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The Mui tsai system in China.
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The buying and selling of human beings is technically
illegal according to Chinese law but no attempt has ever
been made to interfere with the custom
-
universal in
China of buying female children for domestic service. In
fact various laws which are still in force indirectly recognise
the existence of the practice, as by providing methods of
registering such acts of purchase and sale. On the other
hand to engage in the business of buying and selling
children has always been actively forbidden by law and
execrated by public opinion. Traffickers when caught are
heavily punished.
The mui tsai system is well suited to Chinese conditions.
The child purchased is employed to do domestic service,
clothed, fed and treated as one of the family. On reaching
marriageable age she is married by her purchaser to someone
selected by him (which also is in accordance with the customs
of the country). The child sold, being always bought by a
person of more wealth from one of less, is generally better
fed than she would be if she remained at home, and domestic
duties being less burdensome than working in the fields, has
as a rule an easier life than she would have if she had not
been sold. Obviously, however, the system is one which lends
itself to serious abuses.
The system being deeply ingrained in the customs of the
country and being fully approved by public opinion, it would
be impossible to put it down, and no attempt has ever been.
made to do so. In 1910, however, the Chinese became sensitive
lest the existence of slavery should be regarded as a mark of
national
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