Chinese Concubines Back in Vogue

She’s back! And she’s more prosperous than ever.

Chinese concubines stage a comebackChinese concubines have always been more than sex surrogates. the Independent UK reports that in modern China, concubines are much more public than previously.

In modern China’s far more open society, concubines can be seen in the shopping malls and cafés of the cities, especially in the south, where there are thousands of what are known as “er nai” or “second breast”. By some estimates, more than 90 per cent of the country’s most senior officials punished on serious graft charges in the past five years have kept mistresses.

The current record holder for largest number of mistresses is Xu Qiyao, who amassed 140 as head of construction in Jiangsu province. Presumably, these aren’t one-night-stand women, but bona fide concubines.

Some powerful officials in China have tried to bring the feudal institution up to date. Yang Feng, a senior cadre in Anhui province, was found during his corruption trial to have kept eight mistresses whom he managed using corporate management skills learnt during his MBA programme. He appointed one of them top mistress, to supervise the others, but the arrangement collapsed when a younger member of the team applied for the leadership position and his “manager” turned him in. via Independent UK: Welcome back” Return of capitalism to China means a major comeback for the concubine.