Reciprocating Desires
The Pursuit of Desirable East Asian Femininity in China's Commercial Sex Industry
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2153276 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eileen Yuk-Ha Tsang (0000-0002-2353-2769, City University of Hong Kong, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 917-935 |
| Publication date | 2020-08-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Deviant Behavior (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0163-9625 • E-ISSN: 1521-0456 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01639625.2019.1596454 |
| OpenAlex | W2922943887 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 29 |
This article examines how socioeconomic conditions impact heteronormative sexual desires between high-tier sex workers and their non-Chinese clients in urban South China. Drawing from Hoang's interpretation of 'dealing in desires', Rofel's 'Desiring China', and cultural capital, the article considers how desire circulates in high-end bars and its impact on how workers and clients negotiate their relationships. I move beyond Hoang's and Rofel's framework to include cultural capital that help sex workers perform an East Asia femininity and develop their image as cosmopolitan tempting girls to practice 'reciprocating desires' with their non-Chinese clients. The article unfolds as a theoretical exercise in unearthing and understanding the underpinnings of how socioeconomic context impacts our understanding of what qualifies as desirable East Asian femininity. Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted in a high-end bar in South China from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2017, this article first examines desire and the meanings attached to sex workers' body capital, and cultural capital that exemplify desirable East Asian femininity. Second, cultural capital explains how desire operates within high-tier heteronormative sex work spaces to construct social identity, which can help sex workers achieve professional success and become a source of personal satisfaction
China · Cultural capital · East Asia · Femininity · Political science · Population · Social science · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Gender Studies · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Sex work and related issues · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Desiring China
Anxious Wealth
Cosmopolitan Sex Workers
Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia
China, Sex and Prostitution
Dealing in Desire
What’s Love Got to Do with It
Sex work in China’s Pearl River Delta
Aesthetic Labor for the Sociologies of Work, Gender, and Beauty
Peasant Sex Workers in Metropolitan China and the Pivotal Concept of Money
Temporarily Yours
Who's Got the Look?’ Emotional, Aesthetic and Sexualized Labour in Interactive Services
Discourses of Emotionality in Commercial Sex
The Silent Community
Distinction
Buying Sex as Edgework
Pugs at Work
Affective sex
Thinking Feminism with and against Bourdieu
The 'Second-Wife' Phenomenon and the Relational Construction of Class-Coded Masculinities in Contemporary China
Competing Technologies of Embodiment
Yearning for Lightness
Real Men Get the Best Bar Girls
Erotic Authenticity
Finding Hope as a 'Tempting Girl' in China
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |