ABSTRACT
This chapter examines prostitution in China within the context of a society in transition—an isolated, agricultural and underdeveloped country transforming into an open, industrialized, and urbanized one. The economic reform and open door policy, however, has also restructured the lives of Chinese people in a negative way. The scale of internal migration in China is so phenomenal that the population in destination cities becomes really huge, compared to what it was before the economic reform. The creation of Special Economic Zones in the southeast coastal areas became a magnet for these migrants and they constituted what is referred to as a "floating population," that is temporary migrants without local household registration. Economic reform strategies resulted not only in high rates of unemployment, but also in an unequal pace of economic development. In order to attract international investments, the government designed a variety of favorable economic policies and applied them to southeastern cities.
