This is a story of love and sex, betrayal and friendship, misogyny and the power of women to overcome their lot in life. The story spans almost forty years of turmoil and unrest in China from the collapse of the Imperial dynasty through the rise of the Republic with the explosion of international trade, the influx of foreigners living in the International Settlement, until World War II which caused an abrupt end to that way of life. It is a story about courtesans and courtesan houses, of women without power learning to live by their wits and good looks, and about the men who use and abuse them.

A young impulsive women flees her stifiling but detached parents in San Francisco to follow a young Chinese aristocrat returning to his home in Shanghai. Rejected by his family, and eventually by her lover as well, she must figure out how to make a life for herself and her child. Since very few avenues are open to her, she eventually establishes a courtesan house catering to native Chinese and eventually to the brash foreigners who come to China to make their fortunes. But her past keeps interfering with her present and she has never quite learned who to trust. Betrayed by another lover, she is forced to abandon her daughter, who must now follow her own path as a courtesan. The path for this young woman is brutal and hard, but eventually by trusting in the friendship of other women, together they find the strength to overcome the brutality that shapes their lives.

Although well written and well researched this is not a story for the faint hearted. Maybe because of the current state of the #MeToo movement, the rise in women’s voices saying enough, I found this story both tragic and deeply repulsive. At one time this may have been a story that was mildly erotic and titillating, but no more. The misogyny and racism that gives rise to women having to pleasure and entertain men because they have no power of their own is a travesty and injustice that still resonates deeply into the present day. Until we see these moments in history with clear eyes for what they were; the deliberate and systematic dis-empowerment of women so that their only choices were to be a wife and mother or a prostitute with both roles served at the pleasure of the men who “owned” them, we will not be free. RBG was right: ‘I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Keith and Ken

Book Study Worthy: Yes!

Read in ebook format.