Hello TWOC readers!
The recent hit Chinese costume drama Against the Current contains a shocking scene. After the Shen clan, an official household, is toppled in a political purge, the women of the family are sentenced to an institution called the Court Entertainment Office, or Jiaofang Si (教坊司).
As the Shen women gather in the dimly lit room where they are being held, the family matriarch explains the reality of their punishment: “This is the Jiaofang Si. They may call it a place of music and dance, but in truth it’s nothing but a state-run brothel.” The women, including two young girls, decide to take their own lives—“We’d sooner die with our honor intact than live in disgrace,” the matriarch says.
In many dynasties, the Jiaofang (教坊) was a government office responsible for organizing court performances and training entertainers, but the drama’s claims do have some historical basis—at certain times, its remit overlapped with the world of courtesans and sex work. So how did an ancient institution devoted to court performance also become tied up with prostitution and political punishment?
Read on to find out more:
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