Abstract

Young Chinese male migrant workers partner with middle-aged women in dance halls, and sell intimacy and romantic relationships in everyday locations as “dance hosts.” Dance hosts experience considerable job precarity and masculine insecurities. While frequently expressing a desire to leave, most hosts remain in the profession and perpetuate their precarious existence. This article explores the relationship between precarity as a labor condition and precarity as an ontological experience among dance hosts. I argue that while precarious labor may stabilize daily living, it also causes new insecurities that destabilize people’s lives. This article theorizes the concept of hierarchical precarity to explain labor motivation and suggests that the decision to engage in precarious labor hinges on its capacity to address one’s most pressing insecurities, outweighing the additional precarity it creates. I conclude by highlighting how gender relates to different forms of labor struggle and workers’ agency in navigating the hierarchically ranked precarity and masculinities. 

摘要

中国年轻的男性劳工作为舞厅教练，为中年女性提供陪舞服务，并在日常的场所中售卖亲密关系和浪漫情愫。舞厅教练经历着严重的职业不稳定性和男性气质危机。尽管他们经常表达想要离开这一职业的愿望，但大多数人仍然留在这一行业里，继续着这种不稳定的生活状态。本文探讨了舞厅教练在工作中的不稳定性和在生活中的不稳定性之间的关系。我认为，虽然不稳定的工作或许能够在一定程度上维持日常生活的稳定，但它同时也会带来新的不安全感，从而加剧生活的不稳定性。本文提出了“等级化的不稳定性”的概念，用以解释人们的工作动机，并指出，人们是否选择从事不稳定的工作取决于其能否解决自身最紧迫的不安全感，而且这种不安全感远超这份工作可能随之带来的不稳定性。最后，我强调了性别如何影响不同形式的劳动挣扎，以及劳工在应对等级化的不稳定性和男性气质时所展现出的能动性。

Keywords

precarity; masculinity; sexuality; migrant labor; dance halls; 不稳定性; 男性气质; 性欲; 流动劳工; 舞厅

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2026 Juan Chen

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.