Prostitution, however, prevails to a prodigious extent. There is throughout the country a regular traffic in females. “Seduction and adultery,” says Williams, “are comparatively unfrequent; but brothels and their inmates occur everywhere on land and water. One danger attending young girls going alone is, that they will be stolen for incarceration in these gates of hell.”
This is in allusion to a very extraordinary system prevalent in the great cities of China. In 1832 it was calculated there were between 8000 and 10,000 prostitutes having abodes in and about Canton. Of these the greater portion had been stolen while children, and compelled to adopt that course of life. Dressed gaily, taught to affect happiness, and trained in seductive manners, they were examples of their class in Europe. Many young girls were carried away, forcibly violated, and then consigned to a brothel.
Hundreds of kidnappers, chiefly women, swarmed in the city, gaining a livelihood by the traffic in young girls and children. Nor was this the only way in which such places were supplied. In times of general scarcity or individual want, parents have been seen leading their own daughters through the streets and offering them for sale. The selling of children, says Cunynghame, one of the most recent visitors to Canton, is an every-day occurrence, and is on the whole a check upon infanticide. The little victims are seen constantly passing on their way to the habitations of their purchasers gaily dressed out as though for some great ceremony or happy festival. Of these, indeed, some are disposed of as concubines, but many also are deliberately sold to be brought up as prostitutes. It is looked upon as a simple mercantile transaction, the children being transferred at once to the brothels, whence they are hired out for the profit of their masters. Some of those who are deserted or exposed to perish are reserved by the agents for these places; but the principal supply is brought by kidnappers. Proclamation after proclamation has been issued to complain of them, but with little effect. The system appears rather on the increase than otherwise.
The children thus purchased or picked up in the streets are educated with care, taught to play on various kinds of instruments, to dance, to sing, to perform in comedies or pantomimes, and to excel in many graceful accomplishments, which render them agreeable. They are often richly clothed, and adorned in such a way as to render them most attractive to the roués of Canton and Peking.
They do not often compress their feet, as it is a hindrance to their movements, but may be seen in the streets occasionally—though not often—with painted faces, looking boldly at the strangers who pass along. Of the houses they frequent we have no particular description; but they probably resemble much similar places of resort in civilized countries. A peculiar feature of China, however, is displayed in the floating brothels, which are the chief habitations of the prostitutes. Licentious as the native of that empire is in the general turn of his ideas, he makes a public display of his indulgence in those pleasures which in Europe men affect, at least, to conceal from general view. The floating brothels of the Pearl River are moored in conspicuous situations, and distinguished from the other boats by the superior style of their structure and decorations. The surface of the stream, indeed, is studded with beautiful junks, which are the first objects to attract the traveller’s eye as he approaches the provincial city of Canton. Comparatively few of the women parade the streets, except when they form part of a public procession, so that there is at least in the heart of the town an appearance of morality.
CHINESE WOMAN (Prostitute), ACCUSED OF DISORDERLY CONDUCT BEFORE A JUDGE.
[From Alexander’s “Illustrations of China.”]
Many of these brothel junks are called Flower Boats, and are resorted to by numbers of the class. They form, indeed, whole streets in the floating city on the Pearl River, which is one of the most remarkable features of Canton. The prostitutes themselves, like all women of the same sisterhood, lead a life of reckless extravagance—plunging while they can into all the exciting pleasures which are offered by their particular mode of life, careless of the future, and eagerly snatching at anything which may release them from the change of dulness or time for reflection. Diseases are very prevalent among them, and cause much havoc among the men who frequent their boats or houses. They endeavour to cure themselves by means of drugs and medicinal draughts, and by this means concentrate the malady upon some secret vital part, whence it shoots through the frame, but does not manifest itself until the victim is all but destroyed. With the exception of an unusual paleness and a heated appearance in the eyes, the prostitutes do not wear the aspect of disease; but they, indeed, paint themselves inordinately to mask the ravages of time or the maladies which afflict them.
The prostitutes of Canton are usually congregated in companies or troops, each of which is under the government of a man who is answerable for their conduct—if they rob, or disturb the peace, or commit any gross offence against decency, or perpetrate any other offence. National delicacy, however, has little to do with the prohibitions which restrain them from entering certain parts of the city, and forbid young men of rank and influence to hold intercourse with them. The brothel junks, of lofty build, brightly painted, and glittering with gaudy variegated flags, float in squadrons on the water, are seen and known by all, and are resorted to by numbers of the citizens. Persons pass to and from them without an attempt at disguise or concealment. Rich men, on festive occasions, make up a party of pleasure, embark in a gaily-decorated boat, send to one of the prostitute junks, engage as many of the women as they please, and spend the day in amusement with them. It is openly done, and no disgrace attaches to it. The junks themselves are fitted up in the interior—according to the class of prostitutes inhabiting them—with all the appurtenances of luxury, and on board them is a perpetual gala. It would be interesting to know how many of these boats are known to float on the Pearl River, with the average number of prostitutes in each.