A Village Grows Rich Off Its Main Export: Its Daughters
"Ye Xiang, 20, at home in Langle, a village in Yunnan Province in China, spent two years working in the sex trade in Thailand, but earned only enough to feed and clothe herself. Nevertheless, she is eager to return."
"If you don't go to Thailand and you are a young woman here, what can you do," said Ye Xiang, 20, whose features still had the pudgy look of a teenager's. "You plant and you harvest. But in Thailand and Malaysia, I heard it was pretty easy to earn money, so I went."
At least 20 other young women from this tiny hamlet, which clings to a hillside just off a side road near the Mekong River, have headed off to foreign lands to work in the sex trade. "All of the girls would like to go, but some have to take care of their parents," Ms. Ye said.
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"The sociologist, who asked not to be identified because the subject was so sensitive, said disease was rampant among women who worked in the sex trade, a situation aggravated by the denial of public health care to illegal foreign workers in Thailand. Despite that, the researcher said, no special efforts have been made to prevent the spread of AIDS in Yunnan by women returning from working in the sex trade in Thailand."
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