From taxi dancers to dancing aunties, inside Hong Kong’s shadowy underworld of paid female companions

For several decades, some of Hong Kong’s best-known nightlife images featured slinky taxi dancers, known in Cantonese as mo lui. Invariably clad in figure-hugging cheongsam, these women were a key local ballroom attraction; the entire business model for these venues relied upon their nightly presence.

A ballroom’s taxi-dancer system worked like this; a patron bought a set of dance coupons, which were each good for one dance set. He presented a ticket to his choice of partner, who then danced that particular number with him. Also included in the price was the opportunity for a few minutes’ conversation. When the music stopped, both taxi dancer and patron left the floor; another ticket had to be produced should he want to dance the next number with her. Patrons could sit and chat after each set – if she wanted to – but if that happened, the ballroom’s management usually insisted that a “lady’s drink” be bought; generally, this was an expensive goblet of cold tea.

Many – but by no means all – were actually prostitutes. Any “extras” that may have been quietly negotiated with her dance partner always took place after-hours, and strictly off the premises. Others were office workers who liked getting dressed up for a night on the town, with the evening’s food and drinks fully covered by their dance partners (either directly, or through various “extras” hidden within their dance-hall entrance fee) and – best of all – get paid for dancing.

Nevertheless, this occupation was never one that respectable girls from good families (who, ultimately, had to consider their reputation and eventual marriageability) could easily enter into – or depart from – once they had started.

Some mo lui maintained an outward display of “respectability” by going everywhere with their personal servant; the dance hostess immaculately turned out in a shimmering cheongsam, and her Cantonese amah clad in starched white blouse and black trousers.

The lucky few eventually became a wealthy patron’s concubine; at least one elderly Chinese entertainment mogul – no prizes for guessing who – later married his favourite mo lui. Less-fortunate taxi dancers – as the years trudged on – eventually became nightclub managers themselves.