Kang Suzhen, a native of Anyue County, Sichuan, was born in the 30s of the last century, when the family fled to Chengdu because of the famine in his hometown. She can be described as a hard-working person, when she was a child, her mother died in childbirth, her father smoked a lot of cigarettes and lost the family property, she was sold to a rich family as a child daughter-in-law, she escaped and fell into a trap after being beaten and bullied, and was abducted to Chengdu Chunxi Hospital.
What kind of place is this? It was brothels everywhere during the Republic of China, but it was this experience that allowed her to leave an unknown "brothel history" for future generations, revealing the true appearance of brothels in the Republic of China, so do you all know what secrets?
Picture: Stills of the Qinglou woman during the Republic of China
1. The life of a woman in the dust of the Republic of China
1. Strict brothels
Kang Suzhen, also known as Kang Xiaomei, was only 13 years old when she was sold to a brothel, according to her recollections, she was beaten the first day she entered Chunxi Courtyard, because the old bustard Su Maohua forced her to call her "mother", Kang Xiaomei was naturally unwilling, and even wanted to run away for a while.
As a result, the embarrassed old bustard had her hands and feet tied, stuffed a cloth in her mouth, and hung her on a tree to fight, causing her to become incontinent and pass out, and when she woke up, she was locked in a dark and cold hut, leaving a huge shadow in her heart. After more than half a month, the injury gradually improved, and she began to do some chores according to the bustard's request.
Kang Xiaomei said that the security inside Chunxi Courtyard is very tight, there is a wall more than a zhang high, and it is also covered with power grids, and there are thugs standing guard at the door all day and night, and it is impossible to run.
In Chunxi Courtyard, all life is prostitutes, who get up every morning to freshen up, and then train some necessary "skills", such as piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, blowing, playing and singing, and even how to secretly send autumn waves to men.
The reason is simple, as a member of Chunheein, you must have the ability to solicit customers, otherwise you will only have to eat leftovers or go hungry for a day. Sometimes the bustard is in a bad mood and will inevitably be beaten, so every woman here is very "hard", just to have food and not be beaten.
Picture: Screenshot of the information of the woman standing at the door during the Republic of China
2. "Top brand" kiln sister
If you want to talk about the top card in Chunxi Courtyard, she must be proficient in various skills, Su Fengxian, who is known as "Gairong City", she can't be busy just going out to the banquet every day, one evening, Su Fengxian came back from the banquet, stumbled on the way back to the room, obviously drank too much, and accidentally fell when going up the stairs, causing the corners of her mouth to break.
At this time, Kang Xiaomei saw it, and hurriedly went up to help, and helped her into the house to take care of her, when she helped Su Fengxian pack up her clothes, Kang Xiaomei suddenly found that the bedding under her was wet, and hurriedly checked, it turned out that there were a dozen thick handkerchiefs, there were as many as five or six, and when I smelled it, it was a pungent smell of wine.
It turned out that in order to prevent the guests from getting drunk when they went out to the banquet, the prostitutes would hide many handkerchiefs on their bodies in advance, and when they drank, they would take small sips, and then press them down with their tongues, and spit on the handkerchiefs when the guests were not paying attention, so that they would not get drunk soon and not be easily discovered by the guests, but even so, Su Fengxian was still drunk in the end, which shows how terrible it is for prostitutes to go out to the banquet.
Su Fengxian saw that Kang Xiaomei took good care of herself, so she talked about her heart, it turned out that she was also a hard-working person, her mother was plundered by the landlord, her father and younger brother begged for an explanation, and all of them died at the hands of the landlord, and she had to be reduced to a dust girl who was homeless. Faced with this unbearable past, Kang Xiaomei couldn't help but think: If she hadn't been forced to the end, who would have come to this place like purgatory on earth?
Image: Stills from the Dust Girl
2. The "secrets" in the brothels of the Republic of China
1. Even if you have the first card, you don't have any money
In many folk tales like "Du Shi Niang's Angry Sinking Treasure Chest", the top brand in the brothel Qinglou is often very rich, and even after a few years of accumulation, he can successfully redeem himself, so is this true?
Kang Xiaomei recalled that she couldn't think of this kind Xi of thing, because after staying in Chunxi Courtyard for a while, she found that she had to learn various skills like other women every day, which meant that she also had to solicit customers to make money. Finally, one day, the bustard took her out to perm her hair, gave her some decorative jewelry, taught her to apply rouge, etc., and of course, she also had her own room with all kinds of wine.
Of course not, because every prostitute has a box in her room, and the keys are all in the hands of the bustard, and when the money is earned, it must be handed over and cannot be kept privately, and sometimes the bustard suspects that the prostitute has money in her hands, so he will sneak into the room while they are not there, check everywhere, and knock on the bricks on the floor one by one, and once they find which one is loose, they will let people open it to see what it is.
For these prostitutes with miserable backgrounds, they were sold in, which belonged to the "private property" of the old bustard, and the money they earned must be handed over uniformly, and the first guest Kang Xiaomei received was an old man in his 70s.
Picture: Du Shi Niang holding a treasure chest stills
2. The consequences of escaping are serious
Some people wonder what if a prostitute is so humiliated that she wants to run away? Late one night, Kang Xiaomei was woken up by the noise outside, and when she went out, she found that a prostitute named Xianhe was being beaten and was dying.
According to Su Fengxian, this crane has a good man surnamed Zhao outside, and the contact between the two has become obviously frequent recently, and this Mr. Zhao and Xianhe agreed to elope together. However, the gate of Chunxi Courtyard is usually locked, and there are thugs outside, in order to successfully escape, Xianhe pressed the model of the gate key with soap, and then handed it to Mr. Zhao to go outside to distribute the key.
Although Xianhe didn't have much money, she put away all kinds of jewelry given to her by the bustard, and planned to escape at night as agreed, but what she didn't expect was that Wang's mother, who was working in the pantry, actually reported her.
It turned out that this middle-aged woman was a miscellaneous subordinate on the surface, but in fact she was a henchman arranged by the old bustard to monitor the prostitutes' every move in the dark.
Image: A still from a woman being bullied
It is said that the crane was abused to death in a small black house, and Kang Xiaomei has been in many brothels in Chengdu, Baoji, Lanzhou and other brothels since then, until the establishment of New China, she really lived a free and bright life.