Prostitution Thriving Despite Clampdown In Seoul

Kim Tong-hyung

Since the passing of a strengthened anti-prostitution law in 2004 - which officially ended the country's traditional tolerance of sex buyers - the number of red light districts has gone south.

However, it is becoming apparent that shutting down brothels isn't enough, with the still-strong demand for commercial sex spawning a massive underground industry of massage parlors, girlie bars, hotels and Internet sites that provide easier access to sex for sale.

Last week, police in southern Seoul arrested the two owners of three massage parlors in Nonhyun-dong and Yoksam-dong for hiring prostitutes. They booked another 170 people, including 120 people who bought sex from the shops more than 10 times.

The customer list of the three massage parlors extends to over 200,000 people, police said, with each shop roughly averaging 2,000 to 5,000 customers per month.

"The customer list included lawyers, doctors, university professors, journalists, civil servants, soldiers, office workers and a former lawmaker. We can find virtually every profession aside from pastors, priests and monks," said an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

"The shops were sophisticated in their marketing, and they provided discounts for people paying in cash. The real number of customers could actually be double of the number of names on the list," he said.

One of the arrested massage parlor owners, a 52-year-old whose last name is Park, earned more than 9.7 billion won ($10.2 million) in credit card revenue between November 2005 and October last year through his Nonhyun-dong shop. Park's Yoksam-dong shop raked in 5.8 billion won in credit card revenue since opening in December 2005, police said.

Considering that sex buyers usually prefer to pay in cash, police believe the total revenue for Park's shops to be significantly higher.

The other suspect, a 57-year-old identified only as Choi, earned 19.8 billion won in cash and credit card revenue through his massage parlor in Yoksam-dong since September 2004.

Yoksam-dong, including the streets surrounding the Renaissance Seoul Hotel, was one of the 24 areas in the country that police selected as intensive surveillance zones last year and that were monitored for underground sex trade. Law enforcement officials investigated the three shops and ordered them to close their business last year but the owners refused, police said.

The owners of the massage parlors competed for customers, police said, leading to unusual marketing programs and services.

The rooms at the massage parlors were differentiated by theme. There are "classrooms" with sex workers wearing girl school uniforms and "Vietnam rooms" in which the women wear the Southeast Asian country's traditional attire.

The massage parlors promoted their services on Internet sites.

Adopting a "zero-tolerance" approach to the sex trade and the trafficking of women, the anti-prostitution law stipulates that brothel owners can be put in prison for up to 10 years with a maximum fine of 100 million won. The state can confiscate any financial gains acquired by selling sex.

Buying sex was also made a criminal offense punishable by up to one year in jail and 3 million won in fines.

In Seoul, the red-light districts in Yongsan, Chongnyangni, Chongam-dong and other areas are expected to be cleared up within the year through new urban development plans. Since the anti-prostitution law was passed, police have charged more than 40,000 brothel owners, pimps, prostitutes and customers.

However, sex transactions at massage parlors, bars, saunas, hotels and other businesses are growing, despite the government's warning.

According to a survey conducted last year by the Korean Institute for Criminology, more than 60 percent of the 450 adult males who said they bought sex in 2005 said they used massage parlors, which are quickly becoming the center of the underground sex trade.

Numbers released by the Financial Supervisory Service show that credit card spending at massage parlors rose 23 percent year-on-year in 2005.

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From Human Trafficking To Sex Slavery


Jason Gregory

Lured.. ..some women have been forced or tricked into coming to Australia for sex work.
Federal police chasing sex slaves working in Brisbane are placing classified advertisements seeking public assistance to curb illegal trafficking.

Experts said the ads proved the difficulty police had in stopping the "well-established practice" of Asian and other overseas women working in Australia under trafficking contracts, either by faking visa applications or being held on a debt bondage.

The ad said some sex workers have been forced or tricked into sex work.

"Some have no choice over who they have sex with or what kind of sex work they do. They may not have access to the same health and safety services or work conditions as other sex workers," it reads.

Twilight at noon: Multimedia report on Queensland's illegal sex tradeMost of the women in question are from Thailand and other Asian countries, with a smaller percentage from Eastern Europe.

An AFP spokeswoman said the ads were part of the Government's long war on people smuggling.

Criminologist Paul Wilson said there were examples of trafficking involving extortion and blackmail with a woman's "trip" paid for by an agent and sometimes crime gangs.

"She must then work as a prostitute to repay the debt. Many are willing participants but some did not know they are going to be prostitutes," he said. "Some will service clients all day and night and are sometimes physically abused."

"Sometimes there are threats made against (Asian-based) relatives of the woman and the amount of money demanded be repaid is often an inflated figure."

Spokesman for the Queensland Adult Business Association Nick Inskip likened it to rape.

"The hardest thing to detect is when they come here for a few months and go home with their $1000 or $2000, having made the crime gangs $20,000 or more tax free," he said.

Spokesman for the Eros Foundation Robbie Swan warned authorities were "never going to win this war" while refusing to issue proper working visas to overseas prostitutes.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said there were no plans to review the classification of overseas prostitutes.

Scarlet Alliance president Janelle Fawkes said there had been very few convictions for sex trafficking in Australia and only one in Queensland under laws created to crack down on international sex slavery.

She said there could be between 300 and 400 women in Australia working under a trafficking contract, but only a small percentage of those were in Queensland.

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Artists Brush In Singapore - Art Or Pornography?


Sarah Webb


Egyptian artist Ghada Amer says her work is inspired by erotica, pornography and the empowerment of women.

Amer and Iranian-born artist Reza Farkhondeh collaborate on delicately colored but unsettling works. She takes blown-up images from porn magazines, then he paints or prints birds, flowers, and pale washes on top, obscuring the underlying forms. The final layer is embroidered by Amer.

But as artists-in-residence at Singapore's leading print institute, Amer and Farkhondeh wonder whether their works -- juxtaposing oral sex and floral patterns, or a quote from the Koran framed by images of Wonder Woman -- will ever be seen here because of government restrictions.

Singapore bans pornography and has an ambivalent attitude to nudity. The government wants to encourage the arts so that Singapore can compete with cultural centers such as London and New York, but only last month stopped a commercial gallery from showing a painting of a female nude in a public space.

"When they invited me, they knew my work. In Egypt, they can't show it. I have no idea if it will be shown in Singapore," said Amer.

Within days of arriving in Singapore with her erotic images of women, she says she felt a frisson and wondered "do they want me to do something else?"

"All my work is about love, sexuality, the empowerment of women, it shows children with porn or erotic messages, because even when you are young, you are taught the same message, that one day the prince will come for you," said Amer.

"The power of woman, I am fascinated by this power. Is it power or not power, what are the limits?"

Excessive Nudity?

Singapore has spent handsomely on arts venues such as theatres, concert halls -- as well as the Singapore Tyler Print Institute where Amer and Farkhondeh are currently working.

But its art scene still veers toward the safe, rather than the controversial, and artists avoid subjects deemed sensitive in the city-state, including politics, religion, race and sex.

Unsurprisingly, there is little public debate on modern art.

The Ministry of Information and the Arts (MICA), which is responsible for encouraging Singapore's development as a "Renaissance City", sent a clear message that it was unacceptable to show a painting of a nude in a public space last month.

When MICA took over new offices a few years ago, it encouraged commercial galleries to open in the same building.

One gallery wanted to display a large painting of a female nude by Chinese artist Chen Xi in the atrium, but was told this was not allowed because children and young people might see it.

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Sexual Revolution In China


David Barboza


A Chinese edition of Esquire magazine. The censors aren't as zealous as they used to be.
Shanghai - When Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue hit the newsstands last week in mainland China for the first time, with the sexy singer Beyonce on the cover, the competition was fierce.

Readers here had already seen the February issue of For Him Magazine, which features a Chinese singer, A Duo, on its cover wearing a white V-neck leotard that reveals every other inch of her rather substantial figure.

Inside, A Duo poses like a dominatrix, clutching her breasts, wrapping her naked body in celluloid and bending, sweat-drenched, over a submissive man.

The racy For Him Magazine also offers tips on "how to do it in five minutes" (because a "sex break is the same as a coffee break") and features stories with titles like "The Dangerous Sex Journey of QiQi."

The images and text would hardly be shocking to North American or European readers. And the magazine's photographs are tame compared with what appears in magazines in Japan and other parts of Asia, including the rest of China ¡X Hong Kong and Macao.

But in mainland China, where sex is still a taboo subject and pornography is outlawed by the ruling Communist Party, the images are not only highly provocative, but also perhaps the latest sign that sex and sexuality are infiltrating the mainstream media.

And this powerful burst of sexual energy seems both a symbol of how rapidly the transformation of China is unfolding and, to some, a harbinger of the troubles ahead for a nation that will inevitably struggle to absorb its newfound freedoms. "There is a fine line between the open mind and sexual indulgence," said Xie Xialing, a professor of sociology at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Even five years ago, mainland books and magazines were banned from showing pictures of scantily clad models or publishing content that was deemed offensive or morally corrupt. The only sexual content to be found was in sex education pamphlets or books of nude Chinese women sold as "art works" at big city airports.

Today, however, with the Chinese economy booming and the government loosening its hold on the personal lives of everyday citizens, magazines are beginning to publish soft-core pornographic photographs, sexual fantasies and even clues about where to pick up call girls.

Popular mainland Web sites are going further, posting erotic videos and creating forums for women eager to market their sex appeal and post their photographs on the Internet: images of traveling with friends, undressing at home, even striking erotic poses.

"This is a kind of grass-roots sexual revolution," said Annie Wang, author of "The People's Republic of Desire," a satirical novel about the mad race to modernization.

The government announces periodic crackdowns on pornography and often censors sexual content in magazines and on the Web. But since about 2000, the censors have started to look the other way. Political activism is still a no-no in New China. Entertainment is a different matter. Even the Web site of Xinhua, the official press agency, offers slide shows of the "10 Hottest Babes of 2006" and "Rarely Seen Photos of Sexy Men."

Many say the trend is being driven by the market, and by entrepreneurs eager to cash in on the freer lifestyles on the mainland.

"The market is the No. 1 driving force behind the boom of such magazines," said Pan Suiming, a professor of sociology at Renmin University in Beijing. Western luxury brands entering the mainland market want to advertise in popular magazines and on Web sites that draw consumers. And on the mainland right now, pictures of sex kittens draw.

For Him Magazine is one of the success stories of this genre, with a circulation of about 480,000. It probably helps that the magazine is published by a government agency, the National Tourism Administration, an indication of official interest in investing in the phenomenon.

Jacky Jin, the magazine's editor in chief, said he wanted to affirm a new kind of lifestyle for readers that he calls the new mainland metrosexuals, guys who love cars, gadgets and girls.

"We're opening a new window for Chinese men," he said, noting that he has been criticized by government censors on several occasions.

A decade ago, the private lives of people on the mainland were still quite restricted. Whom you married, where you lived and what was considered permissible were tightly controlled or closely monitored by the government, employers and other authorities.

But urbanization, greater mobility and the power of the World Wide Web have challenged all that.

Now, experts say, the mainland is going through a period of enormous personal and sexual freedom. Young people ¡X most of whom grew up without siblings under the one-child policy ¡X are wearing more hip and provocative clothing. And they're growing addicted to entertainment online, where they can also search for love and indulge their lust.

Pan said he thought one reason for the cultural change was a change in women's attitudes.

"Women, especially young women in the cities, no longer think it's a bad thing to expose their bodies," he said. "Five or six years ago, when some women started to wear clothes that exposed their midriff, most people couldn't understand why belly buttons should be regarded as beautiful and deserve public exposure. Today, young women think it is natural to bare their midriff."

Zha Jianying, a Beijing writer and author of "China Pop," said the growing openness was actually a good thing.

"This trend of being more open about sex is definitely healthy, coming after all those years of puritanism and Maoist suppression," Zha said. "Now, maybe we're seeing the pendulum swing in the other direction."

But Xie at Fudan University said things had gone too far.

"In certain periods in history, such as the decadent Ming dynasty, sex was not a taboo and even intellectuals would talk about their sex skills casually over tea," he said. "Today's society is still better than that. But I do find that people care less about dignity."

He went on to call for limits on how much skin can be shown publicly, and said: "Human beings should have a sense of shame."

Other critics say the new freedoms have brought degeneracy, a boom in prostitution, and what Wang, the author, called "the concubine mentality."

Hard-core pornography remains under assault by the government, which can exact heavy fines on trespassers. One pornography kingpin was recently sentenced to life in prison.

And the censors are wary of influences from the West, like the TV show "Sex and the City," which has a huge following here, mostly on pirated DVDs.

Even "The Vagina Monologues" theater play was canceled in Shanghai recently, apparently because of the title.

But in a country that also happens to be the largest manufacturer of sex toys, being naughty is catching on.

In November a man in Shanghai was selling condoms in packages bearing the likeness of Chairman Mao.

His shop was closed for selling condoms in "inappropriate packages."


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