Motivations of women who organized others for prostitution: Evidence from a female prison in China

This article discusses women’s involvement in sex work management – an offence defined under section 358 of the 1997 Chinese Criminal Law and one of the re-emerged areas of illegality following the economic reforms since 1978. It first provides the historical context, legislative background and relevant sections of the Chinese vice laws so as to help make sense of the data obtained. Then it discusses the methodological issues before presenting the empirical findings to explore the socio-demographic profile of the incarcerated female sex work organizers who participated in this study and their motivations for organizing others for prostitution. Based on empirical data, this article explores the impact of social conditions on female offenders in China’s reform era and also the effects of the anti-prostitution policy in the country. Moreover, through a Chinese case study, it makes contributions to broader scholarship on the sex trade regulation. It concludes with a couple of implications for policy and practice

Macrocheles species (Acari: Macrochelidae) associated with human corpses in Europe

The biology of macrochelid mites might offer new venues for the interpretation of the environmental conditions surrounding human death and decomposition. Three human corpses, one from Sweden and two from Spain, have been analysed for the occurrence of Macrochelidae species. Macrocheles muscaedomesticae females were associated with a corpse that was found in a popular beach area of southeast Spain. Their arrival coincides with the occurrence of one of their major carrier species, the filth fly Fannia scalaris, the activity of which peaks during mid-summer. M. glaber specimens were collected from a corpse in a shallow grave in a forest in Sweden at the end of summer, concurrent with the arrival of beetles attracted by odours from the corpse. M. perglaber adults were sampled from a corpse found indoors in the rural surroundings of Granada city, Spain. The phoretic behaviour of this species is similar to that of M. glaber, but being more specific to Scarabaeidae and Geotrupidae dung beetles, most of which favour human faeces. M. muscaedomesticae is known from urban and rural areas and poultry farms; M. glaber from outdoors, particularly the countryside; while M. perglaber from outdoor, rural, and remote, potentially mountainous locations. M. muscaedomesticae and M. perglaber are reported for the first time from the Iberian Peninsula. This is the first record of M. perglaber from human remains

Macrocheles species (Acari: Macrochelidae) associated with human corpses in Europe

The biology of macrochelid mites might offer new venues for the interpretation of the environmental conditions surrounding human death and decomposition. Three human corpses, one from Sweden and two from Spain, have been analysed for the occurrence of Macrochelidae species. Macrocheles muscaedomesticae females were associated with a corpse that was found in a popular beach area of southeast Spain. Their arrival coincides with the occurrence of one of their major carrier species, the filth fly Fannia scalaris, the activity of which peaks during mid-summer. M. glaber specimens were collected from a corpse in a shallow grave in a forest in Sweden at the end of summer, concurrent with the arrival of beetles attracted by odours from the corpse. M. perglaber adults were sampled from a corpse found indoors in the rural surroundings of Granada city, Spain. The phoretic behaviour of this species is similar to that of M. glaber, but being more specific to Scarabaeidae and Geotrupidae dung beetles, most of which favour human faeces. M. muscaedomesticae is known from urban and rural areas and poultry farms; M. glaber from outdoors, particularly the countryside; while M. perglaber from outdoor, rural, and remote, potentially mountainous locations. M. muscaedomesticae and M. perglaber are reported for the first time from the Iberian Peninsula. This is the first record of M. perglaber from human remains

Making Transnational Intimacies: Intergenerational Relationships in Chinese-Western Families in Beijing

In this study, we explore intergenerational relationships in Chinese-Western transnational families. Our argument draws on 28 life story interviews with Chinese middle-class professionals and their Western partners in Beijing. In the context of their living arrangements in Beijing, many of these couples had close ties with their Chinese parents or in-laws, in some cases living together under the same roof. We draw on our participants' interview narratives to ask how their culturally situated, sometimes disparate, understandings of intimacy shaped their relationships with their parents or in-laws. In this context, our analysis focuses on the ways in which our participants negotiated understandings and practices in their families. We conceptualise our participants' transnational families as an individualised intimate space, within which meanings of family, filial piety, and marriage cannot be taken for granted and require an ongoing process of reflexive negotiation to become and remain mutually acceptable. With this study, we seek to add to academic debates about parent-child relationships and filial piety in Chinese society. While there is a sizeable literature on this subject matter, the ways in which the quickly growing number of transnational marriages in China may rework intergenerational relationships remain poorly understood

Torture and Love: Wives of Chinese Gay Men and Their Cyber Communities

It is estimated that there are at least 14 million women in China who are married to gay men. Called tongqi (同妻) these women often have unknowingly entered into such marriages, with their dreams of a happily family life crushed. For many gay men, these marriages become a useful camouflage that protect them from social pressure and discrimination. While sustaining their heterosexual marriages, they also maintain relationships with gay partners. The women, on the other hand, live tortured lives. They are filled with anger and feel they have been cheated and trapped in their marriages. They are also frightened of the social stigma that they might have contracted HIV from their husbands. With the proliferation of ICTs, especially smartphones, in China, the tongqis are now increasingly afforded the ability to form cybercommunities, which serve as both their social network as well as their political network. This chapter examines the posts and comments of tongqis on open online platforms such as Tianya Luntan and Tongqi Ba. Using this data set, I argue that ICTs, particularly in mobile platforms, allow tongqis to find and build community as well as to educate the public and advocate for social and political change. I also point out, however, the limits of what such technologies can allow tongqis to do, given how laws and societal attitudes about intimate relationships in China have yet to change