McMahon, Keith, “Fleecing the Male Customer in Shanghai Brothels of the 1890s” (2002)

Title : “Fleecing the Male Customer in Shanghai Brothels of the 1890s”

Author(s) : McMahon, Keith

Year : 2002

Type : Journal article

Subject : History

Keywords : social;gender

Journal : Late Imperial China

Volume : 23

Number : 2

Start page : 1

End page : 32

Language:Name : English

Support : Print

Abstract : Analyzes the novel Haishanghua Liezhuan [Flowers of Shanghai] (1892) by Han Banqing (1856-94) to show how the roles of the prostitute and the patron she "fleeces" changed in the late Qing, as the dynasty itself was changing, and no more so than in Shanghai, the setting of the story, where the foreign concession distanced the authority of the emperor and provided in abundance the ideas and cultural trends brought by Westerners. The newness of Shanghai, a city that had grown rapidly after the trade agreements imposed by the Western nations in the 19th century, is juxtaposed with the newness of the prostitute's role with her patron: she strives to be elusive, the object of his constant pursuit, by fitting his particular image, because "he defines himself through a certain image he has of her” This type of male-female relationship differs from the depictions of courtesans and their patrons that had appeared in earlier Ming and Qing novels, in which the women depended on their literary talents rather than their ability to perform sexually. The man's role has also changed: he neither venerates the woman for her cultured talents nor seeks to vilify her for fleecing him, which were the common scenarios of earlier fiction. The patron now identifies with “The icon of the new lifestyle of the modernizing Chinese city, the Shanghai prostitute," as he grasps a newly emerging, business-like love fantasy.