(no subject)

[oyceter]

Good things about my job:

Someone must have taken some class on the history of Asian-Americans, because they just sold their books to us. The boss was going to turn a few away because they had been slightly highlighted, then noticed I was very interested in one book on Chinese prostitution in early San Francisco, and drew my attention to those. Ha, five dollars! Then employee discount ^_^.

I feel kind of bad that I was an East Asian Studies major and know almost nothing about this stretch of history -- mostly I did Japanese pop culture and ancient Chinese history (and pre-modern Japanese history, 1600-on). Plus, prostitution.

Sexual history/politics really interests me. And it'll be nice to know about this in addition to Japanese hostesses and the geisha and Yoshiwara.

Now I need to find something on Chinese prostitutes/courtesans in pre-modern China!

Comments

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I haven't taken any classes on China, but Dangerous Women: Warriors, Grannies, and Geisha of the Ming (http://btobsearch.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?userid=UN325XKaU8&btob=Y&isbn=0847693953) was a fascinating read. (The author uses the term "geisha" with caveats that she explains in a foreword.) If you look at it, let me know how it holds up scholarship-wise.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I've been drawn to prostitution/courtesanship/paid companionship since adolescence, too, and felt vaguely guilty about it. I just brought home the Geisha memoir by Mineko Iwasaki last night, in fact. Let me know what else you find. I've only read about Chinese prostitution in SF in passing, in The Barbary Coast, and he leaves the impression that nearly everybody died of disease (not necessarily sexual; some brought on by the horrible conditions.)

[oyceter]

I think I've seen that book somewhere, or maybe read a review of it in one of the EAS journals, because I know I've read her caveat about the use of the word "geisha."

Weird, totally forgot about that! Thanks!

[oyceter]

Me too, and I always wondered if I was really weird or something. I will pretty much read any romance that mentions the heroine is a prostitute/courtesan, heh.

I haven't read the Iwasaki memoir, although I've seen it floating around. I actually liked Arthur Golden's book until I read two more books on geisha. Liza Dalby's is interesting, esp. since she's known for being the only non-Japanese person to become a geisha for her anthropology degree at Berkeley (I think). Dalby is very much in love with the idea of geisha, though, and that gets in the way of the book. Lesley Downer has another one that I think buys too much into the entire myth of the geisha and romanticizes it too much.

Cecilia Sagawa Seigle's Yoshiwara is a very good (and perhaps the only) look at the floating world/ukiyo of Edo Japan (1600-1868), of the courtesans and their decline and of the eventual rise of the geisha.

Anne Allison's Nightlife is a good look at the mizushobai (water business aka prostitution) of modern Japan, especially of the entire culture of hostesses and bar maids and the salary men who frequent them.

I also like Gregory M. Pflugfelder's Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950. Not prostitution per se, although it covers the kabuki actors who were kind of like male prostitutes.

Hee, that was probably too much info ;). Wow, I really need to buy more EAS non-fiction!

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

I haven't read a whole lot on Chinese prostitutes/courtesans. The little I do know is from day camp when I was 13. We had day camp at Cameron House in SF's Chinatown. The founder, Donaldina Cameron, routinely hid Chinese women from their madams or brothel owners.

Have you read A Thousand Pieces of Gold? I first read it in high school and found it to be an interesting read on one woman's tale of being sold as a girl into servitude and her path to freedom.

I've read some of Liza dalby's work and she comes across as too enamored with geisha. I really did like Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, too. I've mostly read a lot of murder/intrigue stories set in feudal Japan or China with twists in history, AU, I suppose. And more often than not one of the main characters or larger supporting characters will be a prostitute/courtesan.

Storyville

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

If you're willing to tiptoe into non-Asian cultures, I highly, highly recommend Storyville, New Orleans, Being an Authentic, Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District. From the late 1800s till 1914, New Orleans had a legal, licensed, brothel area. People published guidebooks. Among other things, jazz was born there. This book has many interviews with surviving New Orleans residents who remembered, were customers of, or worked in Storyville. Amazon has it here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0817344039/103-4979641-3947804?_encoding=UTF8).

[oyceter]

Oo, I haven't... I will have to look that up!

I read one of the murder/intrigue in feudal Japan type books (Laura Joh Rowland I think?) and didn't particularly like it -- felt too much in the Shogun vein of books for me, heh.

Re: Storyville

[oyceter]

Definitely interested! Just never really knew where to start...

But ooo, legal brothel area -- interesting! Hee.

Re: Storyville

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Apparently in-call (you call the lady/gentleman and she comes to your hotel) prostitution is legal in Montreal; there was an NPR story about it last night.

If you read A Thousand Pieces fo Gold

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

You might want to try and check out the documentary. I'm trying to recall it but the brain is not cooperating, the woman only died up until recently, in the last 20 years, I think. She lived to be pretty old. I'll try to google it and get back to you on it.

Laura Joh Rowland. Read a couple of those books. Definitley Shogun-style. Too much delving into the The Way of the Sword.

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

After looking around a bit, and reading a couple of things on it, I realize now that it's not "A thousand...it's "Thousand". It's by Ruthanne somebody somebody not Yen Mah. And also, because my brain is getitng old, the writing is not stellar. But the story itself is good. The documentary was much better. Nto sure how hard it would be to view it though. Sorry about the misinformation.

[oyceter]

Hee, no problem ^_^. But thanks for the info!