husband's family and also have status in Hongkong law.
The children of the concubine would be recognised as le- gitimate heirs to their father's estate, although the children of the first wife would rank above them.
However, several marriage guidance councillors and social workers have said that the concubinage system was a hangover from feudalism and caused a great many problems
within the families involved.
On October 7, 1971, Chapter 178, the Marriage Reform Ordinance, came into effect and abolished the system of concubinage so that only:
'Marriages entered into in Hongkong on or after the appointed day (that the Ordinance came into effect) shall imply the voluntary union for life of one man with one woman to the exclusion of all others and may be contracted only in accordance with the Marriage Ordinance.'
It would seem that since this ruling came into effect, there has been little change in the habits of Chinese men, merely to the legal status of women who probably would have been concubines in former days.
Several marital experts have said that many Chinese men have mistresses whom they 'keep'.
Apparently, it is not uncommon for a man to have 2 fami- lies, one at home with his legal wife, and one with his mistress. Of course, considering the expensive tastes of many Hongkong women, it would probably be necessary to have the wherewithal to afford an extra partner.
In most cases,
children from the
extra-marital rela- tionship are consid-
ered by the man to
be as much his re- sponsibility as are the children of his
legal marriage.
Such a situation may be, in effect, a
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bigamous relationship, but in the absence of a second marital contract, the most the legal wife can do is to sue for divorce on the grounds of adultery.
It would seem that even if the wife is aware of a second marital contract being entered into, she is not in a position to prosecute her husband for bigamy if his second marriage was contracted outside Hongkong or the United Kingdom.
Whether or not the current legal ambiguity will be over- come when the red flag is hoisted over Hongkong in 1997 remains to be seen.
The Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China
states:
"The marriage system based on the free choice of part- ners, on monogamy and on equal rights to the sexes, is put into effect.
Bigamy is prohibited.'
T
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