Interview with Axelle de Russé

Axelle first studied trade and business. She then was offered a training course in the Sipa agency for two years. She learnt a lot from that experience and decided later to ask the AFP agency for a grant to go to China. She was accepted and then found a chineese translator and went to have her report about concubines.

The working of a concubine is simple: a young and poor girl coming from the rural China becomes one urban and rich man’s second wife. He can have her for sex relations in exchange of a place to stay and material comfort. There is the difference between a prostitute, who is pay in cash and can have several partners, a concubine who is offered an appartment and a social life and a lover, who does not receive any financial advantages.

Axelle gathered these women’s feelings and she says that they feel a bit ashamed. They are constantly afraid of losing their man and hide their secret life from their parents and friends. They are not well regarded by society even if the phenomenon is very common. It also seems difficult to speak about their situation to foreigners. Nobody wants to convey a negative image of China.

The impact of the Alliance Against Concubines is very local. The group has nothing official. They represent a majority of civil servant’s wives who caught their husbands while they were having an affair. It is quite difficult for them to be heard. They gather in hiding places, often receive death threats and stalk concubines. Axelle tells me the story of a wife who once broke in one concubine’s appartment to pick up evidences in order to sue her husband. As that practice is illegal they don’t manage to win the trial. But sometimes they do, so they keep on trying.

There is a big amount of scandalous stories in the press. For example, if one politician becomes annoying, his affair with a concubine is quickly displayed to everyone.

“A woman once came to her husband work place who was a compère and publicly revealed his affair.”

Axelle won the Canon prize for the female photojournalist. She is now glad of the impact this prize will have with the magasines. She has the intention to continue working in Latin America.

Jim Lefeuvre