China’s second wife culture is a big risk to economic growth, finds gary jones in Shanghai
You can't say Chinese men aren't chivalrous. When a Beijing woman discovered recently that her husband had been cheating, she insisted on the right to beat up her spouse's mistress. The man, wishing to protect his 'second wife', placed an advertisement online for a stand-in.
More than 10 women applied for the job, which would pay £214 (3,000 yuan) for every 10 minutes of beating - more money than a Chinese graduate makes in a month.
Though the millennia-old tradition of Chinese men having concubines was prohibited by law after Mao Zedong took power in 1949, economic reform has resulted in a boom in 'second wives'. For newly affluent Chinese entrepreneurs and corrupt Communist Party cadres, a pampered mistress is a status symbol to rival a 7 series BMW or a Rolex. The most successful may boast many 'golden canaries', housed in secret love nests about town.
The practice has become so common, in fact, that only the most bizarre cases make it into print these days. In one, a disgruntled lover posted a photograph of the deputy mayor of the city of Jining on the internet. The picture showed him kneeling in a hotel room in his underwear, begging not to be reported to his superiors. To no avail. The 51-year-old was eventually sentenced to life in prison for accepting around £250,000 in bribes, which he needed to support four mistresses.
The problem is that while China's successful entrepreneurs can afford the luxury of a second wife, government and bank officials earning about £1,400 a month cannot.
Though the public seems blase about men taking mistresses, China's leaders are concerned about the risk to economic growth. Government departments and state-run banks have lost billions to fraud in recent years. In a review of 102 official corruption cases in Guangdong province, all involved one or more 'golden canaries'.
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