The origins of the Red Lantern Society can be traced back to a historical and ancient profession—boat prostitutes.
There used to be an old saying, "A million canal workers depend on their clothes and food."
Many people have treated this saying as a classic quote by experts in the know, yet they are unaware of its true origin.
In the past, Tianmen City served as the largest canal transport port in the North, indeed having a million canal workers.
This term, canal workers, referred not only to those who transported grain by boat and workers who moved goods at the docks but also to a vast ecosystem that extended around the north–south canal transport system.
Boat prostitutes were a very important part of this ecosystem.
In Tianmen, there was an unwritten rule that whether on boats or in the courtyards of alleys, places hanging red lanterns at night were those engaged in the "technical trades."
This can't be elaborated upon, as it would be censored.
