Flower boats
Floating brothels historically found in southern China

A Canton flower boat (a floating brothel) on the Pearl River, with men on deck and smaller boats alongside.

Flower boats (Chinese: 花船; pinyin: huāchuán) were floating brothels that operated primarily on the rivers and waterways of southern China from at least the eighteenth century into the early twentieth century. They were especially associated with Canton’s Pearl River and nearby anchorage at Whampoa, where they catered to Chinese patrons and foreign sailors during the Canton System.[1][2] Contemporary images and later museum descriptions also refer to these vessels as "pleasure boats".[3]

Terminology and setting

The euphemism “flower boat” was applied to elaborately decorated houseboats moored in designated stretches of river near Canton, sometimes in rows, where clients could dine, drink, hear music and purchase sexual services.[1] 19-century photographs depict “rows of flower boats” on the Pearl River at Canton.[4] Visual guides to the Canton trade also identify craft bearing flags such as "Heavenly Women" as flower boats catering to entertainment and sex.[5]

These boats are also named 花艇 (huātǐng) and 花舫 (huāfǎng), with variants such as 小艇, 四柱艇, 紫洞艇 and 紫洞花艇, operating in different stretches of the Pearl River around Canton.[6] Qing- and Republican-era descriptions note two-deck “横楼” layouts with glass windows and imported lamps, lavish carved woodwork and gilded trim.[7] Contemporary accounts by visitors likewise remarked that the river was “crowded with … 花艇 (flower boats)” among other craft.[8]

History

Rows of Flower Boats on the Pearl River

Scholarly reconstructions place the core period of Canton flower boats[9] between roughly 1750 and 1930, with distinct mooring areas shifting over time according to local regulation and commercial pressures.[1] At Whampoa, where foreign ships anchored during the trading season, floating brothels serviced crews and merchants and figured in local moral panics as well as policing campaigns.[2] Catastrophic storms in 1908–1909 damaged many vessels and contributed to the decline of the trade, alongside changing public attitudes and Republican-era anti-prostitution efforts.[1][10]

Qing official Zhao Yi recorded that “广州珠江疍船不下七八千，皆以脂粉为生计,” illustrating the scale of boat-based sex work on the river in the eighteenth century.[7] Later notes describe mooring shifts from 沙面 to 谷埠（今仁济路一带）再至南渡头, reflecting periodic relocation and contraction by the late Qing.[11]

On the 9th day of the first lunar month in 1909 (Xuantong 1), a conflagration at Dashatou destroyed 61 linked brothel boats (连环妓舫) with casualties approaching one thousand, accelerating the decline of large moored “flower boat” rows in central Guangzhou.[12]

Chinese studies describe multideck boats with “白鸽笼” cabins, reception halls and kitchens, serving merchants, officials and literati; flower boats were also used to entertain foreign envoys and guests associated with the Thirteen Hongs, including an 1844 reception held aboard a flower boat for members of the French legation.[7] Local press and photo-essays likewise document the Pearl River’s 花艇 culture into the early twentieth century.[13][8]

Operations and clientele

Accounts describe multideck boats with reception rooms, private cabins, kitchens serviced by small supply craft, and resident managers who coordinated music, food and sexual services.[1] A 1949 report in The New Yorker on Canton’s boat-dwelling community noted the prevalence of prostitution on the river and areas set aside for such activity.[14] Museum and archive descriptions explicitly identify Canton “pleasure boats” as floating brothels in period photographs.[3][4]

Visual record

Numerous late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century photographs show flower boats moored on the Pearl River, sometimes labeled in contemporary captions as “places of amusement and debauchery.”[1][4] Art and museum collections retain albumen prints and stereoviews of Canton flower boats and related river scenes.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Van Dyke, Paul A. (January 2011). "Floating Brothels and the Canton Flower Boats 1750-1930". Revista de Cultura. 37. Cultural Institute of Macau: 112–142. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Van Dyke, Paul A. (2020). "10. Floating Brothels and 'Unnatural Acts'". Whampoa and the Canton Trade: Life and Death in a Chinese Port, 1700–1842. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. pp. 220–237. doi:10.1515/9789882209893-014. ISBN 978-988-220-989-3. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c "Canton. Pleasure Boat - Getty Museum". Getty Museum. J. Paul Getty Museum. July 10, 2024. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c "Rows of Flower Boats (floating brothels) and Pearl River (珠江) traffic, Guangzhou (广州)". Historical Photographs of China. Guangzhou: University of Bristol. 1860–1870. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  5. ^ "Canton Happenings". Visualizing Cultures (MIT). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  6. ^ "廣州花艇：涼風有信，秋月無邊". 中评网 (in Chinese). June 2, 2007. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c 冷, 东; 张, 超杰 (January 2013). "清代中期的广州花船". 史林 (in Chinese). Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  8. ^ a b "品古今老外赞商都赏机遇之城耀千年". 广州市人民政府门户网站 (in Chinese). 广州市人民政府. February 21, 2024. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  9. ^ "廣州花艇：涼風有信，秋月無邊". 中评网 (in Chinese). June 2, 2007. Retrieved October 14, 2025.; 冷, 东; 张, 超杰 (January 2013). "清代中期的广州花船". 史林 (in Chinese). Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  10. ^ Li, Ruohan. "The Guangzhou Abolition of Prostitution Movement and Public Opinion During the Republic of China Period". Madison Historical Review. James Madison University. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  11. ^ "清人笔记里的广东"老举"：潮州妓女多赞誉". 凤凰网 (in Chinese). March 16, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  12. ^ "揭秘1909年"连环妓舫火劫案"始末". 中国新闻网 (in Chinese). January 10, 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  13. ^ 王, 长庚 (October 4, 2011). "花船：载不动青楼许多恨". 南方日报 (in Chinese). Retrieved October 14, 2025.
  14. ^ "THE EGG FAMILY". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. October 1, 1949. Retrieved October 14, 2025.
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