"Please, keep me as a concubine!"

Chinese campaign against students in desperate need of money!

Isnt' it a bit late?

It started with the sending of messages by mobile phone with cute emoticons. It happens on Chinese universities campus and these mails are sent by potential concubines. Imagine, she is 20, gorgeous, and she wants to be a paid date. The Enjo-kosai 援助交際 (compensating date) of Japan of the 1990's. Same thing in Taiwan.

In today's speedy high-growth China, where luxury replaced the old motto of humanistic awareness, (who dares to use the word revolution?) "it is not uncommon to see a long line of luxury cars or limos in front of universities famous for having pretty girls" writes the commentator-writer Xu Ming of The Global Times, a parent company of governmental Chinese People's Daily in "Campus 'concubines' show victory of money over morals."

Within the annual tuition fees hike in recent years, some of China's famous universities, such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, decided to implement a large increase to MBA tuition fees starting next year, from 5,000 to 30,000 US$. People Daily wrote September 19th http://bit.ly/9Wkv8h

Is it the only reason why students are in dire needs of money? I guess not.

"Unlike ancient concubines who shared a household with the family, ernai (Chinese term used here for Chinese new concubines) is often used to refer to the kept women of older yet rich and powerful married men, their relationship usually kept secret. The women tend to be what you'd expect; young, beautiful gold-diggers. By being "employed" by their sugar daddies, they manage to live a carefree life of luxury. And some of them are college students which are often a favored variety.

There was a time when such things would have ended in jail or in reeducation camp as I saw in the neighborhood of Beijing which gathered prostitutes, petty thieves, drug-addicts and youth without "guanxi" (personal or professional connection).

"Once "hired," these girls tend to be-have rather differently. They are suddenly keen on dressing up and don't care about studying any more."

Description of a process, without much concerns, the paper adds: "While there is nothing illegal about keeping a "concubine" in China, such behavior goes against basic social morals".

We were wondering when the "social pudibonderie" wall would be raised. And now the moral Confucian education knocks at the door of the campus with some reminders: "Money may help them get beauty, but they may be at risk of losing their families, which, unlike the young girls they sleep with, can't be bought with cash."

Although they're still young, the lost time during their golden years is a huge price to pay, the paper carries on with the good question: how to grow the "cultivation of a sense of independence to help students better weigh their life choices?"

Read the story of the Global Times here http://bit.ly/amdyL4

According to China watchers and digging into my memory, I think the free way to look at the Chinese garden of pleasure started rather free in 1983 1984. Money had then become the first ideological reference of rising China to the displeasure of the rulers. Well not to all of them.

Now the irony of the story is that the so called "serious" Chinese press such as the Global Times or other Chinese papers entered into a new strategy to get readers on line: They brand lots of pictures of young ladies from China, Asia and the western nations.

Clicking the image may certainly adds the number of pages read but does not really bring here the confirmation of a newspaper editorial quality. Numbers: I was not yet media-born to witness but I remember following stories about this Mao Era bureaucratic passion for erroneous statistics and for "numbers" which drove the country to the great famine of the Great Leap Forward early 60's!

This article-opinion of the GT is not without a political significance, Global Times always produce in-depth analyses of the society and it shows the beginning of a "social campaign" that starts like everything else in China. When it is too late to reverse the trend and might end very very bad.

Maybe not?

Maybe this is an issue that the China's Communist Party is expected to talk about in the 'social affairs' chapter, as we are aware of seeing constant warning campaigns on strangely labeled "moral health" trends. (cash, paid dating, moral stuff?)

Occasion here to remind that today Friday October 15th starts the party annual meeting and on top of the agenda the country's five-year economic plan for 2011 to 2015 and not to forget the political reform calls asked by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, a topic I talked about a few days ago on this blog following the announcement of the Peace Nobel price to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Xinwei First Levi's Cup Beijing Girl Print Models Contest Finals sponsored by Xinwei magazine was held at Costa Cruises in Shanghai. (Sources: Chinanews)

Sources: Reporter's notes and:

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/

http://www.globaltimes.cn/

http://en.youth.cn/