China's New Wealth Spurs a Market for Mistresses

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/world/asia/10mistress.html

BEIJING - Jian, a 42-year-old property developer in the booming southern metropolis of Shenzhen, had acquired just about everything men of his socioeconomic ilk covet: a Mercedes-Benz, a sprawling antique jade collection and a lavishly appointed duplex for his wife and daughter.
It was only natural then, he said, that two years ago he took up another costly pastime: a beguiling 20-year-old art major whose affections run him about $6,100 a month.
Jian, who asked that his full name be withheld lest it endanger his 20-year marriage, cavorts with his young coed in a secret apartment he owns, a price he willingly pays for the modern equivalent of a concubine.
"Keeping a mistress is just like playing golf," he said. "Both are expensive hobbies."
As China has shed its chaste Communist mores for the wealth and indulgences of a market-oriented economy, the boom has bred a generation of nouveau-riche lotharios yearning to rival the sexual conquests of their imperial ancestors. Even the Chinese term for mistress - "ernai," or second wife - harks back to that polygamous tradition of yore.
Judging from the embarrassing revelations to emerge in recent months, such arrangements appear to be commonplace among the corporate titans, rags-to-riches entrepreneurs and government officials whose inordinate and sometimes ill-gotten gains can maintain one or more lovers - many of whom are sustained through stipends, furnished apartments and luxury sports cars.
But these relationships - and their sometimes messy devolutions - have ignited a growing backlash as the public stews over the incessant tales of morally compromised officials, greedy lovers and vengeful wives regularly splashed across newspapers and published on the Internet - unless censors get to them first.
In July, Xu Maiyong, the former vice mayor of the capital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, was executed for bribery and embezzlement worth more than $30 million. Nicknaming him "Plenty Xu," the Chinese press reported that he kept dozens of mistresses.
Just a few weeks before, an official in Jiangsu Province and his mistress were caught making detailed plans for a hotel-room rendezvous on the microblog Weibo after mistakenly believing their messages were private.
In February, Railway Minister Liu Zhijun, a 58-year-old with a combover, was removed from his post after news reports said he had embezzled $152 million over the years. But a leaked directive from the Central Propaganda Bureau revealed a more salacious side to his misconduct: "All media are not to report or hype the news that Liu Zhijun had 18 mistresses."
A month earlier, the mistress of a party official in Guangdong Province sentenced to death in a $4.5 million bribery scandal was herself jailed for the Land Rover and property she had received from him.
And in one of the most shocking cases, an official in Hubei Province was detained in December on suspicion of strangling his mistress - then pregnant with twins - and dumping her body in a river after she demanded he marry her or pay $300,000, according to media reports.
The phenomenon has been an official concern for some time now. In 2007, China's top prosecutor's office said that 90 percent of the country's most senior officials felled by corruption scandals in previous years had kept mistresses.
Faced with a spate of legal disputes between mistresses and their lovers over money and with growing public disgust that threatens to tarnish its authority, the Communist Party is trying to stanch the mistress tide through carrots and sticks aimed at women and men alike.
The Supreme People's Court has considered a draft interpretation of the country's marriage law that would for the first time acknowledge mistresses, stating that they have no legal right to their patron's money, property or other expensive trinkets, legal experts said. Likewise, married men would not be able to use the courts to regain the cash and other niceties they had lavished on affairs gone bad.
In an effort to combat the growing lure of the sugar daddy, some local governments have gone on the offensive, preaching against moral turpitude and trying to encourage young women to rely on less carnal skills to survive. To that end, officials in Guangdong announced in March that starting this autumn all girls in elementary and middle school would be required to take a new course in "self-esteem, self-confidence, self-reliance and self-improvement."
Such efforts are inspired by what many see as a ballooning moral crisis. Indeed, an entire industry has sprung up that lures young women with promises of sexually-oriented shortcuts to success. In April, the police in Beijing broke up one such "college concubine agency" that claimed to connect university students with wealthy admirers for up to $100,000 annually.
"Walk around Beijing and what do you see? 'Buy a new Audi, look at this Rolex, you need some clothes from Gucci,'$" said Zhou Guanquan, a law professor at Tsinghua University. "Such things are simply unaffordable, but becoming a mistress can solve this problem."
Those who see mistresses as victims of the nation's frayed moral fabric and a glaring income gap say the legal system is merely compounding the problem.
Zheng Beichun, a Beijing-based lawyer who has represented mistresses in court, said the nation's elite, including judges and government officials, have little desire to tinker with the status quo.
"They are the ones running around with mistresses in the first place, so it's in their own interest to make defending mistresses' rights very difficult," Mr. Zheng said. He said he started a Web site in 2006 offering legal services and counseling for mistresses that drew over 600 desperate women before it was shut down.
Not all mistresses are in it for the money. Three years ago, Lulu, 24, said she fell for a successful artist from Sichuan Province who just happened to be married. But his high profile in the art world, not to mention his wife and young daughter, prevent the two from seeing each other more than once a month, leaving Lulu, who like the others said she was too ashamed to have her full name revealed, alone much of the time.
"I have a relationship with my phone," she said one recent afternoon, as she forlornly scrolled through some of his latest texts, among them "have you eaten?" "go to bed," and "I love you."
Dependent on her lover for money because he forbids her to work, Lulu says she feels trapped. "Leaving him is not an option," she said bitterly. "I've had many men propose to me, but they're no better than him. They also have their own secret lives."
Li, the daughter of illiterate peasants from a remote village in Jiangxi Province, said she grew up sharing one quilt with her parents and a brother during winter and hearing the proverb "laugh at the poor, rather than the whore." At 9, she said, she began working in a brick factory for a few cents a week.
"My parents gave me nothing," she said. "Just a pretty face and a nice figure."
After graduating from a university in Guangzhou, Li found an internship at a local electronics company, where she caught the eye of the company's married middle-aged owner. What began as a series of text messages about work soon turned into clandestine nights in luxury hotel rooms, she said. A few months later the boss gave her a debit card, followed by an apartment near the office.
Now 26, Li has a closetful of Jimmy Choos, a new Porsche and a Cartier diamond engagement ring. In May, after her boss divorced his wife, he and Li got married.
But romance had nothing to do with Li's decision to tie the knot. "You can't feed yourself with love," she said, even as she was making final wedding preparations. Rather than become a housewife, Li will continue working at her husband's company, where she can earn a decent salary, and more importantly, she says, keep an eye on him.
"A woman should never trust a man, even if it's her husband," she said. "A woman can only trust herself."

they're not mistresses if you aren't married lol!

Lol, nothing changes in the world. Men do whatever it takes to get power and money. Women whore themselves out to get some of that.

Funny how they make girls take self esteem courses. When it's not their esteem that makes them do these things, it's just the nature of women.

"It's better to be a mistress than a poor peasant with nothing"
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[Ikkaku]

they make it sound like it's a new phenomenon

the shit has been going on for ages, especially people from Hong Kong going over to Shenzhen to find their mistresses

[Mizter]

"Keeping a mistress is just like playing golf," he said. "Both are expensive hobbies."

Haha

[LiquidTurbo]

I wonder.. do newspapers in China write about American Big Wigs seeing escorts and going to strip clubs?

[FerrariEnzo]

wouldnt you kinda of expect rich ass guys NOT to have a mistress?? just look at all the celebs.. they all do it... doesnt end well.. lol..

[Gumby]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having multiple GFs or BFs as long as you're not married.

If you want to have new ass every day of the week, don't get married!

[vitaminG]

Why would rich successful men try to have sex with lots of women? It doesnt make any sense.

[El Bastardo]

Bitches are gold diggers. In further news, rain is wet. Join us for our 11pm broadcast when we find out if fire is hot.

[RabidRat]

Originally Posted by vitaminG

Why would rich successful men try to have sex with lots of women? It doesnt make any sense.

hahaha

[shenmecar]

Originally Posted by Tachycardia!

Bitches are gold diggers. In further news, rain is wet. Join us for our 11pm broadcast when we find out if fire is hot.

Breaking news!!! All fish are immune to underwater suffocation. A phenomenon called "drowning"! Join us for the complete details at 7pm!

[PiuYi]

And in one of the most shocking cases, an official in Hubei Province was detained in December on suspicion of strangling his mistress - then pregnant with twins - and dumping her body in a river after she demanded he marry her or pay $300,000, according to media reports.

[scottsman]

Even people who aren't rich have girls on the side in Asia. It's just how shits done.

[tr0ubl3s0m3x]

Can't make a hoe, a housewife.
Posted via RS Mobile

[tiger_handheld]

Originally Posted by shenmecar

Breaking news!!! All fish are immune to underwater suffocation. A phenomenon called "drowning"! Join us for the complete details at 7pm!

" There are many ways a fish can drown. Certain labyrinth fish like Bettas and Gouramis actually breath air (instead of getting it from the water). If they don't have access to atmospheric air, they can drown. Most other fish get their oxygen from dissolved oxygen in the water. In this case, stagnant ponds with little dissolved oxygen can drown a fish (or any other body of water without enough dissolved oxygen). Another way is if the water is so polluted with toxic materials (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pollution), it can damage fishes' gills, leading to suffocation (in the water = drowning)."

-yahoo answers

(this came up on my fb feed yesterday)

[MindBomber]

It's simply unreasonable to expect most men to maintain monogamy, every part of our genetic programming tells us to do otherwise and there are very few men with the will power to do so indefinitely. Yes, yes, I know, long term relationships are not easy but with lots of effort you can keep the spark alive and that helps you resist and defy temptations. I also know nothing worthwhile is supposed to be easy. Instead of forcing yourself to maintain monogamy though, why not just have an honest and open relationship with your partner about your desire to enjoy another person physically on occasion. There's no reason to not safely indulge those temptations outside of jealousy or religious beliefs, that I can honestly think of. That's just my perspective, I would never cheat but I'm definitely honest with my partner about my feelings on monogamy and we're secure enough in our relationship to come to a mutual understanding. The biggest pay off from that understanding, I live with the knowledge my relationship will never end just because my partner some did some naked aerobics with another person; we would need to stop loving one another. not just stop trusting one another.

[Culture_Vulture]

I'm usually one who's open to debate about things like this, but there's just so many things wrong going on in that article that I really, really wonder if it's worth my time.

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

Originally Posted by Culture_Vulture

I'm usually one who's open to debate about things like this, but there's just so many things wrong going on in that article that I really, really wonder if it's worth my time.

like what?

every word of the article is true.

[LiquidTurbo]

"Fuck Bitches. Get Money."

It's universal.

[drunkrussian]

Originally Posted by scottsman

Even people who aren't rich have girls on the side in Asia. It's just how shits done.

no wonder the japanese are so productive
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[optiblue]

If I were rich, I would model my life after Jay Leno's motto. "I have 140 cars, but 1 wife."

In theory, he didn't mention anything about mistresses

[Ch28]

Originally Posted by LiquidTurbo

"Fuck Bitches. Get Money."

It's universal.

"Get Paid. Get Laid"

[Culture_Vulture]

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

like what?

every word of the article is true.

It's because every fucking word of it is true that there are so many things wrong with it.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Culture_Vulture

It's because every fucking word of it is true that there are so many things wrong with it.

I'm not following. Rich dudes get more vagina. This has been true since the beginning of history.

[Meowjin]

I think he' ssaying that every dude in this thread has had their grass cut from some rich dude.