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In her employer's house the girl is set to ordinary domestic duties. She may have to do no more than attend on one of the daughters of the house, or she may have a full share of the housework; but, even so, the work will generally be less arduous than in her parents' home, and will at least earn board, lodging and clothing, and the chances of kindly treatment will be no less than in a home where she is only a very troublesome superfluity. As she grows up the custom is clear that the employer is supposed to assist in finding a suitable husband. When married, the girl joins her husband's family in the usual custom, with no stigma of slavery upon her.
The responsibility of the employers is by no means a dead letter, though the view taken of it ranges from including proper attention to a mui taai's education to just her fair treatment as a domestic servant, and neighbours are always ready to take more careful notice of the treatment of a mui taai than of an own child. The custom gives obvious openings for abuse, and it is not surprising that advantage is taken of them; but the efforts to suppress malpractices and the prominence given to cases that are brought to light can very easily strain the perspective by obscuring the wide background where the system is only beneficial.”
tasi"
The statement is often seen that the mui tsai custom is forbidden by law in China. The status of the real alave-no puk-was abolished during the Empire. The widening of “no puk to include "mui appears to be a confusion of ideas amongst Europeans. The status of either is very distinct and different from that of the other in the Chinese mind, and it would be interesting to know the grounds on which the European statement resta. There may be some forgotten edict dealing with the question-if so, it has no effect on the custom, and the only practical executive effort towards the suppression of the system (as apart from its abuses)--that of Chan King Wa, referred to later, claimed no legislative authority. It would be matter for surprise to learn that Chan had omitted such strong support for his case if it had been available.
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With this general preliminary explanation of the position of the mui tsai" it must be borne in mind that the system, in some form or other, is common to all parts of China, and is, in fact, an almost necessary result of the conditions that obtain there. Though it may be a rich country, the vast majority of the population lives in circum- stances of grinding poverty, and, even in the stage above, where a reasonable hand-to-mouth existence should be normally possible, the ever-recurring troubles of flood, drought, civil war, piracy and robbery make the matter of a single extra mouth in the family one of life and death.
The religion of China-anoestor worship, with the duty of observing it in the hands of the male succession exclusively—at once marks the female months as those to be most easily dispensed with. Girls belong even to prosperous families only to the time of their marriage,
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when they are absorbed into the husbands' families, and, among the poor, it is not a long step to anticipate the realisation of a girl's money value (including the payment which is a regular part of the marriage settlement) when circumstances make it necessary to part with her before she has reached marriageable age.
And action of this nature by no means necessarily connotes any lack of parental affection. The life of poverty is a terrible one. An extra mouth (and extra mouths arrive in direct proportion to increased poverty) means so much less for the others, and it may be, and often is, the best that even fond parents can do for those who can be best spared to part with them by "deed of gift" into better circumstances, and by the same transaction to ameliorate their own condition for the time being.
Parents take as a rule such precautions as may be possible to secure proper treatment of the girls they have parted with. The question of protection for boys does not arise in the same degree. The proper custom is to keep in some kind of touch with the girls and to have a voice, or at least an interest, in their ultimate marriage, for which the new family becomes partly responsible; but the circam- stances-distances, difficulties of travel, inability to write, want of postal facilities have all combined to thin down the custom to vanishing point. In the widespread disasters and troubles of the last few years parents would commonly send their children- even boys-- away in the hope of better things. In the absence of someone from the district to take them and dispose of them, it was not difficult to find an outsider. In either case, there was little possibility of keeping in touch. The children had to be taken far away to districts which were rich enough to take them and support them; but even this was preferable to the certain death that awaited them at home. trend of the migration after the adjacent big cities and richer districts have been supplied is South, to the nearer countries where emigrant Chinese have done so well, and on this journey Hong Kong is almost bound to come into the picture as a port of call, if not as the home of many prosperous and charitable Chinese.
The
The charitable view of the whole question is of importance, and should not be forgotten. The actual payment of money in the trans- action of the deed of gift does not shock the conscience of Chinese, as the reasons that have led to the sale of a child are always borne in mind. Abuses of the whole system and ill-treatment of mui-tsai are as much abominated by the better Chinese as by the better Europeans; but the payment of a sum of money for the deed of gift has at least a flavour of charity for its ultimate reason, and in itself and apart from its abuses is not viewed as in any way immoral or wrong. The custom covers all the best Chinese--the most European- ised and the most thoughtful-in Hong Kong as elsewhere, and the system, generally speaking, is viewed as working for the good of the mut-teai themselves. Their total numbers would reach a very large figure, much too big for any charitable institution or even for the
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