THE WORLD OF THE SHANGHAI COURTESANS
Foreign Concessions and the International Settlement
The transformation of Shanghai from a settlement with a small walled city to a major metropolis began in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanjing that resulted from the Opium War. Shanghai, as one of the five designated treaty ports, was declared open to foreign trade on November 14, 1843. A stretch of rural land bordering the Huangpu River was assigned for the use of several hundred foreign traders, and Western-style houses as well as godowns began to appear.1
The earliest boundaries that marked the areas designated for foreign settlement were the Huangpu River in the east, the Yangjingbang Creek in the south, and present-day Beijing Road in the north; the western boundary was never defined. This land, which remained nominally Chinese, was leased in perpetuity to the foreign powers. It was divided into three settlements: the French concession occupied the area between the Chinese walled city and Yangjingbang Creek;2 the British concession stretched from Yangjingbang to Suzhou Creek, while the United States took up the land along the Huangpu River to the northeast of Suzhou Creek. In 1863 the Americans and the British decided to join forces, turning the areas they occupied into the International Settlement. Since there was no fixed boundary on the western side of the assigned land, there were repeated—and some very successful—attempts to extend the settlements into the Chinese countryside. Each of the foreign concessions had its own administrative setup, police force, and volunteer fire service, while the walled city and the small areas of land bordering the concessions remained under Chinese administration.3 Residents came under the jurisdiction of their respective zones, and a mixed court was established to deal with cases that involved both Chinese and foreign interests. Despite the administrative independence of the different zones, the currencies in common use were the same: the gold-based Spanish Carolus dollar, the Mexican dollar, and the Chinese tael of silver.
In the settlements’ early days, Chinese residents were originally prohibited, but this soon changed. The majority of the employees of foreign firms were Chinese, and Chinese merchants who dealt in silk, tea, opium, and other goods were constantly coming and going. However, what changed the nature of the settlements and the composition of their populations was the refugees, including many wealthy households who rushed there to escape from the peasant uprisings against the Qing government. The first wave of refugees came when the Small Sword Society, which revolted in 1831, occupied the Chinese walled city between 1834 and 1845. By the end of that rebellion, the Chinese population in the settlements had exploded to fifty thousand. An even greater impact came with the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864), which permanently changed the topography and nature of the foreign concessions. These settlements’ development into a thriving city was linked intrinsically to their huge and ever-increasing Chinese population, which by 1862 had reached half a million. The refugee migrants found in this city not just protection from rebels but also new business opportunities. In 1870 Shanghai became the fifth largest port in the world.
By this time, Chinese people could move quite freely among the various administrative zones in normal circumstances. The major restrictions were related to the walled city, which still upheld the Chinese curfew rule and closed its gates at night; it was also off limits to horse carriages. In such a small area overseen by different administrations, the rules for residents and businessmen were considerably more complex and cumbersome than in other places. For example, all the transport vehicles for hire, such as sedan chairs and rickshas, had to obtain licenses for all three zones.4 It was a situation the locals found they could deal with, however. With time, such Western practices as participating in town councils and obtaining insurance coverage became the norm for well-to-do Chinese.
Brothels in the International Settlement
Since The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai was written before China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, the Shanghai in this novel predates the city’s industrialization.5 Areas under all three administrations were dominated by commerce and entrepôt trade. The action takes place almost exclusively in the International Settlement as that was where the high-class brothels, or sing-song houses, congregated. During the Taiping Rebellion, high-class brothels were set up in the new lanes, such as Nobility Alley in the International Settlement, with Fourth Avenue (present-day Fuzhou Road) serving as the core area for sing-song houses. Later, the first-class houses moved westward with the expansion of the foreign concessions, while the second-class ones remained around Chessboard Street (present-day Henan Road). Though the French concession was also home to a large number of prostitutes, they belonged mostly to the lower rungs of the ladder, probably because for a long time law and order in the French settlement was less than ideal.
The prosperity of the foreign concessions and the growth of the Chinese population were of course major reasons for sing-song houses to have been established in the International Settlement, but another important reason was that the area was outside Chinese jurisdiction. In the Qing dynasty, officials were strictly forbidden by law to have liaisons with prostitutes. Since this rule did not apply to the foreign concessions, it created a major opportunity for prostitutes to entertain officials of all grades, as well as their associates. That was why, despite their Chinese clientele, all the high-class prostitutes in Shanghai operated in the International Settlement. This situation also brought flourishing business to trades that benefited from the custom of courtesans and their clients, notably tailors, jewelry stores, embroidery shops, fabric shops, restaurants, and food stalls. These were set up in clusters around the core brothel areas. In addition to Chinese prostitutes originating in the areas around Shanghai, there were also establishments serviced by women from other regions and nations (including Japanese, European, and American women). Prominent among the regional groups were two from Guangdong province: the Tanka girls, who lived and worked on boats, and the Cantonese girls, who worked in Cantonese brothels. The only non-Shanghai group that features in this novel is the Cantonese one, represented by their best-known brothel, the Old Banner. The short episode on Cantonese courtesans is of considerable interest as it demonstrates the differences in aesthetic taste and fashion, as well as customs, among different regional groups.
Prostitution establishments, like opium shops, were perfectly legal in the foreign concessions, and there were intermittent attempts to tabulate the number of prostitutes working there. One of the earliest, based on statistics compiled by health officials in 1871, stated that there were 1,632 prostitutes in the International Settlement and 2,600 in the French concession. These figures, however, do not differentiate between origin and categories, and neither do they include the majority of unlicensed streetwalkers.6 The main concern of the administrations was to prevent prostitution activities from invading the streets; what went on within the brothels was not considered a major source of nuisance.
Brothels were subject to license fees and taxes and monitored under various police regulations. For the sing-song houses, the fees varied depending on the quality of the house and the number of girls working there. The demarcations among different grades of brothels were reflected in the fee structure; the license fees for mature courtesans offering a full range of service were also considerably higher than those for virgin apprentices. Landlords also charged a higher rent for brothels than for other shops and households.
Since sexual and entertainment services were sought by all classes of people, the prostitutes in Shanghai fell into many categories, which catered to different clienteles. They all have a role to play in this novel. Streetwalkers, or “game birds,” were unlicensed and roamed the teahouses and alleys for custom. They always claimed to be respectable women forced by circumstances to take on the occasional client and often used a small shikumen house as a business base.7 The lowest category establishments were the knocking shops, where sexual services were provided without any complex preliminaries, and it was not unusual for girls to be summoned to the shop only when clients arrived. A slightly higher category was the “flowered opium den,” so called because the women who waited on the smokers in the opium house also offered sexual service. They congregated in the French concession and were mostly set up in shikumen houses. The high-class brothels, or sing-song houses, were divided into two categories: first-class, or changsan (meaning “all three”), and second-class, or yao’er (meaning “one two”).8 The somewhat strange reference to numbers originated with the fees charged: at the first-class houses, the charge for a dinner party or a party call was a flat rate of three dollars, hence “all three”; at the second-class houses, a tea party cost one dollar, and a party call or dinner party two dollars, hence “one two.”9 These names remained long after the charges had gone up with the passing of time. Sing-song houses were marked by a lamp hanging above the front door as well as the names of the courtesans written on red paper posted at the door. Some second-class establishments had a name for the house, such as “Hall of Spring” or “Hall of Beauties,” but the first-class houses were always referred to by the names of their leading courtesans.
While the lower class establishments offered only sexual service and basic amenities such as tea, opium, and tobacco, the sing-song houses served functions other than that of providing sex, food, drink, and drugs. Entertaining in brothels or in the company of courtesans was part of the daily routine for officials and businessmen alike. This is evidenced by the fact that in the late Qing and early Republican eras, tabloid papers specializing in reports on the brothel scene also provided new and prospective clients of sing-song houses with basic information on brothel rules and etiquette to help them fit in. Thus the sing-song house was an important meeting place for friends and business associates, a place where social networks were extended, business discussed, and advice sought and given among friends and colleagues. This was particularly true of the first-class houses whose courtesans were expected to act as a social lubricant and to be discreet.
The Courtesans
Like the establishments they worked for, the higher-classed prostitutes were divided into different grades. The top-class courtesans claimed their lineage from the female minstrels who became popular in Shanghai shortly after the Taiping Rebellion. It is said that the original female minstrels performed storytelling in songs and did not openly sell their sexual favors. They were addressed as xiansheng, a form of respectful address that normally applied to men. This title remained in use even after prostitution became their main business. It was then adopted by first-class courtesans who were also trained in singing and music, often from a young age. (In this translation, the term “maestro” is used to call attention to this unusual application of address and the sense of respect it originally conveyed.) Traces of the facade of respectability remained: clients and courtesans were not permitted to talk directly about establishing a sexual relationship; a third party always acted as matchmaker (this could be a friend, another courtesan, the maid, or the madam). In many cases, even the simple matter of summoning a first-class courtesan to a dinner party in a restaurant also involved some sort of introduction by a person she knew.
At the period depicted in this novel, female minstrels no longer existed, and the word “maestro” referred only to courtesans who worked in first-class houses. The second-class girls, less accomplished and often less good-looking, were addressed as “Miss” (a title also used for other prostitutes, including streetwalkers). In the second-class establishments, there were some girls who only entertained at home and did not answer party calls,10 but it seems that they were a small minority. In this novel, the contrast between the behavior of Jewel (a young courtesan in a second-class house) and her first-class peers such as Green Phoenix and Lute clearly demonstrates the perceived differences between the two categories of girls: second-class courtesans were more blatantly sex-oriented and far less refined in their attempts to ensnare new clients. Thus there was no intended irony when a client praised a courtesan by saying that she was like a respectable woman.
Leading courtesans in Shanghai were minor celebrities and trendsetters in fashion. Readers will notice that while descriptions of the looks of various girls are few and far between, detailed descriptions of their clothes and ornaments can be found in almost every chapter of this novel. This was a period when a well-endowed figure was frowned on, so the women wore tight undershirts to flatten their chests. On top of that, they wore several layers of clothes made variously of silk, brocade, crepe, or fur. There were clear distinctions among clothes worn in the house, for daytime trips, and for dinner parties, with the last being the most ornate. As the practice of footbinding was still at its height, almost the first thing a brothel owner did when she acquired a young apprentice was to bind her feet tightly in order to create the desired form of the “three-inch lotus,” hence the repeated references in the novel to “bound-feet shoes.” Besides exquisite clothes and shoes, a leading courtesan was always adorned with expensive jewelry, mostly gifts from her many clients.11 Instead of individual items, they often asked for sets of jewelry comprising rings, earrings, hairpins, and headbands made of gold, pearls, or green jade.12
The relationship between courtesans was an interesting and tricky one. While those who belonged to the same house were placed on a hierarchical order according to seniority and popularity, courtesans of comparable status from different establishments were guided by much more complex considerations. On the one hand, they were all potential business rivals; on the other, they were well known to each other as they met regularly at parties hosted by their clients. Where the relationship was cold and distant, they avoided addressing each other directly; where the relationship was friendly, courtesans adopted the Manchu term “A ge,” used as both a title and a form of address for princes of the royal house, to circumvent the questions of age and hierarchical seniority. This is because the title “A ge,” unlike the normal words for “brother” or “sister” in Chinese, does not indicate the relative age of the addressed and addressee, a highly sensitive issue for courtesans. In this translation, the unusualness of this form of address is preserved through the term “my peer,” which stresses the obliteration of age and rank considerations and also remotely hints at the term’s palace origin.
Since sexual service was only part of a courtesan’s trade, all those who entered the profession as apprentices were trained in singing and playing musical instruments. Those who joined the profession as adults, however, had no such training and had to rely on their natural charms to please their clients. (In chapter 20 of this novel, there is a short account of the investment an average owner made to ensure that a courtesan acquired the necessary skills as an entertainer in addition to being physically attractive.) Despite the various skills the high-class courtesans had to learn, the majority was illiterate. Thus even the most intelligent courtesan in this novel (Green Phoenix) relies on a client to read for her the most important document in her life, and even a courtesan with literary pretensions (Jade Wenjun) must depend on someone else to read her the poems dedicated to her. As Christian Henriot points out, the literary courtesan was just a myth.13
Given the large number of prostitutes in Shanghai, the question of their origin naturally arises. It is not easy to determine the native places of individual courtesans, as the majority claimed to have come from Suzhou, where a dialect was spoken that was considered most pleasing to the ear. Given this common perception, girls from these areas would have attracted more attention from abductors and traffickers. It was certainly a fact that the Suzhou dialect dominated the sing-song houses, as courtesans from other regions also used it to sustain the claim that they were from Suzhou.
Whatever their geographical origin, one factor that featured prominently in the supply of prostitutes was poverty: the sale of female children was a frequent occurrence among desperately poor families, and in years of flood and famine little girls were sold openly on the streets; most of them ended up as servant girls or prostitutes. While some girls were sold by their relatives, others were kidnapped by gangs that specialized in human trafficking. Other factors, however, including family background and personal choice, also led girls into prostitution. The courtesans in sing-song houses were mostly daughters of courtesans and brothel owners who were introduced to the trade from childhood (such as Twin Pearl, Water Blossom, and Aroma), girls sold to brothel owners (such as Green Phoenix, Twin Jade, and River Blossom), or women who voluntarily joined the profession (such as Second Jewel and Flora Zhang). Women in the last group normally started business as free agents who rented rooms in a brothel, but when they ran into debt,14 they would end up in situations little different from girls who had been sold.
For both the young apprentice and the sing-song house, the transition from virgin courtesan to one who offered sexual service was an important occasion. The event was treated like a mock wedding, with large red candles lit in the courtesan’s room. Hence the sing-song house term for the deflowering of a virgin courtesan was “lighting red candles.” The client, who had to pay a substantial amount of money for the privilege, was chosen by the madam with a view to establishing a relatively long term relationship. It was also well known, however, that such occasions were often used to swindle clients. One of the usual ways of doing this was to line up two or more inexperienced clients for defloration and try to pass the courtesan off as a virgin several times over. Another common practice was for the courtesan to arrange for her favorite client to enjoy her services as soon as the defloration night was over so that he would not have to pay the hefty fee.15
While a popular courtesan normally had two or three regular clients and was not supposed to show that she favored any one above the others,16 it was only human nature for her to have preferences, so it is not surprising that courtesans also had romantic attachments. Besides favoring certain clients, they were also known to have relationships with actors, something that was decidedly discouraged and could ruin their careers. In this novel, even the most businesslike of courtesans—Green Phoenix—plays tricks on the house in order to benefit her favorite client,17 while the willful Little Rouge comes to ruin because of her liaison with an actor.
With looks and youth being vital factors in determining a courtesan’s popularity, the length of a courtesan’s career was limited. Normally, there were two exit paths for those who were reasonably good in the business: marrying or setting up their own sing-song house. Since courtesans were used to comfortable surroundings, and the men they met were mostly their clients, marriage for the majority meant becoming a client’s concubine. Though such an arrangement could be for life, there were many cases of courtesans leaving their husbands to return to the trade. Some no doubt made that decision because they could not get along with their husbands’ families; others just missed the relative freedom they had compared with the restrictions placed on a married woman in a large household. As long as their husbands consented to their leaving, they could return to the trade, although some did so without such consent.
Those who wanted to set up their own establishments had to find the necessary funding to buy their own freedom, purchase young apprentice girls, rent a house and all the furnishings, and hire the required staff. Without the generous financial help of their regular clients, at least in the initial stages, such an enterprise was quite impossible.
As for courtesans who were unlucky in business or who became heavily indebted through drug habits and other indulgences, the ending could be extremely miserable. As they lost their looks and popularity, they went down the rungs of the prostitution ladder until they ended up destitute in the streets.
The Owner and the Coterie
The majority of owners of sing-song houses were madams with long experience in the business. Most of them started life either as courtesans or as maids, and as they grew older they bought young girls and set up their own establishments. The family atmosphere of the sing-song houses centered around the madam who was “Mother” to all the girls who worked for her, whether they were her real daughters or just girls she had purchased. One way the madam had of showing ownership was brand-naming: a newly bought girl was given a new name that tied her to the madam and the brothel: the madam’s family name, followed by a personal name that included a word that appeared in the names of the other girls in the house, the same way that real sisters in normal families were named.
Since many courtesans were sold to the sing-song houses as little orphaned girls, the feelings they had for the madam and the house could be somewhat complex, particularly if the madam was not overly exploitive or abusive. The madam, on her part, always stressed the fact that she treated girls sold to her the same as her own daughters. This was of course seldom true, but the fact that young purchased girls represented a long-term investment that might produce very handsome returns over a decade or more did give their owners an incentive to maintain a good relationship with them. Moreover, owners were responsible for members of their houses. If a girl was pushed too hard, she might take the drastic step of ending her life. Should this happen, the madam not only lost out financially but could find herself faced with an investigation and legal consequences.
Maids played a crucial part in the life of a sing-song house. They were familiar with all the daily routines and etiquette and accompanied the courtesans on all party calls as well as helping them entertain at home. The working relationship between courtesan and maid is perhaps best symbolized by this practice: the maid carried the courtesan’s personal silver water pipe and nutmeg box—items essential to entertaining guests at home and at parties—hence, wherever the courtesan went, the maid followed. A maid was usually the best person to smooth over lovers’ tiffs and was often required to intercede during negotiations or quarrels by either suppressing an impetuous courtesan or speaking up for one who failed to stand her ground.18 Though some maids were employees, others had money invested in the establishments or courtesans they worked for. Thus the hierarchical relationship between courtesan and maid could be even more complex than that between madam and courtesan. As a shareholder in the courtesan’s business, the maid, despite her apparently inferior position, could put considerable pressure on the courtesan. This could be one of the reasons that maids had a bad reputation. In addition to being deemed vulgar and ugly, they were also said to be rampantly promiscuous—this despite the fact that most maids were married women.
Besides madams, courtesans, and maids, the sing-song houses had to employ a substantial staff including servant girls, menservants, and sedan-chair bearers. The great majority of servant girls and menservants originated from the countryside and regions around Shanghai. Since job hunting was done almost entirely through personal references and family connections, positions of servant girls and menservants were often filled by the relatives of people who were already working in the brothels. Though the positions were lowly and the pay was low, because of their constant contact with clients these employees received tips on a regular basis. In addition to tipping at the end of each season, clients who spent the night at the brothel were also expected to tip all the servants.
While some sources say that servant girls openly offered sexual services to brothel clients, such a possibility is only hinted at in this novel. Han Bangqing seemed to be of the opinion that no refined client would lower himself to accepting the services of a servant girl (the unrefined, however, were quite another matter).19 In terms of prospects, a servant girl could aspire to becoming a maid after she had learned the necessary grooming skills and knowledge of the trade.
Menservants in the brothels were called by a special term: xiangbang, or helpers. They were responsible for keeping an eye on the front door, announcing the arrival of clients, bringing hot water for tea, serving hot towels, setting tables for dinner, running errands, delivering invitations and call chits, and so on. Menservants were often looked down upon as lacking both brains (if literate, they could be bookkeepers) and physical strength (required for sedan-chair bearers). In the tabloid papers specializing on gossip about brothels, they were frequently accused of indulging in illicit relationships with servant girls and courtesans.
Sedan-chair bearers or ricksha pullers were essential to a sing-song house as courtesans were not supposed to go anywhere on foot. Virgin courtesans were sometimes carried on the backs of menservants to answer party calls, but by far the most frequently used means of transport was the sedan chair. Other employees in the brothel included a cook (homemade food was one element that contributed to the mock-family atmosphere of sing-song houses) and a bookkeeper responsible for accounts and records. They, however, had little direct contact with the clients.
Life in a Sing-song House
The Chinese year followed the lunar calendar, with each year starting in late January or early February. In the brothels, the fiscal year was divided into three seasons, each marked by a major Chinese festival: Dragon Boat Festival in the fifth month (usually early June), Midautumn Festival in the eighth month (usually mid- to late September), and Chinese New Year. At the end of each season, a ceremony was held to honor the money gods by burning paper ingots and incense as offerings. This was also the time for the brothel to audit its books, the maids and servants to be paid, and clients to settle their accumulated bills. On the day of the ritual, a regular client of a courtesan was duty-bound to give a sumptuous dinner party in her room. Since failure to attract such parties was not just a serious loss of face for the girl but might well bring on the wrath of the brothel owner, these could be trying times for the less popular courtesans. (In this novel, there is an example of how a second-class girl relies on her better-connected sister to arrange for a dinner party on such an occasion.) For courtesans who were in demand, however, these were extremely busy times. In addition to parties hosted by their regular clients, they also had to attend those given by their clients’ friends.
Besides the festivals marking the end of the three seasons, second-class houses had another special day in the year: the Chrysanthemum Festival in autumn. This was the only occasion when they could attract wealthy clients (normally too snobbish to visit a second-class house) to give parties on their premises. Pots and bowls of chrysanthemums were piled in a hill formation in the central courtyards where banquets were served.20 Though chrysanthemum viewing was part of the literati tradition in China, the origin of this practice in second-class brothels is unknown.
Another familiar ritual in brothel life was the recitation of Buddhist and Taoist texts, called “treasure scrolls.” This was done on special occasions, such as the birthday of a leading courtesan, and also to ward off evil and cure diseases.
The day in a brothel started late for everyone except the servant girls, who had to do the washing and cleaning before others were on the move. Courtesans normally did not get up till noon, when the maids would comb their hair and help them dress for the day. Until clients began to arrive, they would smoke, sew, play solitaire domino games, or just take naps to while away the time. The working day for a popular courtesan began soon after late breakfast, with clients coming for tea parties or taking them out on trips. At the arrival of a client for a daytime tea party (called “adding teacups”), the courtesan and her coterie were immediately mobilized. Tea was prepared by a servant girl with hot water brought in by a manservant. The courtesan then offered melon seeds and sweetmeats to the client while the maid readied the courtesan’s water pipe for the client’s use.21 Smoking—whether tobacco or opium—was one of the core entertainments for brothel clients. Those who were interested in opium were invited to lie down on the opium divan and smoke opium pellets that the courtesan would roast for him.22 In the case of regular clients who had a long-term relationship with the courtesan, the maid or young virgin courtesans in the house would take over this duty.
Toward evening, courtesans had to prepare for dinner parties held in their own rooms and answer banquet calls from clients attending parties elsewhere. For the latter, call chits made of red paper were delivered by hand, with the courtesan’s name and the location of the party clearly written. Since a courtesan was supposed to entertain but not to eat at dinner parties, she had to have a simple meal before she started her evening rounds. At parties, first-class courtesans would entertain their clients with song and music as well as conversation; some courtesans were even trained to perform excerpts from operas. In most cases, however, the consumption of alcohol remained the core entertainment, and various kinds of drinking games were played. By far the most popular was the extremely noisy finger game that features prominently in this novel: Two opponents would each stick out as many fingers of one hand as they liked, at the same time shouting out what they guessed to be the total number of fingers in a formulaic way. The person who guessed correctly was the winner, and the loser had to drink a penalty cup of wine. While courtesans were not supposed to eat at parties, they and their maids were expected to drink at least some of the penalty wine on behalf of their clients. While literary games also featured in parties among the educated elite, they could not rival the finger game in popularity.
A sought-after courtesan could find herself answering three to four party calls a night in addition to hosting a dinner party in her own room. It was therefore normal for her to retire to bed (sometimes with a client) only in the small hours of the morning. The sedan-chair bearers naturally had to take her to all the parties. As the maids were responsible for attending to the courtesans and their clients and the servants girls for cleaning up, they had to wait till the courtesans retired before they could go to bed.
Call chit for a courtesan called Lin Xin issued from the Meiyuan Restaurant on Fourth Avenue.
The Physical Environment
The better sing-song houses were quite spacious, with rooms spread over several stories. Rooms on the upper floors were considered the best and therefore reserved for the use of courtesans, while rooms on the ground floor and mezzanine were used by maids, servants, and the madam. The kitchen and other service areas were at the back of the house.23 Most of the second-class houses were three stories high and partitioned into a far larger number of rooms than were first-class houses because they normally had a larger number of girls.
Regulations required that a lantern be hung outside the entrance of a brothel as a mark of identification. Since the high-class brothels congregated in a dozen lanes in the western part of Fourth Avenue, this actually created a rather festive atmosphere at night. Doors within the sing-song houses were normally left open throughout the day. To provide some privacy, curtains were hung over the room doors. Depending on the weather, the curtains were made variously of thin cotton or quilted material. At the arrival of a client, menservants would loudly announce it at the front door or in the courtyard, and the client would always head straight for the room of his regular courtesan. A maid or servant girl would accompany him and lift the door curtain for him to enter.
Each courtesan had her own room in which all the daily activities and entertainment, including dinner parties, were held. The standard furnishing for a courtesan’s room included a bed with embroidered curtains, an opium couch, a dressing table, side tables, a dining table (on which a large round tabletop could be placed to create extra seating for parties), a considerable number of chairs, paintings and calligraphy scrolls on the walls, and elaborate lamps or chandeliers. The bed, instead of occupying a corner or one end of the room, served as a partition: the space behind the bed was curtained off as the lavatory area. Trunks for storing clothes and other essentials were also placed here. A back door, used only by members of the house, including the madam, led to the passageway outside. The high-class houses also had an upstairs parlor where larger-scaled banquets or mah-jongg parties were held. Additionally, there had to be a spare room for the popular courtesan who might well have to entertain more than one overnight client.
Etiquette and Manners
One interesting rule about sing-song houses was that once a man patronized a certain girl, her house had the right to send someone to his home or place of business and invite him to visit again. Even if such attempts proved inconvenient to the client, it was not considered harassment. After settling his bills for the season, however, the client would be free to take his patronage elsewhere.
People hosting dinner parties, whether in a sing-song house or a restaurant, were expected to have written invitations delivered by hand to their guests not once but twice. The first was an invitation card listing the day and venue for the party; the second, a note to “hurry the guest,” was sent after the host had arrived at the venue. It was normal practice for guests to set off only after they had received the second note.
When friends met in a sing-song house, the normal rules of manners and etiquette applied. Everyone had to stand up as soon as another guest entered the room. There were three different gestures of greeting. The first, referred to as an “informal salute” (or simply “salute”) in this novel, involved forming a fist with one hand, wrapping the other hand over it, and then slightly moving the joined hands back and forth a couple of times. It is the normal gesture for saying “hello” and “good-bye” as well as “thank you” and was the commonest used among friends. The second gesture involved bowing while performing the “salute.” In cases when someone wanted to acknowledge deep gratitude, the joined hands were raised above the head, and the person bowed as he brought his hands down. In this translation, the term “formal salute” is used to describe this form of greeting. The third gesture of greeting was derived from Manchu practice and used only by some inferiors to greet their employers or elders on very formal occasions. The person performing it knelt on one knee, with head bowed and one hand touching the ground. Finally, there was the kowtow, which was performed as part of certain rites and on special occasions.
After greetings had been exchanged, everyone could sit down again. For casual conversation, there was no seating order, but for dinner a strict etiquette was normally observed. A courtesan called to a party had to sit slightly behind her client rather than shoulder to shoulder with him. The seat of honor faced the door, and the right-hand side was considered the honored side. Seating order was determined by such usual considerations as status, age, and generation. One rule was given precedence over other considerations, however: a first-time acquaintance was always honored above others and would occupy the seat of honor even if he were younger than the rest. The same rules applied to walking in and out of a house or a room.
When in the presence of seniors and figures of authority, it was a sign of respect to approach them with one’s body turned slightly away instead of facing them directly. Similarly, when withdrawing it was rude to turn one’s back to them, hence the expression “walking sideways” in this novel. This was of course not required among peers and friends.
Readers will notice that “smile” is one of the most heavily recurrent words in this novel. Since it was considered bad manners for women to laugh out loud, a smile was a much more proper expression. Showing one’s teeth in laughter was decidedly bad manners. That was why women covered their mouths with their hands, a handkerchief, or their sleeves when they laughed; even men often did the same.
The End of an Era
A study of historical sources, be they biographical, journalistic, or anecdotal, clearly shows that the world of the Shanghai courtesans had a certain allure for its patrons as well as chroniclers. In a society where men and women occupied distinct spheres and marriage had little to do with personal feelings, for educated men the courtesan was both an embodiment of romantic possibilities and a channel for sexual gratification. For clients of the high-class brothels, sex was not necessarily their top priority. The etiquette of the sing-song houses demanded that the client go through a gradual, well-charted process before he could establish an intimate relationship with the courtesan of his choice. This, in some ways, was like a courtship process and carried with it a sense of excitement, longing, and uncertainty that was in itself as enticing as the final gratification of desire. As social norms changed, however, the nonsexual aspects of the courtesan’s service became less and less relevant.
Among the patrons of the sing-song houses, the weakening of the leisurely scholar class (the main support for the romantic myths associated with the courtesan) and the rise of those associated with a trade economy (including merchants and administrators) were a reflection of the changing times. The continuing expansion of the prostitution trade, both in numbers and modes of service, also quickened the demise of the nonsexual aspects of the courtesan’s work. The result was a leveling off of the prostitution field, what Henriot sums up as the sexualization and commercialization of the high end of the trade.24 Meanwhile, a revolution in social attitudes and practices in relation to women was brewing. This was to result gradually in the breakdown of many of the former boundaries between men and women. High on the agenda of the New Culture Movement that swept through China in the second and third decades of the twentieth century was autonomy in love and marriage. This completely changed the emotional landscape and expectations of the average educated young man, thus eliminating the courtesan’s role as a romantic figure. Within the first quarter of the twentieth century, the world of the Shanghai courtesan as described in this novel was to become little more than a faded dream.
Notes
1. At this time, the local Chinese population, living in the walled city and its vicinity, was around twenty-five hundred.
2. This small creek, which gave its name to the pidgin English spoken in Shanghai, was filled in in 1914 and became the Avenue Edouard VII (present-day Yan’an E. Road).
3. The Chinese walled city, measuring approximately three-and-a-half miles in circumference, was administered by a magistrate.
4. Sedan chairs, rickshas (introduced from Japan in 1874), and horse-drawn carriages were the only means of transport in Shanghai until 1902, when motorcars and trams were introduced.
5. The unequal treaty resulting from the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 allowed the Japanese to build factories and mills in Shanghai. As a result, other treaty powers also followed suit, and the cityscape of Shanghai changed considerably.
6. Statistics immediately after the First World War showed that Shanghai was the city with the largest number of legal prostitutes on a pro rata basis. The second was Beijing and the third Tokyo. According to a map showing the distribution of various categories of prostitutes in 1860 in Christian Henriot, Belles de Shanghai. Prostitution and Sexuality in Shanghai: A Social History, 1849–1949, trans. Noel Castelino (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 208, most flowered opium dens were in the French Concession, while common prostitutes worked in the Chinese walled city as well as the International Settlement and sing-song houses and Cantonese brothels were located in the International Settlement.
7. Shikumen is a form of terrace house developed during and after the Taiping Rebellion as a result of an influx of well-to-do refugees from the countryside. It is an architectural form local to Shanghai, and a small number can still be seen there. These houses have extremely strong stone portals and a thick wooden front door that lead onto a small courtyard—a reflection of the concern for security in the early days. The house itself is of Chinese design and layout, with the kitchen and service area in the back. These houses, compact in design, suited the purposes of unlicensed prostitutes.
8. For more details about the categories of brothels and courtesans, their modes of operation, and changes that occurred in Republican China, see Gail Hershatter, Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Shanghai (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
9. Unlike the second-class houses, the first-class ones did not charge customers for dropping in for tea. This was done on the understanding that clients who did so would give regular dinner parties at the house.
10. In this novel, Constance, Lotuson Wang’s new flame, is thought to have belonged to this category, though her rival Little Rouge claims that she was originally a streetwalker. Incidentally, while it was not unusual for streetwalkers to set up as first-class courtesans with the backing of a wealthy client, the chances of a second-class girl being promoted to a first-class house were said to be slim.
11. If the girl was sold to the house, all the gifts she received in fact belonged to the brothel though she was the one who actually wore them.
12. It was the fashion to wear what looked like a thin headband studded with jewels just above the forehead.
13. Henriot, Belles de Shanghai, p. 30.
14. The reader will notice that many of the courtesans in this novel are in debt, a fairly accurate reflection of the real situation. The reasons for courtesans going into debt were various. Some became addicted to opium, while others gave money to their lovers (it was very fashionable for courtesans to take up with actors). Many prostitutes, however, were cheated by clients who just disappeared after running up huge bills.
15. This must have been a well-known practice, as there was a technical term for it: “waiting by the city gate.” This saying probably originated with the curfew laws. The Chinese walled city closed its gates after curfew, during which time the gates were only opened when government officials needed to go through. Commoners who wanted to pass during the night therefore waited by a gate and rushed through when it was opened for an official.
16. It was also considered bad form for her regular clients to show feelings of jealousy.
17. See, for example, chapter 22, in which Green Phoenix goes to bed with Vigor Qian in his home so that he will only be billed for a party call.
18. Goldie, who works for Little Rouge, is perhaps the best example of an effective maid in this novel.
19. Thus we have the episode in chapter 23 when Clever complains about brothel clients “horsing around” with servant girls.
20. Normally, dinner parties were held in the courtesans’ rooms.
21. Tobacco was smoked through small water pipes, made of silver in the sing-song houses and of a yellowish copper alloy in other establishments. The body of the pipe, containing the water compartment and the tobacco bowl, could fit into the palm of the hand.
22. Opium divans were wide enough for two people. Normally, the client lay on one side and the courtesan on the other. Besides an opium lamp used for roasting the raw paste into pellets, other equipment for opium smoking included a pick, an opium pipe, and a box for roasted pellets.
23. Given this arrangement, it was very upsetting for a courtesan to be moved to a downstairs room, as is illustrated in the case of Twin Jewel in this novel.
24. Henriot, Belles de Shanghai, p. 354.
Selected References
Chen Boxi. Shanghai yishi daguan (Panorama of Shanghai anecdotes). Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 2000.
Cusack, Dymphna. Chinese Women Speak. Sydney: Halstead, 1958.
Dong, Stella. Shanghai: Gateway to the Celestial Empire. Hong Kong: FormAsia, 2003.
Henriot, Christian. Belles de Shanghai. Prostitution and Sexuality in Shanghai: A Social History, 1849–1949. Trans. Noel Castelino. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Hershatter, Gail. Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth Century Shanghai. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
Hu Shi. “Haishang hua liezhuan xu.” (Preface to Haishang hua liezhuan), in Haishang hua, ed. Wang Yuanfang, pp. 1–36. Shanghai: Yadong tushuguan, 1935.
Huang Jun. Hua sui rensheng an zhiyi (Memories of the hut of flowers and figurines). Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1998.
Liu Fu. “Du Haishang hua liezhuan’ (On reading Haishang hua liezhuan), in Haishang hua, ed. Wang Yuanfang, pp. 1–34. Shanghai: Yadong tushuguan, 1935.
Pott, F. L. Hawks. A Short History of Shanghai, Being an Account of the Growth and Development of the International Settlement. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1928.
Sargent, Harriet. Shanghai: Collision Point of Cultures, 1918–1939. New York: Crown, 1990.
Tang, Zhenchang. Xiandai Shanghai fanhua lu (Records of the prosperity of modern Shanghai). Taipei: Commercial, 1993.
Wang Zhongxian. Shanghai suyu tushuo (Illustrated book of Shanghai slang). Illus. Xi Xiaoxia. Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1999.
Zhang Wei et al. Lao Shanghai ditu (Maps of old Shanghai). Shanghai: Shanghai huabao chubanshe, 2001.