Go Back Original Article August, 2012

Sex Entrepreneurs in the New China

Author Travis S. K. Kong

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research on the male sex industry in China since 2004, sociologist Travis S.K. Kong examines how male rural migrants become male sex workers (or “money boys”) and explains how to make sense of their lives within the context of China’s quest for urbanization, modernization, and globalization. Money boys have found opportunities opened up in new spaces by the development of the market economy, the burgeoning of the sex industry, and the emergence of the gay community in reform China; however, they are struggling in these new spaces of social exclusion, legal constraints, and cultural domination.

Keywords

travis s.k. kong male sex workers money boys rural-to-urban migration the hukou system male prostitution middle-class gay sensibilities reform china postsocialist china urbanization market economy gay community in china sexual economy sex industry queer labor social exclusion legal constraints cultural domination masculinity migrant identity erotic labor kink fantasy bdsm masturbation sex queer desire power relations stigma class and sexuality neoliberalism globalization queer china queer studies
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Volume 11
Issue 3
Pages 28–33
DOI 10.1177/1536504212456179
ISSN 1537-6052
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