Abstract
Tiantian Zheng, Ethnographies of Prostitution in Contemporary China: Gender Relations, HIV/AIDS, and Nationalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012; 256 pp.: ISBN: 978-0-230-34099-2, £17.99 pbk
Tiantian Zheng’s book, Ethnographies of Prostitution in Contemporary China: Gender Relations, HIV/AIDS, and Nationalism, is a provocative analysis of the negotiations between rural migrant women who are karaoke bar hostesses and their male clients in the metropolitan city of Dalian in China. Zheng’s analysis is based on her three years of intense fieldwork within the karaoke bar setting. 1 In Ethnographies, Zheng is particularly interested in the rapid increase of HIV/AIDS throughout China that ‘has been identified as a product of widespread prostitution, changing sexual behaviours and norms, internal migration, and low knowledge about transmission routes’ (p. 3). Her book is a collection of interviews from over 50 hostesses and 50 clients, incorporating active participant observation, interviews, personal stories, surveys and questionnaires to give voice to those most vulnerable to the disease and to create a compelling argument.
Zheng’s argument adopts a complex integration of social, cultural, and structural influences on individuals’ beliefs about the autonomy of their sex lives, emphasizing the social and structural dimensions of disease transmission and birth control, specifically during illicit sexual encounters. Zheng argues that ‘many men [in this study] regarded rejection of condoms as a political act of defiance’ (p. 8, my italics) because the Chinese government has a long history of regulating citizens’ sexual lives. She sets up this argument with a fascinating history of contraception and government control of population in China and the depictions of HIV/AIDS in Chinese media, including a taboo against condom advertisements, arguing that nationalism and male dominance are the lurking subtext of China’s HIV/AIDS discourse. According to Zheng, this allows the rejection of condoms to represent a rejection of state control over one’s sex life and sexual pleasure; an assertion of masculinity; and the belief that contraception is the woman’s responsibility.
Unfortunately for the hostesses Zheng interviews, negotiating condom use, especially with their regular clients, is most often a lose-lose situation because the client will believe she is unclean, untrustworthy, and (ironically) uncaring, leading to a loss of income for the hostess. The women, therefore, have to make a financial choice that is often a detriment to their health. Thus, the aim of Zheng’s research is to shed light on understanding of sexual risks and to facilitate the development of culturally sensitive and culturally appropriate community based prevention programmes. She believes that without acknowledging the complexity of sexual culture, gender dynamics and cultural beliefs, prevention programmes are doomed to fail.
Zheng’s strength is clearly in her ethnographic commitment and fieldwork skill set. Though illicit sex work is highly stigmatized and the sex workers themselves are highly marginalized, Zheng gains entrance to their indoor workspace and earns the trust not only of the workers but also of their clients. She interviews the police, the CDC, various health professionals and even works as a condom representative all in an effort to successfully create a thoroughly researched and well-rounded argument. Brick-by-brick, she lays the foundation of China’s political and social history to connect this macro-level view of China’s government to the microcosm of her study. Cross-cultural comparisons would further enhance this argument. Is not wearing a condom an act of political defiance only in this setting? In what ways does the formal political arena articulate with the everyday micro-politics of gendered interactions more broadly? What is the larger argument to be made with respect to the deployment of idealized forms of masculinized sexualities? 2 A broad-reaching comparison of Zheng’s fieldwork with that in other settings is needed.
This study informs the larger literature on the sexuality and social control by illustrating that sexualities are not simply governed from above, but provide a medium through which to resist this governance. Zheng’s book is relevant for anthropologists interested in contemporary sex culture in China and social and cultural influences on disease transmission and intervention, but also for anyone interested in gender studies, international perspectives on sex work and birth/disease control.