesses where sex work took place.5 Australia has a legal or decriminalised sex industry which offers sex workers a legal workplace, in contrast to their home country. Unfortunately, the arrests, public shaming and media spectacle these sex workers were hoping to escape have become a characteristic of Australian anti-trafficking efforts in recent years. High profile brothel raids by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Australian Federal Police have increased particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, which the media are routinely invited to attend. Immigration officials have, in group settings, requested that sex workers one by one show their passports and visa status, thus exposing their real names and birth places in an environment where confidentiality and non-disclosure is the norm. The interviews are documented and photographed by the media and the sex workers' identities subsequently revealed through the press6. In a recent raid, a section of Crown Street in Surry Hills, Sydney, was cordoned off by police tape and vehicles on the footpath. Journalists were permitted to photograph the sex workers as they were led from the brothel by Immigration Officials, with only a towel around their heads to attempt to hide their identity7. Most of the sex workers involved in these raids are ultimately found to have been working lawfully with no evidence of trafficking or slavery. This approach is in stark contrast to that which occurs in suspected trafficking or exploitation cases in other industries. There has been no comprehensive evaluation of the Australian response to trafficking to date, nor have sex workers been adequately consulted about the extent of trafficking in the Australian sex industry. As is often the case in sex industry debate, sex workers' voices are the last to be heard and their expert opinions least likely to be validated. This general lack of understanding of migrant sex work issues, coupled with unprecedented media attention, has led to an abundance of myths and misunderstanding about trafficking and sexual servitude in Australia. …

Environmental health and safety of Chinese sex workers: A cross-sectional study

Aim This paper presents a Hong Kong (HK) data on the effect that sex work has on women's environmental health and safety. An outreach role that highlights safety and human rights is suggested for nurses working with female sex workers (FSWs) as clients. Background In HK it was estimated that there were at least 200,000 FSWs in 2002 and the total population involved as workers, support staff, clients and partners of the clients exceeded half a million in a city of 6.8 million people. Despite these numbers, both locally and internationally there are very limited outreach nursing services that address the FSW's occupational health needs. Method A cross-sectional survey, was undertaken over a 5 month period commencing in October 2003. A validated Chinese version of the World Health Organisation Quality of Life Measure was administered to a convenience sample of 89 female street sex workers. A focus group interview was later conducted to gain contextual information. Results The predominantly mainland Chinese FSWs had a mean age of 36.1 years. These women tended to be less educated and older than the general population of FSWs. They worked long hours with most of their income sent back home to China. Many lived in sub-optimal conditions and risked being abused while at work. The women scored significantly lower in the environmental domains when compared to the general female population. Conclusion Highlighted is the critical importance of developing a new role, both international and within the Asian region, for community nurses working in an outreach capacity. This role should be visible, affordable and accessible, for at risk populations such as FSWs. The primary focus of the new role would be to establish a close working relationship between sex workers, sex industry owner/operators, health agencies and local authorities. Risk awareness programs developed and conducted by community nurses should embrace the complexity of occupational health issues. Such programs would also have the benefit of affirming the health rights of sex workers and public health.

Surplus men, sex work, and the spread of HIV in China

While 70% of HIV positive individuals live in sub-Saharan Africa, it is widely believed that the future of the epidemic depends on the magnitude of HIV spread in India and China, the world's most populous countries. China's 1.3 billion people are in the midst of significant social transformation, which will impact future sexual disease transmission. Soon approximately 8.5 million 'surplus men', unmarried and disproportionately poor and migrant, will come of age in China's cities and rural areas. Meanwhile, many millions of Chinese sex workers appear to represent a broad range of prices, places, and related HIV risk behaviors. Using demographic and behavioral data, this paper describes the combined effect of sexual practices, sex work, and a true male surplus on HIV transmission. Alongside a rapid increase in sexually transmitted disease incidence across developed parts of urban China, surplus men could become a significant new HIV risk group. The anticipated high sexual risk among many surplus men and injecting drug use use among a subgroup of surplus men may create bridging populations from high to low risk individuals. Prevention strategies that emphasize traditional measures--condom promotion, sex education, medical training--must be reinforced by strategies which acknowledge surplus men and sex workers. Reform within female sex worker mandatory re-education centers and site specific interventions at construction sites, military areas, or unemployment centers may hold promise in curbing HIV/sexually transmitted infections. From a sociological perspective, we believe that surplus men and sex workers will have a profound effect on the future of HIV spread in China and on the success or failure of future interventions.

Cross-border 'Traffic': Stories of dangerous victims, pure whores and HIV/AIDS in the experiences of mainland female sex workers in Hong Kong

: In recent years, dramatically increasing numbers of mainland Chinese women have entered Hong Kong to engage in sexual labour. Public discourses on the threat of HIV/AIDS increasingly locate these women's bodies as sites of danger, colluding with pre-existing imaginations of mainland rural women as ignorant, desperate and deceptive in representing these women's penetration of Hong Kong's border as a primary means of infection of the Hong Kong body. Drawing on state, media and popular representations, and the narratives of female sex workers themselves, this paper examines the interwoven bio-medical, gendered, sexual and cross-border relationships that intersect in the experiences of mainland Chinese sex workers in Hong Kong. I argue that while images of disease and danger have been used to regulate these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers challenge these images by drawing on other popular stereotypes of mainland women as pure, feminine and traditional. Although images of the related but still ‘other’ figure of the mainland Chinese woman are powerful mechanisms for the regulation of these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers skilfully use inherent tensions in those images in resisting that control and in struggling to achieve their own personal and economic goals.

Decreasing STD incidence and increasing condom use among Chinese sex workers following a short term intervention: a prospective cohort study

Objective: To describe the impact of a repeating behavioural intervention focused on preventive education and provision of STD testing and treatment services to female sex workers. Methods: A prospective cohort...