Dealing in Desire: Asian Ascendancy, Western Decline, and the Hidden Currencies of Global Sex Work / Edition 1

by Kimberly Kay Hoang

Overview

This captivating ethnography explores Vietnam’s sex industry as the country ascends the global and regional stage. Over the course of five years, author Kimberly Kay Hoang worked at four exclusive Saigon hostess bars catering to diverse clientele: wealthy local Vietnamese and Asian businessmen, Viet Kieus (ethnic Vietnamese living abroad), Western businessmen, and Western budget-tourists. Dealing in Desire takes an in-depth and often personal look at both the sex workers and their clients to show how Vietnamese high finance and benevolent giving are connected to the intimate spheres of the informal economy. For the domestic super-elite who use the levers of political power to channel foreign capital into real estate and manufacturing projects, conspicuous consumption is a means of projecting an image of Asian ascendancy to potential investors. For Viet Kieus and Westerners who bring remittances into the local economy, personal relationships with local sex workers reinforce their ideas of Asia’s rise and Western decline, while simultaneously bolstering their diminished masculinity. Dealing in Desire illuminates Ho Chi Minh City’s sex industry as not just a microcosm of the global economy, but a critical space where dreams and deals are traded.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520275577
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/11/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	702,912
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Kimberly Kay Hoang is Assistant Professor of Sociology and the College at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Dealing in Desire

1. Sex Work in HCMC, 1867–Present
2. The Contemporary Sex Industry
3. New Hierarchies of Global Men
4. Entrepreneurial Mommies
5. Autonomy and Consent in Sex Work
6. Constructing Desirable Bodies
7. Sex Workers’ Economic Trajectories
Conclusion: Faltering Ascent

Appendix: The Empirical Puzzle and the Embodied Cost of Ethnography
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"This book is ethnographically rich and is an intriguing and gripping read."

American Journal of Sociology

"The topic of Dealing in Desire is arresting and the book is destined to gain a wide readership. Furthermore, not only is the fieldwork impressive, but the arguments are provocative and well substantiated."

Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review - Erik Harms

"A valuable contribution to our understanding of the sex industry . . . The praise that Hoang's research has received is well deserved, and Dealing in Desire is a must-read."

Anthropology Review Database - Jack David Eller