They may not be members of the world's oldest profession, but actresses have been playing sex workers on Hong Kong screens ever since the first wave of Cantonese talkies in the 1930s. Not surprisingly, the films have reflected changing attitudes towards sex and particularly prostitution.
For several decades, the ladies were looked on as objects of pity, contempt or both. An early example is Butterfly Wu's turn as a matriarch who sacrifices everything to raise her son in Rouge Tears (1938), a re-make of the 1934 silent Shanghai drama The Goddess starring Ruan Lingyu, and one of the first local productions to be shot simultaneously in Putonghua and Cantonese. Wu's character was portrayed sympathetically, and her star quality was such that audiences could accept her as a good bad girl.
She was an exception. From the 1930s to the 70s, it was rare for a star to play such a role. Audiences wanted their heroines pure or at least naughty-but-nice. Prostitutes typically were lesser roles - the fallen woman who rented a room down the hall from the leading lady, or the good-time girl trying to seduce the leading man. Euphemisms were usually employed, such as 'social flower' or 'dance girl', and sex was implied by a shut door and dimmed light.
There were exceptions. Cao Yu's landmark stage play Sunrise focused on Chen Bailu, an elegant social flower who, although far removed from street trade, wasn't averse to trading her services for money. The drama was a criticism of bourgeois Chinese society and fitted with the sentiments of progressive 50s filmmakers. A 1953 Cantonese adaptation starred Mui Yee, and a 1956 Putonghua version featured the colony's top left wing actress, Hsia Moon.
Guy de Maupassant was the source of another memorable sex worker drama, Flora (1951). The locale was transferred from 19th-century France to second world war-era China, with Li Lihua playing a patriotic prostitute who encounters middle-class hypocrisy when she rescues her travelling companions by submitting to the enemy's lustful demands.
Sex workers in an ancient setting, such as courtesans and sing- song girls, were also acceptable to mainstream viewers, due in part to their traditional nature, cultural trappings and a total absence of on-screen sex. Hence, the parade of classical fallen women in lavish opera movies and costume dramas such as Tenth Madam To (1956).