The Bygone Brothels

During reign of Emperor Tongzhi of Qing dynasty (1862-1874), Rua da Felicidade and its periphery became the notoriously known “Red Light District” of Macao at the helm of Chinese merchant Vong Lok and his son Vong Tai. By then, half of the street was populated by brothels and teahouses and the other half by opium houses, gambling parlors and restaurants. It was one of the streets that made up the so-called “Three Streets of the Flower Paradise”. The other two were the nearby Beco da Felicidade and Travessa da Felicidade. It was the place to be for bouts of indulgence in sensual pleasures. Over the neighboring Travessa do Auto Novo, the Vongs constructed the Cheng Peng Theatre with raised capital. It was the first sizeable theatre in Southern China and the oldest performing venue for Cantonese opera across Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. With the ban on opium and prostitution in Macao after the Second World War, the area began to lose its fascinations as a “Red-light District”. So far, the stretch of two-storey houses built of blue-grey bricks with tiled roof lining either side of Rua da Felicidade is the most well-preserved brothel complex of China. They highlight the salient features of a bygone history of brothels of Macao.