Life of bondage for the 5,000 yuan brides

THE 16-year-old's journey into sexual slavery began with a simple kindness, as so many of these cases do. It was last March, and Fan Xianxiu had left her parents in a poor part of rural Sichuan to seek a better life in the provincial capital, Chengdu, a sprawling expanse of smoke stacks, department stores, neon lights, teahouses, and opportunities.

Two women in their mid-20s came across Fan and took her off for a shopping spree. They brought her home, and were so kind that Fan suspected nothing when they invited her to join them on a business trip.

It was not until they reached a village in far off Inner Mongolia that Fan realised things were not what they seemed. ''I knew I had been cheated,'' she said. There, the two women sold Fan to a 24-year-old peasant named Hou Fugang for 4,200 yuan (HK$3,750). No one had consulted her, but she was now supposed to be his bride. ''He was ugly, so no local girl wanted to marry him,'' said Fan.

A shy girl with pudgy red cheeks and a pony tail, Fan was interviewed at a government holding centre on the outskirts of Chengdu after being rescued, along with more than 50 other young women, from forced wedlock to peasants in the north. For fear that they might go astray again, the girls were kept in a courtyard, locked behind bars until they could be reunited with their families.

Thousands of women from Sichuan province are sold into marriage each year. Police have been attempting to crack down on the criminals involved in the slave trade, which has been building up since the early 70s. A confidential government report two years ago said that 65,000 members of 9,000 gangs had been arrested. But still the problem persists.

One of the causes is sheer economics. At no more than about 5,000 yuan a bride, it is far cheaper to purchase a wife than to pay the high costs of a dowry and wedding ceremony, which can eat up a family's entire life savings. Another reason for paying cash for a wife is that social mobility is limited in rural China, and less desirable men are frequently unable to find a spouse from among the local population.