{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,13]],"date-time":"2026-05-13T00:22:42Z","timestamp":1778631762314,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,5]],"date-time":"2025-05-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1746403200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/deed.de"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,5]],"date-time":"2025-05-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1746403200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/deed.de"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100008967","name":"Philipps-Universit\u00e4t Marburg","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100008967","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["N.T.M."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n          <jats:p>This paper delves into the complex construction and regulation of prostitution in colonial Hong Kong, exploring how intersecting dynamics of race, gender, class, and sexuality influenced perceptions and governance. Drawing on intersectionality, doing gender, and performativity frameworks, it analyzes the role of patriarchal imperialist capitalism, medical expertise, and humanitarian networks in shaping colonial attitudes toward prostitution, particularly through the enactment of contagious diseases (CD) ordinances. Despite existing scholarship on imperial regulation, there is a\u00a0notable gap regarding the nuanced construct of the prostitute herself and its impact on regulatory practices. Through examination of historical documents, the paper reveals the interdependence between colonial and domestic constructions of race, sexuality, and class, highlighting their influence on legislative approaches in Britain and its colonies. By situating Hong Kong within broader imperial networks and scrutinizing medico-moral discourse and capitalist imperatives, the study exposes contradictions in colonial regulation, emphasizing the enduring legacies of exploitation. It advocates for further research into the performance and policing of prostitution, stressing the necessity of an intersectional lens to comprehend the complexities of colonial history.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s00048-025-00417-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,5]],"date-time":"2025-05-05T13:37:54Z","timestamp":1746452274000},"page":"201-233","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Performing and Policing Prostitution: Race and Sexuality in Colonial Hong Kong Under the Contagious Diseases Ordinances"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"33","author":[{"given":"Ezra","family":"K\u00fccken","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"417_CR1","volume-title":"Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers","author":"E Andrew","year":"1907","unstructured":"Andrew, Elizabeth and Katherine Bushnell 1907. Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers. Oakland: Pacific Press Publishing Company."},{"key":"417_CR2","volume-title":"Race, sex, and class under the British Raj: Imperial attitudes and policies and their critics, 1793\u20131905","author":"K Ballhatchet","year":"1980","unstructured":"Ballhatchet, K. 1980. Race, sex, and class under the British Raj: Imperial attitudes and policies and their critics, 1793\u20131905. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson."},{"issue":"2","key":"417_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"211","DOI":"10.1080\/09612025.2012.726111","volume":"22","author":"J Berney","year":"2013","unstructured":"Berney, Jane 2013. Writing Women\u2019s Histories: women in the colonial record of nineteenth-century Hong Kong. Women\u2019s History Review\u00a0(22\/2): 211\u201324.","journal-title":"Women\u2019s History Review"},{"key":"417_CR4","volume-title":"Gender trouble. Feminism and the subversion of identity","author":"J Butler","year":"1990","unstructured":"Butler, Judith 1990. Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge."},{"key":"417_CR5","volume-title":"Bodies that Matter. On the Discursive Limits of \u201cSex.\u201d","author":"J Butler","year":"1993","unstructured":"Butler, Judith 1993. Bodies that Matter. On the Discursive Limits of \u201cSex.\u201d New York: Routledge."},{"key":"417_CR6","volume-title":"Dangerous women: warriors, grannies and geisha of the ming","author":"V Cass","year":"1999","unstructured":"Cass, Victoria 1999. Dangerous Women: Warriors, Grannies and Geisha of the Ming. Landham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers."},{"issue":"1","key":"417_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"135","DOI":"10.1353\/jowh.2013.0008","volume":"25","author":"A Chin","year":"2013","unstructured":"Chin, A. 2013. Colonial Charity in Hong Kong: A\u00a0Case of the Po Leung Kuk in the 1930s. Journal of Women\u2019s History\u00a0(25\/1): 135\u201357.","journal-title":"Journal of Women\u2019s History"},{"key":"417_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5771\/9781442215610","volume-title":"Bound to emancipate. Working women and urban citizenry in twentieth-century China and Hong Kong","author":"AS Chin","year":"2012","unstructured":"Chin, Angelina S.\u00a02012. Bound to Emancipate. Working Women and Urban Citizenry in Twentieth-Century China and Hong Kong. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers."},{"key":"417_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Clarke, Paula C. 2015. The Business of Prostitution in Early Renaissance Venice. Renaissance Quarterly (68): 419\u201364.","DOI":"10.1086\/682434"},{"issue":"6","key":"417_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1241","DOI":"10.2307\/1229039","volume":"43","author":"K Crenshaw","year":"1991","unstructured":"Crenshaw, Kimberl\u00e9 1991. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review (43\/6): 1241\u201399.","journal-title":"Stanford Law Review"},{"key":"417_CR11","volume-title":"A\u00a0history of Hong Kong","author":"GB Endacott","year":"1958","unstructured":"Endacott, G. B. 1958. A\u00a0History of Hong Kong. London: Oxford University Press."},{"key":"417_CR12","volume-title":"The wretched of the earth","author":"F Fanon","year":"2004","unstructured":"Fanon, Frantz 2004. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press."},{"key":"417_CR13","series-title":"The History of Sexuality","volume-title":"Introduction","author":"M Foucault","year":"1980","unstructured":"Foucault, Michel 1980. The History of Sexuality, Vol 1: Introduction. New York: Random House."},{"issue":"1","key":"417_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1086\/ahr\/104.1.117","volume":"104","author":"TJ Gilfoyle","year":"1999","unstructured":"Gilfoyle, T. J. 1999. Prostitutes in History: From Parables of Pornography to Metaphors of Modernity. The American Historical Review (104\/1): 117\u201341.","journal-title":"The American Historical Review"},{"key":"417_CR16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"229","DOI":"10.1017\/S0963926804002123","volume":"31","author":"P Howel","year":"2004","unstructured":"Howell, Philip 2004. Race, Space and the Regulation of Prostitution in Colonial Hong Kong. Urban History (31): 229\u201348.","journal-title":"Urban History"},{"key":"417_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Howell, Philip 2000. Prostitution and Racialised Sexuality: The Regulation of Prostitution in Britain and the British Empire before the Contagious Diseases Acts. Environment and Planning D:\u00a0Society and Space (18): 321\u201339.","DOI":"10.1068\/d259"},{"key":"417_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315264189-10","volume-title":"(dis)placing empire. Renegotiating British colonial geographies","author":"P Howell","year":"2017","unstructured":"Howell, Philip 2017. Prostitution and the Place of Empire: Regulation and Repeal in Hong Kong and the British Imperial Network. In: M.\u00a0Roche, Michael and Lindsay J.\u00a0Proudfoot (eds.). (Dis)Placing Empire. Renegotiating British Colonial Geographies. New York: Routledge: 175\u201397."},{"key":"417_CR18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hsieh, Bao Hua 2008. The Market in Concubines in Jiangnan During Ming-Qing China. Journal of Family History (33): 262\u201390.","DOI":"10.1177\/0363199008319934"},{"key":"417_CR19","volume-title":"Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (Studies in Imperialism)","author":"R Hyam","year":"1990","unstructured":"Hyam, R. 1990. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (Studies in Imperialism). Manchester: Manchester University Press."},{"key":"417_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jose, Jim, and KCasey McLoughlin 2016. John Stuart Mill and the Contagious Diseases Acts. Law and History Review (34): 249\u201379.","DOI":"10.1017\/S0738248016000080"},{"key":"417_CR21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kn\u00fcfer, Aur\u00e9lie 2023. Gender and Race in John Stuart Mill\u2019s \u201cThe Subjection of Women\u201d Frontiers: A\u00a0Journal of Women Studies (44): 53\u201379.","DOI":"10.1353\/fro.2023.0003"},{"key":"417_CR22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"730","DOI":"10.1163\/9789004346253_029","volume-title":"Selling sex in the city: a\u00a0global history of prostitution, 1600s\u20132000s","author":"L Kozma","year":"2017","unstructured":"Kozma, Liat 2017. Prostitution and Colonial\u00a0Relations. In: Magaly Rodr\u00edguez Garc\u00eda et\u00a0al. (eds.) Selling Sex in the City: A\u00a0Global\u00a0History of Prostitution, 1600s\u20132000s. Leiden: Brill: 730\u201347."},{"key":"417_CR23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lambert, David and Philip Howell 2003. John Pope Hennessy and the Translation of \u2018Slavery\u2019 Between Late Nineteenth-Century Barbados and Hong Kong. History Workshop Journal (55): 1\u201324.","DOI":"10.1093\/hwj\/55.1.1"},{"key":"417_CR24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lee, Jack Jin Gary 2023. \u201cRacialized Legalities: The Rule of Law, Race, and the Protection of Women in Britain\u2019s Crown Colonies, 1886\u20131890\u201d. Law & Social Inquiry (00): 1\u201330.","DOI":"10.1017\/lsi.2023.38"},{"key":"417_CR25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Leow, Rachel 2012. Age as a\u00a0Category of Gender Analysis: Servant Girls, Modern Girls, and Gender in Southeast Asia. The Journal of Asian Studies (71): 975\u201390.","DOI":"10.1017\/S0021911812001258"},{"key":"417_CR26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Levine, Philippa 1998. Modernity, Medicine, and Colonialism: The Contagious Diseases Ordinances in Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements. positions (6): 675\u2013705.","DOI":"10.1215\/10679847-6-3-675"},{"key":"417_CR27","first-page":"160","volume-title":"Sex, sin and suffering. Venereal disease and European society since 1870","author":"P Levine","year":"2001","unstructured":"Levine, Philippa 2001. Public Health, Venereal Disease and Colonial Medicine in the Later Nineteenth Century. In: Davidson, Roger and Lesley A.\u00a0Hall (eds.) Sex, Sin and Suffering. Venereal Disease and European Society since 1870. London: Routledge: 160\u201372."},{"key":"417_CR28","volume-title":"Prostitution, race, and politics. Policing venereal disease in the British empire","author":"P Levine","year":"2003","unstructured":"Levine, Philippa 2003. Prostitution, Race, and Politics. Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire. New York: Routledge."},{"key":"417_CR29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lowe, Kate and Eugene McLaughlin 2008. Sir John Pope Hennessy and the \u2018Native Race Craze\u2019: Colonial Government in Hong Kong, 1877\u20131882. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (20): 223\u201347.","DOI":"10.1080\/03086539208582871"},{"key":"417_CR30","first-page":"173","volume-title":"Sex, sin and suffering. Venereal disease and European society since 1870","author":"K MacPherson","year":"2001","unstructured":"MacPherson, Kerrie 2001. Health and Empire: Britain\u2019s national campaign to combat venereal diseases in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. In: Davidson, Roger and Lesley A.\u00a0Hall (eds.) Sex, Sin and Suffering. Venereal Disease and European Society since 1870. London: Routledge: 173\u201390."},{"key":"417_CR31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mann, Hollie and Jeff Spinner-Halev 2010. John Stuart Mill\u2019s Feminism: On Progress, the State, and the Path to Justice. Polity (42): 244\u201370.","DOI":"10.1057\/pol.2009.17"},{"key":"417_CR32","volume-title":"Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844","author":"K Marx","year":"1964","unstructured":"Marx, Karl 1964. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (D. J. Struik, ed.). New York: International Publishers."},{"key":"417_CR33","first-page":"213","volume-title":"The collected works of John Stuart Mill","author":"JS Mill","year":"1991","unstructured":"Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. In: J. M.\u00a0Robson 1991a (ed.). The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill Vol.\u00a018. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 213\u2013310."},{"key":"417_CR34","first-page":"351","volume-title":"The collected works of John Stuart Mill","author":"JS Mill","year":"1991","unstructured":"Mill, John Stuart. The Contagious Diseases Acts. In: J. M.\u00a0Robson 1991b (ed.). The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill Vol.\u00a021. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 351\u201371."},{"key":"417_CR35","volume-title":"Hong Kong under imperial rule 1912\u20131941","author":"N Miners","year":"1987","unstructured":"Miners, Norman 1987. Hong Kong Under Imperial Rule 1912\u20131941. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press."},{"key":"417_CR50","unstructured":"Murray, Ivor. The Contagious Diseases Acts. The Lancet (February 27, 1873)."},{"key":"417_CR36","volume-title":"The sexual contract","author":"C Pateman","year":"1988","unstructured":"Pateman, Carole 1988. The Sexual Contract. Stanford: Stanford University Press."},{"key":"417_CR37","first-page":"29","volume-title":"Body\/politics: women and the discourses of science","author":"M Poovey","year":"1990","unstructured":"Poovey, Mary 1990. Speaking of the Body: Mid-Victorian Constructions of Female Desire. In: M.\u00a0Jacobus et\u00a0al. (eds.) Body\/Politics: Women and the Discourses of Science. New York: Routledge: 29\u201346."},{"key":"417_CR38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-137-34184-6","volume-title":"British imperial history","author":"SJ Potter","year":"2015","unstructured":"Potter, Simon J. 2015. British Imperial History. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing."},{"key":"417_CR39","volume-title":"Orientalism","author":"EW Said","year":"1978","unstructured":"Said, Edward W. 1978. Orientalism. London: Pantheon Books."},{"key":"417_CR40","volume-title":"Colonial masculinity: the \u201cmanly englishman\u201d and the \u201ceffeminate Bengali\u201d in the late nineteenth century","author":"M Sinha","year":"1995","unstructured":"Sinha, Mrinalini 1995. Colonial Masculinity: The \u201cManly Englishman\u201d and the \u201cEffeminate Bengali\u201d in the Late Nineteenth Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press."},{"issue":"2","key":"417_CR41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.1353\/jowh.2007.0062","volume":"19","author":"E Sinn","year":"2007","unstructured":"Sinn, Elizabeth 2007. Women at Work: Chinese Brothel Keepers in Nineteenth-Century Hong Kong. Journal of Women\u2019s History (19\/2): 87\u2013111.","journal-title":"Journal of Women\u2019s History"},{"key":"417_CR42","volume-title":"Lord Kimberley\u2019s defense of the government brothel system in Hong Kong","author":"J Stansfeld","year":"1882","unstructured":"Stansfeld, James 1882. Lord Kimberley\u2019s Defense of the Government Brothel System in Hong Kong. London: John Murray."},{"key":"417_CR43","volume-title":"Race and the education of desire: Foucault\u2019s history of sexuality and the colonial order of things","author":"LA Stoler","year":"1996","unstructured":"Stoler, Laura A. 1996. Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault\u2019s History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things. Durham: Duke University Press."},{"issue":"2","key":"417_CR44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"179","DOI":"10.1080\/03057078408708077","volume":"10","author":"EB Van Heyningen","year":"1984","unstructured":"Van Heyningen, E. B. 1984. The Social Evil in the Cape Colony, 1868\u20131902: Prostitution and the Contagious Diseases Acts.\u00a0Journal of Southern African Studies (10\/2): 179\u201391.","journal-title":"Journal of Southern African Studies"},{"key":"417_CR45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511583605","volume-title":"Prostitution and victorian society: women, class, and the state","author":"J Walkowitz","year":"1980","unstructured":"Walkowitz, J. 1980. Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State. New York: Cambridge University Press."},{"key":"417_CR46","unstructured":"Ward, Leslie. A\u00a0Feminine Philosopher. Vanity Fair (March\u00a029, 1873)."},{"key":"417_CR47","volume-title":"Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore, 1870\u20131940","author":"JF Warren","year":"1993","unstructured":"Warren, J. F. 1993. Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore, 1870\u20131940. Singapore: Oxford University Press."},{"key":"417_CR48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"125","DOI":"10.1177\/0891243287001002002","volume":"1","author":"C West","year":"1987","unstructured":"West, Candace, & Don H. Zimmermann 1987. Doing Gender. Gender and Society (1): 125\u201351.","journal-title":"Gender and Society"},{"key":"417_CR49","first-page":"389","volume-title":"Sources of Chinese Tradition Vol. II: From 1600 through the Twentieth Century","author":"H-Y Zhen","year":"2000","unstructured":"Zhen, He-Yin 2000. What Women Should Know About Communism. In: de Bary, Theodore and Richard Lufrano (eds.). Sources of Chinese Tradition Vol. II: From 1600 through the Twentieth Century. New York: Columbia University Press: 389\u201392."}],"container-title":["NTM Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s00048-025-00417-5.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00048-025-00417-5\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s00048-025-00417-5.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,1]],"date-time":"2025-07-01T07:54:16Z","timestamp":1751356456000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s00048-025-00417-5"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,5]]},"references-count":50,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,6]]}},"alternative-id":["417"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s00048-025-00417-5","relation":{},"ISSN":["0036-6978","1420-9144"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0036-6978","type":"print"},{"value":"1420-9144","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,5]]},"assertion":[{"value":"27 March 2025","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"5 May 2025","order":2,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}}]}}