Stand Up Sisters 1951 姊姊妹妹站起来

Historical Background
In Ancient China, entertainers were highly skilled in the scholarly arts and performance with many becoming renowned for their poetry, calligraphy, painting, archery, horse-back riding, resilience etc. However, the situation began to decline in the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty as they valued martial prowess over the scholarly arts. In the Han-ruled Ming Dynasty, some more entertainers became renowned for their talents but that couldn't compete with the overall decline of the Chinese Empire.
Qing Dynasty, things became messy. Changes in laws brought changes in education regarding the entertainers, instead of the romantic poetry of the past, they became more similar to the modern idea of the ‘brothel’. The requirements to be an entertainer fell, war and chaos caused more and more women to resort to this industry and soon, it became similar to today’s idea of s*x work. Late Qing Dynasty, gambling became a widespread thing, followed by opium. After the Qing Empire fell, during the Republican era, abuse, trafficking, STIs, unsafe abortions, controlled substances became rampant. Beatings were common, with the victims either being beat or seeing others be beaten (sometimes to death). This type of environment toppled the victims’ mental state and formed the stereotype of ‘entertainers who don’t know how to do anything other than sell themselves’. Most women did not enter this hell willingly, reasons included but were not limited to: wives forced by their husbands, daughters forced by parents, stolen, trafficked, blackmailed, etc. As for the reason why; opium and gambling (of course corruption and general societal unrest didn't help).
1949 - prost*tution was made illegal. In one night, all 224 brothels in Beijing were shut down. Out of the over 1200 workers, approximately 96.6% had STIs/ STDs, similar statistics were found in other cities as China began to ban s*x work. Over a hundred million yuan was spent on medical treatment (the medicine had to be imported since China didn't have the resources back then). The women then went through re-education programs to integrate them back into society, find jobs, etc. S*x work has been illegal ever since and is one of the three forbidden things that parents tell their children to never go near (dr*gs, gambling and s*x work). From China’s history, you can probably guess why.
Note: there is a difference between the entertainers mentioned here and the traditional performers who pass down their skill within the family or take on disciples.
From what I could gather, this period in history is the reason that most Chinese people cannot accept the legalisation of s*x work. Not only due to the number of victims and impacted people, but this time period also left a mental scar; it engraved girls and women into people's minds as objects to be sold and exchanged. It took 80 years and yet gender equality is still an issue, objectification of women is still an issue. I've seen people, especially in developed countries, arguing that this is feminism because women can decide what to do with their own bodies...just be considerate of other people's history and culture.
References & Elaborations
The film Stand Up Sisters was released in 1951 and recounted the hardships of the victims of forced pr*stitution. The male and female landlords (brothel owners) were based on real people, a couple who bought young girls from poor families and forced them into pr*stitution at around age 10. The stories from the film were based on real accounts with slight adjustments to details. For example, the victims who passed or couldn't work anymore didn't get a coffin like in the film but were wrapped in straw mats and buried; the victim who had a forced ab*rtion, in the film it was at three months, in reality it was four months etc. The couple was executed in April of 1950.
The actress of the brothel owner in the film is named Li LingYun, she was one of the victims. Born around 1922, she didn't know who her parents were and was sold to a brothel owner named Li at arounf 5-6 years old. Learned opera and singing for six years, became a part of an opera troupe at approx. 13 years old, became the fifth concubine of a brigade commander who was a bandit at 19 (doubt it was consensual since the guy shot his third concubine and forced another woman to become his fourth). At 22, Li LingYun ended up with brothel owner Li again and became a disguised pr*stitute. 1949, she was sent to the re-education programmes with everyone else and caught the eye of a director when she was performing a stage play. The director asked her to join the filming of Stand Up Sisters.
From what I could find, Li LingYun didn't become a full-on actress. She got married, lived in Beijing and passed in 2001 at 79 years old.

[@tempestjun437]

Historical Background
In Ancient China, entertainers were highly skilled in the scholarly arts and performance with many becoming renowned for their poetry, calligraphy, painting, archery, horse-back riding, resilience etc. However, the situation began to decline in the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty as they valued martial prowess over the scholarly arts. In the Han-ruled Ming Dynasty, some more entertainers became renowned for their talents but that couldn't compete with the overall decline of the Chinese Empire.
Qing Dynasty, things became messy. Changes in laws brought changes in education regarding the entertainers, instead of the romantic poetry of the past, they became more similar to the modern idea of the ‘brothel’. The requirements to be an entertainer fell, war and chaos caused more and more women to resort to this industry and soon, it became similar to today’s idea of s*x work. Late Qing Dynasty, gambling became a widespread thing, followed by opium. After the Qing Empire fell, during the Republican era, abuse, trafficking, STIs, unsafe abortions, controlled substances became rampant. Beatings were common, with the victims either being beat or seeing others be beaten (sometimes to death). This type of environment toppled the victims’ mental state and formed the stereotype of ‘entertainers who don’t know how to do anything other than sell themselves’. Most women did not enter this hell willingly, reasons included but were not limited to: wives forced by their husbands, daughters forced by parents, stolen, trafficked, blackmailed, etc. As for the reason why; opium and gambling (of course corruption and general societal unrest didn't help).
1949 - prost*tution was made illegal. In one night, all 224 brothels in Beijing were shut down. Out of the over 1200 workers, approximately 96.6% had STIs/ STDs, similar statistics were found in other cities as China began to ban s*x work. Over a hundred million yuan was spent on medical treatment (the medicine had to be imported since China didn't have the resources back then). The women then went through re-education programs to integrate them back into society, find jobs, etc. S*x work has been illegal ever since and is one of the three forbidden things that parents tell their children to never go near (dr*gs, gambling and s*x work). From China’s history, you can probably guess why.
Note: there is a difference between the entertainers mentioned here and the traditional performers who pass down their skill within the family or take on disciples.
From what I could gather, this period in history is the reason that most Chinese people cannot accept the legalisation of s*x work. Not only due to the number of victims and impacted people, but this time period also left a mental scar; it engraved girls and women into people's minds as objects to be sold and exchanged. It took 80 years and yet gender equality is still an issue, objectification of women is still an issue. I've seen people, especially in developed countries, arguing that this is feminism because women can decide what to do with their own bodies...just be considerate of other people's history.
References & Elaborations
The film Stand Up Sisters was released in 1951 and recounted the hardships of the victims of forced pr*stitution. The male and female landlords (brothel owners) were based on real people, a couple who bought young girls from poor families and forced them into pr*stitution at around age 10. The stories from the film were based on real accounts with slight adjustments to details. For example, the victims who passed or couldn't work anymore didn't get a coffin like in the film but were wrapped in straw mats and buried; the victim who had a forced ab*rtion, in the film it was at three months, in reality it was four months etc. The couple was executed in April of 1950.
The actress of the brothel owner in the film is named Li LingYun, she was one of the victims. Born around 1922, she didn't know who her parents were and was sold to a brothel owner named Li at around 5-6 years old. Learned opera and singing for six years, became a part of an opera troupe at approx. 13 years old, became the fifth concubine of a brigade commander who was a bandit at 19 (doubt it was consensual since the guy shot his third concubine and forced another woman to become his fourth). At 22, Li LingYun ended up with brothel owner Li again and became a disguised pr*stitute. 1949, she was sent to the re-education programmes with everyone else and caught the eye of a director when she was performing a stage play. The director asked her to join the filming of Stand Up Sisters.
From what I could find, Li LingYun didn't become a full-on actress. She got married, lived in Beijing and passed in 2001 at 79 years old.