I had an interesting conversation the other day when a Chinese acquaintance in the US. We were talking about the prevalence of prostitution in China, what with a brothel of some type (barbershop, ktv, club) on every corner. We were talking specifically about the ubiquitous low level brothels, typically in barbershops, that i suspect many foreigners living in China don't even really notice.
She had an interesting perspective, which while not really surprising in any ways, was nevertheless quite interesting I thought. According to this theory, it comes down to two macro-economic trends in China that have been taking shape over the last few decades. First, the migration of peasants, in this case male construction workers, to the cities. Second, the male to female gender imbalance that has resulted from the one-child policy (the male to female ration for under 30 averages 120 to 100 in China, over 130 to 100 in some rural provinces versus a global average of 105 to 100).
As even novices to China will notice, Chinese cities are swarming with nodescript dirty men that can be seen working on construction sites, kind of just milling around on the street, and squating at railroad stations (back when I was first in China in the 90's they used to wear business suits that would get covered with dust/soot). Because their Hu Kou (kind of like an internal passport) is rural, they are basically without rights in the cities. If employers choose not to pay them for their work, as is very common, they have no recourse. If the government decides to clear them out, as happened in Beijing prior to the Olympics, they just go ahead and do so.
In any event, these rural men are basically looked at as "untouchables" by the urban population. It would be extremely rare for one of these men to find a girlfriend in the city. In modern Chinese society, even the poorest urban dwellers would have much higher status then these migrants. The females from the countryside that migrate to the cities tend to either end up in factories doing piece work where males are not needed/welcome, or if young and at least ok looking, will work in restaurants, ktvs, massage parlors, etc. These girls would also be considered a higher "caste" then the male construction workers so they also will not consort with them.
So, this explains the prevelance of the brothels in the cities. These men have absolutely no other option for female companionship. In many cases, even if they return home once per year for the New Year holiday, their village also has few or no available women due to the gender imbalance. The government looks the other way because they fear that by adding sexual frustration to the huge list of grievances these men have, that may have some seriously violent consequences.
Another thing I noticed once when traveling through Hu Nan was that we went through a very small village kind of in the middle of nowhere (we had hired a car). This place couldn't have had more than a couple hundred people at the most. But as we walked down the main street, we passed 3 barbershops with their red lights on and severl skimpily clad young women sitting inside. I was kind of surprised that there were enough horny men in this village to support them all. But again, according to my friend it comes down to demographics. Apparently, due to the gender imbalance, and the migration of up to 100% of the non-elderly women to the cities for factory work, there are thousands and thousands of villages throughout China with literally no women at all. There is a word in Chinese that has been invented for these villages (I can't recall it now). So again, the presence of these brothels in rural villages is not only overlooked but may actually be sponsored in some cases by local governments as a means of social stability.
I don't know, I thought it was interesting. One more layor of the onion peeled away.
