With mainland China now having more than a million millionaires- and roughly 30% of them being women- there has been a steady growth in demand for bodyguards, particularly female bodyguards.
Female bodyguards in mainland China can earn more than their male counterparts and are reportedly highly sought after because they can assume other roles such as nanny, secretary or personal assistant. While the average annual wage in mainland China is around US$1500, a female bodyguard can earn the equivalent of US$100 a day. Potential clients (or their families) also believe a the presence of a female bodyguard is less likely to lead to gossip or innuendo about an affair than having a male bodyguard.
The intensive months-long course from Tianjiao Special Guard Consultant Ltd of Beijing is among the first in China to offer training to women. Tianjiao's recently enrolled class was China's first all-female bodyguard class, featuring 20 women- nearly all of them university graduates. The course instructs enrollees on the finer points of martial arts, business etiquette, surveillance and evasive driving as well as intensive physical training on the torrid southern Chinese island of Hainan.
Highlights of the course also include having a bottle broken over the trainees head to build up endurance. The top trainee to finish the Tianjiao Consultant course will also be move on for further training at the International Security Academy in Israel. According to recent reports from Israel National News, the pool of 20 potential recruits had been whittled down to five by the end of January.
A couple of random things I noticed while compiling this blog entry. One is that for the most part, the women seen in desert fatigues in the articles and video about the Tianjiao firm are pretty easy on the eyes. You would think there would be a few genuinely intimidating bruisers in there given the nature of the profession they seek to enter. My first thought was 'Ah! This is probably a Potemkin academy where they trot out the attractive women and keep the bruisers and fierce-looking women in hiding until the cameras go away'.
There probably is something to that, but Tianjiao head Chen Yongqing also points out that they get an increasing number of clients who are celebrities. And at some high end red-carpet event, which bodyguard would stand out more- a smaller, attractive woman in a dress or gown or Yao Ming in drag?
Maybe I'm over-thinking things, but I'm also at a loss to explain the German and Norweigan flag patches you'll see on some of the uniforms. I mean, did the academy get such a sweetheart deal on surplus uniforms from those two nations that they forgot to remove the insignias? Or were the women divided into two different groups at some point in their training and the two flags a way of differentiating the groups? Or one flag indicates instructor and another indicates trainee?
The presence of cameras along the beach in that one photo above also seems to indicate that this is juicy fodder for some sort of reality show- perhaps Wipeout meets Who Wants to
For some reason, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that some now-retired People's Liberation Army Special Operations Unit veterans concocted the whole physical training regimen in Hainan as a way of getting attractive 20-something women to pay them to run around in swimsuits and get put through the wringer while getting yelled at the whole time with the added bonus of some network or producer paying them to film attractive 20-something women in swimsuits getting put through the wringer and yelled at [just saying wish I thought of it first, that's all- NANESB!].
Still- does anybody remember my earlier observation about women in the American or Israeli military clad in BDUs? Since the Battle Dress Uniform of the United States Army is meant to be uniform (as opposed to accentuating a woman's figure) if a woman can look good in that, she can look good in anything.
I was starting to think the same thing about some of the trainees in what looked like the German or Norweigan desert camo uniforms.
If they can look presentable in those European military hand-me-downs, imagine how good some of them would look in...say....a silk cheongsam or qi pao [Hooray! Another completely gratuitous chance to post pictures of Cheongsam-clad ladies- NANESB!]. And since much of their clientele is in the entertainment industry, it wouldn't be that farfetched for them to be wearing one of those at some high profile event like a movie premiere or wedding.
Come to think of it, in these uncertain times, I'm beginning to think I could use some additional protection myself.
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