Axelle De Russé
In China, the status of a man was once measured by the number of women he had – both wives and concubines. In 1949, the Communists banned the practice, as a sign of bourgeois decadence, but now, after two decades of market economy, concubines have.
I wanted to report on the private, taboo tale of these young women, captives in a golden cage.
According to estimates, there are approximately 100 000 in Guangdong province alone. The deal is simple: money in exchange for sexual favors, but with exclusive rights. Even though the practice is banned by law in modern China, as are all forms of prostitution, it is so widespread that wives of civil servants have set up their own secret association known as the “Alliance against Concubines in the People’s Republic of China”. Their leader has become a private detective and travels across China in search of concubines.
The phenomenon of concubines can be found in all social classes. Many of the girls have come from rural areas to escape poverty, and first started as sex workers, before being chosen as concubines. Others are approached at private parties, or even universities. These young women go from extreme poverty to a life of great loneliness and boredom in strange cities where they know no one. They lead lives reminiscent of 19th century courtesans in tales by Guy de Maupassant or Zola’s Nana. Time is their cruel enemy. They obsessively check the ravages of time in the mirror, as every passing hour brings them ever closer to the day when they are no longer considered to be desirable.
