Beijing’s Eight Great Hutongs in the late Qing dynasty: a blood-and-tears chronicle of women in the brothels.
From poetry, wine, music, and chess in refined singing houses to the buying and selling of women’s bodies in low-class brothels; from the defloration of a fourteen-year-old girl to the tragic death of the prostitute known as “the Heartthrob.” Among them are the daughters of officials sold into prostitution, farm girls who fled famine, orphaned descendants of fallen banner families, and actresses from the opera world. They receive all manner of guests: officials, scholars, merchants, street thugs…
Beneath the outward glamour lie illness, oppression, resale, and premature death. This panoramic portrayal exposes the evils of the prostitution system and honors the memory of women who suffered injustice in the past.
This is no world of romance, but a place where women struggle to survive. They live in the most degrading circumstances, like weeds in a filthy alley: ignored by everyone, yet fighting with all their might to push their way upward.
