Sex Workers in the City
Zi Teng is a non-profit, non-governmental organization assisting sex workers. One of their workers, Bao, tells us about the unknown side of the sex business.
HK Magazine: Why are you working with this group?
Bao: Sex workers are one of the most discriminated groups in Hong Kong, and there aren’t many organizations out there helping them. Even today, the government does not recognize us and we are not allowed to formally register as a charity.
HK: What’s your personal opinion about prostitution?
Bao: Prostitution is only a job. Prostitutes are not stealing anything from anybody. They use their bodies to earn a living, just like you write to feed yourself. These sex workers deserve the same rights as anyone else. And the job is not as easy as people think it is. Sex workers have to constantly better their sex skills and learn different languages. They don’t simply get paid to lie on the bed. We have courses designed so that sex workers can improve the skills they need.
HK: What major problems are sex workers facing?
Bao: Discrimination. The idea of having sex with only an exclusive partner has led people to perceive them as immoral beings who destroy families. Many people don’t even see them as human - they call them “chickens.” One of the risks of being a sex worker is being robbed, or forced to have unprotected sex. Nobody takes their cases seriously – sometimes even the police. Some officials say, “You should have prepared for that if you decided to be in the sex industry.” What the heck?
The abuse of police power is another concern. Some mainlanders who just came here to travel are mistaken as sex workers. The police force them back to the mainland right away and warn them never to come back. If you are a woman from the mainland walking in the red-light districts, you are automatically perceived as a sex worker.
HK: What do you know about the Police Code of Practice in an anti-vice raid?
Bao: Police officers are not allowed to receive sexual services during undercover operations, but they are allowed to have certain intimacies, including manual stimulation. We have repeatedly asked the police to revise the Code of Practice to stop agents from doing this. Unfortunately nothing has changed.
HK: What are clients usually like?
Bao: The clients are of all ages and from all walks of life. In this society, we neglect the needs of the old, the handicapped, and the mentally disabled. They are humans who have sexual needs too. A sex worker once told me that an old man was just paying her so that he could “regain the feeling of first love” and feel young again. Many times clients are asking for more than sex. They want to pay to talk about their worries and be consoled. Through time, a special relationship sometimes develops between a client and a sex worker. Sometimes the workers tell me they feel like counselors – and in fact I think they are. There are also quite a lot of couples paying sex workers to participate in threesomes.