Prostitution in China - Houses of the Singing Girls

Green so green is the river grass,

thick so thick are the garden willow's leaves.

Beautiful so beautiful is the lady upstairs,

shining as she stands by the window, shining.

pretty in her powdered rouge, so pretty

with her slender, slender white hands.

Once she was a singing girl,

but now is the wife of a womanizer.

He travels and rarely comes home.

So hard to sleep in an empty bed.

Anonymous, Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.)

As we saw before, a Chinese man could have several wives and concubines. However his relationships with them was bound by many regulations and rules. Prostitutes offered a form of entertainment that was not bound by those Confucianist rules. These prostitutes were not viewed with contempt, they had their own role and place in Chinese society. Their profession was legitimate and had a recognized place in the Chinese social system.

First Brothels
As we saw before, the emperor, princes and high officials kept troups of singing girls in the Ch’in and former Han dynasty (221 BC-24 AD) . After that however, the economic situation changed. A rich merchant class came up that could not afford their own troups of singing girls. Still, these rich merchants looked for a way to amuse themselves.

Social shifts had broken up many pheasant and middle class families. This caused a lot of abandoned women to seek employment, leeding to the development of the first ‘Houses of the Singing Girls.’ Here men could drink, eat and watch the girls sing and dance. Afterwards they could stay the night. And many middle class men who could afford it chose their concubines from these singing girls.

Later in time, because the woodwork of these houses was lacquered green in the style of luxurious mansions, they were called ‘Green Bowers'. A name that would be taken over in Japan in later times.