Reciprocating Desires: The Pursuit of Desirable East Asian Femininity in China’s Commercial Sex Industry

ABSTRACT

This article examines how socioeconomic conditions impact heteronormative sexual desires between high-tier sex workers and their non-Chinese clients in urban South China. Drawing from Hoang’s interpretation of ‘dealing in desires’, Rofel’s ‘Desiring China’, and cultural capital, the article considers how desire circulates in high-end bars and its impact on how workers and clients negotiate their relationships. I move beyond Hoang’s and Rofel’s framework to include cultural capital that help sex workers perform an East Asia femininity and develop their image as cosmopolitan tempting girls to practice ‘reciprocating desires’ with their non-Chinese clients. The article unfolds as a theoretical exercise in unearthing and understanding the underpinnings of how socioeconomic context impacts our understanding of what qualifies as desirable East Asian femininity. Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted in a high-end bar in South China from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2017, this article first examines desire and the meanings attached to sex workers’ body capital, and cultural capital that exemplify desirable East Asian femininity. Second, cultural capital explains how desire operates within high-tier heteronormative sex work spaces to construct social identity, which can help sex workers achieve professional success and become a source of personal satisfaction.

Notes

¹ Dom Perignon is vintage champagne originating in France. It is very popular in China’s high-end bars. This is status and identity construction for the overseas Chinese and local wealthy rich in China.

Additional information

Funding

This article was funded by General Research Fund (RGC Ref No. 11611215, CityU Ref No. 9042300), University Grants Committee, Hong Kong. I am indebted to the high-end sex workers and clients who shared their experiences and time with me. Without them, this article would not have been possible. In addition, I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers and editor from Deviant Behavior for their insightful comments on previous drafts.

Notes on contributors

Eileen Yuk-Ha Tsang

Eileen Yuk-ha Tsang is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong. She completed her doctorate in sociology from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Her research interests include the sociology of the middle class, the sociology of gender and sexualities, globalization and cultural sociology. She is the author of The New Middle Class in China: Consumption, Politics and the Market Economy (Palgrave 2014) and Understanding Chinese Society: Changes and Transformations (World Scientific Press 2015). She has also published in The China Quarterly, Higher Education, Deviant Behavior, Psychology of Violence, The Prison Journal and Sociological Research Online. Email: [email protected]/[email protected]