A report on prostitution in Shanghai : drawn up for the Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai / by Edward Henderson.

  • Henderson, Edward.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on prostitution in Shanghai : drawn up for the Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai / by Edward Henderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the brothels in tlin sctt]cmcnt,hc announced that one month would be al- lowed for the parties concerned to seek suitable marriage alliances, &c., &c. There are not wanting instances at the present date of Mandarnis selecting such women fof wives although by doing so they risk loss of rank, a special law forbidding government officers to form such connections. The sums paid for these transfers are often very large; Tls. 8,000 (£3,500) was I am informed, recently given by a government official in Soochow for a woman belonging to one of the brothels in Shanghai; and I hear that there is at present residing in the settlement a native, belonging to the higliest literary grade, who, chosing a prostitute for his first wife, paid Tls. 7,000 (£2,000) to obtain possession of her. In two cases which have recently come under the notice of the police superintendant, $1500 and $2000 were the sums demanded by the brothel proprietors from the intend- ing purchasers. Many rich Chinamen regard the payments of these large sums as public proofs of their superior wealth, and will shew wives so obtained with pride, boasting of the money they have cost. It is right to state that male children born of these marriages, if recognized, would not be permitted to appear at the competitive examinations, and hence are excluded from office; indeed so strictly does the law provide for such occurrences that each candidate, I am informed, is required to make a statement and produce a security, vouching that for three previous genera- tions his family has not been contaminated in this way, Judging fi'om the slight influence which law appears to exercise over custom in everything else connected with the subject under discussion, I should be surprised to learn that such a rule is at all strictly observed. Married men are frequently to be seen in the society of prostitutes at places of public resort or amusement as theatres &c., and without apparently much blame attaching to their conduct. Such women are also frequently invited to attend private parties of gentlemen to provide music for the entertainment of the guests, and this without fear of giving offence to any. * It might be supposed that the native women who seek the society of for- eigners chiefly or exclusively would suffer specially in the estimation of their countrymen ; this does not however appear to be the case, the prospects of marriage for such being more seriously affected by their large feet, than by any fact connected with their lives as prostitutes. * I refer here to the ' singing girls' as they are termed by the forcifni police. These are attached to the brothels, ranking higher than the ordinary inmates of the house. Thej', like female actors, are all really if not professedly prostitutes. I have not thought it necessary to give them any sepcratc description.