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Text: Yuan Gongbo
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introduction
During the Republican era, China, as a late-developing country, struggled to trek or catch up in various fields, but no matter what its status was, its level of development was far from that of the original modern countries.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Liang Qichao once said: "Our country is not as good as the West, but the art of preventing the people is the best in the world, and this sincerity can cry bitterly." ”
In fact, Liang Rengong also ignored an industry, which not only topped the world, but also made the taillights of the second place invisible, that is, the prostitution industry.
Whether it is Beijing, the old political center, or Shanghai, a new commercial city, all kinds of prostitution industries are magnificent, with "Qing Tune Small Classes", "Scholars", "concerts" as signboards, or "learning English" as the banner, and in the end, they all have different paths to the same end.
How chaotic was the Republic of China at that time? Once flooded to the point that Lao Jiang chose to leave it alone! In this issue, let's talk with you about the past of the Republic of China, and how the brothels that the Republic of China banned and couldn't stop disappearing.
(Republic of China Period)
1. The thriving prostitution industry
Lao She's novel "Crescent Moon" depicts the tragic story of a mother and daughter in old Shanghai who became prostitutes one after another.
The novel depicts the impact of the times on two generations in a gentle and delicate tone, and the mother of the protagonist "my" is a typical woman of the old times: quiet, stoic, and dedicated everything to the family. Faced with the fate of becoming a secret prostitute, she chose to suffer silently.
However, "I" was deeply influenced by the May Fourth Movement, constantly rebelling against the cruelty of fate and trying to embark on a different path.
However, all the rebellion was in vain, and "I" finally followed in my mother's footsteps.
Lao She designed the plot in this way to point out a simple truth: everyone cannot transcend his era, and individuals will only fall with the torrent of the times.
(Republic of China Period)
According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Health Education Association in Shanghai in 1922:
"In the eight major cities of Beijing, Nanjing, Hong Kong, Jinan, Yantai, and Guilin, it is estimated that the number of household registrations ranges from more than 7,000 to 60,000, and the ratio of prostitutes to regular households is about 1:35 to 1:90, and on average, the ratio is 1 to 60;
In 41 cities (including the above-mentioned large cities), it is estimated that the number of prostitutes is as small as 1,200 to as high as 1,500,000, and the ratio of prostitutes to regular households is 1:50 to 1:5,000, and the average number is 1:325......"
(Republic of China Period)
Like many industries, the prostitution industry has also made customer diversion for different income groups, and the "second two" and "long three" focus on high-end peripheral routes, claiming that the monthly order volume will never exceed double digits, and many people even have fixed owners. "Pheasant" and "Dingpeng" highlight high cost performance and wage consumption, which can be called Pinduoduo in the prostitution industry.
If you have a unique taste and are willing to spend money, the vast "chicken head" can even find you exotic customs, according to the statistics of "Shanghai Prostitution Problem", there are actually 1 percent foreigners among prostitutes in Shanghai.
(Republic of China Period)
2. "Abolition of Prostitution" and "Saving Prostitution"
When the Christian Church in the United States formally raised the issue with the Shanghai Ministry of Industry Bureau, the disgraced workers had to be ambiguous: they would organize an investigation and take the results seriously.
As early as the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing government, which was gradually involved in the world system, recognized the importance of this issue, and the Qing government put forward the slogan of "abolishing prostitution" and established the Jingshi Jiliang Institute in 1907.
The conditions for being allowed to be sheltered are: abduction of prostitutes of unknown origin; prostitutes who are required to demand a high price and are willing to discourage good people; prostitutes who have been abused by their leaders; prostitutes who do not want to be prostitutes; A prostitute who has no family to return to, no relatives to give to.
It can be seen that the people in Jiliang are all women who voluntarily stop working in prostitution.
(Jiliangso)
The Jiliang Center is well-equipped, strictly managed, and the recipients are clearly numbered, and there are rules from morning to night, which are basically simple courses such as drawing, cooking, and music.
In addition to this, "gentlemen" are also allowed to go on blind dates and marry in consensual situations.
The official propaganda document of the Qing government boasted: "But the sludge is not stained, and the lotus flowers are in the pond", in short, the effect is excellent.
However, the actual situation is not as good as advertised, Jiliang Institute is running around, corruption is rampant, many of the conditions are not at all, and the people who are being rescued are like being imprisoned. The so-called "gentlemen" are treated with the exception of a very small number of people who really have progressive ideas, and there are few serious people at all, so even if they can get married, they are often unhappy in marriage.
In the long run, everyone in Beijing regarded Jiliang as fearful, and Jiliang was useless.
(Jiliangso)
After the Xinhai Revolution, the common people with very low consciousness were like those written in Lu Xun's novels, and they couldn't figure out what was happening, but the high-level Qing officials quickly clarified the situation and reformed one after another.
For these old fritters from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the revolution is a real liberation. Especially the "Sanlin Company" under Qu Hongji, even Bei Ziye dared to manage women, and now that the Qing Dynasty is dead, brothels have become legal transactions, and prostitution is personal freedom.
The eruption of human nature has triggered the explosive development of prostitution, and the government of the Republic of China has discussed "abolishing prostitution" and "saving prostitution".
In fact, he said that the fundamental problem faced by the abolition of prostitution is how to arrange it after the abolition of prostitution.
Behind the prosperity of the prostitution industry is the abnormality of society, and whenever the social inequality develops to a certain extent, the prostitution industry will inevitably rise, because the biggest inequality among the many social inequalities is actually the inequality of sexual resources.
The rich occupy too many social resources, and when they overflow, they are transformed into all kinds of perverted needs. The poor are too poor to afford the burden of marrying a wife independently, and to solve their sexual needs, they can only share sexual resources like sharing bicycles.
(Republic of China Period)
3. Reform prostitutes and arrange a way out
The solution to the problem of prostitution was after the founding of New China.
The first step is to continue the idea of "saving prostitutes", not to abruptly abolish their livelihoods, and to limit development, and only reduce but not increase.
As early as July 1949, Beijing made a statute to regulate the registration and management of practitioners, especially to restrict customers, and clearly stipulate that several categories of people are not allowed to solicit prostitution, so as to reduce the number of customers.
The second stage is to close the brothel and carry out education and learning, in addition to ideological transformation, the most important thing is to cure venereal diseases and develop skills in order to arrange a way back.
(Modified)
According to statistics, 70 percent of those who worked in the prostitution industry at that time were under the age of 24, and 80 percent were illiterate.
After arranging its learning culture and training skills, it is for the complete abolition of the third stage.
After the complete abolition, the government arranged former practitioners to work in factories, theater troupes, hospitals and other departments, and became its editors.
With a serious job and a formal social identity, the possibility of turning back is naturally cut off.
(Modified)
The prostitution industry has gone from being unsolvable to being solved, and what is behind it is nothing more than the common feelings of all kinds of people, and the solution of social problems does not depend on shouting slogans or heavy hands, but on the fact that the conditions are in place.
Resources
[1] Guo Yanying. Research on the reform of prostitutes in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China[D].Shaanxi Normal University,2014.
[2] Wang Juan. "Saving Prostitution" and "Abolishing Prostitution" in Beijing in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China[J].Women's Studies Series,2006,(03):49-54.)