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The concubine and mistress phenomenon has been a long-lasting social problem in China. In the 1980s, it was well-off Hong Kong businessmen who came to China to find mistresses. They bought them a house and gave them an allowance, mostly in secret. Today, this has been replaced by Mainland Chinese businessmen, government officials, professors and males who have power, influence and money in China. Having a mistress shows that one has the ability to control others’ lives and is sign of social status. The female role echoes this change as well. Mistresses in the 1980s were mostly young, uneducated girls from villages and small towns. Since the mid-1990s, the majority of the mistresses have been well-educated university students, post graduates, film stars, models and females from different walks of life. Over 95 per cent of the Chinese officials have mistresses and the number of mistress becomes a show of strength and power among them. It is a situation unheard of elsewhere and an indicator of how low the moral standards have slipped in China.
Is there a clean spot in China?
The choice of being a mistress used to be taken by helpless women who could not support themselves financially. That does not tell the whole story in China. Numerous cases have proven that women with high qualities also opt to be mistresses so as to climb the social ladder, such as the famous TV anchor Li Wei and the well-recognised policewoman Wang Fei. Without the backing of influential men, they might otherwise be nobodies. They use their beautiful looks to make a bargain. However, if a woman really has abilities, she still can’t escape the fate of becoming a mistress. Take the story of Chen Guang-ming. This case shows how corrupt government officials take advantage of power to abuse women. Ms Chen is the chief director of the Criminal Investigation Unit in the Chongqing National Security Bureau. She is a good-looking woman who has served in the police force for 28 years, with three No.1s – the first female chief officer in the Chongqing National Security Bureau, the only female chief officer in the criminal investigation team and the only outstanding woman “hero” in the national fight against drugs. She is also 1 of 10 outstanding women representatives in the National Women’s Conference and was a member of the 17th Party conference. Nevertheless, even a woman like this has to serve as a mistress to her boss Wenqiang, who is the second head in the Chongqing National Security Bureau.Ms Chen’s case showcases the problems in the civil servant’s system in China. All the honours and titles that Ms Chen gets are not necessarily the result of her talent, but she holds that position because of the system. For each big promotion to a higher position, there must be someone who gives special attention to her; otherwise, for ordinary woman like her, it is hard to rise above the male police. There is news about Ms Chen on the Internet that she has slept with her boss to gain her present status. As some have commented: “Being a National Party Congress member or provincial representative, if her working unit hadn’t recommended her, how could she have been selected? She must get the senior head or decision-maker to approve her to be a representative.” I can say for sure that despite her own work efforts, if she refused to get involved with her boss, she would probably remain an ordinary policewoman. The National Security Bureau is different from other police units. A provincial branch recruits more than a thousand policemen, but at the chief level, less than 1/10 that number. What is the chance of a policewoman being a chief officer under normal circumstances?
The example of Chen Guang-ming is only one small story demonstrating the ugliness of the system. Chinese officials, no matter how high or low, see subordinates as sex toys and Ms Chen is probably the most successful in that league. There are more cases where female officials succumb to sex demands from superiors simply for their jobs’ sake. The diary of the director of the Guangxi Tobacco Bureau was recently exposed on the Internet. It recorded that five of his female subordinates had sex with him or lived as his mistresses. He wrote this without shame, even keeping it in his diary. It is clear that it was his power that forced those women to have sex with him. His cost for such sex services was low – the highest amount paid was RMB2000 ($A300) to one mistress and the most expensive gift was a mobile phone or an MP4 player. I don’t believe these women were willing to sleep with him out of love or fondness, rather, keeping their jobs was probably the major reason.
The civil servant sector is not the only contaminated area in China. The rottenness spreads over to religion too. While the news of the head of the Shaolin Monastery keeping mistresses is still boiling over, the well-respected Taoist master Gong Sun Qing-gao was also caught doing the same.
The arduous path to education and a career for women
Women in China are, on the whole, hard-working and tough. Many study hard to get into universities for master and doctorate degrees; however, they have to face shameless sexual advancements from instructors and are forced to succumb for their studies’ sake. A website in China did a random survey of 100 female college students. More than 40 per cent experienced college sexual harassment and assaults. In August 2009, a famous 70-year-old doctoral mentor of the Central Conservatory of Music divulged that he received sex services and a bribe of $100,000 from a candidate for admission to the conservatory. A Masters student at Beijing University revealed that her tutor had gone to all lengths to sexually harass her for years. In 2008, assistant professor Cheng Chun-ming, from the China University of Political Science and Law, was killed by a male student for having a relationship with his girlfriend.Encountering sexual harassment becomes unavoidable when women join the work force. There were female graduates who were sexually harassed even during the interview by the interviewer and were told directly to their faces that providing sex services to the managerial level was part of their job duties as a secretary.
The Chinese media claim that female graduates have to overcome four huge mountains in order to get a job – health, marriage, giving birth and sexual harassment. This order is not correct. Sexual harassment is in fact the very first mountain that they have to face. The surplus of educated people looking for work in recent years has kept more than 70 per cent of college graduates jobless. Women are naturally at a disadvantage. This results in many worn-out young women graduates choosing marriage instead.
Marriage is not a woman’s secured shelter
Does a woman actually find security in marriage? The answer is a definite no.Wealth and position are chips that a man brings to the marriage market, while youth and looks are what a woman offers for a good catch. Some say having a career is not as rewarding as marrying rich. Others comment that the “social status” of a woman pretty much depends on her looks, which to a large extent reflects the unfortunate truth.
The dilemma for a woman is that youth and looks don’t last forever. If her middle-aged man happens to succeed and attains money or power, it is an enticement attractive enough for other young women to ignore his marital status and become his concubines. Old and wrinkled wives are the inevitable losers in the game. The money-oriented girls have learned to live up to the doctrine: “Catch a man with power and money, enjoy a luxurious life; who cares if he has a family?” Young, good-looking women are confident in competing with aged or middle-aged wives. More than 10 years ago, a few of the young women talking to me used stock market terms to express their views in choosing husbands. They thought it was pretty much like picking a stock. The wealthy and successful males were like stocks with records and were bulls in the marriage market worth chasing after. So they put their efforts and time into chasing that valuable stock.
Now, the priority for middle-aged women is to safeguard their marriages. If women were water and men were mud, and if the mud had become so rotten and polluted, how could the water have remained pure?
Excerpted article by He qinglian