whatsinaname
Member
A New Yorker article about a "new type of job" in China.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/26/chinas-mistress-dispellers
I've only quoted a few bits from the beginning of the article. The whole article is a fascinating read.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/26/chinas-mistress-dispellers
Yu, a gentle-looking man in his early forties, with the placid demeanor of a yoga instructor, works as a mistress dispeller, a job that barely existed a decade ago but is becoming common in major Chinese cities. His clients are women who hope to preserve their marriages by fending off what is known in Chinese as a xiao san, or Little Thirda term that encompasses everything from a partner in a casual affair to a long-term kept woman.
Yu is one of about three hundred employees of Weiqing Group, which bills itself as Chinas first professional transnational love hospital. Weiqingthe name translates as preserve feelingwas founded sixteen years ago and provides an array of services, designed to save a marriage at all costs.
In divorces, women suffer disproportionately. Yus view of a womans poor chance at remarriage is widely shared, but there are more concrete issues, arising from economic disparity within marriages. Mistress dispellers are only one part of a broader industry that has sprung up to help wives rescue their unions, but their work has aroused particular fascination, as has the figure of the mistress herself, often portrayed in films and TV dramas as a predatory but irresistible homewrecker.
I've only quoted a few bits from the beginning of the article. The whole article is a fascinating read.