potential clients:
“Online business is terrible these days. They’re asking 200 yuan (USD 33) and
who will take it? There are too many [transgender sex workers] now, so it’s no
big deal. Before, when there were fewer, people were curious and business was
good. Now business is bad. It’s a little better on the street.”131
Competition, however, is also tough for street based sex work. The transgender sex
workers we interviewed in Shanghai noted bias and hostility from female sex workers.
Yu Fei told us: “On our way to the park, we have to pass one street where there are lots
of massage parlors. The girls know we’re fake women, and they sit in the doorways of
their massage parlors just so they can laugh at us. They say we’re men and fakes and
perverts.”132 Where Yanyan carries out her street-based work, the female sex workers
feel she’s stealing their business, and they report her to the police. Yanyan once spent
ten days in jail because of this.133
Clients
In China, transgender female sex workers have very close links with the MSM (men
who have sex with men) community. Among the 70 interviewees, 53 (76%) started
out working under male identities providing
services to MSM. After engaging in sex work under
“76% of interviewees
female identities, their client base changed; the
started out working
interviewees reported that the large majority of their
under male identities and
clients are now heterosexual men, who believe they
providing services to MSM.
are engaging a female sex worker.
After engaging in sex work
In Shanghai, the work venues and work methods
of transgender sex workers are similar to those of
female sex workers, and the clients they interact
with are also the same, i.e. rural migrants working
in the cities, and some local residents. Almost all
of the clients come to parks, streets and squares
looking for female sex workers. The vast majority
of men who engage with transgender sex workers
are unaware that the women servicing them are
131 Interview with Lili, Shanghai, July 28, 2014.
132 Interview with Yu Fei, Shanghai, March 24, 2014.
133 Interview with Yanyan, Shanghai, June 16, 2014.
34
under female identities,
their client base changed;
the interviewees reported
that the large majority
of their clients are now
heterosexual men, who
believe they are engaging a
female sex worker.”