Singapore- Staid old Singapore is breaking out in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. First there were bar top dancing girls, then they let in Sex and the City – and now there is a buzz about high-class prostitution thanks to Gerrie Lim. MARTIN VENGADESAN has a cyberchat with the author.

I’VE just been exchanging e-mails with Gerrie Lim ? you know Gerrie Lim, don’t you? Okay, okay, I’ll confess I hadn’t heard of him either until last week. As it turns out, Lim is a colourful journalist who is currently riding high on Singapore’s national non-fiction best-seller list with Invisible Trade, a juicy expose of the high-class prostitution that goes on in the city below Johor Baru. As the book is hitting Malaysian stores today, we thought we’d get the low-down from the source.

Gerrie Lim is a 44-year old who describes himself as single but in a relationship, with no kids. His experience and qualifications are vast. He received a degree in political science from the University of Western Australia and followed that with a Master’s in print journalism from the University of Southern California (in 1987) and has since written for a wide range of publications that include Elle, the Wall Street Journal, Details, Harper’s Bazaar and Playboy. He currently divides his time between Los Angeles and Singapore.

Gerrie Lim exposes highclass prostitution. – Photo by MICHAEL GOH. Invisible Trade (subtitled High-Class Sex for Sale in Singapore) is a pretty engrossing read as Lim takes the reader through a number of candid interviews with high-class Singaporean prostitutes. These young women (and, occasionally, men) receive cash and expensive gifts in return for providing the nation’s wealthy with illicit pleasure. The things they have to do range from choking clients to enhance their gratification and simulating necrophilia to relatively simple things like to pretending to be a young exec’s girlfriend in order to wind up his ex!

So why did Lim choose such a topic to write about?

“The motivation behind the book ties in nicely with my own interest in the subject matter. The topic had never been addressed in a book before, and I felt that I could bring my own perspective to it. No Money, No Honey! (by the late David Brazil) did a nice job, but it depicted the low end of the market. I wanted to try to cover the high end of the market, which was a considerably more challenging task but it is a topic that I felt a lot of people would be curious enough to read about. I think our sales figures, which have been astonishing so far, have proved me right!”

The sensitive nature of his investigative research makes Lim a little reticent about his ability to get the stories that make up Invisible Trade.

“That’s essentially a trade secret I can’t reveal, but what I can tell you is that I had contacts with certain relevant parties through mutual friends and I worked those contacts and parlayed my enthusiasm into the workable material that you see now in the book.”

Asked to cite his favourite interview, Lim recalled “Amelia”, the Australian escort featured in the chapter Asian Affairs.

“I was amazed at her knowledge and scope of experience given the fact that she had worked an as in-house brothel girl before she became an escort and had started out escorting while moonlighting as a fashion model. She was very articulate about her life and career choices. I especially like what she has to say about escorting in Asia and her views on Asian men.”

Another notable interview subject was gay escort Cyril Wong who actually insisted on using his real name. Apparently Wong has received a few phone calls from friends of his who may just have been jealous of his exciting, secret life!

Despite the potentially controversial subject matter, Lim feels that Singapore is ready to deal with his book.

“I don’t think it’s controversial at all now, because No Money, No Honey! has been out for years and, also, people have so many choices now – you can browse porn on the Internet, after all! So, no, it’s not controversial even though it certainly is topical. Nobody has given me any negative feedback so far.”

One wonders if Lim was ever tempted to avail himself of the services of the people he interviewed?

“Nope, the thought never once crossed my mind. I’m not a prude by any means, but I don’t find paying for sex very interesting. It may be for other people, though, and I can respect that. It was interesting to me as an outsider looking in, hence the book.”

When asked to describe what he is passionate about, Lim comes up with an unusual answer: “Cultural anthropology! I love to investigate subcultures, especially those on the fringes of mainstream society. This has been part of everything I’ve done. I was a music critic in Los Angeles covering mostly alternative rock and also jazz and blues, and I was also an executive in the Hollywood film business but only with independent studios doing quirky, edgy movies. My free time is spent with my music and my movies and my books.”

One final thing that struck me about the book was the tribute from Singaporean-born US-based porn star Annabel Chong. Lim explained: “Annabel and I became friends after I interviewed her, and I think my whole affinity for sex workers came from hanging out with porn stars! I knew you were going to ask about her but as I’ve just mentioned, she’s a personal friend so I can’t really apply any kind of objectivity to that (her situation). I think too many people have made much too much of it. I am also a bad person to ask, since my shock value quotient is probably higher than most people’s and not a whole lot fazes me in pop culture anymore.”