Exploring Wan Chai’s red light district: a male and female perspective
Men get hit on by female sex workers, while women are shunned
Rachel
Lockhart Road probably isn’t my preferred Friday night destination, but I’ll admit I’ve sampled the varied nightlife there on more than a handful of occasions this year. The strip’s neon signs offering “Dancing Girls” are crass but generally inoffensive. The real seediness is happening behind closed doors.
Some middle-aged female door staff seem surprised when I ask whether I can watch a dance show, but tell me it will cost HK$100, which includes one drink. I politely decline.
Sex workers unsurprisingly tend to ignore me and my female friends as we dance. Even in the toilets, where women sometimes have a brief albeit drunken chat, they seem happily unfazed and disinterested in me. It’s only if I get approached by one of their potential customers that they take notice, and even then, they might just look mildly irked by my presence. Needless to say, the generally balding, chubby male clientele in Wan Chai are not exactly my type anyway, and I normally manage to shake them off within seconds. Besides, for the sex workers, there’s always another prospective customer waiting at the next table.
On one occasion, as I sat watching a Filipino rock band play covers at Amazonia, known as a primary venue for sex workers to congregate, my male friends headed towards the bar and almost immediately got approached by some women. I sat contentedly scrolling on my phone and sipping my cider. As a young woman, if you want a chilled out, hassle-free night out in Hong Kong, you could do a lot worse than Wan Chai.