AIDS Group in Hong Kong Makes Explicit Video on Dangers

A Hong Kong AIDS awareness group has launched the most candid publicity campaign yet in the territory -- an explicit video about the dangers of having sex with prostitutes across the border in mainland China. The film's graphic language and scenes were a deliberate attempt to grab the attention of a specific audience: truckers who commute daily between Hong Kong and the neighboring southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen, a spokesperson for AIDS Concern said.

There has been growing concern in Hong Kong that the increasing number of local men who visit prostitutes in China might drive up the number of HIV/AIDS infections in the territory. "The people we are trying to reach are sexually active male adults. We went round to the truck drivers first and asked them what kind of film do you most like and they said porn," AIDS Concern chief executive Graham Smith said. In the film, fictional trucker Wan Po makes no secret of his frequent visits to brothels in China or having unprotected sex with prostitutes. "It's meaningless to do it with a plastic bag! I might as well be masturbating," he boasts to his friends.

The 10-minute video, which will be shown weekly in the waiting area of the territory's main cargo terminal, warns of the risks involved in promiscuous behavior and includes animated instructions on how to use condoms. A recent study showed one in two crossborder truck drivers have had sex with Chinese prostitutes. There have been 524 confirmed AIDS cases and 1,636 HIV infections reported in the territory of nearly 7 million people since surveillance began in 1985. China puts the number of confirmed HIV/AIDS cases at 28,133 but some experts say the real figure could be well over 600,000.

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