China’s Sex Tourism Boom Changing the Stature of Chinese Language Abroad?!

The use of foreign languages in a particular country often shows the status of that language in the foreign country.  For instance, English, as the global lingua franca, is heard in most places around the world.  Rich countries, with their rich tourist crowds, usually get the benefit of locals attempting to speak their native tongues.  So it caught me as a rather interesting surprise when I overheard local Spaniards using their broken Chinese, rather than Japanese (as it is usual) to the Asians walking down the street.

Unfortunately, the situation is perhaps one of the most awkward usages of the Chinese language in a foreign land that one would ever encounter.  It came from scantily-clad prostitutes manning the dark, empty streets of Madrid’s main shopping thoroughfares at midnight, in the form of “Ni-hao! Da-pao!” (This literally means “Hello! Masturbation!”)  While addressing Asian tourists during the day, Japanese is still the preferred language of the street hawkers, but the market has changed the language used for the “night tourists.”

Tourism has always been extremely sensitive to fluctuation in global economic situations.  The big spenders of one day may be completely gone two days later, never to be back again.  And the drastic changes are especially true for foreign tourism originating from the other side of the world.  With such huge expenses needed just to get to the sunny Iberian Peninsula, the citizens of a particular country would be present largely depending on how well their country is doing economically. 

And for an industry as relatively discreet and expensive (for the customers’ wallet and the workers’ risk of legal prosecution) as prostitution, adjusting to change must be extra-quick and extra-pinpoint in order to attract customers in any sort of sustainable fashion.  Thus, in a way, the use of Chinese by Spanish “ladies of night” signals, like everything else, the growth of Chinese economic power, and a corresponding increase in number of big-spending Chinese tourists abroad.

But as much as the economic logic makes sense, it is still very much subjected to the assumption that there is a linear correlation between larger numbers of (male) tourists and increased usage of local prostitution services.  Looking from a cultural standpoint, it is simply untrue that lonely young men from EVERY country will be equally likely to burn their cash on happy endings when they decide to land on foreign shores.  Some religious ones will see it as taboo, while others will see dangers to health as a primary obstacle.

So in general, it can be said that sex tourists need to (1) have quite a bit of extra cash to spend, (2) have no moral objections to buying sex, and (3) have desires fore foreign flesh that cannot be sufficiently counterbalanced by fear of bringing home some undesirable bodily souvenirs.  Somehow, as far as Asians are concerned, it seems that Chinese guys on vacations are judged to be more likely to have these characteristics, as compared to the Japanese, or citizens of any other Asian countries, for that matter.

One should not doubt for a second the judgment of these Spanish ladies.  Their collective decision to switch to Chinese (who knows how long ago) is definitely a reflection of their shrewd observations, internal communications, and personal experiences.  Yet, for a Chinese man NOT looking for such services to walk down the street at night, should he be feeling a sense of shame or pride in realizing how the inundation of their horny countrymen has changed the market for paid sex on the other side of the world?

Prostitution, as the oldest continuously existing profession in the world, is one that will never be extinguished no matter how hard civil, health, and religious authorities rally against it.  This is true in Spain, China, Japan, or anywhere else.  But even as demands for sex will always exist due to biological need, the lighthearted fashion in which large numbers of Chinese tourists are using Spain to fulfill that need still makes one contemplate just what sort of collective image Chinese people should portray to the world.