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Even though Hanoi was an important city and prostitution was not a colonial invention in Vietnam, studying the precolonial period is difficult because sources are quite scarce. In addition, the available sources do not explicitly mention prostitutes but generally discuss songstresses and courtesans. They were morally condemned and relegated to life outside the city.
The same ambiguous distinction between courtesans, songstresses, and prostitutes can be found in Vietnamese imperial law. The attitude of the authorities towards prostitution was ambiguous as well. Article , and in particular the notes and comments of the legislator, mentioned prostitution as a social category, and yet the same article forbade civil and military servants from interacting with prostitutes and songstresses. Further complicating the issue was article , which prohibited prostitution as well as other illicit sexual relations, such as extra-marital sex and homosexual relations.
The colonial period was a turning point in the history of prostitution in Vietnam because it was no longer forbidden but authorized and regulated. In colonial Hanoi β , the regulation of prostitution was a concern starting from the establishment of the Hanoi municipality until the end of French rule. Colonial authorities used several means such as architecture, hygiene, science, and education to control the population by setting up a process of dressage breaking in of souls and bodies, which included the regulation of prostitution.
The mission of the municipality was difficult because Hanoi had a unique administrative status. Although it was the capital of the French protectorate, it was not part of the protectorate itself because the city had been granted to France by the Vietnamese emperor in Hanoi was therefore a French enclave where French law applied, and it was surrounded by the Tonkin protectorate where Vietnamese law still held sway.
