// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the flower boat say? "I'm a blooming vessel.
A Canton flower boat (a floating brothel) on the Pearl River, with men on deck and smaller boats alongside
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Rows of flower boats on the Pearl River
Flower boats (Chinese: 花船; pinyin: huāchuán) were floating brothels on the Pearl River.[1] Foreigners were not allowed access to them.[1]
Flower boats did not function solely as brothels. The term "flower boat" often referred to an ornate barge.[2]
References
[edit]- 1 2 Van Dyke, Paul A. (2020). "Floating Brothels and 'Unnatural Acts'". Whampoa and the Canton Trade: Life and Death in a Chinese Port, 1700–1842. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. doi:10.1515/9789882209893-014. ISBN 978-988-220989-3.
- ↑ Miles, Steven B. (2006). The Sea of Learning: Mobility and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Guangzhou. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center. pp. 62–63. ISBN 0-674-02134-7. Retrieved July 6, 2026 – via Google Books.