Modern China
Volume 34, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 442-476

Commodifying romance and searching for love: Rural migrant bar hostesses' moral vision in Post-Mao Dalian (Article)

Zheng T.*
  • a State University of New York, College at Cortland, Cortland, NY, United States

Abstract

This article discusses Dalian's bar hostesses' paradoxical model of romance: one that is both commodified and based on love. On the one hand, hostesses reject the popular media's emphasis on romantic love and sexual purity as a thin disguise for the ugly reality of men's sexual exploitation of women, and they actively perform and commodify romance for their instrumental purposes. On the other hand, hostesses resort to supernatural forces to determine their romantic fate and to seek out ideal love. © SAGE Publications, Inc. 2008.

Author Keywords

Love Romance Commodification Sex workers Urban China

Index Keywords

ideology China Eurasia Far East morality rural society prostitution Liaoning Dalian womens status Asia
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-51849091016&doi=10.1177%2f0097700408319493&partnerID=40&md5=7b03b81453bd9c3fe259b1ab295a94c5
DOI: 10.1177/0097700408319493
ISSN: 00977004
Cited by: 10
Original Language: English