Staff Links: James Palmer’s “Kept Women”

From Aeon Magazine’s James Palmer: an article on the phenomenon of the ernai, or “second woman”, in China, where rural and urban women alike become the mistresses of politically powerful Chinese men.  Seeing this fast-moving socioeconomic scene through the eyes of its female participants, Palmer paints a richly layered picture of Chinese women struggling to achieve the possibility of a secure future in a complex and competitive world.

For more on:
Sex, power, and security in China:
– Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China, by Tiantian Zheng (2009).

Women and the rural-urban migration in China:
– Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, by Leslie T. Chang (2009).

The internal dynamics of the Chinese Communist Party:
– The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers, by Richard McGregor (2012).

Migration, sex, and labor in the context of globalization: 
– Cosmopolitan Sex Workers: Women and Migration in a Global City, by Christine B.N. Chin (2013).