Prostitution in Vietnam is illegal, although it is estimated that betwen 30,000 and 300,000 people in the country are prostitutes. Another estimate puts the number between 20,000 and 70,000 individuals.[1]
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Although prostitution in Vietnam is illegal, enforcement by the government is not uniform. As such, there are no accurate data about the number of prostitutes operating within the country; according to the government, there are 30,000 Vietnamese prostitutes, although some non-governmental organizations estimate a number closer to 300,000. This is most likely due to the fact that some women are not full-time prostitutes, or they are being exploited as unwilling prostitutes in a global trade. On the other hand, other women feel compelled to work because there are virtually few job prospects for them. Fortunately, there are fewer reports of the family having played a role in the decision, or lack thereof, to become a prostitute.[2]
Prostitution is not limited to adults and women.[3] [4] In Ho Chi Minh City, many of the prostitutes are under eighteen years of age, some being forced into the trade because of economic needs. The prostitutes are both boys (called Trai bao ("covered boy") and trai gọi ("call boy")) and girls, something which would not be expected in the media representation of prostitution in the country. Additionally, children are trafficked due for the need for prostitution in other countries. One non-governmental organization estimates that the average age of trafficked girls is between 15 and 17, although the average age of girls trafficked to Cambodia is estimated to be much lower.[5]
In the Sapa tourist region, an Australian non-governmental organization uncovered 80 commercial cases of child explotation by foreign nationals in 2007, the same year that the nation established a child sex tourism investigative unit within the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security.[6]
Vietnamese prostitution is not necessarily limited to the country as well. In Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, there are reports of women being forced into prostitution after marrying overseas, particularly in other Asian countries. In Macau, exploitation of women has been supported by legal organizations. In the end, these women were often forced into indentured servitude or prostitution.[7] In China, many women travel from Lao Cai to Hekou County in order to work in brothels which cater to mainly Chinese men.[8]
During the Vietnam War, a whole sex industry sprung up around American servicemembers. Sometimes, the prostitutes and women who were raped would get pregnant, and their children eventually gained the term of Bui doi. Oftentimes, these children, also known as Amerasians, are forced into prostitution themselves.[9]
The Tale of Kiều is an 1820 poem which concerns the life of Thúy Kiều, a young woman who sacrifices herself to save her family. In order to prevent the imprisonment of her brother and father, she sells herself into marriage, unaware that the man she marries is actually a pimp, forcing her into prostitution.
The protagonist of the 1989 musical Miss Saigon, a prostitute named Kim, has often been criticized for embodying the submissive half of the stereotypical dominant/submissive relationship between an Asian prostitute and a Western man.[10] Echoing the plot of Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, Kim falls in love with a Western client who leaves her pregnant and abandons her for an American wife. When she realizes he will never return, Kim shoots herself.
The 2008 series Am Dinh is a documentary on Lam Uyen Nhi, a former beauty contest winner turned prostitute and drug addict. Eventually, Lam died in 2007 after a battle with HIV/AIDS. The 20 part series focuses on the ups and downs of Lam, with 2006 Miss Vietnam winner Mai Phuong Thuy playing the part of Lam.[11]
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