THE CHINESE CHURCH, LABOUR AND ELITES AND THE MUI TSAI QUESTION IN THE 1920's 97
large number of coolies and members of local labour guilds. An unusual feature was a group of interested Chinese ladies.
The Chairman, Mr. Lau, listed a number of questions that had been put by various individuals. He and Mr. Ho Fook put the following before the meeting:
1. Is it a fact that servant girls are brought up for prostitution? 2. Are servant girls slaves?
3. Are servant girls kept for the sexual purposes of their masters, who, when tired of them, sell them?
4. Has the Chinese Government passed any law to abolish the practice of keeping servant girls?
5. Can owners of servant girls ill-treat them as they please?
The Chairman proceeded to comment on the questions. The first concerned purchase of girls, to be trained as prostitutes. A distinction should be made between two kinds of purchasers of girls; one bought them for domestic service, the other for prostitution. The first group are respectable people who are jealous of their good name and do not wish to be linked with those who purchase girls for prostitution. As to mui tsai being slaves, slavery does not exist in China, furthermore these girls have never been regarded as slaves by the Chinese.
The speaker put forth the thesis that there are safeguards in the system to prevent the girls being sexually exploited. Parents are allowed to visit them periodically and thus would know if the child had been misused. If a master wishes to take his servant girl as concubine he must obtain the consent of his wife, the girl and her parents. If the girl had been seduced by her master and then married out, and the husband of the girl finds out her virginity has been taken by her former master, the old master would lose face before his relatives and friends, to say nothing of the views of his wife and concubines. Some masters secretly took on a servant girl as a concubine setting her up in her own establishment and later recognizing any children she bore as legal heirs. In other cases when the wife discovered what had happened, she often made it so miserable for her husband that he was forced to return the girl to her parents accompanied by a liberal bribe for silence.
The only attempt of the Chinese Government to abolish the system was an effort by the Canton Commissioner of Police Chan King-wa soon after the establishment of the Republic. The girls were ordered to be handed over and were placed in a large hostel especially built for the purpose. Mr. Lau Chu-pak said the scheme failed because the
THE CHINESE CHURCH, LABOUR AND ELITES AND THE MUI TSAI QUESTION IN THE 1920's 97
large number of coolies and members of local labour guilds. An unusual feature was a group of interested Chinese ladies.
The Chairman, Mr. Lau, listed a number of questions that had been put by various individuals. He and Mr. Ho Fook put the following before the meeting:
1. Is it a fact that servant girls are brought up for prostitution? 2. Are servant girls slaves?
I
3. Are servant girls kept for the sexual purposes of their masters,
who, when tired of them, sell them?
4. Has the Chinese Government passed any law to abolish the practice
of keeping servant girls?
5. Can owners of servant girls ill-treat them as they please?
The Chairman proceeded to comment on the questions. The first concerned purchase of girls, to be trained as prostitutes. A distinction should be made between two kinds of purchasers of girls; one bought them for domestic service, the other for prostitution. The first group are respectable people who are jealous of their good name and do not wish to be linked with those who purchase girls for prostitution. As to mui tsai being slaves, slavery does not exist in China, furthermore these girls have never been regarded as slaves by the Chinese.
The speaker put forth the thesis that there are safeguards in the system to prevent the girls being sexually exploited. Parents are allowed to visit them periodically and thus would know if the child had been misused. If a master wishes to take his servant girl as concubine he must obtain the consent of his wife, the girl and her parents. If the girl had been seduced by her master and then married out, and the husband of the girl finds out her virginity has been taken by her former master, the old master would lose face before his relatives and friends, to say nothing of the views of his wife and concubines. Some masters secretly took on a servant girl as a concubine setting her up in her own establishment and later recognizing any children she bore as legal heirs. In other cases when the wife discovered what had happened, she often made it so miserable for her husband that he was forced to return the girl to her parents accompanied by a liberal bribe for silence.
The only attempt of the Chinese Government to abolish the system was an effort by the Canton Commissioner of Police Chan King-wa soon after the establishment of the Republic. The girls were ordered to be handed over and were placed in a large hostel especially built for the purpose. Mr. Lau Chu-pak said the scheme failed because the
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