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Book Cover
Book
Author Warren, James Francis, 1942-

Title Ah ku and karayuki-san : prostitution in Singapore, 1870-1940 / James Francis Warren
Published Singapore ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1993

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB  306.74095957 War/Aka  AVAILABLE
Description xvii, 433 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm
Series South-East Asian social science monographs
South-East Asian social science monographs.
Contents pt. I. Brothel Prostitution in Singapore -- 1. Prostitution, Singapore Society, and the Historian -- 2. Poverty, Patriarchy, and Prosperity -- 3. Brothels and Prostitutes -- 4. Human Traffic and Brothel Prostitution -- 5. The Contagious Diseases Ordinance -- 6. The Venereal Disease Pandemic -- 7. Abolition -- pt. II. Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Their Lives -- 8. Hardship in the Village -- 9. The Flesh Trade -- 10. The Brothel Family and Daily Life -- 11. Clients: The Carnival of the Night -- 12. The Other Side of Midnight -- 13. Crossing Over -- 14. Bitter Harvest -- Conclusion: Retrieving the Prostitutes' Lives
Summary "This history describes and analyses brothel prostitution in Singapore between 1870 and 1940. The vital role of Chinese and Japanese prostitutes in sustaining Singapore's pre-war economy and society has not been fully recognized. Starting with village backgrounds in rural China and Japan, and the hazards of the trade in women and children, the author follows the prostitutes through their encounters with brothel life in general, and in particular explores their routines and crises of earning, spending, social relations, leisure, mobility, disease, and death. A rare portrait of the daily lives of the ah ku and karayuki-san emerges. It is also a historical account of human nature, of human relationships compelled by the pride and prejudice of the human spirit. The author has used Coroners Inquests and Inquiries, statistical and other records, as well as photographs and oral reminiscences to resurrect the lives of the ah ku and karayuki-san."
"By organizing the case material around themes relating to the workplace and working conditions, the author has converted a mass of depositions into an 'inner history', evoking a milieu and sentiment whose details were often clouded by an atmosphere of unease, irony, and danger: of Loh Sai Soh's fatal objection to Lam Loh Suh leaving the brothel: of Otoyo and her penalized client of two years, Lance-Corporal Albert Chacksfield; of the beautiful Duya Hadachi, her experiences of a relationship strained beyond endurance, and the deadly struggle between her paramours; and many, many others. Such ordinary people tumble from the pages of the records: they talk about choice of partners, love and betrayal, desperation and alienation, drawing us into their lives. These short vignettes turn out to have remarkable implications for the pace and texture of Ah Ku and Karayuki-san, and for stitching together a tapestry of poverty, sexual antagonisms, subordination, and conflict in the social history of prostitutes' and coolies' experiences. Combining a life-span approach with collective biography, the author has created a personal history of the ah ku and karayuki-san's times closely based on intimate experience, while still paying careful attention to the larger historical influences - the institutions, processes, and interactions - which determined their fates in Singapore. This social history is the companion volume to Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History of Singapore (1880-1940)."--Jacket
Analysis Prostitution History
Singapore
Notes Maps on lining papers
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [414]-428) and index
Subject Forced labor -- Singapore.
Human trafficking -- Singapore.
Prostitution -- Singapore -- History -- 19th century.
Prostitution -- Singapore -- History -- 20th century.
Women -- Crimes against -- Singapore.
SUBJECT Asia http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85008606 -- Emigration and immigration. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh00005907
LC no. 92030015
ISBN 019588616X