The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai

by Bangqing Han

  “He’s been given a posting in Jiangxi. As his old friends, we naturally have to ask him to a farewell dinner,” Prosperity replied.

  Taken by surprise, Green Phoenix let out a sigh. “Oh, dear! Now Little Rouge will really have a tough time. If Mr. Wang stays, she can try to please him, and he might renew their relationship, which will be a good thing for her. Now that he’s leaving, she’s in for it!”

  “Just now it looked as though Mr. Wang was showing some fondness again for Little Rouge. I wonder why,” said Prosperity.

  “It’s no use now however fond he is. Little Rouge got it all messed up right from the start. If she had married Mr. Wang, everything would’ve been all right now. She could either go with him or, if she wanted, go out to work again.”

  “Little Rouge was intent on having a good time, and she got hooked up with an actor. Would she have been willing to get married?”

  Green Phoenix sighed again. “Plenty of courtesans have relationships with actors, but she’s the only one who suffers for it.” Having commented on this, the two of them got ready to go to bed.

  The next day was Sunday. In the afternoon, Prosperity wanted to visit Luna Park and ordered Promotion to call two carriages. Just then, Second Sister happened to drop in. When she came into the room, she greeted them as “Mr. Luo” and “Eldest Maestro.” Green Phoenix still called her Mother and invited her to sit down. After the usual pleasantries had been exchanged, Green Phoenix asked how her business was doing.

  Second Sister frowned and shook her head. “Don’t even mention it! With you there, business was always quite brisk, but now things are impossible. Even Gold Phoenix seems to be getting fewer party calls. I wanted to buy a girl but was afraid she’d turn out no good, like that Gold Flower. It won’t do for me to muddle along like this. That’s why I’ve come to talk it over with you to see if there’s any way out.”

  “That’s up to you, Mother. I’m in no position to say anything. Buying a girl is terribly difficult, it’s true, and even if she’s good, there’s no guarantee as far as business is concerned, is there? I myself don’t have much business either,” Green Phoenix replied.

  Second Sister, deep in thought, said nothing. Green Phoenix just ignored her. A moment later, Promotion came in to report, “The carriages are here.” Second Sister had to take her leave and walk home, a forlorn figure. Prosperity Luo, attended by Promotion, and Green Phoenix, attended by Mama Zhao, each took a carriage. When they reached Luna Park, they ordered tea in the main parlor.

  Prosperity made a comment about Second Sister. “Your mother is hopeless. She’d be better off with you keeping an eye on her.”

  “Why should I do that? I told her to buy a girl, didn’t I? But she scrimped on the money and wouldn’t listen to me. Now that her business has declined, she turns around and asks me if there’s any way out. Should I just give her some more money?”

  This made Prosperity laugh.

  Green Phoenix turned to the subject of Little Rouge again. “Little Rouge is what I call a hopeless case. When Mr. Wang went with Constance, it was the best thing for him that could have happened. Now, you didn’t tell Mr. Wang directly what you knew, but you pushed him to a revelation; that was really shrewd.”

  As she was speaking, Little Rouge strolled by alone, so Green Phoenix said no more. Prosperity saw that Little Rouge had the sallow complexion of an opium addict and was visibly thinner than he had noticed at the party. Little Rouge also saw them but pretended not to notice and cut across to the foreign-style building. A while later, the male lead of the Panorama Theater, Little Willow, came along. He had on brand-new clothes of summer silk and lined gauze that showed his trim figure to great advantage. On his feet were thick-soled Peking shoes that made a clicking noise as he walked. A thick shiny braid trailed down his back. He came straight into the main parlor and deliberately circled round Prosperity Luo’s table, scrutinizing Green Phoenix. Now, Green Phoenix was dressed all in white and wore very little jewelry,1 but the pair of black gold bracelets on her wrists had been bought at the Japanese Jewelry Exhibition and was worth a thousand dollars. Having heard about it some time ago, Little Willow thought he’d take the opportunity to look at such a rare item.

  Green Phoenix, however, misunderstood his intention. She stood up abruptly, flapping her sleeves in irritation against the table, and said to Prosperity, “Let’s go.” Prosperity naturally acquiesced. They visited the various parts of the park before boarding their carriages at the garden gate and driving back to Prosperity Alley. When they entered the house, they saw Jade Wenjun seated alone at the window of the side chamber, bending over the table, totally absorbed in a book. Prosperity Luo approached the window to peek in, standing on his toes. The book was A Thousand Classical Poems, and Jade Wenjun’s eyes were only two inches from the page. She was oblivious to the fact that somebody was looking at her through the window. Green Phoenix quietly tugged at Prosperity’s robe, forbidding him to tarry. Biting back his chuckle, he went upstairs, and as soon as they were in her room, he asked in a low voice, “Jade Wenjun is quite well known, isn’t she? How come she behaves like this?”

  Instead of replying, Green Phoenix merely pulled down the corners of her mouth to show contempt. Mama Zhao, who was standing to one side, said in a low merry voice, “It’s funny, isn’t it, Mr. Luo? We run into her sometimes and talk to her, and it’s such a tickle! She says Shanghai is like an empty place, with not one creditable courtesan in the foreign settlements. Fortunately, she’s here now to set an example of a good show.” She chuckled, and Prosperity laughed long and hard.

  Mama Zhao continued, “We asked her, ‘Have you managed to put on a good show yet?’ She replied that she had indeed, but unfortunately there weren’t any creditable clients in Shanghai. If there were, they’d all patronize her and no one else.”

  This made Prosperity laugh uproariously. Green Phoenix hastened to signal that this would be audible downstairs, and Mama Zhao stopped talking.

  At nightfall, Promotion submitted an invitation slip to Prosperity. Seeing that it was from Mallow Yao, he set out at once. When he walked past Jade Wenjun’s door, he heard the sound of poetry chanting. Who in Shanghai would patronize a courtesan like that? he wondered. Promotion helped him into the sedan chair, and he was taken straight to Cassia Ma’s in Auspicious Cloud Alley, where he was met by Mallow Yao. When all the others had arrived, they took their seats at the table, giving each other precedence.

  Mallow Yao, as host, naturally exerted maximum pressure on everyone to indulge his capacity for wine and merrymaking. Lotuson Wang drank so much that he felt sick and bent over the table. “What’s the matter?” Little Rouge asked. He just held up his hand and suddenly gagged and threw up all over the floor. Amity Zhu, realizing he, too, had had too much to drink, left the table and lay down on the opium couch, where White Fragrance prepared a pipe of opium for him. Before he had taken a couple of puffs, he dozed off.

  Elan Ge, who at the beginning made excuses to avoid drinking too much, ended up clamoring for more when he got drunk. Snow Scent barely said a word to stop him, and he was already up in arms. They almost got into a slanging match.

  Seeing Elan in such high spirits, Prosperity yelled repeatedly, “Great fun! Wonderful! Let’s play the finger game.” He played Elan for ten large cups. Elan lost three times and barely managed to get the wine down. Prosperity, who prided himself on his ability to hold his liquor, had already drunk quite a lot, so after these seven cups he could not stay upright. The only ones who remained clear-headed were Benevolence Hong, Whistler Tang, and Cloudlet Chen, all of whom took evasive measures whenever wine was set before them. Seeing their four friends in such a drunken state, they pleaded with the host to put away the wine and end the party, after which they escorted their friends to their sedan chairs before going their separate ways.

  Mallow Yao, a good drinker, did not feel the effect of the wine until he stood up to see his guests out, when all at once he felt dizzy and wobbly on his feet.
But for Cassia’s supporting him from behind, he would have fallen down. When all the guests had gone, Cassia and her maid helped him over to the bed to lie down and then took off his outer garments and put a blanket over him. Oblivious to all this, Mallow Yao fell soundly asleep. The next morning, he woke up to find that he was not in his own bed and that someone else was lying beside him. Only then did he realize he had spent the night at Cassia’s.

  Mallow Yao’s wife kept a tight rein on him. He had to report home every night by ten, and the least delay invited immediate sanction. If he had official business that prevented him from going home, he had to send someone to inform her, and she would check that it was all genuine before she let it pass. Formerly, when he was seeing Sunset Wei, though they were quite fond of each other, they had never spent an entire night together. Ever since her humiliation by Sunset, Mrs. Yao had made a scene several times, adamant that he should not see Sunset again. Mallow Yao thus had no choice but to effect the break.

  To cater to business connections, however, he could not avoid entertaining some prominent people in the brothels, as Mrs. Yao well knew. It happened that one of their maids, named Ma, was a distant relative of Cassia Ma’s and often sang Cassia’s praises in front of Mrs. Yao, with the result that Mrs. Yao actually encouraged Mallow to patronize Cassia. Even his daily homing hour became slightly more flexible: he was allowed to stay out till midnight.

  Now Mallow had spent a night at Cassia’s quite unintentionally, because he was drunk. This was his first time and the best thing that had ever happened to him. But he could only think of his wife and the doubly fierce scene awaiting him. If he told her a lie, and then the sedan-chair bearers exposed him, things would be even worse. He kept worrying about this and could see no way out.

  Cassia, thoroughly exhausted, was still asleep. Though he could not sleep, he was loath to get up. He lay there with his eyes open until noon, when the menservants suddenly called out in the parlor, “Miss Cassia called to a party.”

  The maid, who was in the next room, asked, “Who’s the client?”

  “The name’s Yao,” the manservant replied.

  At the very word “Yao,” Mallow’s heart jumped into his mouth. He sat up in bed and cocked his ears to listen.

  The maid responded. “Among our clients only Second Young Master is named Yao; there’s nobody else besides him.”

  The menservants chuckled. Their voices dropped, and there was a lot of twittering that Mallow could not make out.

  Mallow shook Cassia to wake her and then hurriedly dressed, got out of bed, and called the maid into the room to question her. The maid had a call chit in her hand, which she submitted to Mallow, grinning, “Mrs. Yao is said to be in Sky in a Wine Pot and is calling our miss there. It was none other than your sedan-chair bearer who delivered the ticket, Second Young Master.”

  As if hit by a lightning bolt, Mallow stared, dazed and speechless. Cassia, however, seemed very sure of herself. A smile slowly spread across her face as she said, “Coming,” and told the sedan-chair bearers to get ready. She then sent the maid to fetch warm water so she could immediately wash and do her hair.

  Having composed himself a little, Mallow conferred with Cassia, saying, “I suggest you don’t go. I’ll go instead. It doesn’t matter for me; she can do whatever she likes. She can’t chop off my head, can she?”

  Cassia was momentarily puzzled. “But she called me, so why can’t I go?”

  Mallow frowned. “If you go and she makes a scene in a Western restaurant, how would it look?”

  She broke out laughing. “You just put your mind at ease and sit here! If she wants to make a scene, she can do it anywhere, why go to a Western restaurant? D’you think your missus has gone mad?”

  Mallow dared not say anymore. He looked on helplessly as Cassia finished her toilet, got changed, and went out to get into the sedan chair. He bade the maid to tell the sedan-chair bearers to report back to him if anything untoward should happen. The maid assented and set off behind the sedan chair.

  ::

  1. [True to her word, Green Phoenix is still wearing white, the color of deep mourning, in honor of her dead parents. Such an outfit is of course also very effective in showing off her elegance. In portraying her thus, the author, Han Banqing, obviously has in mind an episode from chapter 20 of The Story of the Stone, when Green Phoenix’s namesake Wang Xifeng dresses in white mourning to visit her rival and also manages to appear stunningly beautiful. E.H.]

  CHAPTER 57 :: Honeyed words pacify a jealous wife, and persistent questions reveal a story of adultery

  Cassia Ma’s sedan chair headed straight for Sky in a Wine Pot and stopped at the door of the restaurant. Cassia, leaning a hand on her maid’s shoulder, walked in and went upstairs. The waiter led the way to the number one function room where a smiling Mrs. Yao stood up to welcome her. Cassia stepped up to her with the greeting “Second Mistress”; after that, she also greeted the maid, Ma. Mrs. Yao took Cassia by the hand and sat down with her on a foreign-style leather sofa.

  “I was inviting you to a Western meal, but the bookkeeping office here got mixed up and sent a call chit instead,” Mrs. Yao said. “What would you like to eat? Just place your order.”

  Cassia made excuses. “I’ve already had lunch, Second Mistress. Please order for yourself.”

  But Mrs. Yao insisted and made a few choices for her. The waiter wrote it all down and sent the order downstairs.

  After pressing her to drink tea, Mrs. Yao just made small talk; the subject of Mallow did not come up. As Cassia had decided on what to say beforehand, she took the initiative to recount how Second Young Master gave a dinner party the night before, how the guests took turns at the finger game, how everybody got very drunk, how Second Young Master was overcome by sleepiness and unable to leave, how she and the maid carried him to the bed, how he blamed himself that morning when his head had cleared, and how he had no recollection of events of the night before. She told Mrs. Yao all the details without the least fudging.

  Mrs. Yao had heard that Cassia was an honest person, completely different from other courtesans. What she was saying now bore this out, so Mrs. Yao was very pleased. Just then, the waiter brought them their noodle soup. Mrs. Yao insisted that Cassia should sit with her at the table. As Cassia humbly and repeatedly declined, Mrs. Yao glanced at her maid, Ma, instructing her to persuade Cassia. In the end, Cassia had to comply. After the noodle soup came fish.

  “So, is Second Young Master up now?” Mrs. Yao asked as she ate.

  “Yes, just before I left. When I was setting out to answer your call, Second Mistress, Second Young Master became very agitated, afraid that you would give him a talking-to. But I said to him, ‘Don’t worry, Second Mistress is one who goes by the rules. What she fears is that you’ll waste your money and ruin your health into the bargain. If you see to it that you keep within decent limits, why would she want to lecture you?’”

  Mrs. Yao heaved a sigh. “I find it exasperating just talking about him. Instead of blaming himself for lacking a sense of proportion, he makes it sound as if I nag him constantly. Once he goes out, regardless of where he is or who he meets, he starts complaining about me. He says I’m fierce, that I keep a tight rein on him and won’t let him go out. I expect that’s what he told you, right?”

  “Well, not really. Second Young Master may be a little lacking in sense, but in his heart of hearts, he knows what’s right. If Second Mistress lectures him now and then, it’s always for his own good. Sometimes, I also offer him a word of advice. I said, ‘Second Mistress can’t be compared to women in sing-song houses. When you come to our house, you’re just a client. Whether a client is sensible or not doesn’t concern us, so naturally we don’t lecture you. You and Second Mistress are family; her welfare is linked to yours. It’s not that she wants to control you or forbid you to go out; she only wishes you well, that’s all. If I got married and my husband went beyond the limit, I’d lecture him, too.’”

  “From now on,
I’m not going to lecture him anymore. He can do whatever he wants. He doesn’t listen to me anyway; he just takes the side of those in the brothels. I got a real mouthful from that Sunset, and he, that coward, went to appease the damn woman, said I’d offended her! Where does that put me? Lecturing him indeed!” As she talked, Mrs. Yao started huffing and puffing, and the blue veins showed on her swelling face.

  Cassia dared say no more. Presently the five courses of a Western meal had all been served. Cassia merely tasted each course and then asked the maid, Ma, to eat it. After they had wiped their mouths with a hot towel, they left the table to sit around.

  Cassia said with deliberation, “Perhaps I shouldn’t say this, but Second Young Master does tend to go overboard and needs you, Second Mistress, to keep him under control. If he had his way, he’d have a go at all the courtesans in the foreign settlements. He’s at least a bit better with you keeping on eye on him, right, Second Mistress?”

  Although Mrs. Yao made no reply, she permitted herself a slight smile. A few minutes later, she took Cassia by the hand and went out to the balcony, where they leaned on the railing together. She asked Cassia how old she was, whether her parents were alive, and whether she had ever been betrothed. Cassia told her she was nineteen, her parents died leaving debts that forced her into the business, and she’d be forever grateful to anyone who’d save her from this pit of sin. Mrs. Yao sighed copiously over her fate.

  Cassia then asked Mrs. Yao, “Would you like to hear a song? I’ll sing a couple for you, Second Mistress.”

  Mrs. Yao stopped her, saying, “Never mind, I’m leaving.” Then they turned around and returned to their seats. The maid was told to go and settle the bill.

  Mrs. Yao sighed again. “I quarreled with him several times, and that has given me a bad name. No one knows how unjust it is! Now that Second Young Master is seeing you, my heart’s quite at ease. If I’m jealous, why don’t I quarrel with him anymore?”