Milk

Cows for rent, wet nurses for 18,000 yuan a month

11028507_1161091931328_1.jpg
Shenzhen's first wet nurse A Xia (center) in 2006

In the wake of the melamine milk scandal, the ancient profession of wet nursing is seeing a revival.

Global Times website reports that a Wenzhou company is offering wet nurses with the top performers pulling in a salary of 18,000 yuan a month. The same website also reports on a women in Chengdu who has been promoting wet nursing services on the Internet at a rate of 300 yuan a day.

Netease has published a report on the phenomenon titled 'Foreign milk powder is not as good as a wet nurse - salaries up to 8,000 yuan'. According to the report, high end wet nurses in Guangdong are asking for 20,000 yuan a month, while in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, the salary has gone up to 8,000.

Meanwhile, in the capital, The Beijing News reports:

Wet nurses seek work online

Yesterday Beijing Beiqijia Household Management Service Company advertised for a service for wet nurses on Baidu's Tieba Internet forum. A Mr Lin, who posted the announcement, said that there were many people who called the company to ask about the wet nurse service...

... Relevant staff at the Beijing Industry and Commerce Bureau said that regulations have not forbidden household management companies from developing the wet nurse industry. But the service of feeding other people's babies does not belong to the household management service area, and there exists a big health risk.

The phenomenon predates the current milk crisis. In 2006, China.com published an article about the rise of wet nursing, featuring the above photo of A Xia, apparently the first wet nurse in Shenzhen. The 2006 article reports that wet nurse salaries in Beijing were 2,600 yuan a month and 5,000 a month in Guangdong.

Finally, Global Times reports that a man in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, has rented a cow to produce milk for his five month old baby.

Links and Sources
There are currently 3 Comments for Cows for rent, wet nurses for 18,000 yuan a month.

Comments on Cows for rent, wet nurses for 18,000 yuan a month

I wonder what constitutes a "high-end wet nurse".

University education? Healthy diet? Good at sports? Or, more boring criteria such as high output?


"I wonder what constitutes a "high-end wet nurse"."

Chocolate milk

rumor has it that if a breeding mother ingests excessive amount of raw chocolate, some of it would go to her mammary gland, mixing with breast milk, but since you are asking "high-end", you could try vanilla.

Post a comment

All comments are moderated and subject to review by Danwei contributors and editors, but well-grounded and articulate comments will be published regardless of which way they lean. Because comments published on any website ultimately contribute to the character of that website, we may decline to publish comments that are irrelevant, redundant, or that do not adhere to generally accepted standards of courtesy; if you are looking for a fight, there are plenty of other venues available online.


Some useful html: <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>,
<a href="http://www.danwei.org">link</a>

Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL090619paulfrenchbook.jpg
Foreign journalists in China, from the Opium Wars to Mao : Paul French, author of a book on Carl Crow has written a book about the lives and exploits of foreign journalists reporting from China from the 1820s to 1949.
Earnshaw Books' Tales of Old Peking: Tales from Old Peking is available from Earnshaw Books, and like its sister, Tales from Old Shanghai is a book of fragments of information about periods, events or places in Beijing's history, collaging together pictures and text about eunuchs, concubines, the Lama Temple, Opium Wars, art, emperors, and a miscellany of other interesting topics
Henry F. Pringle's "Bridge House Survivor": Pringle was imprisoned by Japanese forces from October 1942 to August 1945, and Bridge House Survivor, available from Earnshaw Books, is his harrowing account of torture under the Japanese.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ A short interview with Muzi Mei (2004.02): Danwei interviews Muzi Mei
+ CCTV vs. classic movies (2006.03): A rundown of several pastiches of Chinese movies appearing online as 大史记 - "The Year That Was". Some from CCTV, others not. With links to video.
+ Street hawker cries of Beijing (2006.12): Yang Changhe demonstrates hawker's cries in a video shot by Muzimei.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30