Model's murder raises questions in China

Little oversight of modeling industry
"So many agencies send girls here without really knowing," said Marion Dorel, a former model from France who spent 13 years in the business in China. "Be careful, clients can ask for weird things — to sleep with them, to sleep with their clients, to go to karaoke. Of course you can say 'no,' but it's not a nice situation."

One Shanghai casting call asked for models to strip to their underwear and jump on a trampoline while being filmed, said Jeremy Stockton Johnson, a fashion photographer who said he also has been asked if models are available to strip at parties.

Worse cases include agencies that take away a model's passport or withhold payment until the end of a contract.

"You could run a modeling agency out of your apartment with a cell phone," Johnson said.

The city's Agent Committee, under the Administration of Industry and Commerce, said more than 1,800 "entertainment agents," including modeling agents, have passed a test to be qualified. But there's no further oversight, people in the industry said.

"So far, the problem with China's modeling industry is that there's no strict regulation," said Wang Yiqun, a professor of modeling at Donghua University in Shanghai.

But models and agencies say the local industry is quickly leaving its past behind.

Where backpackers and English teachers made up a large number of the modeling gigs even a half-decade ago, about 70 foreign models are now contracted to local agencies. The foreigners bring in about one-tenth of the estimated $14.6 million the local industry makes a year, according to Johnny Zheng, the director of Esee Model Management, one of Shanghai's largest agencies.

O'Brien's death has motivated some in the industry to take security more seriously. A few hours after Friday's arrest, Sarah Feng, owner of TiModels, sent a text: "We're hiring a pro trainer to design and teach a self-defense workshop for all of our models as part of the response to the tragic event."

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