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The New Paper
Tuesday, Nov 06, 2012
CHINA - How far - or how low - would you go to push your cause?
One woman went further than most for what she passionately believes in - she became a "prostitute" to highlight the plight of sex workers and the issue of safe sex.
It's not about courage, insists Chinese activist and blogger Ye Haiyan in a phone interview with The New Paper on Sunday from her Yulin office in Guangxi province. It's about speaking out about what's right.
She speaks in rapid Mandarin, occasionally switching to English, and frequently punctuates her conversation with booming laughter.
Ms Ye, 37, a divorcee with a teenage daughter, declares: "I must be the first person who dares to openly acknowledge that I was a sex worker.
"And yes, there are still many people who think I'm crazy."
Crazy enough, she adds, to volunteer as a "prostitute" for nearly three days, offering free sex for migrant workers in Ten Yuan Brothel, in Wuhan in Hubei province.
Wuhan is a major transport and commercial hub in central China and has many migrant workers.
It's a move, she says mockingly, that has "raised eyebrows among the common folk and the ire of the authorities".
"I can understand the feelings of the ordinary people simply because prostitution is not part of your everyday conversation," says the former primary school teacher.
Her resume includes being a secretary, Hakka culture researcher and handicraft maker.
Ms Ye wanted to create awareness of the predicament of sex workers by offering a first-hand perspective of their lives.
Her bold experiment has made her a global sensation. Her story has been featured in international media, including The Economist.
The woman who calls herself "Hooligan Yan" says adamantly: "My name is synonymous with the word 'hooker'.
"But I have no hidden agenda. I just believe in speaking up against the injustice on behalf of a group that has been oppressed for so long."
She was also fed up with being arrested (three times) just because she "advocated the legalisation of prostitution".
Providing sex for money - or in her case, for free - is not always wrong.
She explains why she offered free sex: "Since I wasn't charging a fee, I didn't have to worry about being charged for prostitution."
In January, just before Chinese New Year, she offered free sex to four men, aged between 18 and 50 in Wuhan, about 17 hours drive away from her home in Yulin.
She picked Wuhan because of the many brothels that offer cheap sex.
She had been gung-ho about it at first. But when the migrant workers started peering into the small room she had rented at the brothel, she recoiled in fear.
"The first man was someone who looked like he was in his late 50s or early 60s, and he was so shabbily dressed.
"His pants looked like it was going to drop, but the sides were held together by an elastic band."
He didn't quite fit her perceived notion of what a customer would be like, she adds with a sigh.
"I have a great deal of respect for the elderly and I couldn't see myself having sex with someone who reminds me of my father," says Ms Ye.
"All his teeth were gone. I couldn't take my eyes off his toothless mouth as he spoke in a strong local accent.
"I knew I couldn't do it, so I turned him down."
As he walked away dejected, she thought about backing out. She rejected another three or four men who walked in.
She remembers starkly another man who walked up to her door several times.
"He looked so dirty and off-putting in his torn and tattered clothes. I made up my mind right away that there was no way I'd have sex with him.
"I told him, you come here looking for girls, you should at least clean yourself up."
The man hurried off to wash his face before returning to her door again.
"I was shocked, so I told him that I was actually on holiday," she recalls. "He was smart to call my bluff but really, I couldn't do it with him."
Such incidents helped deepen her respect for the women working in the Ten Yuan Brothel, so named because of the rate they charge. Ten yuan is about S$2.00.
"Another worker would have serviced him," she says.
Her first customer was an 18-year-old, a regular at the brothel.
"He's paid for the other women before and has his favourites. But seeing that I was 'new', he decided to approach me.
"We chatted a bit and I asked him why he'd have sex with women who are old enough to be his aunts. 'Do you not worry about sexual diseases?' I wanted to know, too.
"But he didn't seem to understand what I was saying. Maybe he felt worried that I was going to talk too much. He was about to walk off.
"I quickly told him to come in and that I'd do it for free. When I insisted that he wear a condom, he reacted like, 'What's that?'
"That's how it is in the rural areas - most of them don't even know what a condom is. I helped him put on one that I'd prepared earlier."
Another customer was a middle-aged man who had three layers of clothes.
Her voice drops as she relates: "His clothes had holes everywhere but they were clean.
"As he stripped, my heart went out to him. You could tell that he'd been feeling cold because the clothes barely covered him."
He also put on a brave front and asked Ms Ye: "You are so beautiful, are you sure you are willing to do it with me?"
When they began to have sex, he started to shiver.
"I didn't know know if it was from the cold, or whether he was tense, but I just felt so sorry for him.
"So I hugged him tightly," she says.
"I just wanted to keep him warm, physically or emotionally."
It was an act that touched the man.
"When he left, he told me, "You are the best person among the people I've met so far. Thank you'
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