Whispers and Moans: Interviews with the men and women of Hong Kong's sex industry

by Yeeshan Yang

With glitzy nightclubs, saunas, karaoke lounges and brothels, Hong Kong's sex business is booming. But how do local prostitutes compete with an endless supply of girls from China? To find out, Yang spent a year with the city's hookers. The result is an eye-opening book which shows the human side of sex for sale - easy money, financial ruin and hopeless relationships - and first-hand insights into the huge but hidden sex industry.

Genres: Nonfiction, China, Sexuality

276 pages, paperback

First published September 1, 2006

Reviews

[Isham Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing more difficult than finding out what goes on in the mind of a prostitute, even when one is genuinely curious and not afflicted by sanctimony. She won't give men an honest answer, since they are potential customers, and will claim she earns less than she actually does to gain sympathy. She won't give women an honest answer, since they are potential competitors or worse - moralists. Academics and sociologists have no better luck trying to interview the prostitute, even when offering to pay for her time; she will then be happy to cooperate and will tell them exactly what (she thinks) they want to hear, exaggerating her circumstances and stories for shock effect. It's a classic problem of circling around the truth without ever getting any closer to it. Perhaps the female ethnographer could penetrate more deeply into this world by becoming a prostitute herself for a spell, but this is usually precluded by ethics protocols in academia (not to mention that in most countries sex work is an illegal activity). Another potential source of valuable information is the men who regularly sleep with prostitutes, though the information and stories they have to offer are secondhand and bound to be deeply subjective and self-serving as well.

Yeeshan Yang does not shy away from these obstacles. She confronts them directly in the first chapter, laying out her informal methodology - a compromise between the social worker interviewer and partial participant observer. We never really find out why she herself is interested in the topic of prostitution, but it's enough to know that she is, as we all are. However, her honesty inevitably forces her to confront the ultimate question as a female researcher, why she doesn't engage in sex work herself to gain the priviest perspective, and her response is poignant in its blunt candor: "Even if I did try to prostitute myself, I would likely end up digging my own tiny, burning pit of shame." To compensate for her acknowledged "narrow vision," she works very hard, hanging out on the streets and hostess clubs over months and years trying to meet and befriend as many sex workers of all types as she can. The insights that emerge from this approach are numerous and startling. If you talk to enough people in the same occupation, you will begin to see patterns and truths, some that I have never quite understood myself, despite my own extensive acquaintance with numerous sex workers in mainland China, e.g.: "Prostitutes have a stronger desire for love than do average women."

The result is a flawed yet profound book (which is why I'm still giving it 5 stars). Yang lacks the academic's sense of structure, and there is a loose sense of organization to her chapter sequencing that may strike some as haphazard. She also lacks the novelist's conciseness of expression and dramatic propulsion. The stories pile up of initially colorful characters who descend one after another into the same sad degeneracy of their materialistic fetishes, abusive relationships with pimps or boyfriends, drug addiction, jail and the repeating of these cycles over and over until they either waste away in prison or disappear into obscurity. She seeks but fails to find the counterpoint to these tragic tales - the happy hooker. We are left wondering if this mythical creature could possibly exist anywhere or may very well exist but was missed because the author was hanging out with all the wrong people. One suspects that if another intrepid author set about writing the same sort of book, a whole different cast of characters might emerge that would still bring us no closer to the truth of the prostitute. On the other hand, I don't think I've read a non-fiction account of prostitution that goes as far as Yang's does in its sheer persistence in the attempt.

[John Defrog: global citizen, local gadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A local (Hong Kong) book about the ups and downs of the Hong Kong prostitution business, featuring interviews with actual sex workers (male and female). Yang’s goal was to put a human face on sex workers (in which she succeeds) and make a case for legitimizing the business with things like a workers union (which doesn't quite work, if only because most of the sex workers she interviewed don't want a union). Anyway, it was a groundbreaking work at the time, as most books on HK's sex industry up to then were generally exploitative. (Oddly, it’s been made into a fictional film, which I can't comment on because I haven't seen it.)

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very insightful look into the sex industry of Hong Kong from the viewpoint of those who work in the profession and the patrions. This book is very well written and organised.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look not only at Hong Kong's sex industry, but also at the institution of marriage and family life there.

[Budd Margolis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sociologists will gain from this but it is a thorough and bioptic view of the underworld of characters and grime that is the world of Hong Kong sex workers.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really sad. Despite its titillating title, I found myself so disgusted at times. Not disgusted about what the prostitutes did (not much details there) but with their lives in general. It was just too sad and desperate that I had to take a break from it from time to time and resuming it was very unappealing.

I expected the author to be completely sympathetic to the prostitutes, but I was actually surprised (in a good way) at how will the author was not afraid to simply say that this person made a bad choice even knowing it was bad for them. Yang's chapters were short and tight and each covered an interesting facet of HK prostitution. Even prostitutes go to prostitutes after work to unwind!

If you don't know much about how hard life in the lower class in HK can be, you should read this book.