Self-Introduction- Part 1

A Clarification

Speaking of November 2003, that was when I registered a company under the name Linda Li.

In December of the same year, I bought a house in Canberra using the company name Linda

Li. There was also a small episode behind this. At the time, I had been in Australia for just

over two years and had only recently obtained my permanent residency. I knew almost

nothing about Australian law, and during those two years working as a prostitute in Canberra,

my greatest fear was that my Australian husband might find out.

Whenever my husband returned from overseas and called me, he always rang my mobile

phone. He had no idea where I actually was. When I answered, I would always tell him that I

was in a Karaoke nightclub in Sydney’s Chinatown, playing the piano and singing for

customers. When we stayed together in a hotel in Sydney for two weeks during his breaks, I

always paid for everything. I told him that my job earned very good money.

When I bought the house in Canberra under the name Linda Li, I did not use my family

name, Linda Ke (my Chinese name, Ke Jianli). Instead, I used Linda Li — not the common

Chinese surname “Li,” but the final character of my given Chinese name.

Later, Linda Li became the name I used as my author’s name in English publications as well.

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Self-Introduction

Hello, everyone.

My name is Linda Li, author of the English series Humanity and God and the Chinese work

Goddess God. It is a pleasure to meet you.

The Chinese edition of Goddess God, published in two volumes by China International

Publishing Group in June 2013, was released through several Chinese-language bookstores

in Sydney during the 2014 Lunar New Year. It was later serialised in two Chinese-language

newspapers in Melbourne, where it attracted considerable attention among Chinese

readers.

Many readers described Goddess God as a modern counterpart to Jin Ping Mei, one of the

most famous erotic novels in Chinese literary history. Written under the pseudonym Lanling

Xiaoxiaosheng, Jin Ping Mei depicts the intimate lives of people living in China more than

nine hundred years ago.

For Chinese readers to compare my work with one of the great classics of Chinese literature

has always been a tremendous honour.

Some readers even commented online: "The sexual narratives in Goddess God are even

more direct and explicit than those in Jin Ping Mei. At times, the frankness is almost

overwhelming." In truth, I have become known by many readers as a writer of erotic fiction.

Recently, I have been revising the Chinese edition again. I came to believe that Humanity

and God is a more fitting title for the English edition because it more accurately reflects the

scope and themes of the work.

The entire series begins with Volume One: The Number One Prostitute. I chose to begin the

story this way because it most honestly reflects both my own life and my deep respect for

sex work as a profession. From there, the narrative gradually expands beyond sexuality into

questions of the soul, God, humanity, the universe, and the origins of civilisation.

In this world there are first presidents, first ladies, the greatest athletes, the greatest singers…

In Chinese, all of these share the same description: “Number One.” I am willing to be the one

and only Number One Prostitute in the world. I’ve already worked as a prostitute for more

than twenty years—why should I be afraid of people calling me that?

In Australia, prostitution is a legal profession. Any profession that is legal in a country

deserves respect.

I am a registered sex worker with the government in Canberra. I hold a government-issued

sex-work business licence. My workplace is my own home; in 2003 I bought my house under

my company’s name. I have an ABN, a tax file number, and every year I pay taxes to the

government. Every dollar I earn comes from my own hard work. I have never stolen or

robbed anyone. So what shame is there in being a prostitute?

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More than twenty years in this profession have made my business well known across

Australia. My clients come from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, the Gold Coast,

Queensland, and from small towns and farms across the country. Once they visit me in

Canberra, whenever they return—for business, work, visiting family, or holidays—they come

back to see me again. Over time, many of us become long-term business friends.

My clients include doctors, nurses, engineers, lawyers, teachers, students, police officers,

soldiers, government staff, farmers, labourers—people from every walk of life. The youngest

has been eighteen; the oldest ninety-six. They come from more than a hundred countries.

Australia itself is a multicultural immigrant nation. I even have clients from a dozen or so

African countries.

One long-time client who works at the tax office once told me: “Linda, your business in

Canberra—even across Australia—is as famous as McDonald’s.”

I laughed and said, “I know. Many clients call me Number One.”

Once, a twenty-one-year-old Australian guy—big and overweight—argued with me and tried

to mock me: “Half the men in Canberra know you.”

“What’s wrong with that?” I replied. “That just means I’m famous.”

The tax-office client said to me: “Linda, you have the best price, the best service, and you’re

the number one busiest sex worker in Canberra.”

He wasn’t wrong. Any profession requires years of experience and skill.

Young clients from all over Australia often walk in and immediately say: “My friend told me

to come see you…”

Once, a twenty-four-year-old blond Australian guy lay naked on my bed. I was kneeling

between his legs, holding his cock in my hand and playing with it. While touching his chest

with my fingertips, I asked: “Did you find me on the website

naughtyads.com.au/escort/mature-chinese-lady?”

He said, “No. A friend recommended you. When we’re chatting, we always say that if we

ever go to Canberra, we must see Linda—she’s the best.”

Then he told me, “Once in Sydney I visited a young Chinese girl. She lay on the bed with her

legs open, not looking at me, holding her phone and tapping it the whole time.”

I burst into laughter. Still teasing him gently with my hand, I said with a smile, “Maybe her

English wasn’t good enough. Or maybe she was too young and shy. Without life experience,

she couldn’t talk much. In this line of work, you need to communicate with clients.”

I’ve been doing sex work for more than twenty years. I’ve handled many virgins—maybe

thirty or forty of them. Some were eighteen or nineteen; some even twenty-seven or twenty-

eight and had never touched a woman. When you put a condom on them, they don’t even

know what to do. That’s when my experience matters. I talk to them, understand their

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situation, help them relax, remove their nervousness, and take care of their first sexual

experience properly.

Writing about these twenty-plus years as a prostitute has made me something unique: an

erotic writer unlike any other. Ordinary female writers cannot write the kind of sex stories I

do, because they haven’t lived my life.

Across Australia and the Western world there are millions of women in sex work, but not

every prostitute can write. I have loved writing since childhood. From primary school

through high school and police academy, my Chinese composition was always ranked first in

my year. Later, when I worked in a prison, I often wrote speeches for my superiors.

In January 2001, I married my Australian husband in Sydney. He was an engineer for a

mining company, responsible for repairing 200-ton excavators. He worked eight weeks in

Papua New Guinea, then came back to Australia for two weeks. Before his trip he said to me:

“You’re my wife now. I’ll give you 300 Australian dollars. In Australia, you must learn to

live independently. You can’t rely on your husband.”

Later, a man from Chinatown brought me to Canberra. I first worked for a Chinese brothel

owner. Then I rented a two-bedroom apartment and began working independently. I

registered with the Canberra government and became a legal sex worker. At that time, many

clients told me about The Happy Hooker by Xaviera Hollander.

In the 1970s, Hollander worked as a prostitute in New York and turned her life into a book

that shocked America. Hollywood made it into a film. The book was translated into more

than a dozen languages.

From 2003 onward, I began recording my own daily life, preparing to publish my own book.

In January 2016, the first English volume of The Number One Prostitute was published by an

American company, translated from the Chinese Goddess God. More than forty years ago

there was The Happy Hooker. More than forty years later, there is The Number One

Prostitute.

The Chinese version of Goddess God contains about one million Chinese characters. The

English translation, done by a well-known translator in Australia, runs to around five

thousand pages. My book is even longer than Jin Ping Mei.

My boyfriend Peter told me that more than twenty years ago, it took an American scholar and

a Chinese-American translator ten years to translate Jin Ping Mei into English. Each volume

was only about six hundred pages—smaller than my first English volume, which is 688

pages. Based on the length of my Chinese manuscript, the English version will likely require

five volumes to publish.

In August 2015, I signed a contract with an American publisher for the first English volume.

The contract fee was USD 1,395. I paid about AUD 2,500. Later I paid another USD 360 to

buy twenty copies to sell to my own clients.

In January 2016, the book went on sale through Google and Amazon. Six months later, I

asked the publisher why I hadn’t received any royalties. They told me that although the

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contract said payments would be made every three months, they would only pay after ten

copies were sold. “So far,” they said, “we’ve sold only one copy.”

The twenty copies I bought myself sold out to my clients within three months. How could a

book listed worldwide sell only one copy in half a year? I didn’t believe it. Eventually I asked

to cancel the contract. They said I had to pay another USD 175 to terminate it. I paid. But

over the past ten years, that publisher has still reprinted and sold the book.

In January 2023, Peter found an Australian publisher online. They published No Sex No

Life—which was simply my first volume under another title. I paid AUD 600 for cover

design. The publisher just redesigned the cover, added a few explicit photos, and copied the

entire book—including photos—without changing anything.

Then in August 2023, the publisher asked me to pay nearly AUD 4,000 urgently to take the

book to a book fair in Adelaide. I paid. After that—silence.

More than two years later, whenever I call, they say the same thing as the American

publisher: “We’ve only sold one copy.” This publisher company was running by William and

his wife.

Yet on Google, many English readers have rated No Sex No Life as five-star writing.

As for me, I would say it should be called “five-star translation.”

My translator once told me:

“Linda, the stories in The Number One Prostitute are incredibly humorous—witty, absurd,

even laugh-out-loud funny. When I translate them into English, I cannot simply convert the

words. I have to think in English—how to recreate your playful, mischievous sex stories so

that English readers will also find them just as funny. That is literary re-creation.

“You are Number One, and I am Number One too. In China, I wouldn’t dare claim to be the

best. But in Australia, you won’t find a better translator than me. I am the best

Chinese–English and English–Chinese literary translator here. I am Number One. I have been

a long-time member of the Australian Translators Association in Sydney. I have devoted my

entire life to literary translation. Even back in China, I was engaged in literary translation

work.”

I believe what he says. My translator, Tom, is a very responsible and dedicated professional.

He once told me, “Linda, if I want to translate your book well, I first have to understand you

as a person. When I read your work, I often try to put myself in your place… I can sit at my

desk for three or four hours without moving, just thinking about the stories in your book.”

On one occasion, he said to me, “When I’m driving, your book fills my mind.” He even made

a special trip from Sydney to visit me at home and see the room where I work.

Even now, hardcover copies of The Number One Prostitute sell in Canada for 93 Canadian

dollars. On Amazon, paperbacks of No Sex No Life sell for 50 to 60 Australian dollars, and

hardcovers around 84 on eBay.

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I have long been a member of the Australian Writers’ Association. They advised me to apply

for my own ISBN and publish independently.

So, in August 2025, my assistant and I began applying for international ISBNs. We arranged

for the books to be printed by a publishing company in China and published under my own

company, Linda Li, with Linda Li listed as the author.

Volume One of Humanity and God, subtitled The Number One Prostitute, has been

extensively revised by my English editor, and all of the photographs from the previous

American edition have been replaced. The Chinese publisher has now begun the design and

production of Volume One of Humanity and God, which is expected to be officially

published in October this year.

Why not translate the original Chinese title directly into English as Goddess God? Because

more than ten years ago, an Iranian writer published a book related to religion. I don’t

remember the exact title, nor can I clearly recall the author’s name. But I heard from my

clients and from my friend Lili that after his book went on the market, it provoked a fierce

reaction from certain religious groups. Some people even offered a reward of one million US

dollars for his assassination.

I do not want my book to come into conflict with any religious work in the world. For that

reason, I feel the title Humanity and God is far more appropriate.

Publishing a book should not cost someone their life. Literature comes from life and rises

above it. Writing is simply my way of turning my life into stories for readers.

The Australian Writers’ Association advised me that I could submit the English edition of

Humanity and God for literary awards in Australia. So once the first volume arrives in

Canberra, I plan to apply for the Canberra local literary prize and also for this year’s

Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in August.

My book will eventually be published in five volumes by my own company. I estimate it will

take three to five years to complete all five volumes. When finished, I believe this work will

become something unique in world literary history.

The complete five-volume set is meant for readers who love literature. Everything written in

it represents only my personal understanding and opinions. I don’t want to argue with anyone

about right or wrong. Writing is simply my passion.

For a writer, the greatest embarrassment is to publish a book that nobody reads. I hope

Chinese readers, especially, will offer valuable literary feedback. I know Humanity and God

is controversial. Some people will praise it; others will curse it. Let them curse. I expected

that from the beginning. If I can’t hear it, I’ll just pretend I don’t know. But let’s agree on one

thing: don’t curse me to my face.

I’m not someone who backs down in an argument. If you insult me once, I’ll insult you ten

times back. I might even dig up your ancestors and curse them all. Then we’d both get so

angry over one book that I might end up stuck in bed for three days. And if that happened,

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half the men in Canberra would come looking for you. Without me, who would be there to

tend to their more private needs? After all, I’m Canberra’s most well-known doctor of desire!

Just joking.

Humanity and God is written in a highly unconventional structure. The book encompasses a

wide range of subjects, including sexology, sociology, philosophy, geology, astronomy,

theology, the evolution of planets within the solar system, as well as literary techniques and

reflections drawn from my everyday life. It is a unique, large-scale novel of over one million

words that integrates multiple disciplines into a single work.

Within its theological narratives, I put forward an original idea: that the Great Wall of China

and the pyramids of Egypt were constructed to restrain the Earth’s oceans from surging and

reversing their flow across the sky, as the Earth rotates daily around its polar axis. Such a

geological concept would be impossible for an ordinary writer to imagine without what I

believe to be a form of divine inspiration guiding my soul.

On the evening of March 14, 2011, at around 6 p.m., I was deeply immersed in writing,

absorbed in the characters and stories of several presidents and prime ministers. At that

moment, I felt my soul moving within my body, eventually flowing through my right arm,

into the fingers holding my pen, and finally onto the page through its tip. From that moment

on, I became completely convinced that every human being possesses a soul.

In my writings on “the soul and God,” I have provided a detailed account of the origin of the

human soul. I believe that very few people in this world have truly grasped or discovered the

nature of the soul, and I may be among the few authors who attempt to explain what the soul

really is. This is also the reason why I have chosen to revise Goddess God once again.

From the beginning until now, I have revised this work many times. Altogether it has taken

ten to fifteen years of writing and editing. My translator spent four years translating it into

English, revising constantly as I revised the Chinese manuscript—cutting some stories,

adding new ones.

Now both the Chinese and English titles are Humanity and God. And I have one great dream:

once all seven volumes are published, I will apply for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Speaking of dreams, I would also like to mention another book of mine, Follow the Dream.

The Chinese version of the first volume was published in January 2014 by Overseas Chinese

Press (USA). The first English volume was published and printed by my own company,

Linda Li Company, on 12 December 2025.

In January this year, five copies were sent to Sydney for consideration in this year’s Prime

Minister’s Literary Awards. In addition, seven copies had earlier been sent to a university in

Queensland for another Australian literary prize, where they are currently being read by the

judging panel.

The second and third Chinese volumes of Follow the Dream are already finished and being

prepared for translation. I am a writer who specialises in long novels. Follow the Dream will

eventually reach volume four, five… even ten.

Writing is the dream of my lifetime. As long as I live, I will keep writing.

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Follow the Dream is an autobiographical novel, completely different in style from Humanity

and God. It tells the story of my life—from childhood, through primary school and high

school, police academy, and ten years working as a prison guard.

After 1993 I left my job and ran a restaurant for seven or eight years. In August 2000 I went

abroad. In January 2001 I married an Australian man. Eventually I became a well-known

prostitute in Australia.

Follow the Dream will record my entire life. If Humanity and God fails to win the Nobel

Prize, I will try again with Follow the Dream. I am someone who has always lived with

dreams.

I believe everyone has dreams. Without them, life loses direction. The dreams of each stage

of my life will all be written into Follow the Dream.

I am now entering old age, but my dreams continue. Only with dreams can a person keep

striving.

My current dream is to continue working as a prostitute for another twenty or thirty years. I

truly love this profession. For more than twenty years, my clients and my work have been the

most important parts of my life. They can’t live without me, and I can’t live without them.

Together we have formed something like a big family, a shared garden of companionship

centred around me. We will accompany each other until death.

One of my ninety-five-year-old clients once told me: “When I was young, working for a

mining company in Perth, there was a prostitute who worked her whole life. Even at ninety-

three she was still working. She was rich and owned a beautiful house. We were all her

clients. If you went to her house for BBQ dinner, it was free. But if you went into her

bedroom to fix your cock, then you paid.”

“She died at ninety-nine. More than a thousand people attended her memorial.”

I laughed and said, “Even when an Australian prime minister dies, you don’t always get a

thousand people at the memorial.”

He replied, “That famous prostitute’s funeral was the biggest in Australia in two hundred

years.”

It seems I must learn from that old master.

Even at my age, my dreams never stop. Perhaps at ninety-three I will still have new dreams.

I’m a stubborn person, like the president of America, Donald Trump—strong-willed and

independent. When I decide something is right, nobody can change my mind. Once I decide

to do something, even ten horses couldn’t drag me back. My mother used to call me a

“stubborn mule”.

You see, I’ve truly been reckless—completely overestimating myself. How dare I compare

myself with the Number One President of the United States? At this rate, Trump might just

come flying in on a rocket to pick a fight with me, the “Number One Prostitute.”