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Adult Content, Other Grey Market Goods & Services

The availability of adult content is restricted in China. But what does this have to do with these women standing on the side of a busy Beijing road during last December's bitter cold?

In Beijing a woman in a market street holding a baby is associated by many with selling pornography. (The seated lady in the photo above is holding a baby and has a CD visible in her hand). Pornography sellers have even been known to carry fake babies since the baby is the signifier of the goods that are for sale. I've not gone out of my way to research this topic but my assumption is that is applies to other parts of China also - a clarification from Chinese residents welcome.

Every culture has goods and services that are considered illegal, or at the very least anti-social. For consumers wishing to buy adult content or for that matter any grey or black market services, how to identify who is selling what? What is the risk of making the wrong assumptions? The transaction process is may be made more difficult through a high turn over sellers (if they are frequently busted by the authorities), the degree to which any transactions needs to be shielded from prying eyes, and the risk that the seller is in fact working for the authorities.

What lessons can we apply to the distribution of legal content? On the assumption that all stratas of society are consumers of these goods and services, how long before marketers seek to distribute advertising content through these channels? Apart from flyposting, any examples of it having happened already?

Writing from Hawaii | April 17, 2006 | Permalink