Zixuan Yang

This project explores how middle-aged Chinese migrant women working in France’s sex industries, navigate the pressures of maintaining health and beauty as they grow older. Preliminary research reveals that many suffer from chronic or terminal illnesses, and menopause that are related to biological aging. In an industry where youth and beauty are highly valued to “capitalize on sexuality,” aging not only diminishes perceived attractiveness but also compels women to take heightened risks—such as undergoing intensive aesthetic treatments and engaging in unsafe sexual practices—to secure clients. The transnational context further complicates these dynamics. The growing visibility of women’s racialized bodies in France exacerbates vulnerabilities while generating opportunities for older sex workers, as racialization disrupts the normative association between sexuality and chronological age. Building on participant observation and interviews with Chinese sex workers, NGO organizers and aestheticians, this project seeks to answer how aging and migration impact women sex workers’ health, beauty, and labor. This research contributes to the anthropology of aging, migration, and sex work by tracing how health risks, racial visibility, and women’s efforts of corporal modification are interwoven into women’s unique migration processes, labor and immigration conditions in France, and the availability of France’s healthcare resources.