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He Works Hard for the Money
She's Bored and Rich. He's Young and Handsome. Yuan Will Bring Them
Together.
By Hannah Beech
01-06-2004
Shanghai - Jane Zhu loves the full-bodied bordeaux at PuJ's bar in Shanghai's
glitziest hotel. She also loves the cigars, which are, she concedes, nothing
but excessive phallic symbols to be smoked with high-roller abandon. But what
Zhu likes best are the sexy, well-honed bodies out on the disco floor. "The
pickings are best right here," Zhu says, exhaling puffs of Montecristo smoke.
"Which one shall I take home tonight?"
Lovers were once only a rich man's prerogative, but in today's urban China,
married women like Zhu want it all, too. Empowered by rising incomes and left
alone by wandering husbands, many city women see no reason not to taste the eye
candy at places like PuJ's themselves. In the past five years, female
infidelity has contributed to 30% more divorces nationwide, according to a
study conducted by the All-China Women's Federation. Many women applaud the
change—even though they may not approve of rampant bed-hopping. "Even a decade
ago, women didn't have that much power," says Li Yinhe, a sociologist at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. "But today, they have the money
to buy everything, including sex. It's really no different than being a man."
Certainly, Zhu, a well-paid interior decorator, lives it up as much as any
self-respecting Chinese businessman. She's juggling two lovers at the moment,
lavishing them with designer Italian suits, fancy Cantonese meals and portable
CD players. Usually she keeps them hooked with such tokens, but occasionally
she'll pay straight cash for a night of pleasure. "I know my husband does the
same thing when he's traveling on business," she says. "So why can't I?"
Michael Zhang is out there to oblige women like Zhu. He's dressed for success
in a sleek, pin-striped suit and a passable faux Rolex. Girls say they like his
strong jaw and jutting cheekbones. Married women prefer his listening skills
and languorous back rubs. For an all-night chat session with these lonely
wives, Zhang expects only a good dinner and a little farewell gift, like a
leather cell-phone holder or monogrammed gold lighter. But if they want
something more, he expects at least $120 in cash. "We never talk about price
beforehand," he says. "That's tacky. But these women know how these things
work."
Most married women don't go for the flashy gigolos who haunt karaoke parlors in
their black-leather togs. They're for the younger girls who hanker to pair up
with a bad boy for a night. Instead, rich urban wives want the kind of guy they
envision for their daughters: well-mannered, well-groomed, well-heeled. By day
Zhang sells real estate, and his Beijing apartment is filled with pale blond
Ikea furniture. He doesn't need the money, really, but he's longing for a new
Zegna suit, and his latest patron—the 48-year-old wife of a property
magnate—has promised him a spring shopping spree. "We're good for each other,"
he insists. "I give her confidence about her sexuality and she helps me finance
things I could never buy on my own."
For her part, Zhu has no worries about her own sexuality. Her husband told her
he had no interest in her three years after they got married. That was back in
1974, when they were young Red Guards tilling the unforgiving earth in remote
Gansu province. "We got married for convenience," says Zhu. "Now I get to live
my life for myself." She sips her bordeaux and crooks a finger at a
well-muscled specimen circling the bar. As he starts approaching, she takes a
last puff of her cigar and grins: "It's wonderful being a modern Chinese woman,
isn't it?"
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