For instance, your little human flesh search was a little over the top – are we on ChinaSmack? Lloyd and Tom are both authors, and Lloyd’s wife is Anchee Min, who wrote the prologue to Tom’s photography book. It’s a 6-degrees thing not uncommon in the literary world; you made no great revelation.

So let’s stay on topic and not make this personal.

The real issue here is teen prostitution and human trafficking, and while Tom Carter did NOT commit some atrocious crime against humanity, as you and the others have portrayed it as, by writing this brothel story, he certainly has not helped the greater cause and might have even set it back ever so slightly.

Nonetheless, your wrath should be directed not at western writers like Tom Carter, but at China’s corrupt communist government who refuse to revise the laws which allow age-old “customs” – such as sex with minors – to continue to exist in modern times without reproach.

That is all from me.

However, I don’t think a false equivalency is doing Carter any favors, either.

Maybe some film producers could be taken to task for producing questionable content you described above, just as computer game designers could be held accountable for producing “murder simulators” on a yearly basis that allows the rest of us to experience the delicious, unbridled ecstasy that comes with ending a simulated human life through the mere tap of a button. In this example, both are staged instances of otherwise objectionable human behavior in media designed to either provide some kind of release through ancillary moments of realism (true for both) or to say something artful (less true for games).

I think a closer analogue would be comparing it to a documentary like “American Movie,” minus the humanizing and characterization that goes into making the two subjects of the film such charming individuals from beginning to end.

Anything can be considered exploitative so long as it fits a certain kind of mean-spirited, jockish narrative, just like Tom’s story. I imagine Carter’s defenders would be singing an altogether different tune were he the focal protagonist of that story instead of his mate.

I do not own this book, but I did read Mr. Carter’s story while browsing at the Beijing Bookworm. It is cruel but comical – I caught myself grinning a few times. I doubt any of the book’s opponents here have actually read said story, and their moral outrage is probably based more on hysterical presumptions and personal insecurities than the content therein.

But for anyone to suggest that Mr. Carter should be prosecuted (or virtually lynched) because of his admissions in this book is the preposterous equivalent of saying the producers and writers of Hollywood films which portray “teens” in statutory sexual situations (e.g. American Beauty) should also be prosecuted.

He gets the idea that people are hypocritical prudes because they supposedly choose to deny the existence of sex slavery (not what the conversation was about to begin with, natch) rather than face it head-on, which he posits in that utterly ridiculous rhetorical challenge. Then, he chooses to view prostitution in China within this kind of vacuum completely devoid of gender brainwashing, the traditional importance placed on male offspring in a household, as well as other social and economic factors that prod a woman into thinking that allowing men like Tom Carter’s friend to penetrate their vagina is somehow the only path to survival. Combating perceived hypocrisy with myopia isn’t the noblest of endeavors.

Yes, people are poor in China. Fuck-ups and conflict on a historical level has bred the current imbalanced socioeconomic situation China faces today. We all got the memo, Lloyd, and we know the routine: Dynasty after dynasty of isolation, invasion by foreigners, upheaval, civil war, blah blah blah, your best mate’s friend fucked a child.

Lloyd does eventually take a stand of sorts that I can agree with in that he doesn’t like sex slavery (yes, Lloyd, while we’re on the topic, I hate the goddamn Nazis too, good on ya mate), but I’d like to see him to take the ultimate stand to justify the idiocy of his sophistry, and challenge him, just as he did to all you witch-hunters.

Lloyd, pay a nocturnal visit to a teenaged prostitute and tell us all about it. +10 What’d-I-tell-you-lot-about-moral-relativity victory points on your blank scorecard if the child makes an honest attempt to mask the fact that you gross her out.

The most glaring example of his flawed thinking is where he tries to direct the issue to exploitation by the US military. Let’s accept that point for argument’s sake. He is saying That it is no big deal if a foreigner has sex with a teen (child) because girls are sold into sex all over the world.

That would be like me writing a story about kidnapping a man on the street, locking him in my home, torturing him and then calling negative comments about that atrocious act hypocritical because those critics don’t speak out against or try to stop the abuses at Guantanamo Bay.

I didn’t bother reading your long-winded response, because I already know everything I need to know about you from the fact that a) you run a blog about an “outsider’s view on China”, (way to corner that very niche and unexplored market, mate) and b” on said blog, you mention this:

‘It also helps to know a few expatriates that live in China, such as Tom Carter, the author of China: Portrait of a People—Tom and I met after we read each other’s books.’

Nice. This isn’t a forum of yore, Lloyd. I will gleefully dismiss any comment you send my way and laugh at you while I continue splashing around in my wading pool of moral-relativistic pedantry, which seems to be your specialty as well. See, to me, that’s a much more preferable singular outcome than crawling around on a chain and defending your best mate Tom Carter’s expl– sorry, I meant his selfless act of illuminating the true realities of the sex trade for the rest of us stuffy, old-fashioned powdered wigs, painstakingly documented in knock-out prose and wit.

So, in summation, I sure as shit can dismiss your comments, just like I’ve done so. That’s my right, such as is your right to post yet another heavy-handed diatribe that assumes moral and logical victory because of “facts” and “numbers”.

You’re alright, Lloyd. Cheers!

I didn’t bother reading your long-winded response, because I already know everything I need to know about you from the fact that a) you run a blog about an “outsider’s view on China”, (way to corner that very niche and unexplored market, mate) and b” on said blog, you mention this:

‘It also helps to know a few expatriates that live in China, such as Tom Carter, the author of China: Portrait of a People—Tom and I met after we read each other’s books.’

Nice. This isn’t a forum of yore, Lloyd. I will gleefully dismiss any comment you send my way and laugh at you while I continue splashing around in my wading pool of moral-relativistic pedantry, which seems to be your specialty as well. See, to me, that’s a much more preferable singular outcome than crawling around on a chain and defending your best mate Tom Carter’s expl– sorry, I meant his selfless act of illuminating the true realities of the sex trade for the rest of us stuffy, old-fashioned powdered wigs, painstakingly documented in knock-out prose and wit.

So, in summation, I sure as shit can dismiss your comments, just like I’ve done so. That’s my right, such as is your right to post yet another heavy-handed diatribe that assumes moral and logical victory because of “facts” and “numbers”.

You’re alright, Lloyd. Cheers!

You have a right to your opinion even if it is wrong, and I don’t agree that Tom’s piece is tacky, voyeuristic or self-indulgent. Instead, by being honest, Tom has opened a window into a world that some self-righteous people do not approve of. The world of prostitution is there even if you do not approve of it. It has been around for thousands of years and as long as there are human men and women on the planet, it will always be there.

And your dismissal of my comment is not accepted. You are not my judge. You are not my God.

Your opinion of his work reflects your individual values/beliefs, and it is obvious to me from the facts that I mentioned in my comment that that those values do not belong to everyone but only to a small segment of the population who are often loud and judgmental.

On your own without consideration of differences in laws and cultures, you have decided for China and every other country on the earth that these girls are underage when in fact, the statuary age of sexual consent varies from country to country.

I think modern day slavery is wrong. I think it is wrong to kidnap young girls and sell them into sexual servitude where they may be brutally bullied to perform without pay.

But how do you know that the girl Tom’s friend had sex with was not there voluntarily?

The age of sexual consent in China is fourteen so the girl that Tom’s friend paid to have sex with could not have been underage. Poverty leaves many young women with few choices and prostitution—the 2nd oldest profession—is one that often pays much better than many other professions.

According to HavoScope.com, the price charged by prostitutes in U.S. Dollars in China varies from city to city. In Beijing it is $100 to $400. In Shanghai it is $650 to $1,600. A girl who works in a hotel spa would be paid—on average—$130.

How much does the average factory worker earn in China annually?

How much does the average farmer earn in China annually?

It doesn’t matter if you approve or not because prostitution is a profession [legal or illegal] and it is often the choice of a prostitute, who was not sold into slavery, if she works in that profession or not. It is how she earns her living and according to these prices it is much better than most jobs in China.

http://www.havocscope.com/black-market-prices/prostitution-prices/

Because of your narrow thinking, you missed my point completely.

Personally, the part about Carter’s piece that offended me the most wasn’t the underage prostitution, but the tendency for white people abroad to pass off their interactions in the lives of locals as something worthy of literary endeavor and not what it really is: tacky and voyeuristic self-indulgence.

For instance, why not condemn the US military. During the Vietnam war a half-million teen prostitutes serviced US troops just in Bangkok, Thailand alone. It's estimated that as many as 2 million services US troops all over Asia: Hong Kong, Japan, Okinawa, the Philippians, etc.

And today in Okinawa the number of young prostitutes imported from the Philippians to service US troops has been 7,000 for years.

In Thailand, there are tours organized for wealthy white Americans to buy virgins as young as twelve.

Even in the US, the age of consent varies from state to state from as young as 16 (mostly in states that have a majority who vote for conservative candidates) to 18 (mostly in states that vote for democratic, progressive candidates).

Before the child labor laws in the early 20th century, girls as young as six or seven could be sold into prostitution in the United States. And children as young as five could be sold into servitude slavery to factories and coal mines.

And in the US, the major port of entry for mostly young women sold into sexual slavery is Houston, Texas---an estimated 17,000 annually.

The US is the leading producer and exporter of child pornography in the world. It's a billion dollar growth industry and there is no sign it is going to slow up. The only US industry that is growing faster is the private sector weapons industry.

It points-out that “the vast majority of youth involved in prostitution are girls, although some service providers see an increase in the number of boys.” It notes that the average age most girls get involved in prostitution is at 14-years and the median age of involvement is 15.5-years. However, it reports child prostitutes being picked up by police at only 11 or 12-years and even 9-years of age. It stresses that child prostitutes come from throughout the country, inner-cities, suburbs and small-towns, and from all walks-of-life. But it notes, “larger cities are more likely to have a higher proportion of boys involved in prostitution”. [Department of Justice, NIS-MART, 2002]

There is a second, and apparently growing, form of prostitution that is apparently “voluntary” and involves the exchange of “favors” like dope, money or other presents. A study by Jessica Edwards, of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, found that an estimated 650,000 American teenagers exchange sex for favors. More surprising, more boys were likely to sell themselves than girls.

All those critics who attacked Tom Carter for his honest piece in the collection are despicable to my thinking. Instead, they should be actively involved in some way in ending sexual slavery in the world and putting a stop to pornography industry.

Globally, the average cost of a slave is $90 today and there are 20 to 30 million of them and it is estimated that 80% are victims of sexual exploitation.

The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14-year-old. Many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children.

A teenaged prostitute is an exploited person and unable to change her circumstances. It is not the same as two consenting individuals having sex. Carter’s role in the story is not simply as a commenter of a situation which i view as unfortunate for the girl. He exploited her twice, first sexually and second by trying to earn his literary chops with this story

Amateur legal arguments? This has nothing to do with age of consent, my boy, and everything to do with prostitution, which is illegal in China and the United States. In any event, you think most 14-year-old prostitutes in China are there by consent? It takes a seriously twisted fuck to take glee in this kind of thing. God help Tom Carter and his women.

As for your amateur legal argument, they’re not in North America, they’re in China, where the legal age of consent is 14 (same for Japan and nearly every other Asian nation).

I’m not saying I personally find any appeal in underage Chinese girls (the mentality of a Chinese 18 year old is the equivalent of an American 8 year old), I’m just saying.