Prostitution in Hong Kong
[1] The most visible public venues for sex workers in Hong Kong, especially for tourists, are massage parlours and the so-called "Japanese style night clubs".
However, most of the commercial sex worker industry consists of women working in small, usually one room apartments, usually referred to as "one-woman brothels", the equivalent of the "Soho walk-up" in the United Kingdom.
[5][6] Prostitution boomed in the districts of Sai Ying Pun, Wan Chai,[7] Mong Kok and Yau Ma Tei.
[11] Although organised prostitution is illegal, the industry had always been under the influence of triads to recruit economically disadvantaged women who otherwise would never enter the profession voluntarily.
[17][18] Western prostitutes concentrated there, while Chinese brothels were located in the Tai Ping Shan area near Po Hing Fong.
[19] The Chinese writer Wang Tao wrote in 1860 that Tai Ping Shan Street was full of brothels: "gaudy houses, sporting brightly painted doors and windows with fancy curtains".
In the early 1900s Spring Garden Lane and Sam Pan Street (三板街) in Wan Chai became a red-light district with western and Chinese prostitutes.
[19][21] The Tanka people, an ethnic minority in coastal South China, were a source of prostitutes for the sailors of the British Empire.
[27] Tanka prostitutes were considered "low class", greedy for money, arrogant, and liable to treat their clients badly.
[31][32] The Tanka women were viewed as such that their prostitution activities were considered part of the normal bustle of a commercial trading city.
[36] A report called "Correspondence respecting the alleged existence of Chinese slavery in Hong Kong: presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty" was presented to the English Parliament in 1882 concerning the existence of slavery in Hong Kong, which involved many Tanka girls serving as prostitutes or mistresses to westerners.
Ziteng campaigns for changes in the law, in particular the overturn of ban on brothels with more than one prostitute, since this prevents sex workers banding together for protection.
Many migrant sex workers arrive on a short tourist visa and try to make as much money as possible by prostituting illegally before leaving Hong Kong, some returning frequently.
There are also "underground" organisations (such as Thai restaurants and escort bars) that arrange for foreign (usually Thai) and mainland girls to gain work in Hong Kong legally with an entertainment visa, but in fact they actually work in go-go bars in Wan Chai or other hostess clubs around Hong Kong.
Older, less attractive girls will find themselves working in the one-woman brothels as "phoenixes" (鳳), a term derived from the similarity of the Chinese word for prostitute to that of chicken (雞).
For instance, by the Hong Kong legal code Chapter 200 Section 147, any person who "solicits for any immoral purpose" in a public place may receive a maximum penalty of HK$10,000 ($1,280) and six months' imprisonment.
[10] Advertisement of sex services, including signboards, illuminated signs and posters, is also prohibited, and an offence may result in imprisonment for 12 months.
[55] Under Hong Kong law, it is also illegal to organise arrangement of sex deals for more than one woman; violators are subject to a HK$20,000 fine and seven years' imprisonment.
Informal, individual prostitution (mostly of Filipinas, Indonesians, Thais, and sometimes women from Latin America and the former Soviet Union) is almost always available at discos or hotel bars, especially in the Tsim Sha Tsui and Wan Chai districts (the latter famous as the setting for The World of Suzie Wong).
[49] Hong Kong is primarily a destination, transit, and to a much lesser extent, a source territory for women and children subjected to sex trafficking.
