''Mui tsai'' (), which means "little sister"
[Yung, ''Unbound Feet'', 37.] in
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...
, describes young
Chinese women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
who worked as domestic servants in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, or in brothels or affluent Chinese households in traditional Chinese society. The young women were typically from
poor
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse families, and sold at a young age, under the condition that they be freed through
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
when older.
[Yung, ''Unbound Voices'', 129.] These arrangements were generally looked upon as
charitable
The practice of charity is the voluntary giving of help to those in need, as a humanitarian act, unmotivated by self-interest. There are a number of philosophies about charity, often associated with religion.
Etymology
The word ''charity'' or ...
and a form of adoption,
[ as the young women would be provided for better as ''mui tsai'' than they would if they remained with their family. However, the absence of ]contract
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...
s in these arrangements meant that many ''mui tsai'' were resold into prostitution
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
.[Yung, ''Unbound Feet'', 38.] According to some scholars, many of these girls ended up as either concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubi ...
s or prostitutes, while others write that their status was higher than a concubine's.
In traditional Chinese culture, a family needs a male offspring. Poor parents, who were unable to support many children, sometimes killed newborn infants if they were female. In consideration of the grinding poverty it was an accepted alternative to sell unwanted girls.
The practice was also prevalent before World War II in Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
, Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
and parts of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
.
Macau
In the 16th century it was a common practice in Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
for poor families to sell daughters as domestic servants for 40 years. As the Portuguese settled in Macau they began to establish brothels with ''mui tsais'', but the Mandarins intervened.
Hong Kong
During the middle of the 19th century the British Slavery Abolition Act
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. It was passed by Earl Grey's reforming administrati ...
and the Slave Trade Act
Slave Trade Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States that relates to the slave trade.
The "See also" section lists other Slave Acts, laws, and international conventions which developed the c ...
were enacted. The Hong Kong government did not impose any restriction on the transfer of girls as ''mui tsais'' before 1923, because this was treated as a family matter or traditional custom. Kathleen Simon, Viscountess Simon, fought for several decades to free the remaining ''mui tsai''.
In 1922 after press campaigns in Britain and support from MPs including John Ward in the House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
, Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, the Secretary of State for the Colonies
The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies.
History
The position was first created in 1768 to deal with the increas ...
, pledged that the ''mui tsai'' system in Hong Kong would be abolished within one year. Under pressure from the British Parliament, the Hong Kong Legislative Council
The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's "one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong' ...
enacted the Female Domestic Service Bill the next year. Further importations and transfers of ''mui tsais'' were prohibited. The demand for registration of all ''mui tsais'', however, was postponed. The new law was never seriously observed.
In 1926, Britain became one of the signatories to the International Slavery Convention under the League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference th ...
. The ''mui tsai'' issue soon came under international scrutiny. Facing strong political pressure, the Hong Kong government enacted the Female Domestic Service Ordinance in 1923. All ''mui tsais'' had to be registered prior to 31 May 1930. Afterwards no registration and thus no sale was allowed. Inspectors were appointed to pay visits to the ''mui tsais'' to ensure that they were not ill-treated and had had their wages paid.[Hong Kong Med J Vol. 12., pp. 464-465]
The latest case was reported in 2005. Chinese parents received a financial relief for their daughter who was transferred to Hong Kong. She worked incessantly from dawn to dusk. After physical tortures she was admitted to the hospital.[Hong Kong Med J Vol. 12., pp. 463-464]
United States
In the 19th century a large number of Chinese workers immigrated to the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
. The Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...
of 1882 prevented Chinese men of the working class from sending for wives from China nor did the law permit them to marry non-Chinese wives in some states. Now many Chinese girls and young women immigrated with false papers showing them to be the wives or daughters of the privileged class. Most of them arrived at Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water f ...
. The girls were sold for household servants. As they got older, they were frequently sold into prostitution. ''Mui tsais'' became a target for Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
reform
Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...
ers in San Francisco. The Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
Mission House in San Francisco's Chinatown rescued Chinese girls and women from abusive circumstances.
Despite the work of reformers in the United States, the ''mui tsai'' system continued into the early 20th century.
See also
* Anti-Mui Tsai Activism Anti-Mui Tsai Activism is efforts to abolish the Mui Tsai system. Mui Tsai () describes Chinese women, entering the system from a young age, who worked as domestic servants in China, or in brothels or affluent Chinese households in traditional Chi ...
* Anti-Mui Tsai Society
The Anti-''Mui Tsai'' Society was an organisation founded in 26 March 1922 dedicated to abolishing the ''Mui-tsai'' system (akin to child slavery) in colonial Hong Kong.
Background
Influence
The Anti-Mui Tsai Society marked the increasi ...
* Chinese American history
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
* {{cite journal , last1= Yuen, first1= Karen, date= December 2004, title= Theorizing the Chinese: The Mui Tsai Controversy and Constructions of Transnational Chineseness in Hong Kong and British Malaysia, journal= New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies
The ''New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal
An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic jou ...
, volume= 6, 2, pages= 95–110, url= http://www.nzasia.org.nz/downloads/NZJAS-Dec04/6_2_6.pdf, issn= 1174-8915
Cantonese words and phrases
Concubinage
Chinese-American history
Domestic work
History of Hong Kong
History of San Francisco
Social history of China
Slavery in China
History of women in California