Pleasure Factory

Kaiwen Leong

Description

Underneath Singapore's squeaky-clean exterior is a dark realm like no other. Based on interviews with hundreds of prostitutes in Singapore and years of research, we bring you Pleasure Factory. In the Pleasure Factory, women advertise pleasure by the hour, but the only real product is pain. Night after night, these women force smiles onto their faces, while their bodies are taken, ravaged, and violated. Day after day, they force themselves to continue for the sake of their children, families, for sheer desperate human survival. The only defense is numbness. The only comfort is empty hope. But when you have been sold to the trade by your parents or are trapped by circumstance, even numbness and hope begin to crumble. Their bodies may not be their own, but they each have their own story to tell. For the first time ever, discover the lives of prostitutes in Singapore.

Sujets

• Droit et juridique

Informations

• Publié par: Marshall Cavendish International
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814484527
• Langue: English

Extrait

Many Singaporeans have the misconception that all prostitutes are simply immoral and materialistic women who make a living through exploiting men s sexual desires. However, the book has illustrated the pain and regret that many of them have experienced. Through these personal interviews, one will begin to understand that there are far more compelling reasons that drive certain women to embark in the flesh trade, and that many valuable life lessons can be learnt from their stories. In my opinion, it is a very meaningful book. A must read!
Culgan Soh
Former Singapore Police Officer
This book consists of inspirational and touching stories. The reallife examples are distinctively different from what I perceived as an ex-enforcement officer. It makes you want to read more to unveil the promiscuous fa ade, a stirring truth that constantly contradicts your opinions of prostitution. A must read!
Kang Aik Meng
Former Singapore Police Officer
A deeply researched and insightful book!
Jack Fairweather
Author, Correspondent ( Washington Post ), Fellow of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies (Harvard University)
Exciting writing!
Professor Edmund White
Professor (Princeton University), Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Officier de l Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

2013 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited
Photographs and cover image courtesy of Chiu Whye Leong
Cover art by Cover Kitchen Co. Ltd. / Design by Benson Tan
Published by Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196
All rights reserved
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Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Leong, Kai Wen.
Pleasure factory : horrors of the Singapore flesh trade / Kaiwen Leong with Elaine Leong and Chiu Whye Leong. - Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2013. pages cm
eISBN: 978 981 4484 52 7
1. Prostitutes - Singapore. 2. Prostitution - Singapore. I Leong, Elaine. II. Leong, Chiu Whye. III. Title.
HQ118
306.742095957-dc23 OCN829960037
Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd
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Contents
A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F OREWORD
P REFACE BY K AIWEN L EONG
I NTRODUCTION
Part-Time Hooker, Full-Time Mother
No Love for the Loveless
Escape
Father
Old Dog, New Tricks
Foreign Affairs
Kids Welcome
C ONCLUSION
A BOUT THE A UTHORS
Acknowledgments
From the underworld of the prostitution scene in Singapore emerges a book about the real lives of the women who work the trade.
There is a natural tendency to focus on the content of the story. Is it shocking? Is it riveting? Is it entertaining? But as we allow ourselves to dive into these women s lives, we must not forget one thing: These are not stories. These are true. And these are not fiction. These are sincere and honest sharing by the women who have contributed to this book.
They share their stories with the world so that we - the fortunate ones - can get a glimpse of a life that passes by silently underneath our very feet. And this sharing has come at a great personal cost to them. Often, it has been extremely painful for them to recall the events of their past. It is not just private. It is traumatic and scarring. Yet, they chose to trust us and believe that we would be able to bring their stories to light.
We cannot repay our gratitude to these brave women of the night. So for their trust, we give them respect. They have told us their lives the way it has happened. Whether it is taboo or just too painful for the average person to bear, we have to let it remain uncensored as a sign of respect. To water it down would be akin to belittling their immense strength and willpower in facing life s challenges. It would be an insult to the sheer determination and grit that they have demonstrated in the face of life s adversities. To censor their lives would be to turn their stories into a fairytale, and to shroud the truth.
They have also chosen to remain anonymous. And we respect this choice. For this reason, names have been altered and locations changed.
Seven stories have been handpicked out of the hundreds of prostitutes that were interviewed. But we thank all of them - every single one - for their trust, sincerity and generosity.
We would also like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mei Lin Lee, Managing Editor, and Mindy Pang, Editor, both of Marshall Cavendish, for allowing these stories to surface from underneath the covers of everyday life. Without their generous and unwavering support, the true stories of these women would never be told.
Foreword
Prostitution is an unfortunate reality in every city in every country in the world. However, being what it is, very few people acknowledge its presence or even see its practitioners as real citizens. This is the root of many of the problems associated with prostitution - the fact that people do not want to engage with its causes. These are as varied and numerous as the prostitutes themselves, and often leave the women with no choice but to be and act as they do.
The authors of this enlightening and unusual book are not afraid to tackle head-on the problems of prostitution in their attempt to portray its reality in Singapore. They manage this with sympathy, allowing the women to tell their own stories with dignity and understanding.
The very first story in this book epitomises all that the authors are trying to portray. Aby was a normal girl living her normal life. After she was raped, her life disintegrated and she was reduced to prostitution to feed her daughter. Her move to Singapore to try and find a better world for her daughter, and the prejudice she faced from not only the normal citizens of the city but also her fellow prostitutes, is a story that encapsulates the difficulties faced by all prostitutes, not only in Singapore but all over the world.
In the attempt to help women caught in prostitution s net, the lack of prejudice shown by the authors is very important in allowing readers to understand the women s humanity. I commend this book and recommend any one to read it.
Baroness Eleuthera du Breuil
Great Granddaughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Preface
So, you think you know the story behind prostitutes? You know - hookers. Sex workers. Women who sleep with men in exchange for money. The ones you read and hear about all the time. You ve read a few articles on some high profile people who ve been caught sleeping with hookers. You ve watched a few movies with a woman acting as a prostitute. You ve even - oh my goodness - walked by the red light district . Maybe a hooker threw you a glance. Maybe you - gasp - made eye contact.
For the majority of you, it s sad to say that that s as close as you will ever be to knowing who a prostitute really is. You will not truly get to know them. You can t, unless you ve actually talked to them. You simply can t, unless you ve ventured deep into the underworld where they live, breathe and work. And you most certainly cannot even begin to imagine their lives until you smell the sex, breathe the smoke and see the way they get screwed over, day in, day out.
But I have. And I can take you there.
Why did I come to write this book? Many years ago, I was an outsider too. I was blown away by stereotypes and thought that prostitutes did it purely for money. But, one day, I met a friend who ate little, slept little and studied all the time. He wasn t on a diet, wasn t an insomniac and certainly wasn t a nerd. He was the filial son of a prostitute. A long time ago, his father left his mother and ran away with another woman, leaving his mother no choice but to sell her body to raise her only child. Armed with only her primary school education, no amount of blood, sweat or tears were enough to make ends meet. So she sacrificed everything else - her body, pride and dignity. She did it so that her son would not have to taste the bitterness that she had. Now that her son has come-of-age, he wanted to show his gratitude. Although he was still at university when I met him, he was already saving up to buy his mother a house - a real home - and get her out of the cheap rented room where she slept on a mattress barely thic