Prostitutes in Penang: A Life Often Filled with Fear and Violence
By Dr. Kuah Li Feng
February 2022 FEATURE
LAST NOVEMBER, Penang Monthly documented in Anecdotal Accounts of Chinese Women Migrants to Southeast Asia, stories of how these women entered the prostitution trade. Their stories continue in this feature, in exploration of their misfortunate fates in a strange new land.According to scholar Wong Sin Kiong (黄贤强)，at the tail end of the 19th century, prostitutes in Penang and in Singapore were categorically described as: i) gongzhu (公主, princess); ii) bangnian (绑年, tied by year); and iii) da deng (搭灯, put...
Dr. Kuah Li Feng
is an ethnographer and cultural
practitioner. She founded Studio Good Think in 2011, one of the first private heritage service consultancies in Penang focusing on cultural research and interpretation.
