Bullshit in a China Shop - a rant by metastasis
Read
this excellent post by
metastasis, who posted a wonderful and scathing commentary on
this editorial written by News Editor of The Straits Times, Bertha Henson, warning of the danger that China girls pose to the very moral fabric and integrity of our society, and how they will corrupt and pollute the purity and soul of our men and disrupt the sanctity of our wonderful Singaporean marriages. And to think that this appeared in
The Straits Times? Gee, I thought only
The New Paper was fit for this sort of subjective journalism?
Why those China girls worry me
By Bertha Henson
THINKING ALOUD
IN THE basement of the Golden Mile shopping complex is a very popular coffeeshop that specialises in steamboat meals. I go there often. So do China girls.
On Sunday afternoons, lithe young women with straight long hair will be there, accompanied by their heartlander men.
You can tell them from Chinese Singaporean women because they are fairer and slimmer. And once they speak, well, that's that.
They are there too in top-class lounges in top-class hotels. Lithe and lanky, but better-dressed than their kopitiam sisters, they hang onto the arms of men I recognise as members of the establishment.
They are everywhere and they make me uncomfortable. In fact, all the recent news about China women makes me uncomfortable.
Here's a sample:
China women staking out coffeeshops in Geylang, or hanging out in Chinatown and outside MRT stations, and openly offering their sexual services.
China women swopping elderly folks' savings for plastic bags of red apples.
China women vanishing from tour groups in Singapore and ending up in the vice trade or other illegal work.
Is this China woman phenomenon something to be concerned about? I think so.
Their approach to living and thinking seems so different from the ways of the people here.
We are no strangers to vice, and men here know where to look for their bit of fun. And the women who service them do so discreetly.
The aggression of these China women, on the other hand, is astounding. They pounce on men in broad daylight.
One reader called to complain that one girl opened the passenger door of his car while he was waiting in it. She got in, buckled up and made her pitch.
It seems that the Singapore man, young or old or fat or ugly, is a ticket to the good life for some China girls.
And Chinese Singaporean men do fall for them, if anecdotal evidence is anything to go by. I just hope they are bachelors who have finally found love.
I acknowledge that for some women, desperation drives them into the trade. We have heard it all: the need to feed the family back home, put children through school, tend to sick parents.
One prostitute from China told of how she had been duped by her boyfriend into giving his potential employers sexual favours. He left her high and dry, and she now works for a pimp.
A sad story, but it does make you wonder about the kind of people we are letting into the country.
The fact is, Singaporeans are getting mightily miffed about the problem.
Shopkeepers in Chinatown, for example, are dismayed by the presence of China women because they are keeping legitimate customers away. The women worry about dirty old men looking them up and down, while the men worry that their wives will misunderstand their presence there.
The China girls' presence in Geylang is upsetting even brothel owners because the girls negotiate their own rates.
The single-mindedness with which they seem to pursue their prey is so at odds with everything that most of us here have been brought up to believe in.
And there are simply too many stories of marriages wrecked because the husband has a mistress from China.
I suppose some people would argue that nothing should be done, and that the men should either get their kicks or get what they deserve - depending on how you look at it.
I disagree.
There is no way of counting the lives that have been wrecked by these women.
And if there is - rightly - such a fuss about the lives that will be ruined by a proposed casino, this issue deserves a more thorough looking at as well.
There have been some government moves recently to contain the number of China nationals here. For one, it has turned off the tap for construction workers from China (men though) and quietly dropped an experiment to introduce China maids in homes.
When the private education boom here brought not just China students but also their mothers, restrictions were placed on what sort of jobs these 'study mamas' could moonlight in.
While visa rules have been relaxed, there is still a security bond that agencies have to put down in case their China visitors 'vanish'.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority declined to give figures on tourists from China who have 'disappeared'. One can only speculate that it is a sizeable problem, or it would be no big deal for the ICA to say the numbers are negligible.
The number of tourists from China in the month of May, by the way, was about 70,000, and the target for this year is 770,000.
There are, I'm sure, men who go missing as well. And I am sure those that do aren't giving away free lessons in biculturalism.
It is time to put a stop to it. We cannot close our borders, but a way must be found to make sure the tourists we let in are really here for the sights.
Right now, Singapore tour agents rely on agencies approved by the Chinese government to vet customers and make sure they are genuine. Obviously, this is not working as well as it should.
One idea would be to get Singapore firms themselves to set up offices in China to do the vetting.
There is talk that Malaysia will require single China women below the age of 25 to be accompanied by a family member if they want to enter Malaysia. If they are married, their husbands must accompany them.
Should we go the same route?
I say we should think seriously about copying the move.
Or is the China tourist dollar so big that we will look the other way?
I hope not, because, at the risk of sounding old-fashioned, the moral structure of our society does not need to come under further strain.
So can we please stop importing more problems than it can take?
Ivan's comments: I can just imagine PC Lee standing up and then in mock respect, clap his hands and shout "Whoah!!!"
Wahahahahaha...
Er... I thought such an abject and subjective display of xenophobia was generally frowned upon in Singapore?
You can always respond to this article by emailing the writer at
bertha@sph.com.sg
And now, for metastasis' commentary:
Bullshit in a China Shop
[EDIT: I wrote this in one huge rantstorm late at night and so I've ended up editing my original post in places. I haven't mentioned it where I've rewritten for style (and I deleted one whole section and rewrote another where I realised I was rambling on about nothing), but factual corrections are indicated just like this.]
Why those China girls worry me
by Bertha Henson
In the INSIGHT section of all things. Let's have a look.
IN THE basement of the Golden Mile shopping complex is a very popular coffeeshop that specialises in steamboat meals. I go there often. So do China girls.
What a great start. 'In the basement of the mall I go to is a Dairy Queen. I go there often. So do niggers and other filth.'
On Sunday afternoons, lithe young women with straight long hair will be there, accompanied by their heartlander men.
You can tell them from Chinese Singaporean women because they are fairer and slimmer. And once they speak, well, that's that.
They are there too in top-class lounges in top-class hotels. Lithe and lanky, but better-dressed than their kopitiam sisters, they hang onto the arms of men I recognise as members of the establishment.
They are everywhere and they make me uncomfortable.
I'm not surprised! They are, after all, lithe and young and fair and slim and well-dressed and they sleep with powerful men and get paid for it. Every last one of these 'China girls' and 'China women', apparently. I frankly would not have guessed it; all my mainlaind Chinese tutors have been middle-aged and auntie-ish, and though there was a bit of sadism involved I can't say I got much of a kick out of it.
In fact, all the recent news about China women makes me uncomfortable.
Some relatively recent news alarms me too. But of course they deserved it because China women are all dirty whores.
(Not really salient, but too good to pass up.)
Here's a sample:
China women staking out coffeeshops in Geylang, or hanging out in Chinatown and outside MRT stations, and openly offering their sexual services.
'Openly' being the key word in, well, this whole editorial.
China women swopping elderly folks' savings for plastic bags of red apples.
Which no local criminal would ever dream of doing, no doubt.
China women vanishing from tour groups in Singapore and ending up in the vice trade or other illegal work.
This is not a significant separate sample; this is what allows them to commit those horrendous acts in the first place. Listing it on it's own is like listing what makes a murder so evil as being 1) killing someone, 2) illegally buying a gun to kill someone, 3) illegally buying bullets for the gun, 4) using stolen change to take a bus to go and do the killing. . . . More concisely, it's like listing, under 'social problems caused by people smuggled in on boats', the item 'illegal entry on unlicensed boats'.
Is this China woman phenomenon something to be concerned about? I think so.
These 'phenomena' are certainly something to be concerned about for many real reasons. None of which are really touched on here—it's all morals, morals, morals with a side of I-shouldn't-need-to-see-this. [EDIT: In retrospect, more like the other way round.]
Their approach to living and thinking seems so different from the ways of the people here.
. . . who mostly did not have take up loans and leave their families and country to illegally immigrate to a foreign country where they have no legal or social status and have to sell their sundry holes to fat sweaty men for money.
Wake up. This is not just a lifestyle choice we've got here.
One reader called to complain that one girl opened the passenger door of his car while he was waiting in it. She got in, buckled up and made her pitch.
That is desperation or greed. Both are very ugly and not unique China Girl v. 1.7 features.
It seems that the Singapore man, young or old or fat or ugly, is a ticket to the good life for some China girls.
And of course non-China girl prostitutes only go for the handsomest, most morally upstanding ones who just happen to be out for 'a bit of fun'. And naturally all these other prostitutes do it out of altruism.
And Chinese Singaporean men do fall for them, if anecdotal evidence is anything to go by. I just hope they are bachelors who have finally found love.
Yes. The johns are completely innocent; it's those dirty harpies who are at fault. But they can turn good with the firm, Asian Values-guided hand of just the right upstanding young man who just happened to accept an offer of illegal, hot, wild, commercial sex—just for a bit of fun.
While we're at it, ban the spaghetti-strap all around. It causes rape. [EDIT: In retrospect this wasn't the best comparison, since of course the prostitute isn't innocent either. But the reasoning's still the same: it's not the man's fault. The woman made him do it. He had no choice. The Edenic view of immorality.]
I acknowledge that for some women, desperation drives them into the trade. We have heard it all: the need to feed the family back home, put children through school, tend to sick parents.
You acknowledge it the way George W. Bush admits the existence of civilian casualties in Iraq.
One prostitute from China told of how she had been duped by her boyfriend into giving his potential employers sexual favours. He left her high and dry, and she now works for a pimp.
A sad story, but it does make you wonder about the kind of people we are letting into the country.
'I mean, when I grew up my daddy promised me a pony, and then he BROKE HIS PROMISE. And I've had to live amidst an immoral, slowly decaying society all my life. And I'm really not paid enough to write such long meandering columns. But never once did I succumb to the temptation to become some sort of. . . some sort of DEVIL WOMAN! At least not an indiscreet one.'
The fact is, Singaporeans are getting mightily miffed about the problem.
Shopkeepers in Chinatown, for example, are dismayed by the presence of China women because they are keeping legitimate customers away. The women worry about dirty old men looking them up and down, while the men worry that their wives will misunderstand their presence there.
This is the stupidest of stupid reasons why the increase in prostitution by illegal Chinese immigrants needs to be looked at. [EDIT: On second thoughts it actually isn't. It is a valid concern, at least for the shopkeepers and women. The men must have really sad marriages if their wives would think that.]
The China girls' presence in Geylang is upsetting even brothel owners because the girls negotiate their own rates.
Not only are they upsetting the common people, they're upsetting conscientious, ethical and (though I hate to be this repetitive) above all discreet professionals in the tits and cunts and arseholes business. Quite beyond the pale.
The single-mindedness with which they seem to pursue their prey is so at odds with everything that most of us here have been brought up to believe in.
Yes. We don't have 'prey', we have 'goals' and 'career landmarks' and 'CVs' and 'jobs we hate but keep because of the money and the promise of a better life'. Not at all similar.
And there are simply too many stories of marriages wrecked because the husband has a mistress from China.
Nothing to do with the husband, of course. He was just a passive observer.
And hang about, what's this mistress stuff got to do with the 'China girl' issue? Not much at all. Red herring, we meet again.
I suppose some people would argue that nothing should be done, and that the men should either get their kicks or get what they deserve - depending on how you look at it.
I disagree.
There is no way of counting the lives that have been wrecked by these women.
Yes, since we have yet to introduce a working scale to measure what amount of wreckedness is due to 'China women' and how much due to near-Priapic men.
And of course you have no interest in tallying up the number of women whose lives have been wrecked by the business. Just pack them up and send them back to China. . . where all women are like that.
The rest of the piece I cannot quarrel with since it largely sticks to factoids and possible solutions. [EDIT: I retract that. I didn't notice the bit where she suggested it be made compulsory that Chinese women be accompanied in by their husbands or male family members. This suggestion should be taken out back and shot.]
All in all, what riles me is this
1) Unnecessary stereotyping—why 'China girls' and 'China woman' all the time? Why not 'China prostitutes' or something? And since the article supposedly deals with a specific issue, why bring in the 'mistresses from China' bit? Because they're from China too?
2) Male chauvinism—it's never the man's fault. The prostitutes are the predators and the men are the prey. The mistresses are the marriage-wreckers and the husbands are among the wreck-ees. And when the men 'fall' for the hooker's tricks, why, maybe they found love. If a man wrote this article, he would be lynched.
3) The emphasis on 'discreetness'—if prostitution is so immoral, and wrecks so many lives, why isn't the writer going after prostitution in general? That's like allowing murder if you do it indoors. It means the writer doesn't really care about 'the moral structure of our society'; she just doesn't want to have to face up to what really goes on in it. Everything must look nice and be presentable; everything must look decent. Asian values for you.
You know, ma'am, that itching in your rear is not Satan tempting you with foulness. It's a stick insect trying to get out.
Ivan's comments: Now I remember why I hardly read the papers these days. And if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go listen to China Girl by The Usual Suspects one more time.
