Friday, March 25, 2005
China hookers are now in your neighbourhood
China hookers are now in your neighbourhood
News
Li Xueying
04 July 2004
Straits Times
English
c) 2004 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Sometimes you find them sitting on men's laps in kopitiams; sometimes residents are mistaken for hookers
MR CHAN Weng Seng was going home to Toa Payoh Lorong 2 for lunch, after visiting his grandchildren in Lorong 7 last week.
But as the 84-year-old retiree walked past the library in Toa Payoh Central, a long-haired woman, all dolled up, approached him and said: 'Lao bo, wo dai ni qu wan.' Translated, it means: 'Old uncle, let me take you out to play.'
His amused reply: 'I'm not a three-year-old but over 80 years old. Play for what?'
She wasn't put off. 'She followed me all the way to the interchange before giving up,' he added. 'I tried to walk quickly but it was of no use.'
He is hardly alone in his heartland escapade.
The coquettish qiang or accent of China streetwalkers has floated out of Geylang and into residential areas such as Toa Payoh, Joo Chiat and Tanjong Katong, where they approach elderly men practically at their doorstep.
Joo Chiat MP Chan Soo Sen, who is also Minister of State (Education, Community Development and Sports), said that he gets four or five complaints a month.
His constituents say Joo Chiat is becoming like the red-light district of Geylang. 'I'm talking regularly to the police on what we can do about it,' he said.
He said of the hookers: 'Sometimes, they're sitting on men's laps in the kopitiams.'
Other times, they're literally streetwalking. 'I was cycling around one evening when I saw a woman cross the road, knock on a lorry that was stuck in a jam, and jump in,' he said.
Marine Parade GRC MP Othman Haron Eusofe and Jalan Besar GRC MP Lily Neo also report a rise in complaints.
Residents say they have seen the women at the old Woodlands interchange, the void deck of Block 254 Choa Chu Kang and in MacPherson Road's coffeeshops, although The Sunday Times did not spot any in these areas.
Sometimes the hanky-panky is all but in one's living room.
Housewife Lee Siew Heng, 30, who lives in Tembeling Road, said: 'At night, the girls and their customers park in front of our house, and you see them kissing.'
Twice this year, China girls have rung her doorbell, asking whether they could rent rooms. Ms Lee also gets mistaken for a streetwalker. 'Sometimes, I go to 7-Eleven and men ask 'How much?'. So I take my sons with me now.'
It's got to the point that businesses are moving out. Construction firm manager Jason Lim, 35, whose office had been in Joo Chiat Road for four years, said: 'It's bad image for business.'
It is the same in Tanjong Katong Road, where residents and shopkeepers say the number of China hookers has 'doubled'. They mingle with students from Chung Cheng High, Tanjong Katong Secondary and Tanjong Katong Girls' School (TKGS).
Said TKGS vice-principal Terry Theseira: 'We ensure our school activities end by 6.30pm so that our girls can leave the area when it's still bright.'
MP Andy Gan (Marine Parade GRC), whose Mountbatten ward includes the road, said he has not received complaints, but may get residents to keep the authorities informed.
Other solutions suggested by the MPs include: more frequent police raids, increasing the number of designated red-light zones so that such activities can be confined and regulated, and public education for Singaporean men.
Hong Kah MP Ahmad Khalis Abdul Ghani wants immigration officials to track visitors with suspect travel patterns. Mayor Othman says the women caught should be blacklisted and barred from returning. Yet, all of them caution against being 'unfriendly to our friends from China'.
Singapore recently relaxed restrictions on visitors from China, granting visas valid for up to 30 days, up from 14 days previously.
They now form the second-largest group of visitors, after Indonesians. In 2002, 670,000 China tourists spent a total of $313 million here.
Police confirm that the illegal China prostitutes they have caught were here on social passes and the situation in the heartland was being 'closely' monitored.
In Toa Payoh, The Sunday Times followed a Chinese streetwalker and her Singaporean customer into the library. They lingered at the Chinese children's books section but left in a hurry when they saw librarian Neo Yam Hoon keeping an eye on them.
A library user, whom the woman had earlier solicited, tipped off Ms Neo. It's the first time such a thing has happened there, said the library's assistant manager, Ms Ong Hui Pheng.
The pair left for a nearby foodcourt. The man, apparently the customer, said when approached that he was a Singaporean and gave his name as 'Mr Tan'. He claimed the woman from China was lost and he was trying to help her get her cellphone repaired.
The danger of having prostitutes in the heartland, said sociologist Paulin Straughan, is that it becomes more tempting for the men. 'There's still an element of guilt attached to visiting Geylang, but when she shows up in the neighbourhood, it diminishes that perception of deviance as it happened in a 'normal' setting.'
Ultimately, it is up to Singaporeans to solve the problem, said Mr Chan Soo Sen. 'We have to ask ourselves why this is happening. And that is because there is a demand from our men.'
-------------------------------------------------------------
X - X-rated spills over
Saturday Special Report
25 December 2004
Straits Times
English
(c) 2004 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
X-RATED Singapore, once relegated to the traditional red-light fringes of Geylang, Desker Road and Keong Saik Road, spilled over to the mainstream and the HDB heartlands this year.
Prostitutes, who once confined their prowling to Orchard Towers, began plying their wares along Scotts Shopping Centre, Marriott Hotel, Tangs and Orchard Plaza.
Foreign women in risque dresses, slurring in different languages, these days flank Orchard Road and approach men boldly: 'Want some company, sir?'
There is also blatant soliciting by Chinese hookers at MRT stations, coffeeshops, HDB void decks, and even secondary schools in the heartlands such as Toa Payoh, Joo Chiat and Tanjong Katong, where they stand around suggestively, winking at old men.
As the year ended, more audacious China girls progressed onto yanking open car doors at HDB carparks, even before the male driver could switch off the engine, and accosting men even in the presence of their wives.
The rise of foreign prostitutes here coincided with the relaxing of visa requirements for tourists from China this year.
According to the police, the number of sex workers rounded up in the first half of this year already overshot those arrested in the whole of last year.
In just six months, 2,670 prostitutes, as compared to last year's haul up of 2,301, were picked up.
With official warnings that Singapore is facing an alarming Aids epidemic, doctors say these women pose untold dangers.
They are not screened for diseases such as HIV, unlike legal sex workers in the red light districts, who undergo health checks every month.
-- BEN NADARAJAN
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News
Li Xueying
04 July 2004
Straits Times
English
c) 2004 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Sometimes you find them sitting on men's laps in kopitiams; sometimes residents are mistaken for hookers
MR CHAN Weng Seng was going home to Toa Payoh Lorong 2 for lunch, after visiting his grandchildren in Lorong 7 last week.
But as the 84-year-old retiree walked past the library in Toa Payoh Central, a long-haired woman, all dolled up, approached him and said: 'Lao bo, wo dai ni qu wan.' Translated, it means: 'Old uncle, let me take you out to play.'
His amused reply: 'I'm not a three-year-old but over 80 years old. Play for what?'
She wasn't put off. 'She followed me all the way to the interchange before giving up,' he added. 'I tried to walk quickly but it was of no use.'
He is hardly alone in his heartland escapade.
The coquettish qiang or accent of China streetwalkers has floated out of Geylang and into residential areas such as Toa Payoh, Joo Chiat and Tanjong Katong, where they approach elderly men practically at their doorstep.
Joo Chiat MP Chan Soo Sen, who is also Minister of State (Education, Community Development and Sports), said that he gets four or five complaints a month.
His constituents say Joo Chiat is becoming like the red-light district of Geylang. 'I'm talking regularly to the police on what we can do about it,' he said.
He said of the hookers: 'Sometimes, they're sitting on men's laps in the kopitiams.'
Other times, they're literally streetwalking. 'I was cycling around one evening when I saw a woman cross the road, knock on a lorry that was stuck in a jam, and jump in,' he said.
Marine Parade GRC MP Othman Haron Eusofe and Jalan Besar GRC MP Lily Neo also report a rise in complaints.
Residents say they have seen the women at the old Woodlands interchange, the void deck of Block 254 Choa Chu Kang and in MacPherson Road's coffeeshops, although The Sunday Times did not spot any in these areas.
Sometimes the hanky-panky is all but in one's living room.
Housewife Lee Siew Heng, 30, who lives in Tembeling Road, said: 'At night, the girls and their customers park in front of our house, and you see them kissing.'
Twice this year, China girls have rung her doorbell, asking whether they could rent rooms. Ms Lee also gets mistaken for a streetwalker. 'Sometimes, I go to 7-Eleven and men ask 'How much?'. So I take my sons with me now.'
It's got to the point that businesses are moving out. Construction firm manager Jason Lim, 35, whose office had been in Joo Chiat Road for four years, said: 'It's bad image for business.'
It is the same in Tanjong Katong Road, where residents and shopkeepers say the number of China hookers has 'doubled'. They mingle with students from Chung Cheng High, Tanjong Katong Secondary and Tanjong Katong Girls' School (TKGS).
Said TKGS vice-principal Terry Theseira: 'We ensure our school activities end by 6.30pm so that our girls can leave the area when it's still bright.'
MP Andy Gan (Marine Parade GRC), whose Mountbatten ward includes the road, said he has not received complaints, but may get residents to keep the authorities informed.
Other solutions suggested by the MPs include: more frequent police raids, increasing the number of designated red-light zones so that such activities can be confined and regulated, and public education for Singaporean men.
Hong Kah MP Ahmad Khalis Abdul Ghani wants immigration officials to track visitors with suspect travel patterns. Mayor Othman says the women caught should be blacklisted and barred from returning. Yet, all of them caution against being 'unfriendly to our friends from China'.
Singapore recently relaxed restrictions on visitors from China, granting visas valid for up to 30 days, up from 14 days previously.
They now form the second-largest group of visitors, after Indonesians. In 2002, 670,000 China tourists spent a total of $313 million here.
Police confirm that the illegal China prostitutes they have caught were here on social passes and the situation in the heartland was being 'closely' monitored.
In Toa Payoh, The Sunday Times followed a Chinese streetwalker and her Singaporean customer into the library. They lingered at the Chinese children's books section but left in a hurry when they saw librarian Neo Yam Hoon keeping an eye on them.
A library user, whom the woman had earlier solicited, tipped off Ms Neo. It's the first time such a thing has happened there, said the library's assistant manager, Ms Ong Hui Pheng.
The pair left for a nearby foodcourt. The man, apparently the customer, said when approached that he was a Singaporean and gave his name as 'Mr Tan'. He claimed the woman from China was lost and he was trying to help her get her cellphone repaired.
The danger of having prostitutes in the heartland, said sociologist Paulin Straughan, is that it becomes more tempting for the men. 'There's still an element of guilt attached to visiting Geylang, but when she shows up in the neighbourhood, it diminishes that perception of deviance as it happened in a 'normal' setting.'
Ultimately, it is up to Singaporeans to solve the problem, said Mr Chan Soo Sen. 'We have to ask ourselves why this is happening. And that is because there is a demand from our men.'
-------------------------------------------------------------
X - X-rated spills over
Saturday Special Report
25 December 2004
Straits Times
English
(c) 2004 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
X-RATED Singapore, once relegated to the traditional red-light fringes of Geylang, Desker Road and Keong Saik Road, spilled over to the mainstream and the HDB heartlands this year.
Prostitutes, who once confined their prowling to Orchard Towers, began plying their wares along Scotts Shopping Centre, Marriott Hotel, Tangs and Orchard Plaza.
Foreign women in risque dresses, slurring in different languages, these days flank Orchard Road and approach men boldly: 'Want some company, sir?'
There is also blatant soliciting by Chinese hookers at MRT stations, coffeeshops, HDB void decks, and even secondary schools in the heartlands such as Toa Payoh, Joo Chiat and Tanjong Katong, where they stand around suggestively, winking at old men.
As the year ended, more audacious China girls progressed onto yanking open car doors at HDB carparks, even before the male driver could switch off the engine, and accosting men even in the presence of their wives.
The rise of foreign prostitutes here coincided with the relaxing of visa requirements for tourists from China this year.
According to the police, the number of sex workers rounded up in the first half of this year already overshot those arrested in the whole of last year.
In just six months, 2,670 prostitutes, as compared to last year's haul up of 2,301, were picked up.
With official warnings that Singapore is facing an alarming Aids epidemic, doctors say these women pose untold dangers.
They are not screened for diseases such as HIV, unlike legal sex workers in the red light districts, who undergo health checks every month.
-- BEN NADARAJAN
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