Sex Work In China’s Pearl River Delta: Accumulating Sexual Capital As A Life-advancement Strategy.

Abstract

We develop the concept of sexual capital through examining cases of female sex workers (referred to as xiaojies in Chinese) in the Pearl River Delta, a highly industrialized region of south China. We explore the properties of sexual capital and the conditions that allow them to function. Xiaojies employ sexual and body practices to develop different ‘currencies’: those of bodily beauty; sexual values, knowledge, practices and skills; performance (entertainment and gender performance); and sexual and emotional sophistication – in exchange for economic, social and cultural capital. However, even if sexual capital fails to be converted to the social and economic capital needed for achieving desired goals, these women experience a self-transformation, from rural country girls into sexy, modern and urban women. Such sexual capital is essential for xiaojies who do not have many other resources and are constantly subject to regulations concerning rural migrants and prostitution. This is not only about ‘guanxi’ (social capital, social connections with others) and social network, which were considered essential in earlier studies, but also about self-esteem, emotional capacity, cognitive understanding of life and so on. Sexual capital involves the capacity for sexual expression and developing a new relationship with oneself, and has emotional significance, in addition to its potential for acquiring social and economic capital.