In the living room of a two-story, red-brick building located on Kueisui Street (
Underneath it lies a long chest with small drawers where they would deposit their earnings at the end of the day.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Near the chest on the wall are 10 framed pictures of beautiful women -- each with their nicknames printed below -- among them, Hsiaohung (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The names are those of licensed prostitutes who once worked at Sanchun Hall (
They are reminders of the last days of legal prostitution in Taiwan -- which ended at midnight last night at the end of a two-year grace period.
The brothel is now the venue of an artistic and pictorial exhibition on licensed prostitution. The five-day event is organized by the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (CSWS,
Photographer Lin Po-liang (
"No matter how hard I tried, they just refused to have their pictures taken. It took me over 10 trips and hundreds of rolls of films to pick just 20 pictures for the exhibition," he said.
Behind the red curtain in the living room lies a long and narrow corridor adjoined by two bedrooms on either side. Each room, which was required by law to be no less than 6.6m2 in area, is now a work of art.
Artistic designer Lu Wan-chun (
"The message I am trying to get across here is that the city government has targeted [legal] prostitutes, but not the problem of prostitution itself," she said.
CSWS Chairwoman Chou Chia-chun (
"Do you really think it makes any difference when around 20 [formerly] licensed prostitutes join the [many thousands] of illegal prostitutes?" she said. "It doesn't matter at all, because they're just one small grain of sand on the beach."
Watching a videotape recording the 19-month protest and personal stories about her and other licensed prostitutes, Sister Kuan (
"Those were hard times," said the 50-year-old Kuan. "I remember that once, the police kicked me so hard that the right side of by body was bruised and purple."
Kuan has been lobbying for her right to pursue her line of work since the ban on licensing prostitutes by former Taipei mayor Chen Shui-bian (
She said that although licensed prostitution had ceased, she would like to continue her campaign as a spokesperson for sex workers to try to ensure the safety of their lives and property.
"I'm calling the public to join me in asking the city government to set up a special zone where prostitutes can continue to work," she said.
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