China: Rice merchants at a banquet with singsong girls, Beijing, 1900

Sing-song girls (also known as flower girls) is an English term for the courtesans in nineteenth century China.

Although generally concubines or courtesans, people in Shanghai called the women who performed in sing-song houses 'xian sheng' in Wu dialect. The term was pronounced 'sing-song' in English and the young women always sang to entertain the customers; thus Westerners called them Sing-Song girls. The word xian sang in this case is a polite term used to refer to an entertainer.

Copyright:

Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

Benjamin Kilburn

Credit:

Pictures From History