Reciprocating Desires: The Pursuit of Desirable East Asian Femininity in China’s Commercial Sex Industry

ABSTRACT

This article examines how socioeconomic conditions impact heteronormative sexual desires between high-tier sex workers and their non-Chinese clients in urban South China. Drawing from Hoang’s interpretation of ‘dealing in desires’, Rofel’s ‘Desiring China’, and cultural capital, the article considers how desire circulates in high-end bars and its impact on how workers and clients negotiate their relationships. I move beyond Hoang’s and Rofel’s framework to include cultural capital that help sex workers perform an East Asia femininity and develop their image as cosmopolitan tempting girls to practice ‘reciprocating desires’ with their non-Chinese clients. The article unfolds as a theoretical exercise in unearthing and understanding the underpinnings of how socioeconomic context impacts our understanding of what qualifies as desirable East Asian femininity. Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted in a high-end bar in South China from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2017, this article first examines desire and the meanings attached to sex workers’ body capital, and cultural capital that exemplify desirable East Asian femininity. Second, cultural capital explains how desire operates within high-tier heteronormative sex work spaces to construct social identity, which can help sex workers achieve professional success and become a source of personal satisfaction.     

阿卜杜勒·嘎德尔及其苏菲思想初探

阿卜杜勒·嘎德尔·吉拉尼是十一世纪下半叶享誉伊斯兰世界的著名苏菲学者,嘎德忍耶(Q(a)diriyyah)苏菲教团的奠基者.其思想影响颇为广泛,遍及伊斯兰世界,是我国"嘎迪林耶"门宦的主要思想来源.本文在追述阿卜杜勒·嘎德尔生平及其苏菲思想形成过程的同时,以阿卜杜勒·嘎德尔的三部论集(<真道寻求者们的满足>、<主的启示>和<开启幽玄>)为基础,重点探讨了阿卜杜勒·嘎德尔的苏菲思想及嘎德忍耶教团的苏菲学理、社会理想和政治主张、教团的祷文和修行仪式等.