The end of the Chinese Courtesan Culture

Both busy streets and country roads
are empty without good friends
evenings go, mornings come,
and I pawn my embroidered dress
the dusky mirror, frail in its special box,
shows me my delicate hair, tangled across my face
my incense burner, curiously carved,
creates a haze of musky smoke
lovesick with spring, wealthy young men
leave me urgent messages
sometimes I think of famous beauties
their portraits in the doorways
lovers' chariots don't spare
to line up at my door
willows bend thoughtfully and plum blossoms burst
rich with fragrance, just in time.
Yu Xuan Ji

The Qing Dynasty was the last Chinese dynasty. After the Manchus conquered China, the Chinese drew into themselves. They re-applied the Confucianist principles on seperating the sexes in the strongest severity. This era was marked by more and more Confucianist fundamentalism. By sexual repression and segration.

Art and theater were one of the few forms more love and feelings were accepted. Here, male actors played the female roles, and the young boys playing these became national sex symbols. Male homosexuality developed as a very fashionable and the most prevalent form of recreational sex. Therefore, female entertainers became a rarity in the pleasure quarters, and the men took over. The glorious Chinese courtesan culture came to an end. But it had already influenced neighboring Korea, where it continued to flourish in new forms to finally reach Japan.