The ‘findom’ fetish in Asia: pay pigs, money slaves and why men don’t want sex with the women they hand their cash to
The shadowy practice of financial domination – findom for short – has spread to Hong Kong’s kink scene and even into China, but what sort of thrill do the men who spend thousands just to be teased and abused get?
Imagine regularly receiving money from distant admirers without having to lift a finger. A fetish called “findom”, short for “financial domination”, lets some women do just that – their clients, called “pay pigs”, lavish them with cash and gifts for kicks, but no sex.
The costly kink is now being seen in Hong Kong, with local and visiting “dommes” offering findom services on the classified advertising site Backpage. And it’s spread to China as well.
“It’s a rather niche practice, even for us, and seems to be mostly online,” says a source in the Hong Kong kink scene who requests anonymity. The source adds that BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) practices emphasise safe play and managing emotional and physical risks, and “with findom, I imagine the same should apply.”
In pictures: the Japanese art of rope bondage, as practised in Hong Kong
Frank negotiations are vital to avoid problems down the line, the source continues, highlighting the need for appropriate rules – such as monthly transaction caps or the exclusive use of clients’ disposable income or put-aside cash for entertainment.
Like Hong Kong’s findom scene, China’s is shadowy. But Chinese findom practitioners are out there. One enterprising woman, who goes by the name Pay2serveme, operates out of Liaoning in the country’s northeast.