English Translation Available

Nominated for the 2023 Openbook Awards
Selected for 2024 Books from Taiwan

During an era of rising economic fortunes and seeming prosperity, women from Taiwan’s lower classes were often sacrificed at the altar of progress. In order to survive, many had no choice but to seek work in the sex-industry. Long viewed as disgraced women, now, it is finally time to hear their stories.

During the post-war baby boom, many Taiwanese households lacked the economic means to give all of their children a proper upbringing. In a society that valued boys over girls, daughters were often forced to leave school and join the workforce so that economic resources could be focused on educating sons. Struggling to survive alone in the city, and lacking in education, these young women were at high risk of slipping into an endless cycle of poverty and abuse. In moving and readable prose, Teahouse Ladies tells the life stories of the women who were sacrificed at the twin altars of patriarchy and progress.

To gather these stories, writer Lee Win-Shine interviewed twelve long-term residents of Taipei’s Wanhua District. Most were not born locally. Rather, in an era that gave them few choices, they found their way to Wanhua, a place synonymous with Taipei’s lower classes, and a notorious red-light district due to the “teahouses” hidden away in its alleys. More than just venues for enjoying tea, alcohol, and conversation, the Wanhua teahouses provided pretty girls who were paid to drink with the clientele, nakasi bands led by sultry songstresses, and prostitution.

Chapter by chapter, these teahouse girls relate their stories. Some were sold into prostitution to pay family debts. Some had stable lives that were destroyed by a partner’s gambling addiction. Some were forced by their own families into marriages with abusive husbands, and, from there, they slipped ever deeper into the abyss of domestic violence. Yet, with assistance from a variety of non-profit organizations, including the sponsors of this book project, these women were eventually able to rebuild their trust in others, and regain their sense of personal value.

Author Lee Win-Shine is a recipient of the Taipei International Book Exhibition non-fiction prize. With assistance from the Pearl Family Garden Women’s Center, she was able to conduct in-person interviews with these former teahouse ladies, finally giving a voice to the women who survived the poverty of Wanhua, the disdain of society, and even the prejudice of close family and friends.