A Study On The Porstitution Management During The Period Of The Nationalist Government Of Nanjing

Prostitution is difficult to prohibit at all times all over the world. Nevertheless, the studies on prostitution commenced in modern times. The prostitution industry is like a mirror, reflecting the panorama of the whole society. With the development and changes of social atmosphere, prostitution began to prosper since the late Qing Dynasty. Moreover, it flourished after the establishment of the Republic of China and "The Prostitution Business Circle" which centered on prostitution business formed in urban areas. In addition, under the rule of Northern Warlords Government of China, the central government implemented the policy of prostitution tax in an attempt to achieve the dual purpose of taking prostitution into management and obtaining revenue through taxation, which led to further commercialization and openness of prostitution in the Republic of of China. The prostitutes played a special role in the society during this period. For one thing, the prostitutes in superior brothels became a gorgeous silhouette beside the republican politicians and warlords, shuttled in and out of the Chinese political stage, and thus evolved as a tool for the male to release male discourse power. While for another thing, the prostitutes in inferior brothels turned into the abreaction tool of considerable small tradesmen and porters who were unable to get married or did not took his wife along themselves in cities. However, the central government gradually considered the policy of prostitution tax as a main source of revenue to make up for the deficiency of fiscal revenue, hence resulting in a distinct contrast between the the poor prostitution management and active tax collection.With the prosperity of prostitution, various social problems arose. After the the May4th New Culture Movement, an outcry for the abolition of prostitution gained increasing popularity. The reasons against prostitution mainly involved elements in politics, economics, ethics, sanitation and law. While among these elements, the main reason against the prostitution lay in that the prostitution was closely related to a country’s modernization, degree of civilization and national strength. Furthermore, in this period, prostitution abolition movement across the country, displaying in news, magazines and women’s rights movement and so on, had been raging like a storm. People who supported the abolition of prostitution proposed two sets of measures: palliative measures and cure measures. They believed that people should ban the prostitute organizations stage by stage and cut off the source of prostitution, that is the clients, as a palliative and abolish the private ownership as a cure.Under this background, the Nationalist Government of Nanjing released the prostitution abolition commands nationwide in an attempt to not only follow the public opinion but also build their own image and face-saving project. However, during this period, the policy of prostitution abolition failed because of weak implementation. As a result, the poor social effect of this policy led to the appearance and rampant prosperity of unlicensed prostitutes and prostitution in other kinds of disguise, which the government was incapable of controlling. Therefore, the management of prostitution was just a scrap of paper and had not been really put into practice in China.The government’s policy of managing prostitution, in a whole, only showed its position of fighting against the prostitution, but in the real practice, it did not take effective measures to control the development of prostitution and did not positively block various channels of prostitution. Apart from issuing orders of abolishing prostitution and stopping taxing on prostitutes, the rest of its policy still operated as the routine went. The reason for the phenomenon was that the government was faced with serious domestic troubles and foreign invasion, and they were too busy to take the background of social reform into account. Besides, the government’s own ambiguous attitude and its deficient ability in controlling local social reform were also some of the major reasons.Therefore, the author believes that there must be two preparation premises to mitigate and then prohibit prostitution at that time of China:the first is a relatively stable internal and external environment; the second is to vigorously promote the construction of human rights and legal systems, and to nurture a healthy and civilized social atmosphere. Concerning the ideal and development of a society, the prohibition of prostitution is the ultimate goal and inexorable outcome. But, at a certain stage, the government should fully assess the entire environment and act in accordance with its capability so as to make its policy much more effective.