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Nightclubs emerged in the post-Mao era following the initiation of economic liberalization. Although the consumption of sexual services of hostesses is illegal and subject to different degrees of harassment by local police, the patrons claim that their engagement in sex consumption represents their weapon against the socialist morality and socialist state. In my own analysis, I illustrate how sex consumption is a criterion to evaluate one another's deference, reliability, self-control, and sexual potency. Sex consumption becomes a business ritual for conducting the pre-selection of, and bonding with, potential partners to reach mutual trust in their social alliance in the current Chinese state-clientelism.
Tiantian Zheng (2005) studied this question.