“An investigation by Beijing Youth Daily [the official newspaper of the Communist Youth League] shows that in some money lending groups, female university students’ ‘naked holding’ has already become an open secret,” it wrote, referring to the practice of women photographing themselves naked holding their ID card as a guarantee of repayment.This reminds me of how I learned the word "collateral." I first noticed it when I was 14 (in 1965), listening to my new Bob Dylan album, "Bringing It All Back Home": "They asked me for some collateral/And I pulled down my pants." (That's from "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream," a song about American history.)
By the way, that Chinese scheme sounds like sex discrimination.
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"By the way, that Chinese scheme sounds like sex discrimination."
Indeed. Hard to find a clearer example of female privilege.
By the way, that Chinese scheme sounds like sex discrimination.
Sounds like a coffee table book.
It's China, what do they care about sex discrimination? Does the amount of collateral assigned relate to the attractiveness?
By the way, that Chinese scheme sounds like sex discrimination.
Oh it gets worse than that. For instance, China just made it illegal for Chinese women to marry non-Chinese men, but it is still perfectly OK for Chinese men to marry non-Chinese women.
These women are merely baring all their existing assets as collateral. Sounds more like prostitution or slavery, to me.
“With ‘naked holding’ they can get two to five times the amount of money, but when they can’t repay some have been threatened with publishing the photographs,
Isn't this the point? Later:
the woman supplied a nude photograph of herself in exchange for a larger loan to try to escape her debt, including personal information such as contact numbers and addresses for family members. When she could not repay, the lender threatened to show the photographs to her family and friends, the newspaper reported.
Why provide the contact information? I agree it is skeevy but it seems to be the agreement. I'm not sure this qualifies as "blackmail", at least it seems to be a misleading description.
By the way, that Chinese scheme sounds like sex discrimination.
Maybe, which sex is being discriminated against?
If you are giving a naked photo of yourself as collateral, what is it you think you're going to have to surrender if you default? What does the "mortgage" or "security agreement" say? Or, at $75, is that too much trouble?
It's a financial disclosure form. I would much prefer to provide that to my bank each year.
Seriously, if I could get a loan just for sending that, every bank in town would have my photo. This is kind of like Briar Rabbit begging not to be thrown in the briar patch.
By the way, that Chinese scheme sounds like sex discrimination.
Maybe. It's an overt blackmail scheme, but then again all loans are to a certain extent "pay us back or else." It just typically does not involve "show us your t**s" as part of the negotiation process, at least not officially. If you were to make me guess, the market for dick pics is significantly smaller and therefore not sufficiently lucrative to be collateral, else that would be a thing too.
It would not shock me at all if a woman came up with this idea.
Do keep in mind this is China, the country where if you hit a pedestrian the smart thing to do is back over them as it's cheaper. Those feminist rights that Americans take for granted are merely luxuries of a wealthy society and if and when that wealth goes away may no longer be affordable. China is not a rich country.
I wish someone would explain to me why so many Chinese are joining the US military. I know it is to get legal status and citizenship but it would be interesting to learn the deeper reasons. I suspect that young Chinese understand that China is in deep trouble economically. I'm not sure the US is in any better shape but it is interesting to see so many joining the US army.
One of my medical students about ten years ago was a Chinese girl who was from a high social status family. Her mother was a professor at Beijing U. She wanted to be a doctor in the US so she could bring her parents here and care for them in their old age. She explained a lot about China to me.
Oh, and she was married to a Caucasian grad student. One of my daughter's friends is a Chinese girl married to a Caucasian man who was teaching English in China where she was one of his students. The old Han Chinese practice of only marrying another Han Chinese has gone with the one-child policy. Young women are marrying "out" and the young men can't find wives.
The Chinese are still in the trap of losing face being unbearable. Most Americans are immune to that theses days.
I don't know if it's sex discrimination, but it seems rather civilized.
In American peer-to-peer lending they skip the photography. Your leg bones are your collateral.
If she doesn't repay--and the lender posts her picture on a bathroom wall---is that "collateral damage"?
Women in China sending naked photographs of themselves holding their ID cards and sucking horse cock probably get bigger loans, I presume.
I bet there are pictures on the Internet.
I am Laslo.
"Maybe, which sex is being discriminated against?"
Obviously, men. Why do you think I said that?
The Guy Who Drives the White Van With No Windows In The Back Says:
I was leaning against the van in my cut-offs, just taking in the view at the beach, when a girl asked if she could borrow two dollars for an ice cream.
"Borrow?" I replied. "I'll probably never see you again. How will I ever get my money back?"
She just smiled and said it was hot and she really wanted ice cream.
So I gave her five dollars on the condition that she got me an ice cream, too, and that she bring it back to me and we could eat our ice cream together.
After our ice cream I told her she could pay me back by letting me take her picture in the back of the van. "I bet a pretty girl like you loves getting her picture taken." Something like that.
One thing led to another, and I think we ended up out in the country by the river and the blackberries -- there have been so many I sometimes can't keep them straight on who ended up where.
I do still have the photograph, though. And the panties. The panties are worth two dollars in Sentimental Value alone.
I always keep the panties.
I am Laslo.
I have money to lend.
"The Chinese are still in the trap of losing face being unbearable."
It apparently is still an issue for the leaders, at least. I read "The Currency Wars" on the plane yesterday and the author said that bilateral talks with the Chinese are useless because of "face" issues. They do better in larger groups like the G 20.
"Women in China sending naked photographs of themselves holding their ID cards.."
I don't believe you Althouse. Show us the evidence.
In a country of over a billion people, something affecting only thousands hardly seems like a trend.
The real issue is that, once you repay your loan, you have no way to get back the collateral. Once they have that picture, they have that picture for as long as they want to keep that picture.
"that Chinese scheme sounds like sex discrimination." Urban myth. The Chinese communists are all about equality. They would never tolerate such a thing.
Who can tell them apart?
. Young women are marrying "out" and the young men can't find wives.
The Chinese just made this illegal.
I find it interesting that more and more Dylan quotes are popping up in the current conversation. Maybe he is the prophet that some of us thought a long time ago. This is among his most prescient:
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
Well, in China it is common to abort a female fetus because it is a better economic choice to have male children, who can support you in old age better than females.
But that involves abortion, so of course is not at all sexist. Right?
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