I interviewed some women who had previously worked as waitresses or domestic helpers and constantly got shouted at and demeaned. Some women said they actually felt more appreciated doing sex work because of the greater money and attention. For example, some women were quite flattered that clients called them sweet terms of endearment and gave them flowers or other expensive gifts, which their husbands would never do. Women hide their faces as police raid an entertainment venue in Beijing, China suspected of offering prostitution services. (China Photos/Getty) In my book, Lotus has to stop her schooling because the family thinks they'll just end up marrying her off. Since she’s a girl, there's no point in wasting money on her education. Save the resources for the boy — that’s a common attitude in rural China, especially in the poorest areas. So rural women are generally much worse off than boys in terms of education. The political system, of course, is another problem. Because of the hukou residency system, rural residents still cannot apply for certain jobs. Economic reforms brought a lot of opportunities, but uneducated rural women really missed out. Of course, violence from clients is a risk for sex workers, but there’s even more violence from the police. Police will raid their establishment, arrest them, then if they need a confession, they’ll often beat the woman up to get it. I heard stories of police spraying women with high-power water hoses. One woman threw up and was forced to eat her own vomit. Another was beaten to unconsciousness, so they put mustard up her nose to wake her up. Generally speaking, urbanites and migrant workers in the city live parallel lives. Among these women, there’s almost an unconscious desire to be accepted by urban women and be like them.

Most women are migrant workers from rural areas, some are laid off workers from small towns, especially in Dongbei (China’s struggling northeastern region that’s now often referred to as a rust belt). There are also quite a few older women who are divorced or left abusive husbands and cannot otherwise support themselves. When they leave the countryside for the city, very few plan to get into sex work. It’s a hard decision in most cases. Sometimes it’s because of tragic personal circumstances. Ultimately, that’s part of why prostitution is such a big industry in China. With growing wealth and gender income inequality, I think concubine culture plays big a role. Men used to keep concubines and mistresses as a way to show prestige, and they still do the same. The growing wealth gap between urban men and rural women really magnifies this. When strolling at night through the streets of urban China, it usually doesn’t take long to encounter a massage parlor with a dim pink glow and scantily clad women waiting inside. The country’s sex industry is both illegal and ubiquitous, drawing millions of women — mostly from rural regions — to grab a slice of the massive wealth that has been created over the past decades (and disproportionately ended up in the hands of urban men). I heard terrible stories of women in the “ custody and education” system (a penal system for prostitutes that can force them to labor in camps for up to two years without trial).The image of a prostitute’s life being utterly miserable is not quite the case. In addition to the power brought by the money, they also often have fun with one another. There are very close bonds among sex workers. Of course, there’s some jealously, but they work together and really support each other. They enjoy what the city has to offer, like different exotic foods. Quite a few women I interviewed worked very hard on production lines in factories for very little money. Then they talked among their friends and found out about jobs in massage parlors. In the beginning, the line is often blurred — some places offer legitimate massages and also sexual services, so women will start off doing normal massages and gradually start adding on sexual services when they see how much more money they can make. I spoke with one woman who said in the beginning that she always used the phrase chi kui (to get the short end of the bargain) when talking about getting paid for sleeping with men. But then an older more experienced women told her, “Don't think like that, we're making use of them.” So she came to terms with it and now tells other women the same thing. In this interview with Asia Blog , Zhang discusses the real life women who inspired her novel and how the economic and gender dynamics in China have given rise to the country's massive sex industry. When I was working at the NGO, a woman was arrested and other sex workers really tried to help her. They reported it to the NGO and some chipped in money to bail her out because they knew she might be returned home and exposed. They really supported each other.