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Why It Sucks to Be a Flower Boat Girl (in Qing Dynasty) — Transcript

by Backstory Of History · 2,532 words · 435 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00You're 13 on the Pearl River bank at
0:01Canton, when the coin changes hands.
0:04Your father counts eight tails without
0:05looking up.
0:07The boat madam tilts your chin toward
0:08the gray morning light, opens your
0:10mouth, checks your teeth the way your
0:12father checks fish at the market,
0:14presses two fingers against the pulse at
0:16your wrist, pinches the skin on your
0:18forearm, watches how fast it snaps back.
0:22He pockets the coins, walks back toward
0:24the dock, does not look back. Welcome to
0:26life on the flower boats. From shore,
0:29flower boats look like floating palaces,
0:31painted lacquer hulls, paper lanterns
0:34strung bow to stern, music drifting
0:36across the water. Western men in dark
0:39coats stepping aboard like this is
0:41normal.
0:42Women in silk robes leaning against
0:44railings with faces that show nothing
0:46and cost everything. Below deck, bilge
0:49water smell, lead paste cosmetics that
0:51sting on contact, a room smaller than
0:54the sleeping mat on your family's
0:55fishing boat.
0:56Your rank sits somewhere between the
0:58bilge bucket and the kitchen grease. The
1:00boat madam, Mama-san, controls
1:02everything.
1:03Your debt,
1:04your earnings,
1:06your access to the pipe you haven't met
1:08yet. She decides when you eat, what you
1:11wear, and how much every mistake adds to
1:13your account. Above you, the senior
1:16girls know every rule you haven't
1:18learned. Some help, some watch you
1:20blunder because your failure makes their
1:22position more secure. Biu, six years on
1:24this boat, takes you to the deck edge on
1:26the first night. The Pearl River is
1:28black and wide and moving fast.
1:31"You can't swim away," she says. "The
1:34current takes you before you clear the
1:35other boats. And if you made shore,
1:38where would you go? Your Tonka,
1:41the land people won't hire you, won't
1:43house you,
1:44won't even let you through the city
1:45gates without a permit you'll never
1:47get."
1:48She looks at the water like she's
1:50already had this conversation with
1:51herself a hundred times. The river is
1:54all there is. Three weeks in, you start
1:56pipa.
1:584 hours a day under Mama Song's watch.
2:01Gut strings on raw fingertips.
2:04By the end of the first week, your
2:05fingers are split and bleeding.
2:07Mama Song examines your hands, nods.
2:11Not at you.
2:12At the progress. 4 months in, Mama Song
2:15introduces you to the pipe. "Medicine
2:17for nerves," she says. The first draw is
2:20warm, and the warmth reaches parts of
2:22your body you didn't know were cold. The
2:24anxiety about the debt, the strangeness
2:26of the boat, the aching in your wrists
2:28from pipa, it all goes quiet. The relief
2:31is too real. That's the design. You
2:34reach for the pipe at the wrong hour.
2:36Mama Song removes it from the room
2:38entirely. Two nights without it, the
2:40craving starts in your spine and spreads
2:42down both arms like something crawling
2:44under the skin. By the second morning,
2:46your hands won't stop shaking. Sleep was
2:49impossible. You spent both nights
2:51listening to the river and counting the
2:53planks in the ceiling.
2:54You don't reach again without
2:56permission. By 14, you can hold four
2:58conversations. Cantonese for merchants
3:01who want to hear wit and local gossip
3:02between drinks. Mandarin for officials
3:05who want deference and the pretense of
3:06culture. Pidgin English for the
3:08foreigners who have been arriving in
3:10increasing numbers since the treaty
3:11ports opened. And performed silence for
3:14the men who want a woman who exists
3:16without opinions, without history,
3:18without a self that might inconvenience
3:20them.
3:21You learn which mode to use by watching
3:23faces in the first 30 seconds.
3:25Get it wrong and Mama Song adjusts your
3:27debt. The lead paste is daily now.
3:30Fen.
3:31White lead mixed with powder, applied
3:33every afternoon until your face becomes
3:35a different surface.
3:37It stings on contact and tightens like a
3:39mask as it dries.
3:41By evening, it cracks at the corners of
3:43your mouth when you swallow. Your skin
3:45underneath has started going sallow.
3:47Your gums ache when you eat anything
3:49cold. [laughter]
3:50You don't connect the paste to the gums
3:51yet.
3:52You will. Every morning you wake to the
3:54same arithmetic. Purchase price,
3:57training costs, room and board,
3:59cosmetics, pipe supply.
4:02It all goes on the ledger Mama Sang
4:03keeps behind the partition screen.
4:06You've never seen the number.
4:07Bu says it doesn't matter.
4:09The number only moves in one direction.
4:11At 15, Mama Sang decides you're ready.
4:14Three days of preparation, hair washed
4:16and set with new jade pins, fen applied
4:18thicker than usual, layer after layer
4:21until your face is porcelain smooth
4:22under lamplight, silk robe fitted,
4:25adjusted, resewn at the shoulder.
4:28The fabric is worth more than your
4:29father earned in a year.
4:31It stays on the boat. Everything stays
4:33on the boat. On the upper deck, as the
4:35lanterns come on one by one along the
4:37railing, she presents you.
4:39Paper lantern light catches the silk.
4:41The senior girls stand along the
4:43railing, faces composed. They've seen
4:46this before. They remember their own. A
4:49Cantonese merchant
4:50A Fujian grain trader bids. The bidding
4:53lasts 40 minutes. You stand in the
4:55lamplight the entire time while men
4:57discuss a price for something that is
4:58standing right in front of them. You can
5:00see the shore from up here. The lights
5:02of Canton reflecting on the water. The
5:04silhouette of other boats.
5:06Jade pins leaving dents in your scalp.
5:09Fen cracking at the corners of your
5:10mouth every time you swallow. You look
5:12spectacular. You feel like an invoice
5:14with a face. The Cantonese merchant wins
5:17the bidding.
5:1850s. Rice wine on his breath and
5:20imported tobacco on his clothes. Hands
5:23calloused from warehouse work.
5:25He does not speak to you.
5:27Mama Sang leads you below deck, adjusts
5:30the silk robe at your shoulders, slides
5:32the partition screen closed.
5:35What follows is called receiving a
5:37guest. The same phrase used when he was
5:39served tea on the upper deck 20 minutes
5:41ago.
5:42Through the partition, Mama Sang is
5:44already greeting the underbidder. You
5:46hold still the way Mama Sang taught you
5:48to hold still during inspection.
5:50Chin raised, eyes forward, breathe
5:53through the nose.
5:55Two years of hold still while I check
5:57have made the compliance automatic.
6:00Your body knows what to do.
6:02Your mind is somewhere above the deck
6:04watching the lights of Canton. He leaves
6:06silver on the shelf beside your pipa.
6:08You lie on the mat listening to the boat
6:10creak.
6:11The river is loud tonight. You can hear
6:13the music from the next boat over. You
6:15do not move for a long time. Two years
6:17on the boat.
6:19At 17 you have your own client list,
6:21regulars.
6:23Men who ask for you by the name Mama
6:24Sang gave you, not the name your mother
6:26gave you.
6:27The rhythm settles into your body the
6:29way the river's sway settles into the
6:31planking.
6:32You barely notice it anymore.
6:34That's the point. Every night is
6:36performance.
6:38Cantonese merchants want banter and the
6:40right laugh at the right moment.
6:42Mandarin officials want deference and
6:44enough culture to make them feel they're
6:45visiting an artist, not a brothel.
6:48Foreign traders want the fantasy of a
6:50woman who exists only for them. Some
6:52want silence. You cannot refuse any of
6:55them. You perform enthusiasm regardless
6:57of how many times the partition screen
6:59has already slid open tonight. Multiple
7:01clients between sundown and dawn.
7:04The body learns to go somewhere else
7:06during the act.
7:07The mind follows eventually.
7:10By 20 the performance is automatic, but
7:12the cost is cumulative.
7:14The warmth you perform for clients is
7:16warmth you no longer have for yourself.
7:18Still Mama Sang's property. Higher
7:20earnings mean higher costs added to the
7:22ledger. More profitable merchandise is
7:24more expensive to maintain. That's how
7:26the math works on this boat. At 18 an
7:29American cotton merchant boards for the
7:31first time. Younger than most.
7:34On his third visit he brings an English
7:36silver-backed mirror.
7:38No client has ever brought a personal
7:39gift before.
7:41You keep it on your shelf where you can
7:43see it first thing every morning.
7:45It is the first object on this boat that
7:46you think of as yours, even though you
7:48know Mama Sang will keep it if you die.
7:51The sound of the partition screen
7:52sliding open. It means the next one is
7:54here.
7:56You hear it in your sleep on the nights
7:57when there are no clients, and your body
7:59still tenses. At 20, the American starts
8:02asking questions about your life before
8:03the boat.
8:05Where did you grow up?
8:07What did your family fish for?
8:09What the river looked like from the
8:10fishing sampan?
8:12A man asking where you came from is
8:14imagining a future that includes you.
8:17You let yourself believe it. You count
8:19money in Tanka dialect inside your head
8:21while speaking Cantonese aloud to a
8:23client who thinks you're paying
8:24attention.
8:25Your own language,
8:27unheard by anyone, the only private
8:29space you have left. Biu tells you about
8:31the girl from Sham Shui Po.
8:33Foreign merchants kept woman installed
8:35in a house near Shamian Island, a house
8:38on actual shore, not a boat.
8:41Biu tells it like a fairy tale.
8:43You listen like one. At 22, word comes
8:45through the interpreter network. A girl
8:48from the East River quarter boats was
8:49installed in a house near Shamian Island
8:51by a merchant from the Americans Trading
8:53Company.
8:54Not a rumor this time.
8:56A fact.
8:57You know three such arrangements now.
9:00It happens.
9:01Not to most,
9:03but it happens.
9:04And the American has been visiting for 4
9:06years. He just extended his trading
9:08contract.
9:09A man putting down roots sometimes
9:11formalizes arrangements. He has never
9:13made a specific promise. His visits are
9:16irregular. He's a businessman visiting a
9:18port city, not a romantic pursuing a
9:20future.
9:22But he brought soap last week. He sat
9:24with you for 2 hours, longer than any
9:26client sits unless they're buying
9:28something more than time.
9:30The math still works. You let yourself
9:32believe it. You're 23 below deck
9:34applying fen in the American's mirror
9:36when the sound starts. Not river
9:38traffic, not neighboring boats music.
9:41Something lower. Something that shakes
9:43the water underneath the planking and
9:44rattles the jade pins on the shelf.
9:46British warships have entered the Pearl
9:48River. Cannon fire hits the waterfront.
9:51The boats scatter upriver in chaos.
9:54The foreign trading factories on
9:55Shameian Island burn.
9:57Black smoke rolls across the water for
9:59days.
10:00For weeks the river is confusion.
10:02Military vessels, scattered trade,
10:05rumors moving faster than cargo. Then
10:07word arrives through the interpreter
10:08network, delivered by a Macanese
10:10translator who has no reason to care
10:12about any specific boat girls
10:14arrangements. Mr. Thomas has returned to
10:16Boston. The foreign client trade that
10:18supported your premium tier collapses
10:20overnight. The American is gone.
10:23He left Canton the way you leave a city,
10:25not the way you leave a person.
10:27No forwarding address to any specific
10:29boat, no message, no arrangement.
10:33The future you'd been building in the
10:34gaps between his visits, the house on
10:36shore, the formal arrangement, the word
10:39that meant he saw you the way you saw
10:41yourself.
10:42It required him to be thinking about a
10:44future that included you.
10:46He was here for business.
10:48You were a product he could access
10:50during business trips.
10:51The war didn't take anything from you.
10:54There was nothing to take.
10:56You just now know that. The mirror stays
10:59on your shelf. It is now just a mirror.
11:01Every gift he brought was a client
11:03bringing a gift, not a man building a
11:05future.
11:06You read it as the latter because you
11:08needed to. Lower deck room, smaller,
11:11closer to the bilge.
11:12The foreign trade has not recovered, and
11:14Mama Sang has recalculated your position
11:16on the boat. Your body has been keeping
11:18accounts since you were 13. At 25, it
11:22starts presenting the bill. Hands shake
11:24by midmorning without the pipe. The dose
11:26has escalated past functional
11:28maintenance and into something that
11:30takes more than it gives.
11:32The fine motor control you needed for
11:33pipa, those 4-hour practice sessions
11:36that split your fingertips at 13, that
11:38control is gone by 26.
11:41Your gums bleed when you eat anything
11:43cold.
11:4410 years of fan have turned the skin
11:46underneath waxy and thin, a different
11:48texture from the face you arrived with.
11:51The joints in your hips and knees
11:52protest the stairs between decks.
11:55River damp accumulates in bones that
11:57were soaking in it since childhood. A
11:59client requests music. You pick up the
12:01pipa.
12:02Your fingers miss the strings.
12:05The tremor is visible. He watches your
12:07hands, not your face.
12:09He doesn't request music again.
12:12Mama Sang stops listing pipa among your
12:14skills when describing you to new
12:15clients.
12:17One less thing to offer, one more reason
12:19the rate drops. New tanka girls arrive.
12:2214.
12:2315.
12:24Recently purchased from the same river
12:26bank, the same gray dawn, the same
12:28transaction.
12:30You recognize the face they arrive with.
12:32You wore it at 13.
12:34You don't tell them about the pipe. The
12:36men who visit now don't bring gifts.
12:38They don't stay for conversation. They
12:40don't ask your name.
12:42Shorter visits.
12:43The partition screen slides open and
12:45closed, and the men on the other side
12:47are interchangeable.
12:49The four-language warmth costs more
12:51energy than it earns.
12:53Pipe costs the same, but your earnings
12:55have halved. At 28, Beu dies. 21 years
12:59on the boat.
13:01The pipe took the last 2 years in
13:02pieces.
13:04At the end, she was trying to remember
13:05the name of a dish her mother cooked.
13:08She couldn't hold the memory long enough
13:09to say it.
13:10Nobody else on the boat knew she was
13:12your friend. You watched Beu go this
13:14way. You understood exactly how the
13:16arithmetic works. Now, it is your watch.
13:19At 31, fever. It comes with the river
13:22damp and doesn't leave.
13:24Complicated by the pipe, by venereal
13:26disease that was never treated, by
13:28malnutrition that has been accumulating
13:30since the rice and fish diet became your
13:32only diet 18 years ago.
13:34Mama San stands in the doorway and you
13:36can see her performing a calculation.
13:39Physician fee against remaining
13:40earnings.
13:42The number she arrives at is not the
13:43number that includes a physician. 18
13:46years, entry age 13.
13:48Peak status, your own client list, an
13:51English mirror, the closest thing to a
13:53patron you will ever have.
13:56End status,
13:57a line in Mama San's debt ledger that
13:59finally closes out. They wrap you in
14:01bamboo deck matting, slide you into the
14:04Pearl River at night. The same river you
14:06watched from every porthole for 18
14:08years.
14:09The same river Bu told you was all there
14:11is.
14:12No grave, no marker, no record, no
14:15family notified,
14:17no one on shore who would recognize your
14:19face. The American's mirror is still in
14:21the room. Mama San keeps it. She keeps
14:24everything. The river takes you the way
14:25it takes everything thrown into it,
14:27quietly, without ceremony, without
14:30record. At least on the flower boat you
14:32could see the shore from your room.
14:34In the Ching Imperial Palace, the
14:35ceilings were painted gold and the walls
14:37were marble, and they still didn't find
14:39her body for 3 days.

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