An Inquiry into Commercial Sex in the Community of Men Who Have Sex with Men in China (中国男男性交易状态调查) Tong Ge (童戈), Beijing Gender Health Education Institute (北京纪安德咨询中心) March, 2007

Sociologists and public health workers have long been aware of the commercial sex trade serving men who have sex with men, but there has previously been no serious and comprehensive research on “money boys” (金钱男孩) as male sex workers are known in China: who they are, what they do and how they become involved in the trade.

The gap has now been filled by this 500-page book, researched and published by the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute with funding support from the Ford Foundation. The book discusses the historical, social, economic and cultural roots of the profession and its impact in China, exploring a community that experiences “discrimination by those discriminated against”—for, as the book makes clear, even in the gay community “money boys” are looked down upon and often suffer ill treatment and abuse.

This is the second weighty volume by Tong Ge (童戈), who in 2005 wrote a milestone book on China’s gay scene entitled Men Who Have Sex with Men in China: Surveying Sex and Self-identity.

Unlike researchers who treat interviewees as “subjects”, Tong Ge takes a more personal approach, talking to sex workers as friends and equals and allowing them to tell their own stories. In each section, following his own observation and analysis, the author quotes one or more first-person stories that give his research a vivid and convincing touch. In this way, Tong carefully guides the readers through a hidden world filled with love, pain, hatred, joy and despair.

Through excerpts from 500 interviews, Tong investigates the patterns of male commercial sex, speaking to pimps, sex workers and their customers and describing different relationships between the three. He reveals that sex workers come from astonishingly diverse backgrounds: some have graduated from higher education, while others are still minors (the youngest interviewed is 14).

What makes the book even more remarkable is its in-depth treatment of the moral and legal contexts of male commercial sex and discussion of possible support mechanisms for male sex workers.

For public health workers, the book can serve as background material to understand this community’s role in the transmission and prevention of AIDS, helping them design more effective prevention programmes. For the curious general reader it is a good starting point for understanding commercial sex and the gay community, although some paragraphs reveal explicit details that challenge conventional morality. A shorter and abridged version would be useful for younger and less sophisticated Chinese readers.

Reviewed by Chang Tianle, April 16, 2007

China Development Brief is preparing an in-depth, bilingual Special Report on AIDS and Civil Society in China that will survey the AIDS prevention and care activities of NGOs, researchers, media and social activists. The short article below will appear as a sidebar in the report, which we expect to publish towards the end of this summer.

Shanghai NGO offers non-judgmental support to male sex workers

Whilst condom promotion and provision of information about self-protection are the stock-in-trade of NGOs receiving grants for AIDS prevention work in China’s gay community, Shanghai Leyi (上海乐怡), established in 2004, take a bolder approach to programmes that target male sex workers.

It’s a rough trade, according to Tony Zheng (郑煌), a native of Fujian Province, former photographer and one of Leyi’s principal founders. It is not uncommon, he says, for “money boys” to suffer physical violence and rape at the hands of clients. In such circumstances, Zheng suggests, it is hardly realistic to hope that male sex workers will always use condoms.

Leyi does nonetheless promote condom use, but it also takes a broader approach to self-protection. It begins to engage with sex workers by offering them classes in massage techniques and in English. This, explains Zheng, helps win the sex workers’ trust by first giving them skills that are relevant to their work and earning capacity. The sex workers are taught to examine their clients’ bodies while performing massage in order to check for symptoms of sexually transmitted infections. They are also encouraged to refuse alcohol or other drugs offered by clients.

Last year, Zheng says, Leyi held 40 such training classes, with around 15 sex workers attending each class.

In addition, doctors and lawyers offer medical and legal advice to the sex workers. Leyi helps to arrange medical checks for sexually transmitted infections, referring sex workers to clinics where they will be received without hostility and charged reasonable rates. In some cases, Leyi pays for sex workers to receive treatment.

Leyi also encourages sex workers to go for free HIV testing provided by the Shanghai Centre for Disease Control. The CDC, according to Zheng, has no shortage of funds and has agreed not to limit its voluntary counselling and testing services to Shanghai registered residents but to extend these to sex workers who have migrated from other areas. Zheng describers Leyi’s relationship with the Shanghai CDC as “excellent” (不错).

Shanghai, says Zheng, has thousands of male sex workers, working in bath houses, bars and clubs or finding their own clients on the streets or via the internet. At the top of the profession are Shanghai-registered residents who may earn tens of thousands of yuan each month; but most are poor young men from other provinces, especially in China’s north-east, who earn no more than CNY 1,000 (USD 120) per month in the sex trade. Male sex workers serving men clients are not necessarily gay themselves, and some also serve women clients. However, Zheng says, Leyi’s policy is not to enquire too closely about the sex workers’ business affairs.

Leyi receives funding support from Oxfam Hong Kong.

Report by Nick Young, April 16, 2007