Prostitution in Western societies has generated since the Middle Ages a fairly constant,
though more or less formalized, concern for control, supervision and repression.1 Because of
its intimate link to sexuality and social order, it has become since that period the object of a
multiplicity of self-reinforcing discourses which contributed to create a growing attitude of
rejection and condemnation in society and in people's mind2. The entanglement of prostitution
in a web of discourses and medical and police measures reached a climax during the
nineteenth century.3 This was related to the convergence of several factors, old and new — to
mention only the major ones: religious and moral condemnation of prostitution, concern for
social control by the authorities, anxiety toward venereal diseases — in a particular social and
ideological context where the bourgeois elites feared to be socially and physically
contaminated by the uncontrolled prostitution issued from the ranks of the proletarian classes.
This state of mind gave the opportunity to certain actors, especially the physicians, to have a
decisive influence on the policy of the public authorities toward the prostitutes and, under the
cover of scientific expertise, to nourish a fundamentally biased debate4.
In Europe, the measures of control and repression of prostitution were molded by the various
traditions that dominated in each country at the level of religion, social and political
organization. Nevertheless, one could find in each the same framework that provided for the
establishment of the repressive system which endeavored to contain or to subjugate
prostitution. In my work on prostitution I have examined whether China had made such an
experience and whether Chinese society had produced specific forms of discourse on
prostitution during the same period (mid-19th to mid-20th century). Shanghai offered a priori
an interesting viewpoint by virtue of its being a place of encounter between East and West.5 I
have to admit that even if one can observe elements of expression on this topic in China, the
whole remains fragmentary and incomplete at best. This may have to do with a lack of
“ speakers ”, but the main reason is above all the absence of a genuine condemnation of
prostitution and awareness of its consequences. Furthermore, at least until W.W.I the
“ positive ” though fallacious discourse produced by the literati on courtesans is
overwhelming.6 Finally, with the establishment of Westerners, it becomes very difficult to
1
Timothy BROOK et Odile DEMANGE, Sous l’oeil des dragons: la Chine des dynasties Yuan et Ming, Paris,
Payot, coll.« Histoire Pay », 2012, p. 45.
2
CHAUSSENDE, La Chine au XVIIIe siècle: l’apogée de l’empire sino-mandchou des Qing, Paris, les Belles
lettres, coll.« Guide Belles lettres des civilisati », 2013, p. 34.
3
Yi XU 徐怡 et Yi LIU 劉異, Songhu yu ri zhanshi 松滬禦日戰史, [China], Minzu jiaoyushe chuban 民族教育
社出版, 1932, p. 12.
4
Kenneth K. S. CH’EN et Dominique KYCH, Histoire du bouddhisme en Chine, Paris, les Belles lettres, 2015,
p. 90.
5
Jung CHANG et BOUDEW, L’Impératrice Cixi: la concubine qui a fait entrer la Chine dans la modernité, Paris,
JC Lattès, 2015.
6
Robert BICKERS, The scramble for China: foreign devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914, London, Penguin
books, 20, p. 200‑210.
disentangle the genuinely “ indigenous ” reactions from the influences of the West, which
emerge as soon as 1849 in Shanghai.
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