Sing-song girls


Sing-song girls is an English term for the courtesans in nineteenth century China.

Origin

Before the founding of modern China in 1911, concubinage was legal. In Chinese custom, males carry the family name and the family's heritage after marriage. To ensure male heirs were produced, it was a common practice for an upper-class married male to have one or more concubines, provided he could support them.
The custom could be invoked without the wife's consent: the husband's actions were protected by law. Concubines would co-exist in the family along with wives and children. A man might choose a courtesan to be his concubine. Many of these courtesans would sing songs to attract potential husbands, hoping to become secondary wives.

Terminology

Western observers in China during the nineteenth century witnessed these women singing but had no idea what to call them since they were not classified as prostitutes. Thus the term "Sing-Song Girls" came about.
There is another version of the source of the term. According to the 1892 fictional masterpiece by Han Bangqing called Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai, also known as Flowers of Shanghai, people in Shanghai called the women who performed in sing-song houses "xian sheng" in Wu language. The term was pronounced like "sing-song" in English and the young women always sang to entertain the customers; thus Westerners called them Sing-Song girls. The word sian sang in this case is a polite term used to refer to an entertainer.

Their lives

Sing-song girls were trained from childhood to entertain wealthy male clients through companionship, singing and dancing in special sing-song houses. Not all performed sexual services, but many did. They generally saw themselves as lovers and not prostitutes. Sing-song girls did not have distinctive costumes or make-up. Often they wore Shanghai cheongsam as upper-class Chinese women did. Sing-song girls often performed amateur versions of Chinese opera for clients and often wore the traditional Chinese opera costume for small group performance. The girls had one or several male sponsors who might or might not be married and relied on these sponsors to pay off family or personal debts or to sustain their high standard of living. Many sing-song girls married their sponsors to start a free life.

Classes

Among sing-song girls were actually several subclasses of performers divided by the quality of skill. Over time, these would evolve, beginning with one class, developing into four, and consolidating down to two before becoming obsolete during the Cultural Revolution.
Below these, fell those whose services were purely sexual. Where some sing-song girls worked as such by choice, the women serving in the lowest tiers of the sex trade were often there as a result of being sold, mortgaged, kidnapped, or otherwise forced into the industry.
In Shanghai, Sing-song girls became a unique part of the city's culture, one which, in turn, affected the culture of other parts of China. As Shanghai was divided into different concessions loosely governed by multiple parties, there was greater freedom there for sing-song girls to come into the public eye without legal repercussions. This opened the door, allowing for the entertainment culture of the sing-song girls to impact the more traditional Chinese culture.
While even the highest class Changsan could not escape the ignominy of the sex trade, in some ways, that liberated her to flaunt a provocative culture which conservative Chinese tradition would not allow. Traditional views held that once married, a woman had no need to impress anyone. In conjunction with Confucian ideals of the virtues of modesty, this led to a standard of dress aimed to hide the form of the body within. However, sing-song girls, being unburdened such virtues, unmarried and perpetually courting were free not only to explore high fashion, but also to adapt it to be more. An example of this can be seen in the cheongsam which not only became more form fitting, but also became sleeveless with a long slit running up each side.
In general, the fact that sing-song girls were solely focused on entertainment meant that they were able to push the envelope of culture and style. For instance, they often decorated their parlors with expensive decor and modern amenities, making them culturally progressive to the point where there are documented cases of women sneaking into the entertainment houses to catch a glimpse of what the latest decorations and fashions were. Additionally, the fact that the sing-song girls were often courted by prominent individuals in society gave them further attention, even notoriety. For instance, it was not uncommon for famous sing-song girls to be invited to publicly accompany their courters allowing for them to further flaunt their fashion.
Sing-song girls would also be some of the first individuals in Chinese society to penetrate mass media. For instance, some sing-song girls began to use portraits of themselves as a way to attract business, early business cards. Moreover, the advent of mass advertisement and its use of women to market products resulted in the circulation of images of famous sing-song girls being displayed as the apparent standard of dress and beauty.
In a way, at least in Shanghai, the highest class sing-song girls became the first modern celebrities. Their fame came to them, not because of their virtues and industry, rather because of their association with high culture and the latest fashion. Accordingly, they used that fame to continue stretching the confines placed by conservative culture in ways which popularized modern technology and the expression of feminine sexuality.

Fiction