(Dan Tri) – The decision to transition from a centralized economy to a market economy has brought China development opportunities but also left sad consequences.
Police patrolling to control prostitution activities at a Chinese sauna.
In the photo album of female journalist Lijia Zhang’s family, there is only one remaining photo of Zhang’s grandmother in her youth.
That is what prompted Zhang to learn about this career.
Zhang believes that the market economy has indirectly pushed women to sell their bodies to survive.
When it gained power in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party abolished all brothels and banned prostitution throughout China.
The market economy has unintentionally put Chinese women at a disadvantage.
It is undeniable that the benefits of the market economy bring a series of opportunities to urban women, but it still has disadvantages.
Work to survive
Chinese police busted a prostitution ring in Dongguan city, Guangdong province (Illustration: AP)
Ms. Lin Zhi, a woman from Shenyang, northern China, was fired from the factory in the 1990s. At that time, an unskilled, middle-aged woman like Ms. Lin was almost useless.
Unlike Lijia Zhang’s grandmother, who was sold into a brothel, most women enter this path because they have reached the end of poverty and despair.
Women serving the low and mid-range segments of the prostitution market often come from rural areas, have no education, and no skills.
There is no accurate statistics on the number of sex workers in China because this is a sensitive field.
Lijia Zhang’s grandmother was always grateful to the Communist Party for its one-wife, one-husband policy.
Lord Emperor
According to SCMP