Invisible women: Chinese media responses to the Japanese "orgy"

Abstract

This chapter explores the portrayal of the 2003 “Zhuhai incident” in China where several hundred Japanese businessmen were involved in procuring the services of hundreds of young, female Chinese prostitutes for a “three-day orgy” (as widely described in the media), at a luxury hotel in southern China. The ensuing media outcry—locally and internationally in both the conventional and digital media—focused on a range of side issues mostly concerned with Sino-Japanese history. This chapter is interested in not only the Zhuhai incident itself and the reporting of it, but also the broader positioning of gender in such an event, and, as well, the practices of the Chinese media in dealing with reportage of events involving prostitution and sexual assault. While the Chinese media played an important role in revealing this serious incident of mass prostitution, forcing the government to take swift action, the media also portrayed the event as shameful and humiliating to the nation. As a result, there is little discussion of the sex workers/prostitutes as “victims,” nor as the recipients of sexual violence.