One of the ways I’ve been spending my time in Hong Kong is by teaching English to Mainland Chinese sex workers. It’s only once a week for an hour and a half and generally the lessons are unremarkable. I find the classes a lot less interesting than those I spent with an auditor moving to California who wanted to learn American dating rituals or even my middle schoolers. But this work is critical because of the English transactions my students will have with their clients, American men in Hong Kong for business. Knowing how to communicate prices, times, directions, Yes/ No, these are all important. And sometimes it’s fun, I taught the colors with a rainbow of condoms wrappers.

The girls are really pretty. They’re good at makeup and don’t wobble in heels. They sit up straight and make eye contact. They come to class on time every single week and keep my stuttering accountable, they’re busy. My first students told me they were both named Angel. The alpha stayed Angel and the other girl started going by her Chinese name. I wear makeup and leave the denim shirt at home when I teach them because I get so self-conscious about my femininity. One time I said something about sex work to a friend who told me, “good luck finding a paying client!” These girls don’t need luck, they are calm and responsive and kind in a way that has consciously evolved over time. They practice giving love everyday.

The more assertive student, maybe she’s 35, she has an apple watch that goes off every once in awhile requiring her to rush out of class. When we first met, I found her treatment of the other girls off-putting. She seemed to have little sympathy for the girls who were not as savvy or diligent. But she was the only student to come to class when there was a big storm and she keeps an organized folder for her worksheets. She asks me to focus on phonics more.

The other angel has a flip phone, her calls can usually wait until the end of the lesson. She is naturally prettier but spends less money on herself. She’s very small and wearing the same pair of sparkly wedge sneakers every week her face comes to my shoulder. When other girls come who have missed earlier lessons, she tries to help them as we all stumble through greetings and food orders, often falling behind herself.

Compared to sex workers in the Mainland, the Hong Kong girls do alright. From what I’ve read, after deductions, they usually make around $32 USD an hour which for the cost of living is comparable to the average of $15/ hour for xiaojie in Shenzhen, China, but a huge leap from $1.40 in the Chinese countryside. That $32 isn't based on a set 40-hour work week though. Like any freelance job, there is the commuting and the scheduling and the marketing. Specifically for these girls, there are also the expensive and time-consuming shopping trips and beauty rituals. The income depends on being on call at all hours, most women work 6-7 days a week and get little rest. They also have to budget and save for rainy days, 51% of xiaojie surveyed in Beijing reported having been completely cheated by their customers.

One student is from Guangxi province where the minimum wage is $145 USD/ month. Many Chinese people think China is a poor country. Without knowing any details about her, I think it’s safe to say that this money means a lot back home, a lot to their sons and daughters who can attend school because of the earnings. The Hong Kong girls are entrepreneurs and when the apple watch girl refuses to share her English lesson photocopies with someone who forgot theirs, I remember that resources are scarce.

The apple watch girl is also the real LV bag girl and one time when we’re leaving, she invites me to lunch with another student who is her friend. I go with them to what ends up being a steakhouse. It’s a classic Hong Kong place where I imagine triads once met before the city got cleaned up. The restaurant originally opened with the tea houses to bring Western-style beef and tomato soup to Chinese businessmen. It’s really more Chinese-style Western-style steak, but either way, I can’t afford it. I try to order the BLT, but the girls, the women, insist on paying. I am their teacher, they are older than me, this is Chinese custom.

Later I tell the organization, and they explain that if I don’t return the money, they will report me for promoting prostitution since I have accepted benefits from their earnings. Given their position, they need to be clear and strict. I send a bunch of frantic emails and return the cash the next week. The advocate asks me which girl it was who paid for lunch; it’s the apple watch girl, the LV girl, the girl who is the most persistent student and eager to get ahead. “We’ve told her before. I think she purposefully forgot.” In Chinese custom, you receive a favor, then you return the favor, and then there’s how everyone tells me I look young and naive. I return the money the next class in a slightly embarrassing exchange that includes a long-winded explanation by the advocates.

Whether there was any maneuvering or not, she continues to come to class every week, always a few minutes early for some extra minutes of tutoring.

~

These are some observations after just a few months. I reached out to a couple people who have worked with Chinese sex workers for years. Below are interviews with Dr. Zheng Tiantian, author of Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China, and an anonymous representative from Hong Kong- based advocacy group Zi Teng (where I volunteer). I hope the contradictions in our takeaways can reveal the complexity both of the business and of observation.

The interviews have been edited for length.

I also want to add that while the conditions that sex workers face in China are startling and often do fall under the category of human rights violations, China's legal system and civil society have made incredible transformations in the last years and I really do believe things will change in the next decade or so. Many of the ways that Chinese sex workers are penalized are reminiscent of the old guard (such as re-education camps, see below), but it was not that long ago that women working in the factories had to offer their stained underwear each month to prove their barrenness. As all of China moves forward "crossing the river by touching the stones," those who fall through the cracks or are treated according to the "old way", suffer the most, especially in relation to the "new way." The understanding and practice of justice is just uneven as Chinas' economic and technological advancements and in no society is it the outcast who receives benefits of the vanguard. But inconsistencies are proof that change is coming.