By Zhao Hongyi
With the independent documentary Daddies Date Babies set to premiere this December, the Internet has been abuzz with discussion over the sugar daddy phenomenon.
The film features Stephany Xu, a 23-year old American of Chinese descent who has been engaged in such a relationship to pay off her credit cards and student loans. The man pays for Xu’s dining and travels in exchange for companionship and sex.
But in China, the line between sugar babies and sex workers is very fine.
As with all modern evils, critics blame the sugar daddy relationship on China’s sweeping economic reforms of the 1980s. The following decade of rapid change saw the casual relationships between young women and powerful men quickly morph into big business.
In Shenzhen and Zhuhai, many women sought out businessmen and drivers from Hong Kong and Macau to pay their living costs in the big city in exchange for sexual favors.
Unlike more formal mistresses, women in sugar daddy relationships were typically allowed to have boyfriends on the side.
By the late 2000s, the trade had evolved into a profession.
No one better exemplifies China’s sugar daddy trade than Guo Meimei, the 「professional mistress」 who found notoriety by lying about her employment and showing off pictures of her luxury vehicles and apparel.
The names of most of Guo’s early men remain a mystery even after her arrest and conviction for running an illegal gambling ring.
But while American women in a sugar daddy relationships are fairly frank, Chinese women face pressure to conceal the monetary nature of their sexual relationship.
Although the business aspects may remain secret, most participants are quick to show off the money and fortune it brings.
In 2012, Wang Hongzhi, deputy chairman of the gaming guild Mysterious Dream, revealed the 「price list」 for numerous female models seeking sugar daddies. Most of the women on the list were still college students.
In mid-September, a Weibo user named Yu Siliang announced that Yan Jiehe, chairman of the board of directors for SuSun Group, has maintained sexual relationships with many of his female employees for years. Favored women were awarded with abnormally fast promotions.
「China does not have a clear definition of sex bribes. While the direct trade of sex for money is covered under prostitution, the trade of sex for gifts or power is not,」 said Mao Zhaohui, a professor at Renmin University of China.
(Yang Xin contributed to this story)