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Eileen Tsang illuminates cultural and social expectations locking gay men and trans people inside the red closet in China today. Based on four years of ethnographic observations, and over 300 interviews with male sex workers, their wives, customers, and medical staff, Eileen Tsang provides a fascinating examination of the heretofore little explored lives of queer sex working men in China. (Bernadette Barton, co-editor of Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the Twenty-First Century) An insightful account of a marginalized community that survives less on the edge than in the midst of urban society. Tsang's narrative is nuanced, contextual, insightful, and a delight to read. I learned a lot. I'm sure you will too. (William Jankowiak, author of Illicit Monogamy: Inside a Mormon Fundamentalist Community) Unlocking the Red Closet is a rich ethnographic study of male sex workers and their male and female clients. This important book exposes how economic independence has significant limitations as a force for liberation from social stigma and institutionalised prejudices—be they based on sexual identity, health status, or rural residency. It also shows how poverty and inequality intersect with prostitution to produce a thriving sector in urban areas, despite its illegality. Tsang provides readers with powerful insights into parts of Chinese society largely unseen and often misunderstood. (Louise Edwards, author of Citizens of Beauty: Drawing Democratic Dreams in Republican China)

""Eileen Tsang illuminates cultural and social expectations locking gay men and trans people inside the red closet in China today. Based on four years of ethnographic observations, and over 300 interviews with male sex workers, their wives, customers, and medical staff, Eileen Tsang provides a fascinating examination of the heretofore little explored lives of queer sex working men in China.""-- ""Bernadette Barton, co-editor of Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the Twenty-First Century"" ""An insightful account of a marginalized community that survives less on the edge than in the midst of urban society. Tsang's narrative is nuanced, contextual, insightful, and a delight to read. I learned a lot. I'm sure you will too.""-- ""William Jankowiak, author of Illicit Monogamy: Inside a Mormon Fundamentalist Community"" ""Unlocking the Red Closet is a rich ethnographic study of male sex workers and their male and female clients. This important book exposes how economic independence has significant limitations as a force for liberation from social stigma and institutionalised prejudices--be they based on sexual identity, health status, or rural residency. It also shows how poverty and inequality intersect with prostitution to produce a thriving sector in urban areas, despite its illegality. Tsang provides readers with powerful insights into parts of Chinese society largely unseen and often misunderstood.""-- ""Louise Edwards, author of Citizens of Beauty: Drawing Democratic Dreams in Republican China""

""Eileen Tsang illuminates cultural and social expectations locking gay men and trans people inside the red closet in China today. Based on four years of ethnographic observations, and over 300 interviews with male sex workers, their wives, customers, and medical staff, Eileen Tsang provides a fascinating examination of the heretofore little explored lives of queer sex working men in China."" - Bernadette Barton, co-editor of Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the Twenty-First Century<./i> ""An insightful account of a marginalized community that survives less on the edge than in the midst of urban society. Tsang's narrative is nuanced, contextual, insightful, and a delight to read. I learned a lot. I'm sure you will too."" - William Jankowiak, author of Illicit Monogamy: Inside a Mormon Fundamentalist Community ""Unlocking the Red Closet is a rich ethnographic study of male sex workers and their male and female clients. This important book exposes how economic independence has significant limitations as a force for liberation from social stigma and institutionalised prejudices—be they based on sexual identity, health status, or rural residency. It also shows how poverty and inequality intersect with prostitution to produce a thriving sector in urban areas, despite its illegality. Tsang provides readers with powerful insights into parts of Chinese society largely unseen and often misunderstood."" - Louise Edwards, author of Citizens of Beauty: Drawing Democratic Dreams in Republican China

Author Information

Eileen Yuk-ha Tsang is Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong. She is the author of several books about China, including China's Commercial Sexscapes: Rethinking Intimacy, Masculinity, and Criminal Justice and Blending East and West: Understanding the Changing Chinese Society.

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