Letter from Penang (edited)

August 14th, 2007 by Adamu
Adamu

(Edited to delete full copy-paste)

A friend who recently visited Penang noted that at the Penang Musuem, a room that described the contributions of different peoples to the island, the Japanese section read: “[...] Besides traders, women were prominent in this emerging society. Most of them were prostitutes.”

(Note: This report is unconfirmed and I myself failed to notice it during my own quick trip through the same museum)

Related Posts

  • Bollywood posters taken in Little India, George Town, Penang
  • Some food from Penang
  • Dilapidated houses in Penang, part 1 [Photos]
  • Drunken Newlyweds
  • Off to Penang Again
  • 4 Responses to 'Letter from Penang (edited)'

    1. Aceface Says:

      Japanese prostitutes called Karayuki in Penang and other part of South East Asia is widely known fact.The anarchist poet,金子光晴Kaneko Kousei had written about them in the travelogue in Straits colonies and Dutch East Indies in early 30’s”Travels in Malay and Dutch Indiesマレー蘭印紀行”.The book was my travel companion in Penang back in 1989.

    2. Aceface Says:

      And Imamura Shouhei’s 1987 film about karayuki trafficker”Zegen女衒”was partly filmed in Malacca,Malaysia.

    3. Aceface Says:

      Kaneko kouseiX
      Kaneko Mitsuharu○
      I’ve been making mistakes for 20 years...

    4. Mulboyne Says:

      James Warren’s book “Ah Ku and Karayuki-San: Prostitution in Singapore 1870-1940” also gives some background.

    Leave a Reply

    We are currently using the Akismet spam filter, which sometimes eats legitimate comments, particularly those containing URLs. If you are having trouble getting a comment up, try splitting the URL into two parts, or failing that, email one of us. Note that we only deliberately block comments that appear to be spam.