This article discusses Dalian's bar hostesses' paradoxical model of romance: one that is both commodified and based on love. On the one hand, hostesses reject the popular media's emphasis on romantic love and sexual purity as a thin disguise for the ugly reality of men's sexual exploitation of women, and they actively perform and commodify romance for their instrumental purposes. On the other hand, hostesses resort to supernatural forces to determine their romantic fate and to seek out ideal love.
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