While the number of Chinese women working in these parlors was probably smaller then than it is today, immigrant prostitution flourished in San Francisco before the turn of the 20th century, and hysteria surrounded these sex workers. 'We have shown that Chinese prostitution exists among us as the basis of the abject and satanic conception of human slavery,' the Special Committee of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco investigating Chinese immigration stated in 1885. Echoes of these attitudes, which were not entirely baseless-trafficking was in fact significant-remain to this day.īut the idea that contemporary Asian massage parlors are bastions of sex trafficking has come not only from officials and law enforcement, but also some of the hundreds of non-profit organizations devoted to combatting that very thing.
