The Girl in the Iron Cage: The Persecution of Dilraba (Part 4)

Continued from “The Girl in the Iron Cage: The Persecution of Dilraba (Part 3)"

The Girl in the Iron Cage

When Dilraba was first brought back by the "buyer-daddy," she mistakenly thought he might be a good person, because he refrained from violating her for a considerable period of time.

The truth, however, was far different. After violating her during the period when she was being exploited as a "doll," the "buyer-daddy" discovered that he had contracted a sexually transmitted disease. No matter how overwhelmed he was by his lust, even someone as brazen and depraved as he was did not dare risk his own body for the sake of his carnal desires.

Once her infection was eventually treated and cured, any temporary reprieve came to an end. From that point forward, she was once again subjected to his continued violations, unable to escape her fate.

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To sell her for a high price, the ‘buyer-daddy’ made precise, long-term plans:

First, he would sell Dilraba to an obedient entertainment agency, signing contracts that only benefited himself to secure massive, long-term profits.

Second, after making her famous and once the talent agency contract expired, he would auction her off on the dark web, generating even more substantial returns.

Thus, starting in 2009, under the guise of being Dilraba’s father, the “buyer-daddy” took her everywhere to participate in singing, dancing, and piano competitions organized within the mainland entertainment industry.

Before their debuts, other young talents such as Menglong and Kimi (Qiao Renliang) had also participated in such competitions. Gaining visibility through these contests was the standard path for artists to break into the industry and achieve fame.

The “buyer-daddy” was exceptionally strict and cruel to her. To prevent her from escaping, he locked Dilraba inside an iron cage in the basement, forbidding her from stepping outside unless it was for work.

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This method of locking people in iron cages was modeled after the practices of other perverted, high-ranking CCP officials who held young children in captivity.

In the basements of those officials' estates sat numerous iron cages, each holding a young boy. They believed locking people in ordinary rooms was unreliable because they could still escape; an iron cage was considered the safest method, ensuring that even if the victims grew wings, escape was an absolute impossibility.

Such brutal behavior by high-ranking officials was tacitly condoned by the CCP regime. Many powerful and influential figures maintained these private iron-cage quarters, a reality closely tied to the consistently high rate of child abductions and disappearances in China.

Inside Dilraba’s iron cage, there were no electronic communication devices to reach the outside world, but there were other items, including books and music.

A few times each day, she was granted brief periods outside the cage — to practice the piano or dance, as the house was equipped with a piano room and a dance studio.

In her spare time, Dilraba loved to read, losing herself in the free worlds that lived within the pages of books. Throughout those years of profound suffering, it was only by clinging to the fantasies of those literary worlds that she managed to endure.

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When she was nineteen, through the arrangements of her so-called “buyer-daddy,” she was seemingly by chance cast as the lead actress in the television drama Anarhan.

On the pretext that Dilraba was still too young, the “buyer-daddy” stationed an assistant, a nanny, and two bodyguards with her at all times, ostensibly to take care of her needs. In reality, their true purpose was to keep her under constant surveillance and ensure that she would never have any opportunity to escape on her own.

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The Stardom Auction

Two years later, when Dilraba was twenty-one, Anarhan was broadcast and achieved the number-one viewership rating nationwide in its time slot.

Furthermore, the drama received award nominations. The "buyer-daddy" knew the time was ripe to broker a deal with a talent management agency.

However, he refused to follow standard procedures for signing with an entertainment company.

First, Dilraba had not yet formally debuted; Anarhan was merely a way to test the waters, and it was still uncertain whether she would remain popular, meaning a standard entertainment company would not offer a very high price.

Second, he wanted to continue latching onto Dilraba to siphon off her earnings.

Therefore, the “buyer-daddy” decided to put his “daughter” up for auction on the dark web, listing a set of strict demands and selling her to the highest bidder who met his terms. 

Following intense competition, a dark web entertainment studio soon won the bid.

This allowed Dilraba to begin taking on acting roles and developing her career, yet she never truly escaped the clutches of her “buyer-daddy.”

The entertainment studio arranged many roles for her, spanning both web dramas and television series.

She truly enjoyed being an actress, because it was only when she was on set filming that she felt she was truly herself. The version of her on screen felt like the only true existence of Dilraba as a living being in this world.

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As for whether the contract terms were truly lawful or fair, and how entertainment companies — shaped by the regime's influence — deceived, coerced, and exploited mainland artists, these were realities far beyond her ability to resist.

According to the profit model of the mainland entertainment industry, the regime siphoned off a massive share of the revenue. As viewership ratings for television and web dramas rose, the regime's financial benefits increased accordingly. Consequently, the system tacitly permitted the industry to aggressively exploit mainland artists who possessed no background or political backing.

A Talented Artist

Whenever Dilraba lost herself in a role on set, she was able to inhabit entirely different lives and experience the vibrant worlds of her characters. For those fleeting moments while filming, her world briefly extended beyond the suffocating confines of her iron cage. This was the driving force behind her immense passion for acting.

Two years later, in 2015, she won the "Most Popular New Actress" award, followed by the "New Powerful Actress" award the consecutive year. To the outside world, she appeared to be at the peak of glamour and success.

Yet, despite being such a talented and outstanding artist, she never received her trophies or medals, never saw her salary or stipends, and was completely cut off from the warmth and adoration of her fans — for the moment she stepped off a filming set, she was locked right back inside the iron cage, once again subjected to violation and torment at the hands of her "buyer-daddy."

Desperate to escape the cage, Dilraba proactively begged the entertainment company to book her for back-to-back acting projects. Although working on set was grueling and exhausting, it was far more bearable than life inside the iron cage.

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There were still kind-hearted people within the entertainment studio. Upon learning about Dilraba's tragic situation, they encouraged her to hold on until her contract expired, and then find a way to break free from the buyer by establishing her own agency to become her own boss.

Dilraba did indeed found her own company in 2018. However, the actual control and executive power of the firm were ultimately seized by her “buyer-daddy” anyway.

A girl who grew up in an iron cage—how could she possibly match the methods of a "buyer-daddy" who had spent decades ingratiating himself with powerful CCP elites? Looking back, she realized that her past attempts to break free from the cage and escape the vast dark industrial chain were, in the eyes of those in power, nothing more than futile wishful thinking.

The "buyer-daddy" then used this very company to hold auditions for more young female trainees, recruiting them as his new "goddaughters."

He confined them to iron cages just as he had done before, forcibly drugging them so they would lack the strength to struggle or cry out while being violated — exactly as he had once done to his so-called "daughter," Dilraba.

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The Girl in the Iron Cage: The Persecution of Dilraba (Part 5)

Ending CCP Petition

Avaaz Petition for Yu Menglong