Risky business of sex in the city

• Source: The Global Times
• [20:36 May 20 2009]
• Comments

By Guo Qiang

Prostitutes look for business on the Airport East Road in the city of Haikou, Hainan Province. Photo: Zhao Tielin

Tattoos tell the story. They are not hard to notice: “I love you Xiao Changying” is engraved in large indigo characters on her left forearm. Beside it is scrawled the word “hate”, like an editor’s proofing mark. On her right forearm is “I love U”, in English.

The darkness of her skin offers little contrast with her dark jeans and sneakers. Leaning back into a dark leather couch in the corner of a bright room, Xiao Xue at first glance seems to occupy her own, much darker, world.

“Xiao Changying” was the boyfriend who encouraged her to take heroin at 18 after she dropped out of nursing school in 1998.

“I was taking a hit nearly three times a day and it was costing me 500-1,000 yuan ($75-150),” she says, in a heavy Beijing accent.

“Xiao Xue” – whose name has been altered in this story to protect her safety – paints her dark eyebrows thin, and looks a little older than her 28 years.

“I look great, huh?” she says, flexing her muscles jokingly.

She pulls a plastic lighter out of her pocket and lights a Marlboro.

“I will tell you my little story,” she says.

Born to an “average” working-class family in Fangshan District, southwest Beijing, Xiao’s parents both ran small businesses. It was the year 2000 when paying for drugs first became a real problem. Xiao got a job as a bar girl, accompanying clients for a drink and a chat, but not sex.

“As a young woman and a drug addict,” says Xiao, “soon I just couldn’t resist the easy money prostitutes were earning at the places where I worked.” Xiao’s career fairly soon dived off into a world of copious karaoke bars, hair salons and saunas in the capital city.

“I sometimes had to play hide-and-seek with the police and I was always worrying whether a john might refuse to pay or maybe get violent.”