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SCMP Reporter

Had it not been for the constant ringing of his four mobile phones, it would have been difficult to tell that the clean-cut, slim young man in the cake shop in Dalian , Liaoning province , was one of the region's best-connected panderers.

With his unusually pale complexion, dry, delicate lips, pink shirt and jeans, 22-year-old 'Bing Bing' looked more like  a timid student than a pimp - or 'mamasan' in Chinese - in the lucrative underground world of male prostitution.

As the phones rang like a  frenetic electronic orchestra, Bing Bing answered each with a steely professionalism.

'Tell him to get the hell out and go home', the male-prostitute-turned-mamasan said. 'Or tell him to  get back to my place and wait for me right there.

'A newbie,' Bing Bing sighed, hanging up the phone.

'He offended my guest by running away last night while they were in the middle of doing [it]. No, this child is not [gay]. It was actually his first time.'

A 'child' in the mamasan's vernacular is a male prostitute servicing male customers, more commonly known  as a 'money boy'.

Bing Bing is at the centre of the Dalian money boy world, connecting hundreds of clients with  more than 30 'children' on his books. He says he keeps six of the best prostitutes as long-term contractors, while the rest rotate through  different pimps in town or between different cities. This is a practice called  'full-mooning'.

Insiders say up to 80 per cent of the money boys are not homosexuals but poor young men prostituting themselves simply to make money. And there is great demand for their services.

'My client has been complaining that I keep sending chicken [inexperienced prostitutes]  these days, but my business is too busy. I have simply run out of hands,' Bing Bing said.

The Dalian mamasan could  do with a few more hands to answer all the calls. Trying  to answer two phones at once, a third mobile calls out for attention. In the past two years, Bing Bing has seen more than 500 money boys under his employ come and go.

Most are from Heilongjiang , Jilin , Liaoning  and Shandong , and once their Dalian rotation is over, most join the legion, migrating to the provincial capital of Shenyang , then to Beijing and Shanghai and all the way to metropolises down south such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen. As this legion, comprising teenaged boys and men in their early 20s, moves silently from one section of the prostitution industry to another, and from  city to  city, its ranks are continually swelled  by youths from the country's lowest economic strata.

A source from Shenyang says Guangdong panderers sometimes go  to the northeast to help meet demand there.  But he says that  a new trend is that of southern pimps flying in 'well-trained, excellent' money boys directly from northeast China when 'the trade is too brisk' in Guangdong.

'There is already a well-developed employment market and professional agents for prostitutes,' he said.

Bing Bing said he did not keep tabs on the  whereabouts of the 'full-mooned' boys.

Rather than operating under the guise of a sauna, massage parlour or karaoke bar, Bing Bing runs his business by maintaining five apartments which also serve as  workplaces for the prostitutes.

The apartments are all rented so Bing Bing can regularly uproot the operation to avoid police attention. He has to move often, even though almost every pimp is protected by figures in the police force or judicial system, many of whom are also their customers.

'My customers are from all walks of life, including officials, police, university professors and businessmen. Some only hire my 'children' because they trust me,' Bing Bing said with  pride.

Mu Yang, head of the grassroots gay organisation Dalian Rainbow, said customers tended to go directly through pimps such as Bing Bing to hide their identities.

Mr Mu said the clients  feared being blackmailed or threatened by the money boys if they hired them themselves.

Bing Bing willingly acts as a go-between,  but  takes no responsibility for protecting either party from HIV/Aids or other sexually transmitted diseases.

'It's all up to the 'children' [whether to use a condom or not]. How am I supposed to monitor that? They never do the deed within my sight,' he said, before  another round of phone calls.

In July, the Ministry of Health listed male homosexuals, migrant workers and university students as the groups at highest risk of contracting HIV/Aids.

Mr Mu,  who has been pushing the Aids-prevention message in Dalian for the past six years,  said the poorly educated migrant population was at  greatest risk. 'They are hard to reach, move frequently, are ignorant of the essential knowledge, desperate for money and sexually active,' Mr Mu says.

Yuan Suoxian,  a director of the Chinese Traditional Medicine Committee at the China Sexology Association, said that 'if no measures are taken, promiscuity and unsafe sex practices will lead to a pandemic soon or later'.

He suggested legalising prostitution might be a solution. 'Look at how affluent the market is. It is not something that can simply be banned as long as there is this huge demand.'



'Money boys' become currency of pimps