Courtship, sex and money: The economics of courtesan houses in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Shanghai

Women's History Review

Volumn 8, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 443-467

  Henriot, Christian ^a,b  

^a University of Lyon   (France)

^b INSTITUT UNIVERSITAIRE DE FRANCE   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CHINA; COURTSHIP; EATING; ECONOMICS; ETHNOLOGY; HISTORY; HUMAN RELATION; LEGAL ASPECT; PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING; PHYSIOLOGY; PROSTITUTION; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR;

CHINA; COURTSHIP; EATING; ECONOMICS; GAMBLING; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS; PROSTITUTION; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR;

EID: 34247283947     PISSN: 09612025     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09612029900200213     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. The issue of the functions and the geography of the houses of courtesans has been studied by Christian Henriot (1995), Cortegiane, classe dirigente e spazzio urbano a Shanghai, 1849-1919, Storia Urbana, 70, pp. 71-98.
2. Sue Gronewold's book offers several examples of inappropriate use of literary sources for economic data. Sue Gronewold (1982) Beautiful Merchandise. Prostitution in China, 1860-1936, pp. 10-11, p. 15 (New York: Haworth Press).
3. Such was also the case in eighteenth-century France. Marie-Erica Benabou (1987) La Prostitution et la Police des Moeurs au XVIIIe Siècle (Paris: Perrin).
4. The social background of courtesans and the life of the houses of courtesans is the central topic of an article by Christian Henriot (1994), Courtesans in late Qing and early Republican Shanghai (1849-1925), East Asian History, 8, pp. 33-52.
5. The houses of courtesans used the language of kinship (mother, uncle, sister one, sister two, etc.) in an effort to create pseudo family ties and conceal the relations of dependence that actually prevailed. Gail Hershatter (1997) has examined this issue in Dangerous Pleasures:prostitution and modernity in twentieth century Shanghai, pp. 75-76 (Berkeley: University of California Press).
6. On the rise of secret societies in Shanghai, see the fascinating study by Brian Martin (1996), The Shanghai Green Gang. Politics and Organized Crime, 1919-1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press).
7. On the vice committee and the abolition campaign it promoted in the early 1920s, see Christian Henriot (1997) Belles de Shanghai. Prostitution et Sexualité en Chine aux XIXe-XXe Siècles, ch. 12 (Paris: CNRS-Editions)
8. and Gail Hershatter (1993) Regulating sex in Shanghai. The reform of prostitution in 1920 and 1951, in Frederic Wakeman & Yeh Wen-hsin, Shanghai Sojourners, pp. 145-185 (Berkeley: University of California Press).
9. Report of the Special Vice Committee (1921) in Report for the Year 1920, p. 253A (Shanghai Municipal Council, Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh).
10. Shen Bao (Journal of Shanghai; hereafter SB), 4 May 1899.
11. Shanghai shenmi zhinan (A Secret Guide of Shanghai) (n.d.), p. 3 (Shanghai: Datong tushushe jianyin).
12. By the 1920s, although the term courtesans - changsan or shuyu in local Chinese - was still in use, the women who worked in these establishments were no longer 'courtesans' in its nineteenth-century definition. They were no more than expensive call girls. On the evolution of this particular group of venal women, see Christian Henriot (1996) From a throne of glory to a seat of ignominy: Shanghai prostitution revisited, 1849-1949, Modern China, 22, pp. 132-163.
13. Shanghai lanyou zhinan [A Sightseeing Guide of Shanghai] (1923) p. 13 (Shanghai: Zhonghua tushu jieheng gongsi).
14. Henriot, Belles de Shanghai, pp. 204-205.
15. SB, 4 May 1899.
16. Haishang juewusheng (pseud.) (1940) Jinü de shenghuo [The Life of Prostitutes], p. 19 (Shanghai: Chunmin shudian).
17. Yu Baosheng (1929 reprint edition) (pseud. of Wang Tao), Haizou yeyou fulu [Supplement to the Tale of a Libertine at the Seaside], I, p. 4 (Shanghai: Hanwen yuanshusi, first published 1878, n.p., n. pub.).
18. Haishang, Jinü de shenghuo, p. 26.
19. Wang Jimen (1922) Shanghai liushi nian lai huajie shi [A Sixty-year History of the Shanghai World of Flowers], p. 10 [Shanghai: Shixin shuju]; Xiaolinbao [The Forest of Smiles], mosquito paper, 26 April 1901.
20. Shanghai zhinan [Guide to Shanghai: a Chinese directory of the port] (1919), V, p. 19 (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan).
21. Zhang Qiugu (1920) Piao du baibi daguan [An Overview of the Evils of Gambling and Whoring], vol. I, p. 1 (Shanghai: Qiugu chubanbu);
22. Wang, Shanghai liushi nian lai, p. 13.
23. Chen Wuwo (1928) Lao Shanghai san shi nian jianwen [A Thirty-year Memoir of Old Shanghai], p. 78 (Shanghai: Dadong shuju).
24. Shanghai zhinan, V, p. 18b.
25. Haishang yeyou beilan [Omnium of Licentiousness in Shanghai], III, p. 1;
26. Zhang, Piao du baibi daguan, I, p. 10.
27. Huabao [The Journal of Flowers], mosquito newspaper, 6 September 1926;
28. Wang Dingjiu (1934) Shanghai guwen (Guide of Shanghai), p. 665 (Shanghai: Zhongyang shudian).
29. Shanghai zhinan, p. 19;
30. Wang, Shanghai guwen, p. 663.
31. On this process, see Henriot, Courtesans in late Qing and early Republican Shanghai, pp. 33-52.
32. Xiaolinbao, 26 April 1901.
33. Herbert D. Lamson (1935) Social Pathology in China: a source book for the study of livelihood, health and the family, pp. 50-51 (Shanghai: Commercial Press).
34. Christian Henriot (1993) Shanghai 1927-1937. Municipal Power, Locality, and Modernization, p. 123 (Berkeley: University of California Press).
35. De Becker (1906 reprint edition) The Nightless City, pp. 81-83 (London: Probsthain & Co., 1st edn, 1899).
36. As a comparison, the annual budget of the municipality of Shanghai (Shanghai shi zhengfu) in 1927-28 and 1928-29 was 3.4 and 4.4 million yuan respectively. Henriot, Shanghai 1927-1937, pp. 140-142.
37. Wang, Shanghai liushi nian, p. 15.
38. Wang, Shanghai liushi nian, Ibid., p. 17.
39. Haishang yeyou beilan, II, p. 6.
40. Chen, Lao Shanghai, p. 77. Another form of violence the courtesans sometimes experienced was that of the relatives of their customers, such as the case reported by the Dianshizhai huabao. A courtesan was invited once to the home of one of her customers. Upon her arrival, she was received by the father of her customer who, although he was displeased by the expenses incurred by his son in her favour, at first received her in a courteous way. Once she was inside, he had all the doors closed and gave a severe beating to the courtesan with the help of his servants. The woman was saved thanks to the neighbours, who were alarmed by her screams. It was a terrible loss of face, however, and she also lost her jewels, which the angry father confiscated in compensation for the money spent by his son in her establishment.
41. Haishang yeyou beilan (1891), I, p. 3;
42. Jin Buhuan (1962) Chunjiang huayue hen [Reminiscences of the Good Old Time], p. 15 (Xianggang, Tianwentai baoshe).
43. If she did not reach the figure of 10 customers, the share of the courtesan was reduced. Wang Jimen, Shanghai liushi nian lai, p. 18.
44. Shanghai zhinan, V, p. 19b;
45. Haishang yeyou beilan, III, p. 7.
46. For contemporary views, see Wang Shunu (1934) Zhongguo changji shi [A History of Prostitution in China] (Shanghai: Shenghuo shudian);
47. Bao Zubao (1935) Changji wenti [The Problem of Prostitutes] (Shanghai; Nüzi shudian, Coll. Xiandai Zhongguo funü wenti congkan), as well as most of the articles published on prostitutes in the women's journals of the 1920s-1940s.
48. For a view by present-day historians, see Tang Weikang, Zhu Dalu & Du Li (1987) Shanghai yishi [Anecdotes of Shanghai)(Shanghai; Wenhua chubanshe);
49. Sun Guoqun (1988) Jiu shanghai changji mishi [A Secret History of Prostitution in Old Shanghai] (Henan: Henan renmin chubanshe);
50. Jiu shanghai de yan du chang [Prostitution, Gambling and Opium in Old Shanghai] (1988) (Shanghai: Shanghai shi wenshiguan bian, Baijia chubanshe);
51. Gronewold, Beautiful Merchandise.