 Whispers and Moans:
Interviews with the men and women of Hong
Kong's sex industry
by Yeeshan Yang
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
Hong Kong has a bewildering range of sex
businesses offering services to suit all imaginable tastes: from the
glitzy nightclubs of Tsim Sha Tsui East, through the saunas, karaoke
lounges and one-woman brothels of Mong Kok, to the streets and
short-time hotels of Sham Shui Po.
Chinese-language sex magazines print
reviews of individual prostitutes, and promote an ever-widening array of
bizarre sexual practices. Even mainstream newspapers engage pimps as
columnists. Business appears to be booming – but there are hungry
newcomers to this underground economy. How do local prostitutes deal
with the ruthless competition posed by an endless supply of girls from
mainland China?
To find out, Yeeshan Yang spent a year
gaining the trust of the city's sex workers, interviewing nearly 50
hookers, hostesses, toy boys, transsexual prostitutes, mama-sans and brothel
owners.
The result is an eye-opening book which
shows the human side of sex for sale. Whispers and Moans contains tales of easy money,
financial ruin and hopeless relationships – and rare first-hand insights into
Hong Kong's huge but hidden sex industry.
* Film director
Herman Yau has brought this book to the big
screen in two movies: Whispers and Moans, which had its premiere
at the 2007 Hong Kong International Film Festival, and True Women For
Sale, which was released in December 2008 and for which Prudence
Liew received Best Actress at the Golden Horse Film
Awards.
NEW! Look
inside this book
Click on the links below to view sample pages from Whispers and Moans.
You will need a pdf reader to view these excerpts.
A rose by any other name What's
on the menu? Northern girls Fertility for sale
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MEDIA ATTENTION
"Whispers and Moans
is a collection of 'interviews with the men and women of Hong Kong's sex
industry' in essence, but amounts to much more. It is a well
thought-out, colloquially written, all-encompassing non-fiction account
of the problems of the sex industry, and possible solutions. Yeeshan
Yang exhibits a remarkable ability to summarize as well as editorialize,
keeping these functions separate and evident. She posits opinions and
colors stories abruptly, with little disguising description so that we
know her stance on the subject matter before we read any objectivity
into the stories. That said, she includes facts and quotes from a
multitude of officials and sex-workers, alluding to the informed nature
of her opinion.
... What's really striking about Whispers and Moans is its
breadth. There are chapters on pimps, the Northern girls who come over
from the China mainland, the gangster connection, as well as male
prostitutes. Due to an early aggressive interview with Ms. Yip, one of
the central figures of the 'Purple Vine', a non-government organization
seeking to form the first sex workers union in Hong Kong, Yeeshan is put
on the defensive, and it is because of her need to prove herself that
the book functions as more than the sum of its parts." –
Joshua Wiebe,
Blogcritics
"Yang embarked on a
mission to investigate the change in attitudes as well as the reality
that presently exists in Hong Kong. The result is a comprehensive
exploration that has been put together in her Whispers and Moans:
Interviews with the men and women of Hong Kong’s sex industry. The
format employed by Yang is a juxtaposition of academic study and
storytelling." – Norm Goldman,
BookPleasures
"Yang has spent many
hours talking to many different people in Hong Kong's sex industry, from
Sham Shui Po street hookers addicted to heroin to fetish models, from
gigolos who make over $100,000 a night to Japanese mamasans, from
suicidal transsexuals to mainlanders on 7 day visas. The author has
clearly tried to exhaust every avenue of this most intriguing of
professions in order to provide us with a comprehensive and truthful
guide to the oldest profession in the world in Hong Kong." –
DS magazine
"Whispers and
Moans premiered at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival and
is currently playing in cinemas as this issue goes to print. The
celluloid work’s co-scriptwriter Yeeshan Yang is the author of
Whispers and Moans: Interviews with the Men and Women of Hong Kong’s Sex
Industry, a non-fiction tome published last year but currently
getting display and shelf space in certain local bookstores. Retailing
at HK$140, the book may be several times more expensive than the price
of a cinema ticket but even were you to buy what should make for
interesting bedside reading in the high rent areas of Central, Causeway
Bay or Tsim Sha Tsui, it is still $60 cheaper than the set price of
street hookers in areas like Yau Ma Tei, Sham Shui Po and Tuen Mun."
–
bc magazine
Film Adaptation:
Director Herman Yau has brought Whispers and Moans to the
big screen in a movie starring Athena Chu, Candice Yu and Monie Tung.
(Chinese title: 性工作者十日談).
The premiere took place at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in
March 2007, and general release in Hong Kong cinemas began in May. Read
a review of the movie here.
"There is a theory
that we are all prostitutes. We all sell ourselves for whatever we can
get. Looking at the lurid pink cover and cheap title of Yeeshan Yang’s
Whispers and Moans, we might think book publishers are no
different, peddling volumes of smut thinly disguised as academic works.
But anyone after prurient thrills or the ‘human sexual response’ that
made Masters and Johnson’s publisher its virtuous fortune will be in for
a disappointment. This is not a book about sex. It is about stupid
people exploiting each other and feeling sorry for themselves – but
delivered with a feisty detachment that makes it more entertaining than
depressing.
...As Yang notes, not all whores are even considered hookers. The
ones who live in apartments in Shenzhen and juggle a small stable of
Hong Kong married clients are called concubines. The ones who work their
way up the film industry are called stars. The ones photographed by
paparazzi escorting ageing billionaire tycoons are called lucky.
...For those that sell their minds or souls –
the ones called upstanding members of the workforce – this is a book
that will amuse and possibly amaze rather than arouse, provided they
join the author in having a sense of humour, a thick skin and no
sociological or feminist axe to grind."
– Hong Kong blogger Hemlock. Read the
review in full at Hemlock's
Diary.
Tricks and the Trade
Lee Wing-sze found that there is no such thing as a happy
Hong Kong hooker when she interviewed Yeeshan Yang for the South China
Morning Post. Read the story here.
Exploring Hong Kong's sex
industry
Lee Wing-sze also talked about Whispers and Moans on the
'SCMP Today' podcast. Listen here at
17:11 onwards.
Up Close
Whispers and Moans author Yeeshan Yang was interviewed by HK Magazine's Alexandra
Carroll on 11th August. Read the full
article.
Naked Lunch
Sarah Passmore interviewed Yeeshan Yang on RTHK Radio 3 on 4th August
2006. Listen in by clicking here
and moving to 0:34:40 on the slider.
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