Elanah Uretsky, a medical anthropologist from Yale University research examines the role that governance plays in structuring contemporary male sexual culture in urban China and in transforming the Chinese HIV epidemic from an epidemic of injection drug use to one that is increasingly transmitted through sexual contact. Her research lead her to Ruili China. A small town located near a line of indigo hills along China's border with Burma, this area features prominently on China's AIDS highway. Ruili is of particular interest as scientists are retracing what researchers currently believe to be the most active transmission route for a viral strain unique to Asia.
Having lived in China for sixteen months and sending most of that time in Ruili, Elanah Uretsky has developed a personal and intimate sense of the problem of AIDS in China. Trace the lives of urban men who are trying to benefit from the many opportunities available in the market-oriented period of post-Mao China. Urestky highlights the struggles local Chinese encounter between traditional family expectations, traditional Chinese masculine entitlements, and contemporary expectations of state loyalty that often govern their success. All too often the requirements of work lead men to engage in a minor ritual process called yingchou that often includes feasting, drinking, and engaging in certain types of sexual relations, often with prostitutes. Work in China, seems to carry with it a very specific meaning, the provision of which are all modifications of pleasure, and may include food, drink, entertainment and the company of a commercial sex worker. Using these ‘pleasures’ as instruments of ‘work’ is often linked to political and economic success for urban men in contemporary China. A sense of loyalty and obligation to work related duties in a rapidly transforming socialist system structured by both a market economy and traditional patron-client relations has led many men into situations where they are informally required to solicit the services of a commercial sex worker as part of their job.
Banqueting, drinking, and entertainment activities are embraced by Chinese society governed by both traditional socialist patron-client relations as well as deeper seated traditions of relationship building also known as guanxi. Guanxi (gwan-shee) is the Chinese term for mutually beneficial relationships essential to success in the Middle Kingdom. Cultural and societal norms like guanxi are providing some of the framework for the success of the sex trade in China as well as vulnerabilities to STD and HIV infection for both the men and their sexual partners. This cultural practice of personal relationships fosters an environment where the local cultural of networking (guanxi) must employ ‘work’ related outings to karaoke clubs, massage parlors, or hair dressing salons, and of course, the entertainment services sought at these establishments, as integral and expected aspects of work used to satisfy the government officials who provide access to important resources and allowances. Ultimately this perfunctory entertaining and hosting of guests draws men out of the home and into the brothel in the name of career preservation, career advancement, and corporate success. This career success and lifestyle obligation, in turn, leads to areas of ‘high-risk’ for contracting HIV/AIDS. This ‘relationship’ building work that is associated with guanxi is a cultural device that is corrupting Chinese society and may well help HIV/AIDS become an epidemic that would ruin not only the local businessman as he tries to move up the social ladder but China as a country as it tries to move grow globally.
Having lived in China for sixteen months and sending most of that time in Ruili, Elanah Uretsky has developed a personal and intimate sense of the problem of AIDS in China. Trace the lives of urban men who are trying to benefit from the many opportunities available in the market-oriented period of post-Mao China. Urestky highlights the struggles local Chinese encounter between traditional family expectations, traditional Chinese masculine entitlements, and contemporary expectations of state loyalty that often govern their success. All too often the requirements of work lead men to engage in a minor ritual process called yingchou that often includes feasting, drinking, and engaging in certain types of sexual relations, often with prostitutes. Work in China, seems to carry with it a very specific meaning, the provision of which are all modifications of pleasure, and may include food, drink, entertainment and the company of a commercial sex worker. Using these ‘pleasures’ as instruments of ‘work’ is often linked to political and economic success for urban men in contemporary China. A sense of loyalty and obligation to work related duties in a rapidly transforming socialist system structured by both a market economy and traditional patron-client relations has led many men into situations where they are informally required to solicit the services of a commercial sex worker as part of their job.
Banqueting, drinking, and entertainment activities are embraced by Chinese society governed by both traditional socialist patron-client relations as well as deeper seated traditions of relationship building also known as guanxi. Guanxi (gwan-shee) is the Chinese term for mutually beneficial relationships essential to success in the Middle Kingdom. Cultural and societal norms like guanxi are providing some of the framework for the success of the sex trade in China as well as vulnerabilities to STD and HIV infection for both the men and their sexual partners. This cultural practice of personal relationships fosters an environment where the local cultural of networking (guanxi) must employ ‘work’ related outings to karaoke clubs, massage parlors, or hair dressing salons, and of course, the entertainment services sought at these establishments, as integral and expected aspects of work used to satisfy the government officials who provide access to important resources and allowances. Ultimately this perfunctory entertaining and hosting of guests draws men out of the home and into the brothel in the name of career preservation, career advancement, and corporate success. This career success and lifestyle obligation, in turn, leads to areas of ‘high-risk’ for contracting HIV/AIDS. This ‘relationship’ building work that is associated with guanxi is a cultural device that is corrupting Chinese society and may well help HIV/AIDS become an epidemic that would ruin not only the local businessman as he tries to move up the social ladder but China as a country as it tries to move grow globally.
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