With her painted eyebrows, dress and long, hennaed hair, worn in curls, 20-year-old Xiao Min looks like a university student. She always smiles at people and listens to others carefully, just like the girl next door.
But her seeming naivety masks a cruel reality. Xiao was forced into prostitution nearly four years ago. It is a story she says is not unusual for hundreds of thousands of rural girls.
In 2007, Xiao was a 16-year-old schoolgirl who had just graduated from a junior high school in a town in Xiangfan , Hubei . That summer she met her best friend, who quit school at 14 and left for a better life in Wuhan , the provincial capital. Xiao began dreaming of a future in Wuhan after hearing from her friend that it was a city full of fun and job opportunities.
'My friend looked very fashionable and could afford a cellphone, cosmetics and jewellery,' Xiao said. 'I felt very jealous and wanted to go with her immediately.
'Both my parents worked in Guangdong and only came back home once a year. They just left me alone. They didn't believe in supporting a daughter studying at college. All they wanted was for me to make money in the city and come back to marry a man at 22 or 23.'
As soon as she arrived in Wuhan, Xiao was taken to a hair salon and raped by its operator. 'The girl [her friend] and the other girls were all under the control of the men,' she said 'They just sat next door while I was raped.'
Xiao said she was forced to become a prostitute after the men took nude photos of her and threatened to hurt her family if she ran away. Eight months later, the men were arrested for trafficking drugs but Xiao kept moving from one hair salon to another, still working as a prostitute.
