Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore 1870-1940 (South-East Asian Social Science Monographs)

This book explains that prostitution flourished in Singapore because of the massive influx of male migrant laborers without a corresponding increase in women immigrants and that famine in Southeast China and Northwest Kyushu moved many families to sell their young daughters to traffickers. It goes on to describe the two brothel zones set up in Singapore. The V.D. epidemic that struck following the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance, as a result of agitation by Victorian moralists in England, is highlighted. The second part deals with the people and events in the lives of these Chinese and Japanese prostitutes.