Peasants, Proletarians, and Prostitutes: A Preliminary Investigation Into the Work of Chinese Women in Colonial Malaya 9789971988388, 9971988380

Citation preview

PEASANTS, ~PROLETAriANS AND PROSTITUTES A Preliminary Investigation into the Work of Chinese Women in Colonial Malaya Lai Ah Eng

Research Notes and Discussions Paper No. 59 INSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES 1986

Published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Hens Mui Kang Terrace Pasir Padang lllllllllll

Singapore 051 I All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored iN a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. © 1986 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies The responsibility for facts and opinions expressed in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his fnterpretatzbns do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the Institute or its supporters.

Cataloguing in Publication Data

Lai Ah Eng Peasants, proletarians and prostitutes: a preliminary investigation into the work of Chinese women in colonial Malaya. (Research notes and discussions paper/Institute of Southeast Asian Studies: no. 59)

I.

-

Women, Chinese Employment II. Title. III. Series. $5501 1596 no. 59 1986

-- Malaya.

ISBN 9971-988-38-0 ISSN 0129-8828 :l

Printed in Singapore by General Printing & Publishing Services Pre Ltd

CONTENTS

PREFACE NOTES ON TERMINOLOGY AND CURRENCY

I

v

viii

INTRODUCTION

1

A Brief Theoretical Discussion The Colonial Context and Chinese Female

1

Immigration to Malaya

11

The Social Background of Women Immigrants from Southern China

20

PROSTITUTION

27

Prostitution and Control by Secret Societies Prostitution and Colonial Policies Stigmatization of Prostitution

27 32 41

III

MUI TSAI IN DOMESTIC SERVITUDE

45

IV

TIN MINING

56

V

RUBBER ESTATE PRODUCTION

68

VI

AMAH IN PAID DOMESTIC SERVICE

77

II

VII

MANUFACTURING

90

VIII

OTHER ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

97

Hawking

I

_

Construction

Services

VIX

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

97 101 103 105

110

PREFACE

In the Malaysian context i n which class and ethnic relations are dominant and s e n s i t i v e i n social l i f e , a study of the position of

Chinese women may seem irreievarit, secondary or even divisive. is

my argument,

however, that

as members of

a gender,

social experiences differ from those of men, and i t

It

women's

i s through an

understanding of the dynamic interplay between class, ethnic and

gender relations

at various Ieveis

that we can come to closer

grips with the complexities of social l i f e i n Malaysia. This study, however, does not major

and

complicated

investigation

attempt to undertake

instead,

it

is

such a

a preliminary

into one gender category and its members' particular

experiences at work.

Chinese

project;

By focusing on the origins and conditions

women's work,

using

a socio-historical

approach,

of

this

study hopes to contribute towards understanding the complexities of Malaysian l i f e and Malaysian women. based simply on personal considerations

The choice of focus i s of its

suitability as a

starting point.

This paper submitted

to

is

a revised but

close

version of

my thesis

the Institute of Deveiopmerat Studies, Brighton, i n

partial fuifiiment of requirements

for

the degree of Master of

Philosophy i n Development Studies i n 1981.

v

As the research was

covered within inevitably

a very

short

period

of

huge gaps of information.

investigation

also accounts for

four

months, there

The nature of preliminary

this study's somewhat unbalanced

contents as only s one aspects are relatively others

are

we11 covered while

are incomplete or missing, and for the incompleteness of

Certain gaps are also inevitable due to the severe lack

analysis.

of studies into the position of Malaysian women, which resulted i n

much time consumed in gleaning between lines to obtain f acts or mere hints, often without success.

Where materials do make direct

or indirect references to women, they tend to be fragmentary

and

vague.

I have relied heavily on some of the most commonly used and well-known sources i n English for my references.

There i s a fair

amount of reliance on government reports and colon al sources as well as books written by colonial

limitations of androcentrisrn resulting

such sources of

some writers

failure to consider

administrators.

ought to is

also

readily

apparent.

The The

the social relations in which women

are involved means that certain social relations

or ignored.

The biases and

be borne in mind.

are misrecognized

I have attempted to keep my own pair of spectacles on

while gleaning through the various sources. sources of information

Some of the richest

are personal recollections

of people who

belong to the groups covered in this study and who have directly experienced the social

phenomena discussed.

Their recol lections

were written and sent to me from Kuala Lumpur on my request. also f e l l back on some personal

observations

I

and knowledge having

grown up in an urban squatter community set up by Chinese and Indian immigrants i n Sentul, Kuala Lumpur. The introductory context

chapter sets the theoretical and historical

with a brief discussion on gender relations and women's

subordination,

the colonial

setting and Chinese female immigration

vi

into Malaya, and the social background of women immigrants from

southern China. in

Chapters II

prostitution

and

to VIII examine Chinese women's work'

domestic

servitude

for

those

who

trafficked; and i n t i n mining, rubber estate production,

service,

manuf acturing,

hawking,

construction

other categories of women workers. position

were

domestic

and services for

Some implications

on women's

and studies on Malaysian l i f e are drawn i n the concluding

chapter. Many

people

and

institutions

have

contributed

to

the

research.

In particular, I would l i k e to express my thanks t o the

following:

the Leverhulme Foundation i n Britain for providing me

with

a scholarship

to

study

at

the

Institute of

Development

Studies; Kate Young and Christine White at the Institute for their valuable guidance, criticisms

the 1ibraries

of

and comments on parts of the draft;

the Institute of Development Studies and the

University of Sussex for helping me obtain valuable material; and

friends

in Britain

and Malaysia for

letters of encouragement.

of

discussions, material

the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies for

her editorial

comments and Betty Kwan for typing the final manuscript. all,

I

thank

the

and

I would also l i k e to thank Pauline Khng

people of

Sentul

for

providing

Most of

me with the

inspiration t o carry out this study through their experiences

some

of which are captured in this study. The responsibility for statements and views expressed i n this study remains solely mine. Lai Ah Eng

vii

NOTES ON TERMINOLOBY AND CURRENCY II

Prior

to

World War I I ,

a l

the political

Peninsula consisted of three entities British rule:

structure of

the Malay

under direct and indirect

the Straits Settlements (SS) of Penang and Province

Wellesley, Malacca and Singapore, the Federated Malay States (FMS) of Selangor, Perak, Pahang and Negri Sembilan (known as the Malay States),

Perlis,

and the Unfederated

Ked ah,

Kelantan

Malay States

and Trengganu.

consisting

Together,

of

Johore,

they

were

commonly known as Malaya, and obtained independence from British rule i n 1957.

Unless otherwise specified,

the term "Malaya" or

the "colony" i s used i n this study in the same sense.

The term

"Malaysia" is used to apply to the period since its formation in 1963, incorporating

Malaya and the British colonies of Sabah and

Sarawak i n Borneo.

Singapore subsequently broke away to form a

separate p o l i t i c a l entity as the Republic of Singapore in 1965. The terms "Malay",

"Indian" and "Chinese" are ethnic

categories

and "Europeans" as used i n Malaya usually refers to the B r i t i s h .

Currency

used

is

the

Malayan

specified.

viii

doUar

unless

otherwise

I

INTRODUCTION

A Brief Theoretical Discussion Social

transformation

entails

changes i n social

include changes i n the relations gender r o l e s

relations which

between men and women, and their

and experiences at various l e v e l s and i n different

spheres of a society.

Depending on the forms of organization and

relations within that society as well as the nature of the social transformation, consequences Across

on

social

changes

gender

relations

and

and

cultures,

such

societies

bear

specific the

changes

similarities i n some aspects and vast differences

whatever these may be, i t has been consistently

and

impact

position bear

of

women. striking

i n others.

But

shown that in most

cases, women's position and status in societies undergoing social

changes become or continue to be subordinate t o those of men. Our understanding of the position and subordination of women

can benefit from the many studies of social i n various

transformation.

the framework of in

profound

social

These studies have been mainly carried out within

either modernization or capital

They offer valuable empirical changes

changes taking place

parts of the world which are undergoing

general

and analytical

and those related

women's position i n particular.

1

to

accumulation.

insights into social gender relations

and

The modernization approach perceives changes as occurring i n a unilinear movement along a scale from simple traditionalism

to

the case of women, i t

is

complex,

specialized

structures.

In

argued that their static nature, passivity

or resistance to change

accounts for their backwardness and confinement in the traditional sectors. Other obstacles within the modern development planning

processes, such as the male biases of planning o f f i c i a l s ,

reinforce

the

women's exclusion

further

from modernization's benefits

(Rogers 19801.

Perceiving

changes

social

in

the

context

of

capitalist

accumulation offers an analytically different understanding phenomena.

It

rejects the notion that all

similar stages of development and instead,

and social relations

specificities

in

the

societies

move along

allows for

historical

interplay

dynamic

of

and forces internal and external to a society.

relations and women's position social change.

of the

social Gender

are set within such a context of

In these aspects, i t appears that such an approach

offers

an analytically superior perception of social changes over the former, de sp ite limitations of i t s own. Within the capital

accumulation approach one common attempt

locates the source of women's subordination i n their exclusion from

the main spheres of economic production in the capitalist

development process.

isolated

in

unproductive

the

women

subsistence

are

subsistence

f amity

where

housework, and this

labour power for rural

Basic to this argument i s that

free. to

backward

backward

and

serves capital by reproducing i n the predominantly

the Third World economies i s productive

and

that

reproductive

a c t i v i t i e s , and this Towers the value of the iabour

In either case, women and men are

power of make migrant workers ,1

subordinated

perform

The variant of this

systems of

relegated

they

women are

within

class

relations

2

by

capital.

The

sexual

division of labour i n which women are located i n reproductive work i n the f amity and men i n productive work i s seen functionally as a construction by c a p i t a l t o serve i t s

needs.

However, locating the subordination source ignores the multiple complexities

forms of

of

work women do within

the

of change i n different types and phases of capital

accumulation.

The model

of

the ma1 e worker

reproducer holds only i n some contexts; migrant

women i n one single

women who work defined

i n others, i t

i s young

as factory

workers, domestic servants, Nor are the kinds of work a v a i l a b l e to

prostitutes, and so forth.

women (and men)

and the female

by c a p i t a l ' s

needs alone.

Underlying

gender relations also affect women as women at work and i n various other

social

spheres.

The m u l t i p l i c i t y

of

work

and

social

situations i n which women are found may be seen as the outcomes of

an already existing interacting with

set of

class

gender r e ations responding to and

and other

c a p i t a l i s t development process.

gender relations reproduction,

social

are themselves subject to change.

men i n production"

the

The "women i n

sexual division of labour

i s one

The main problem of the

of women i s thus the particular ways i n which the

position of women i s structured

relations

within

In the process of interaction,

such outcome common to many societies. subordination

relations

and their

by gender, c l a s s and other social

interaction within

the overall process of

c a p i t a l i s t development and social change. Gender relations

and the sexual d i v i s i o n of lab our of ten tend

to be taken as given and constant

as natural sets of relations

however, gender relations relations sexual specific

throughout

between men and women.

means a socially

between men and women as social

division social

of

lab our

activities,

history

means By

3

a the

gender

and treated

In t h i s study

constructed categories,

set of and the

differentiation

subordination

of

in

women in

gender relations

i s meant their confinement to certain activities

and their exclusion from others i n the sexual division of iabour, i n which the latter i s considered as public

the former i s considered private

and overtly social

and solely individual

and

i n nature.

Associated with the latter and those who dominate them, that i s ,

men, i s

social

power, and with women i n the former

powerlessness. acquire

a

The sexual

powerful

division

of

that

renders

ideology

1about

--

sociai

at so tends to

non-comparabie

the

different tasks done by men and women, with a non-vaiuation lower valuation represent

of

women's tasks.

the d i v i s i o n

as different and complementary, harmonious

subordination

of

women

as

a gender may be directly

expressed i n the form of male authority over women, but i t

implies

that

the

social

position

determined by gender relations.

ultimate women

locus of

as

women

Furthermore,

or

also tends to

(Edhoim, Harris and Young 1977).

and non-confiicting

The

This ideology

It

of

women

rather

than

de fin ed

and

has also been argued that the

women's subordination

relations

are

also

as

lies

in the t r a f f i c in

commodities

(Rubin

1975).

which may not necessarily be intrinsically

constructed in terms of the gender of the persons concerned can a l s o . become bearers

of

gender

(Whitehead 1979,

example, in the sexual division labor

of labour

p.

11).

process, the capital-labour relation although not

ascriptive,

that

is,

based

on

For

within the c a p i t a l i s t

gender

gender

intrinsically,

is

nevertheless a bearer of gender i n which women are allocated to what

is

considered

as

unskilled

or

semi-skilled

work.

This

example also manifests well the direct interaction and fusion of

gender

and class relations

and the parasitic

manner i n which

capital feeds upon women's gender to e x p l o i t them as women workers

in capitalist society. In the context of the vast changes taking place under various 4

types and phases of c a p i t a l i s t devel opment i n the Third World, the

pre-existing

social relations,

the sexual division of

specifically gender relations

lab our, are subject to change as they

respond to and interact with other social relations relations.

Various

tendencies

in

the

to

forms. entry

intensify,

to

such as class

gender subordination

women may be i d e n t i f i e d as gender relations

tendency

and

decompose and to recompose into

For example, rather

of

undergo changes'

a

new

than dissolve gender subordination,

into wage work and other forms of income-earning activity

tend to transform i t .

New forms of subordination take shape both

through the recomposition of

social

relations

such as

gender relations and through other

class relations

becoming bearers of

gender (Elson and Pearson 1980).

forms

The interested

reproduction, controlled

of

subordination

production

and allocated

in

the

the reproduction

source

capital

direct

to

of of

the labour women's

reproduce

capital-labour

reproductive labour

force

overall

conditions

of

iabour

in

both In

of

social

lies

power

it

and relies

do so.

power.

under capitalism,

lab our

relation

to

located

reproduction.

of the lab our force daily and over

subordination the

are

and

as to how women's lab our i s

and the biological reproduction

reproduction one

women's

the questions arise

reproduction, time,

of

spheres

in

the

In

for

the

example,

i n a b i l i t y of

requires within

the

on women's domestic

The domestic labour

of

women

stretches the wages of the family to cover i t s entire reproductive

costs.

The effect

i s that not only does this structure

of the

family and women's domestic role within i t make women dependent on men, i t

also subordinates

free reproductive

labour.

women to capital

by providing

it

with

T h i s , however, does not explain why i t

i s women and. not men who carry

out domestic reproductive

To say that the sexual d i v i s i o n

of labour

creation by capital

needs i s f u n c t i o n a l i s t .

to serve i t s

5

tasks.

w i t h i n the family

is a

Rather,

it

is

a historical

form of

outcome being

iabour

allocation

arising

from the

and the responses of men and women, the

struggles between capital

women's dominance i n reproductive

tasks

and the

social stress on such tasks i n their position as wives, mothers and daughters rather than as workers i n production. However, women are not entirely excluded from production. production, reality

the worker

wages

capitalists

are

in

earns

theory

points

constant

a family of

wage but

contention

In in

between

and workers and tends to be less than family wages.

The family i s therefore l e f t to find i t s own means to subsist and reproduce i t s e l f

in

women

to

seek

who

determined

of

gender

opp or tunities

their

system

and

the

are

emphasis

For

la rg el y on their

responsibilities.

In some by social

tasks as their primary

ideologies.

direct

so,

do

activities.

their opp or tunities can be extremely limited

reproductive contexts,

the

by

alternative income-earning

Thus, i n the wage l a b our market for example, t h i s has

impact on women's par ticipation

the kinds

employment.

of

jobs,

level

of

and opp or tunities i n terms

wages, status

and security

of

The gender system has the effect of rendering women a

semi-worker status i n which they move between home and workplace. They serve as a reserve army of lab our, recruited and dismissed easily

This

depending

secondary

on the

vicissitudes

of

status

$1 so

that

means

capital

accumulation.

they

tend

to

be

superexploited, as wages paid to them are below the value of their labour power,

power, that on

is,

grounds

supplementary wages. they

are destined for

total reproductive

that

are

they

costs of 'their l a b our

only

dependents

For single women, a similar

assumption that

marriage and the home l i e s

lower wages compared t o men's wages for insecurity

of employment.

burden of

work

arises for

earning

behind their

the same work and their

At the same time, unlike men, a double

women as they

6

become both domestic

workers in the home and workers i n the 1about market or in some income-generating a c t i v i t y . The defined dependent status of women also means that tend to be allocated certain

they

jobs which are considered u n s k i l l e d

or semi-skilled, and of ten these forms of work are extensions of their domestic work in

skills

and non-skills

way by technical

the home.

The definitions of what are

are not determined solely i n an objective

requirements but

Jobs which are considered

or

are also socially

identified

determined.

as women's work

are

considered u n s k i l l e d or semi-skilled but those done by men tend to

be c l a s s i f i e d as skilled words, the s k i l l s

(Phillips

and Taylor 1980).

In other

categories may not be a result of women being

bearers of inferior labour but because they are already considered

and

pre-determined

as

inferior

bearers

of

lab our

(Elson

and

Pearson 1980, p . 9 4 ) . This differentiation between male and female l a b o r i s to be located i n the socialization

of men and women within

system i n which women acquire s k i l l s their social roles,

that

from i t

they

recognition. skills,

thus

and training appropriate to

such as manual dexterity and the q u a l i t i e s of Domestic lab our and the s k i l l s

d o c i l i t y , obedience and patience. derived

a gender

tend to be s o c i a l l y i n v i s i b l e and p r i v a t i z e d , so

attributable

are

This i s their

to

nature

and

socially

lack

extended to jobs which make use of such

classification

as unskilled

or

semi-skilled

work.

The

conditions

of

social

production

and reproduction

general and the forms of women:'s subordination

themselves maintained, and

structures,

state.

which

The state

can

in

i n par t i c u i a r , are

produced and reproduced by various forces include act

ideological

mechanisms

and

the

as a direct mechanism or mediating

7

and specific conditions for

the

of the system at various Ieveis.

It

structure to ensure the overall production

and reproduction

also sets to mollify the probl ems change,

and contradictions

such

conditions,

and diffuse as well as to deal with some of

as

generated by the processes of iabour

unemployment,

health conditions,

displacements,

and so forth.

work

In doing so, i t s

p o l i c i e s may affect women indirectly and d i r e c t l y through specific

legislation

aimed

at

them,

thus

defining,

controlling

and

structuring their social positions. In Malaysia,

social

changes have been studied mainly within

the framework of modernization take account of

and i t s

i t s multi-ethnic

variant

aspects. More recent

pluralism

A few other

have been made within a crude c1 ass perspective capital expansion perspective.

of

to

studies

according to the

studies r e c t i f y the

latter and attempt to comprehend such phenomena i n terms of the dynamic

interplay between c1 ass and ethnic

relations

within

a

historical context.2 Not only can our understanding of the position of women and gender

relations

contribute

benefit

from

to their explanatory

example, that

these power.

the impiementatidn

of

studies; It

it

can

also

has been argued, for

the New Economic P01 icy

is

reducing the ideNtification of ethnicity with class and occupation

especially among the unskilled ranks of the working class, and that the integration important

of Malays into the wage iabour force has many

impiicatiorzs

reiations.3

for the future of ethnic as well as class

However, t h i s f a i l s to recognize that a large section

of the unskilled maiay working class consists of women from mura] backgrounds

factory

who

are

interacting

and urban settings for

with

non-Malay

the f i r s t time.

workers

within

In one study of

women workers i n Penang (Lim 1979), the vague point

i s made that

"womanhood" may have brought about a 1 ow l e v e l of ethnic and c l a s s

8

consciousness. pation

in

The study also points out that female partici-

socialized

relationships

and

implications

production

consciousness

the impact of

or

has

implications

but

does

gender

not

on

gender

explore

relations

these

on class

and

ethnicity. Studies on the position of women i n Malaysia are recent and focus

mainly

on

female . participation

in

the

export-oriented

industries

set up under the p0st-1969 New Economic Policy.

industries

employ

which

is

the

almost

exclusively

exploitation

These

female lab our, underlying

and

manipulation

of

women's

"traditional" subordinate gender position and their attributes of d o c i l i t y , patience and manual dexterity, male

workers

processes

of

and

easier

to

exploitation

making them cheaper than

control.

and

Furthermore,

manipulation,

in

these

"traditional"

or

already existing forms of gender subordination are intensified, decomposed or/and recomposed into new forms.4 However,

little

is

known

concretely

about

these

"traditional" or already existing forms of subordination.

done so far

simply

subordination subordinated

of

assume, implicitly or e x p l i c i t l y ,

women

already

existed

and

that

in

that they

the were

the society

prior

to the penetration

The assumption i s of multinational

women were located within traditional social positions as

wives, mothers and daughters with certain

with such roles. and roles contexts.

that

i n largely the same way within "traditional" society,

that i s , under male authority i n the family. capital,

Studies

of

attributes associated

But this ignores the m u l t i p l i c i t y of positions

various

categories

These studies

which gender relations

of

also ignore

women in the

f act

different that

social

changes i n

and women were affected had or were already

t a k i n g place prior to the penetration of multinational capital in

the p0st-1969 period.

Specifieal $y,

g

the

whole period of

changes

during colonial »r'ul e and the effects on women's position have been missed out. This study i s women's

subordination

socio-historical

work situations

particular. within

a preliminary during

approach,

investigation

the

it

color:ial

examines

examines

work

sphere

which

forms both inside

allows

that

to be produced and reproduced.

work

at location

a

women's

examines their social background, their position

the

subordination

Using

outside their homes, focusing on Chinese women i n

It

of

period.

some aspects of

each work process and the social

outside

of some forms of

conditions

of

and

labour,

the

processes, forms

of

and

process

of

Specifically,

it

the

recruitment

and

control,

the

labour

distribution of labour's products and the other social mechanisms and institutions which reproduce each process, including those of

the colonial state.

The processes of production and reproduction

are, however, not necessarily social

and

historical

inevitable,

outcomes

of

are the

responses,

conflicts

and

identifies

some

the

struggles.

This

contradictions

and problems generated in the work processes and

outlines

of

responded

some

and

briefly

rather, they

study the

ways

in

struggled.

which .women

However,

their

have

of

historically

participation

p o l i t i c a l and lab our a c t i v i t i e s in trade union organizations been l e f t out, given the limited scope of this study. that

by

"existing" will

providing

some

insights

into

the

in have

It i s hoped

"traditional"

or

forms of subordination among Chinese women, this study

further our understanding of the continuities and changes in

Malaysian women's position. The position

of

Chinese women i n colonial

Malaya cannot be

understood as being essentially

the same as in China, but i s to be

Tocated within

relations

context.

specific

social

Such an understanding

i n the Malayan colonial

also necessarily

10

means a focus on

the immigrant generation

of Chinese women most of whom came to

Malaya during the colonial

decades

of

settlement social

the

twentieth

i n Malaya i s

characteristics

women s t i l l

period,

exist

mainly

century.

Their

also significant

and "traditions"

among those s t i l l

the

first

three

relatively

i n that of

recent

some of

the

immigrant-generation

a l i v e and are continued i n

modified ways by subsequent generations

influence.

in

through socialization

and

Many Chinese households s t i l l have among their members

immigrant generation women who are now i n their f i f t i e s or older. "Chinese women" refer are far

to a broad category,

from homogeneous, with differences

and practices,

between major

on t e r r i t o r i a l

origin i n China.

tied to the class structure and artisans;

in

One fundamental distinction i s

19305, i t s lines were clear. wage Chinese women workers Chinese

women

in

domestic

servitude

smallholders; shopkeepers,

and c a p i t a l i s t s

the early years

colonial

customs

among the Chinese which consists of

banks and other major businesses. existed

i n dialects,

groups and subgroups based largely

wage and non-wage workers; agricultural merchants

i n reality they

of

of mines, plantations,

This class structure already

Chinese immigration

and by the

This study focuses on wage and nonin

the

major

Malaya,

among those

forms

namely,

"unfree" or

of

work

among

prostitution

trafficked,

and

and t i n

mining, rubber estate production, domestic service, manufacturing, hawking and construction

among "free" women.

The Colonial Context and Chinese Female Immigration to May eye It

was during

the B r i t i s h colonial

flowed into Malaya i n

large

under c a p i t a l i s t expansion.

period that immigrant

Iabour

numbers and h i s t o r i c a l l y devel oped The need to ensure a steady, adequate

11

and cheap lab our supply

for

economic expansion was recognized

early by state and various capitalist interests.

Throughout the

colonial period the question of labour was their central concern. External sources of labour, mainly from China, India and Indonesia

were

(Java)

agricultural rubber),

on

relied

to

plantations

expanding tin

meet

(initially

requirements

Tabour

the

spices

mines and public

subsequently

and

works as well

as the

accompanying expansion of trade and service a c t i v i t i e s . decades of

early

the

century, there

twentieth

of

By the

emerged a clear

division of labour in which the Chinese were concentrated heavily i n the mining and service sectors and t o a lesser extent i n rubber plantations,

the

Indians

and Javanese i n plantations

while the

indigeneous Malays remained i n subsistence a c t i v i t i e s . 5 Tabour

initially

was

recruited

services i n the Straits peninsula.

for

Settlements

spice

Chinese

plantations

(SS) and parts

and for

of the Malay

The discovery of r i c h t i n ore deposits and the opening

of mines in the Malay States in the second half of the nineteenth greatly

century

increased

continued into the early expansion

of

rubber

the

inf}ow

of

Chinese labour

decades of the twentieth

The

century.

from 1900s required

cultivation

which

even more

Chinese lab our in the Federated Malay States (FMS) and by 1931, Chinese lab our made up the second largest work force after Indian workers in the rubber

plantations.

The bulk Of Chinese workers,

however, was found mainly i n the tin mines. The

vast

majority

of

co1onia1 period were men.

Chinese

immigrants

throughout

the

They came mainly from southern China

where poverty, f amine and p o l i t i c a l upheaval forced many of them to

leave their f amities

for

the

Nanyang (South Seas)

parts of the world to seek their livelihood.

the

merchant,

three

trader, peasant

categories

immigrants

came to

forming

and artisan

the

big

Drawn mostly from classes

majority)

Malaya as transient workers

12

and other

most

(the

latter

of

these

who intended to

return to China after acquiring some money. forced many to remain and to settle the

nineteenth

century,

they

However, indebtedness

in Malaya subsequently.

were mostly

recruited

In

through

t r a f f i c system i n which they were subjected to the controls procurers,

recruiting agents,

poverty

and

des patch, allocation

L i f e i n the mines , estates and towns within an

indenture work system was harsh. of

of

lodging house owners, brokers and

employers at various points of recruitment,

and production.

a

The men lived under conditions with

indebtedness,

sickness

and

death

of ten

occurring from exposure to disease, iii-treatment and poor working and j i v i n g conditions.

Outside their work, gambling, opium smoking, brothel

visiting

and secret society a c t i v i t i e s were the dominant and interconnected

aspects of the men's social l i f e .

These were activities

organized by Triad secret societies traffickers

and employers constituted

among the Chinese population

Target

which together with brokers, the most powerful

i n colonial

Malaya.

forces

While some of

these aspects of social l i f e already existed among men i n southern

China, they found new bases of expression at a highly intensified

level

i n the Malayan context of an almost entirely single make

immigrant

Tabour force.

This dominance of a male population and

of male a c t i v i t i e s i n t i g h t l y organized

and coritroiied communities

had various implications ore the position of the few Chinese women there, as we shall see. Chinese

women were few

in

early

Chinese men, the vast majority of

colonial

Malaya.

Unlike

Chinese women came to Malaya

only during the second half of the colonial period, in the early decades of the twentieth century.

This pattern of Chinese female

immigration can be traced fundamentally

to the position of men and

women w i t h i n the feuda1-patriarcha1 Chinese social

social conditions of the times (Chin 1980). 13

structure arid

In

feudal-patriarchal

Chinese

subordinated to men i n various

society,

spheres of

women

social

were

life.

Their

roles were that of daughter, wife and mother and their work was restricted to the household where they were responsible for

the

care

and

of

family

members

reproductive tasks.

and

for

household

productive

The home was defined as their only rightful

place and the furthest a woman moved was from her own family home

to that of her in-laws upon marriage.

It

was considered highly

immoral for women to venture from home to seek a l i v i n g . times of poverty,

the resort

f amine and extreme exploitation

Even i n

by landlords,

to migration t o seek a l i v i n g was for men, not women.

For women _and their f amities, the means of survival were sought i n their

transfer

and

sale

into

prostitution,

concubinage

and

domestic servitude.

Women, therefore,

were hardly found i n the outflow of labour

from China to Malaya and elsewhere i n search of livelihood in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Furthermore, migration by

men was intended t o be temporary and as such, their f amities did not follow them.

Even when they subsequently remained overseas,

many remained single, as they could not afford to marry or to send

for

their wives and children.

China i n early

colonial

The only

women immigrants from

Malaya were the wives and relatives

of

those few men who could afford to send for them, and those who were trafficked.

Their numbers are unknown but are insignificant

compared with the number of male migrants.

One outcome of

the pattern of male and female immigration

from China into Malaya was an extremely unbalanced sex r a t i o which

persisted

u n t i l the l930s.

Ire 1850, the sex r a t i o was one woman

t o twelve men on the average and i n the mining d i s t r i c t s of Larut and lower Perak where the Chinese were concentrated, the r a t i o was as high as one t o eighteen i n 1888 ( P u r c e l l 1967, pp. 86-87; c i t e d

14

in Chin 1980).

Even with massive fernande immigration in the 1930s,

the ratio was s t i l l imbalanced at one to f i v e on the average and

even more imbalanced within each dialect group.5

As we shall see,

the scarcity of women red to a heavy t r a f f i c i n them. The major influx of female immigrants from China into Malaya

occurred only mainly

southern

in

the late

widows

of

China

1920s and the 1930s.

and single because

women who were

of

economic

It

forced

depression,

conditions of famine and impending war with Japan.

consisted to

leave

worsening

These women

were able to escape the quotas r e s t r i c t i n g immigration

under the

Aliens Ordinance 1933 passed by the Malayan colonial government to

cope with unemployment as the quotas applied only to males.7

As a

r e s u l t , the single largest inflow of women into Malaya from China took place during

the worst period

1949, p. 4 3 ) .

has been estimated that between 1933 and 1938,

It

of

the depression (Dei Tufo

Malaya received more than 190,000 female deck passengers between the ages of 18 and 40 (Blythe 1947, p. 103).

until

1938

imposition

The last

when

continuing

severe

The inflow continued

unemployment

led

to

the

of quota restrictions on female immigration

as w e l l .

small group of women immigrants came after

the war,

mainly as the wives of those who had returned to China and who were

entitled

to

return

certain citizenship

Two categories distinguished

to

Malaya

with

their

f amities

under

arrangements.

of Chinese women who came t o Malaya can be

under the common reference

"immigrant".

The f i r s t

category came on a more or 1ess voluntary and free basis without being indebted. came

It

throughout

especially

in

consisted mainly of wives and relatives who

the

period

of

Chinese

the early decades of

ma1e

immigration

the twentieth

single women who came mainly i n the 1920s and 1930s. relatives

came to

join

men who were mostly

15

but

century, and

merchants,

Wives and traders,

employers and occasionally, the exceptional worker who, over time, saved enough to return to China to marry or to remit bride money t 0 relatives for a wife to be sent t o him.

Among the single women

who immigrated i n the 1930s were large numbers of women workers from Kwangtung' s s i l k and t e x t i l e industries which had been badly h i t by the economic depression.

Many of these women belonged to

an anti-marriage movement and they decided to migrate to Malaya to

earn a l i v i n g

when they lost

their jobs, rather

than 1use the

independence they had experienced in the movement and as workers. In the tradition of the movement, most of them migrated i n pairs or groups and gave support to each other throughout.

The other category of women who came to Malaya throughout the colonial

period

consisted

domestic

workers)

of

imported

prostitutes

in

and mui

a traffic

in

e a r l i e r , the means of seeking a livelihood

Tsai

women.

outside

(child

As

noted

the household

for Chinese women in China were extremely Timited by their social position.

Many poor women were forced into p r o s t i t u t i o n i n order

to survive under the harsh economic conditions i n southern China as from the nineteenth century the forced safe and transfer At the same time, significance

in

this an

onwards, and during this period,

of women became highly intensified.

sale and transfer assumed a new form and

international

cofnmercia1

between southern China and Southeast Asia. China

was

penetrated

interests

f acing by

strife

various

and

f amine,

coiorliai

traffic

Southeast

powers

for

Asia various

i n which 1 about supplies were required

Thompson 1947}.

in

women

For while southern was being economic

(Lasker

The t r a f f i c i n women between southern

1942;

Ehina and

Malaya was part of the wider t r a f f i c i n women i n the entire region for

their iabour and for

prostitution, the latter based on the

specific demand for Chinese women by Chinese male immigrants for sexual

servicing

(Lasker

1942).

This t r a f f i c

i n women between

China and Malaya was prevalent throughout the colonial period but

16

was especially

heavy as from the latter half

of the nineteenth

century onwards, as more male immigrants were recruited to work in

the SS and FMS and as male-dominated mining communities and make leisure a c t i v i t i e s became more established. Central

to the t r a f f i c ' s

organization

and control

were the

secret societies and their connected agents of procurers, brokers, pimps and brothel

keepers.

The women acquired were allocated or

said

keepers,

pimps,

to

brothel

prostitutes,

individuals

and

families

mistresses or mui tsai for domestic servitude.

as

Some

mui Tsai were acquired d i r e c t l y in China and brought to Malaya by wealthy Chinese families.

The SS goverrlment'5 overall policy towards the immigration of Chinese

women

was

one

of

non~restriction

and

encouragement,

although i n r e a l i t y , policies towards the two categories of women differed

to some extent.

The policy

towards wives and single

women was one of encouragement and had underlying j u s t i f i c a t i o n s . Individual

colonial

administrators

such as Vaughan had

the view

that the inflow of women should be encouraged by the government t o

prevent, crimes

that

introduction materially

for

prevail

consequences peacefulness

if of

the

no other amongst

paucity

reason, the fearful the

Chinese

of

in

the

females...

the

of women would materially of

the

colony.

domesticated,

their wives and children,

and

The would,

conduce to the Chinese surrounded

are by

seek to maintain order and

peace, and would not be easily

aroused as they are

now with no ties

them (Vaughan 1971,

to restrain

p. 33). The "crimes"

that Vaughan referred to were evidently those of

17

the secret societies and h i s solution to them lay i n the emotional and sexual services of wives and mothers, i n accordance with his

Victorian male conception of women's roles.

However, colonial

state policy towards this category of female immigrants was more concerned with the constant issue of ensuring adequate and cheap lab our supply. ratio that

Not only would female immigration rectify the sex

imbalance and reduce what was considered the "immorality prevai i s " ,

biological

it

would promote local family

and social

reproduction

formation for

the

of local supply of labour; as

well as provide a source of labour i n i t s e l f . Local family formation and reproduction of labour supply were increasingly

recognized as a more secure means of ensuring a more

permanent yet cheap supply of lab our when i t the existing estates

indenture

was

supply of

lab our for

insufficient

system's

recognized that

and

abolition

became evident that

the rapidly expanding rubber

uncertain.

was

Furthermore,

the

Employers

also

imminent.8

labour could be secured and costs kept down by

hiring a male worker's wife

and children as h i s dependants at

lower wages than pay the male worker a family wage.9 further recognized that the socialization

It

was

of Chinese women into

the r o l e s of wif e and mother i n f i l i a l obedience to male authority made them develop qualities of d o c i l i t y and passivity

which made

for easy control of female labour, and at the same time ensured high

productivity

at

cheaper

dependents'

James Birch,

wages.

Resident of Perak commented in 1909 that Chinese femal e workers in the mines were "amongst the most industrious,

most cheerful

and

most law-abiding of our c i t i z e n s " .

He also proposed that with

these qualities, female immigrants

should be encouraged in large

numbers to boost the labour supply, particularly in rubber estates (quoted i n Chin 1980). The

colonial

state

encouraged

18

the

growth

of

the

femal e

population through immigration depression.

applied only to male workers.

of

even during periods of

The quotas and repatriation In f act,

the most important

the Aliens Ordinance 1933 was to allow for

massive i n f l u x of females.

economic

schemes during the 1930s effect

and encourage a

Repatriation of the unemployed during

the Great Depression was refused to females and the only women emigrants from Malaya were the wives of repatriated

women.

men and old

The government's policy was to retain as many women as

possible

in

the

country

and the

increasing number of

f amities i n the 1930s was noted with satisfaction

pp. 242 , 252).

The overall

result

Chinese 1960,

(Parmer

was a sharp increase in the

number of Chinese working class f amities and a more stable supply of labour by the 19405.

The colonial s t a t e ' s policy towards trafficked women was part of i t s

wider attempt

activities.

the secret

Despite the Girls Protection

which the colonial

t o control

Chinese Protectorate

(an

societies

and their

Ordinance 1896 under

institution

set

up by the

authorities to control the Chinese) attempted to prevent

the abusive aspects of the t r a f f i c i n women, the state could not

and did not impose restrictions prostitution

so long as they

(Purcell 1967, p. 174).

the

late 1920s due t o

of women for

"their owri free w i l l "

Brothels were also legal.

It was only i n

various pressures, that

the government

disallowed avowed prostitutes closed.

on the importation did so of

A similar policy

to enter Malaya and brothels were

of

non-entry of

avowed mui tsai was

pursued after 1932 and i n both cases, checks at immigration points

by Protectorate persisted

in

depression

officials disguise

and the

despite

whatever

towards

this

were enforced. and,

in

f act,

immediate post-war

attempted

category

of

controls women f e l l

The t r a f f i c increased

period. over

during

the

Un the

whole,

the t r a f f i c ,

policy

into conformity

o v e r a l l l a i s s e z f a i r e position towards female immigration.

19

however,

with

the

The Social Background of Women Inlnigrants from Southern China Female immigrants from southern China in the early decades of the twentieth

century

formed the bulk

Chinese women i n Malaya.

of

the f i r s t

generation of

They came bearing w i t h them a certain

social background which affected and influenced their position and l i v e s i n Malaya.

In feudal-patriarchal WaS

society i n China, the class structure

based on the ownership of property, chiefly

through the male l i n e in the f amity.

land, inherited

Males were, therefore, very

important to ensure family descent and they were regarded as heads of households, wielding power and authority. economic, p o l i t i c a l and intellectual artisanship,

scholarship

were subordinated

power i n agriculture, trades,

and p o l i t i c a l

to men

in

Men also dominated

various

and state

spheres of

affairs.

Women

life.

Their

rightful place was i n the home as daughters, wives and mothers, and the y observed three f i l i a l obediences to father, husband and

son and four virtues of propriety and household duties.

i n behaviour, speech, demean our

The sexual d i v i s i o n of lab our was clearcut,

w i t h women bearing the tasks of producing and rearing children, especial l y males for violation

and

the continuation

deviation

from

such

of

the family l i n e .

ideals

of

Any

womanhood meant

punishment, social discrimination and sanctions. The few alternatives

to marriage For women were occupations

connected with sex and procreation. midwives ,

included

p r o s t i t u t e s , mui tsai

who did not l i v e immoral

or

Women i n these occupations

matchmakers,

concubines,

i n domestic servitude

and work at home.

were held in

contempt

songstresses,

and generally

those

Such women were considered

and had very low statuses in

society.

The only acceptable and honourabie form of rejection of

marriage

was entry i n t o the r e l i g i o u s order, and of p r o t e s t , was

20

suicide.

Footbinding,

i n f anticide

reinforced

and sale of

powerful

by

economic adversity,

concubinage,

prostitution,

females were all

ideological

practices

female

i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e d and

mechanisms.

In

such as the sale of

times

of

females for

prostitution, domestic servitude and concubinage were intensified among poor families

(Davin 1975; Diamond 19?5; Topley 1975; Croll

19?8)_

Variations

and differences

of

the

above

existed between classes, regions and dialect southern China bore certain Women

from peasant

contrast

and

and

however,

groups, and women i n

such differences (Davin 1975; 1919).

economically poor

class

background i n

to women of upper classes, had r e l a t i v e l y more economic

social

independence mainly

maintain their households. rearing Fukien

ideal s ,

districts provinces

both

southern

China,

from where most

Malaya originated, worked i n

of

because

they

had

to

work

to

Women of the rice-growing and s i l k of

especially the

female

Kwantung

and

immigrants

to

were mainly of peasant or poor backgrounds and

productive

and reproductive

work.

within

the

household, they were responsible for cooking, cleaning, childcare, food

preparation

preparation

and

and

processing

agriculture produce.

weeding,

processing,

harvesting

of

weaving,

grain,

tobacco,

tea

and

and

the other

As agriculturalists, they worked at sowing,

and

processing

of

grains

produce as well as at raising livestock. of

sewing

and other

food

In the sericulture areas

the Canton delta, women reared silkworms and tended mulberry

trees,

spun

silkthreads

and wove.

Hakka

agriculturali s t s and were well-known for

women

their physical strength

and independence in work (Davin 1915, p . 258).

tapped rubber, China

also

picked cotton

performed

heavy

and fished.10 manual

associated with the tasks of men. villages,

transporting

tasks

Hainanese women

Women of which

were

southern usually

They were manual workers i n the

agricultural

21

were mostl.y

produce

in

fields

and

processing m i l l s . workers.

It

footbindirig upper

is, was

class

ability.

the

towns,

also

they

therefore, not surprising less

women,

Hainanese

women,

that the practice

of

common among working women compared with

for

it

impeded mobility

severely

for

example,

did

was also practised far

w i t h northern

and work

China.11

not

in

have

bound

feet.

less i n southern China, i n

This economic independence of

women from southern China was strengthened male emigration century.

worked as manual

Hakka women, women of the boat population of Canton and

Footbinding contrast

In

the nineteenth

during the period of

century

and early

twentieth

Without their menfolk, many women were effectively the

heads of households who took over entire economic r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s of maintaining their f a m i t i e s . Historically, some women of southern China a l s o distinguished themselves from the traditional ideals of womanhood.

In the anti-

Manchu Taipirig Rebellion which originated in southern China i n the mid-nineteenth century, Hakka women were among i t s co-founders and fighters.

equality

They influenced

the

Taiping platforms, including

of the sexes and the prohibition of footbinding

1978, p. 39; Davin 1979, p. 7 ) .

the

(Croli

Some Cantonese women of

the

Shen-te, Nan-hai and P'an Yu d i s t r i c t s in the sericulture

area of

Kwarrgtung

in

province

formed

an

anti-marriage

movement

nineteenth and early twentieth century (Topley 1975).

the

These women

rejected the subordinate position of Chinese women i n marriage by refusing

to marry

marriage,

refused to l i v e with their husbands and in-1aws.

of

marriage

stance.

was

or, the

having principal

gone through reason

ceremonies of

their

Fear

anti-marriage

Some stressed the fear of becoming a "slave of man", of

being a "human machine of propagation" type of man". economic

for

the

Other reasons given were the friendship

independence

"loneliness"

and of marrying the "wrong

of

an

unmarried

woman

as

at work and against

the

i n marriage and economic dependence on her husband.12

22

Their

resistance

Typically,

to

was expressed

marriage

in

various

forms.

they organized themselves into "sworn" sisterhoods in

which they took vows to remain spinsters and to l i v e together as tsae ennui

or

sisters)

("sworn"

to

be "wedded"

to

each other.

Others were the pu-lo-chia who were formally married but refused t o l i v e with their husbands and in-laws.

The women gave each

other support and of ten lived i n sisterhood houses away from their own f amities. while

other

Some even paid for

sisterhoods

a concubine to replace them

banded together to

stop their

husbands

from taking concubines.

The specific these

women

position. for

conditions

with

an

The geographical

centuries

considerable

it

was

a

proportion

of

cultivated mulberry reeled

trees

and spun s i l k

industries

in the Canton delta area provided

economic

basis

their

anti-marriage

environment f avoured sericulture and lab our-intensive work

performed

activity by

threads.

The setting up of

This

silkworms,

filatures and

occupations in

these factories as they already possessed the s k i l l s

silkwork.

a

Women

saw women, mainly those

being employed i n cash-earning economic power was strengthened

twentieth century

with

women.

and picked leaves, reared

i n the mid-nineteenth century

who were single,

for

by massive male migration with

required for

in

the early

the decline

the domestic agricultural economy, the elimination

of

of male labour

from the s i l k works as a result of mechanization and the continued employment

of

women

in

sericulture industry.

the

lab our-intensive processes

During

this

time,

it

of

was observed

the that

thousands of peasant homes depended for the entire or a large part

of their livelihood

on the earnings of a wife or daughter (Topley

1975,

The

p.

21).

women's

anti-marriage

movement

became

acceptable even to their parents.

Anti-marriage

women gave each other sustained support.

23

As

young g i r l s , they had developed team s p i r i t and the principles friendship,

solidarity,

the local practices the

religious

(vegetarian

independence and mutual

support

of

through

of group l i v i n g and group a c t i v i t i e s , while

influences

halls)

their working l i v e s ,

of

nunneries,

temples

and char

tang

justified the rejection of marriage.13

In

they shared premises and developed elaborate

forms of saving money and mutual support systems which were both

financial

and emotional.

savings to pay for house) or tsu me

In old age, some of them used their

residence

in

wu ( s i s t e r s '

special

ku Po mu (spinsters' Such houses usually had

house).

land for communal c u l t i v a t i o n , and some of the women even adopted daughters

whom they brought

up i n their " f a i t h " .

Others r e t i r e d

to religious worship or to their own houses or char tang. The economic basis of the women's independence was, however, removed i n

the

late

19205 by outside

industry and by economic depression,

competition

Filatures

to

the

sick

and factories

were

forced to close, putting many women out of work and their earnings dropped drastically

(Topiary 1975,

early to

houses and vegetarian

spinsters'

alternative means of livelihood. the c i t i e s

p.

While some retired

84).

hails,

others

sought

Those who were young migrated to

to seek work as domestic servants while others made

iridividuai or joint decisions to migrate

to the Nanyang.

It

was

this latter category that made up the shiploads of Cantonese women who arrived i n Malaya between 1933 and 1938. It

is

and ideal

against t h i s complex background

standards

women's position women

in

the

class and regional

general forms

variations

of

i n southern China that the position of Chinese

colonial

integration into i t s

and single

and actual

of

Malaya

can

be

better

understood.

Their

economic and social l i f e as wives, mothers

women on the one hand and as prostitutes,

domestic

servants, mud t s a i , workers and hawkers on the other hand, c a l l e d

24

into interplay these characteristics social relations. position

were

and background with other

In this interplay, some aspects of their gender intensified

while

others

were

decomposed

and

recomposed into new forms. l

nanas l

Saffioti (1977) and Deere (1979). See Boeerup (1971) and Rogers (1980) for the same argument within a modernization perspective.

2

For examples of` these three approaches, see the following respectively:

(a) (b)

Cc) 3

Ret ram (1965); Hajj Embnng Abdul Rah ran (1974); and Stenson (1980); d Mullard and Brennan (1978).

~m (1980). The New Economic Policy aims at restructuring Malaysian See Sunday society by eradicating poverty and the identification o f ethnicity with occupation.

4

5

See for example Cardosa-Khao and Khan (1978); (1980); Heyzer (1980); Elson and Pearson (1981).

Linda Lim

(1978);

Ariffin

This division along ethnic lines was the outcome o f the interplay between the

requirements of various expanding capitals, the colonial governments including those of China, India and Indonesia, and the responses of the various ethnic populations.

the areas from

In

which labour supplies were

drawn, it was a combination of` economic and political factors which Forced vast sections o f their population to emigrste in search o f livelihood. 6

For

___

example, there were far

Hainanese women compared to Hairranese

50

and as late as 1931, the sex

favour of the men.

Until

r

.'um » J r

n

men

among the Hainanese was one to seven in

Hainanese women were not allowed to emigrate

from Hainan. 7

The quota system also had the immediate effect of raising passage Fares due to

the

limited number

Women could, however, rate. They were, in

of tickets and to compensate For

the reduced

traffic.

obtain non-quota tickets at a comparatively cheaper Fact, encouraged W migrate on such cheap tickets b y

traffic agents and lodging housekeepers .....- were sold quota tickets by brokers only if they bought t or four non-quota tickets each time.

am

B

Indenture labour was increasingly discredited as the abuses of became well known and Chinese nationalistic opinion in

the system

China was much opposed

to the system of indenture emigration. In 1914, the Labour Contracts Ordinance was passed making labour illegal, despite the keen demand For labour in the rubber estates.

25

9

While this strategy applied to Indian women in the rubber plantetio B in the main, it also encouraged Chinese female immigration. For details e e Palmer (1960), pp. 197-98.

1D

This contradicted the usual strictly male preserve regarded as polluting agents. See Ahem (1975).

II

In north China, women rarely worked in the fields but in peak periods when their labour was required, foot bound women worked on their k i s .

12

Yet others stressed domestic disharmony with mothers-in-law and children of different Families within the household, fear of physical pain and the

in

fishing as women were

polluting effects o f child-birth, distaste for heterosexu l satisfaction with close friendships with girls.

13

relations and

Nubile girls already formed a separate group who lived in girls' houses or h m girls' rooms f r l` s f I k -- i f they m r i d ut f th ` r

directly, they made the house "empty" and brought bad luck. Such girls' houses were found in many parts o f Kwangtung. Older girls were a s fond of visiting temples and other religious establishments such as vegetarian

halls

and B ddhi t r`s, w l l s t t n d l g t h t i l p F i l r g . . numbers. Religious teachings;.... _s_tressed sexual equality reli_gious literature contained biographies of model women who broke with tradition, f`or example, the Goddess Kuan Yin, who rejected marriage and attained alvation through religion. Religious practices also stressed celibacy again t sexual pollution. . . .

26

II in

. i i

PROSTITUTION

While prostitution already

existed as a social relation between

men and women i n China, i t

was highly

intensified

new basis and new forms i n the Malaya. prostitutes

were

imported

into

and assumed a

Chinese women who were

Malaya for

the

brothel

market.

They were distinguished from other female immigrants and formed a

distinct category of working women i n their situation

said or transferred

as women

i n a t r a f f i c i n women, their involvement i n

prostitution as their sole or main source of work, and their tight control

by

ma1 e

trafficking

agencies

policies specifically directed at them.

and

by

colonial

state

The t r a f f i c in women, the

agencies involved and the male domains of mining camps and towns largely set the context of the prostitutes'

working conditions and

lives.

Prostitution and Control by Secret Societies The t r a f f i c

in

Chinese women for

around the mid-nineteenth

expanded.

Traffickers

prostitution i n Malaya began

century, at the same time as t i n mining

went to v i l l a g e s i n southern China and by

various means ranging from contacts, cajoles, deceptions, purchase or kidnap, acquired young g i r l s and women.

27

They were then shipped

to the Straits Settlements (SS) and other parts of Southeast Asia. The

Chinese

emigration

emigrants whom they

authorities

were

suspicious

of

female

assumed went abroad for "immoral" a c t i v i t i e s

but there was no o f f i c i a l restriction

on female emigration (Chen

Ta 1939). At

the

SS

ports,

there

were

no

restrictions

on

the

immigration of prostitutes as long as they entered prostitution of their "own free

legal

until

brothels

in

will"

1927.

While

the

others

SS,

1967,

(Purcell

p . 174)

some prostitutes were sold or

and b r o t h e l s w e r e

were allocated delivered

to

to

brothel

keepers and secret societies i n the mining camps and towns i n the Federated

Malay

individual

men who had l e f t their wives in China or who wanted

concubines.

It

States

(FMS).

Yet

others

were

bought

by

i s estimated that 80 per cent of all young g i r l s

who came to Singapore i n the 1870s were sold to brothels.

At

their destinations, the young g i r l s were "disposed of l i k e slaves

i n the open market" (Song 1923, pp. 125-26), most of them under the control

of secret societies.

In 1863, 500 young g i r l s were

ordered from China by secret societies and their prices on the market

in

Singapore

ranged from $100 to

$400 each.

It

was

estimated that i n the same year, there were no less than 2,000 to 2,500 of these g i r l s

out of a total Chinese female population of

not more than 4,000 i n Singapore.

In 1884, at least 2,000 out Of

6,600 Chinese women i n Singapore were p r o s t i t u t e s .

most of these

girls were between the ages of 13 and 16 (Song 1925; Purcell 1967; Comber 1959; Turnbull 1977).

Trafficking

agents fo'rmed a closely

connected and highly

organized chain and included procurers, brokers, shipping agents, secret society points of

members, brothel keepers and employers at various

recruitment, despatch,

resale or

a l l o c a t i o n , and w o r k .

In many cases, these agents were members of the same organization,

28

usually

a secret

society,

or were at least under i t s

control.

Brothel

keepers, for example, were also secret society members or i n control of the

had a tax imposed on them by such societies

local area, while others hired samseng (thugs who usually belonged to a secret society)

to procure and control

prostitutes.

Some

employers were also secret society members who owned brothels and other revenue f arms.1 As the

colonial

main social

organization

of

the

Chinese i n

early

Malaya, the secret societies undertook the provision and

organization

of

social

and male workers.

a c t i v i t i e s for

their male members (only)

In the context of the predominantly single male

communities i n the mines and towns, the a c t i v i t i e s and needs of

men were defined as "public" as

a "public"

service.

and the provision of women was seen

Prostitution was

activities

formed the men's dominant leisure activities held in houses

or

similar

Jackson 1961, pp. 5 - ? ) . brothels

not

and

drinking,

premises

and

alongside

opium

"public"

smoking

organized

gambling,

(Gullick

together 1955;

these

cited

in

The provision of women and th e control of

only enhanced the lucrativeness

of

such "public"

houses as revenue f arms, but were themselves a source of funds for their owners. sexual

For the c l i e n t s ,

servicing.

prostitutes

These

the women provided company and

crucial

roles

of

prostitution

and

i n the male-dominated contexts of mining camps and

towns were reflected in the constant struggles between r i v a l gangs of men and between secret societies

for the ownership and control

0? brothels and women.

Three main

categories

of

--

as T

"pawned" and "voluntary"

and degrees of control mer1.2

were

prostitutes

existed

--

"soid",

of whom came under varying forms

of the brothel keepers and secret society

" S o l d " prostitutes were those bought from t r a f f i c k e r s and

air tualiy

slaves

owned by brothel

29

keepers who kept

them

within the brothels

and determined their work conditions.

The

women's entire earnings were appropriated by their keepers as the clients paid the keepers directly.

The women received only the

bare necessities of food and lodging. also

domestic

servants

of

brothel

category are the young pi-pa-chai

In some cases, they were keepers.

Related

to

this

("singsong" g i r l s ) , some of whom

were blind (Song 1923, pp. 252-53, 432)-

These g i r l s , purchased

i n China, were trained to be musicians and singers in streets or i n clubs at nights, and were usually under the direct charge of an older woman.

Their earnings were taken by their owners and they

were generally badly treated and forced to become prostitutes

or

mistresses when they grew older.

"Pawned" prostitutes were those working off a debt on behalf

of their parents or guardians.

Half of their earnings went to the

brothel keeper for food and lodging and the other half was kept by the women themselves and which could be used to pay off

debts (Purcell

1967, p. l 7 5 ) -

highly unlikely,

their

However, the latter situation

was

as the women's share was usually taken by other

men such as the secret society samserlg as payment for "protection" from other gangs of men who might kidnap them. Prostitutes early period.

who operated indeperndentiy were very few i n the Given the pervasive power of the secret societies,

any prostitute who attempted t o do so probably came under their

harassment.

They had to pay "protection" money to society members

in order to operate on their own, while half their earnings went

to brothel keepers in return for food, lodging, the use of brothel premises and the supply of clients Prostitutes' well

as

the

entertained

clients

capitalist by

singing,

(Purcell 196?).

included men from the working class as and

manager~ia1

provided

30

company

classes. in

gambling

They

also

sessions

and prepared opium for the men (Jackson 1961). distinction

gradually

Over the years, a

evolved i n the brothel system in which the

brothels were graded into classes.

7he younger and prettier women

worked in "high class" ones where they serviced wealthy men, both

Chinese and European.

Those in "lower class" brothels serviced

poor working class makes.

"Lower class" brothels were situated in

clearly known areas while the others tended to be more discreetly patronized "say" brothels.3 While the paternalistic view that lower c l a s s prostitutes is

are

and helpless

victims

indications

of rebellious

women who went against the control of

brothel keepers and of the reaction

not

he ld here (there are

defenceless

of prostitutes

to subsequent

state legislation against them Equoted i n Lim 1980, p. 1041),

i s neverthel ess true that Chinese prostitutes were severely

constrained by the

secret society men.

in colonial

tight control of

it

Malaya

keepers and

In this highly organized system of control s,

they were bought and sold l i k e commodities and had very l i t t l e

control

over their lives themselves.

watchful

eyes

prostitutes

of

the

brothel

They were always under the

keepers

and

older

or

former

who trained them and took charge of them, but who were

themselves also controlled by men.

There were few means of escape

and some brothel keepers hired samseng to intimidate and terrorize the girls gangs.

and to "protect"

Some of

by gangsters

them from being snatched by other

the rebellious g i r l s were put to shame and raped

to intimidate

them into

submission and obedience.

Some others were whipped, punished or made to do housework (Lim

1980, p. 104).

This intimidation

was further reinforced by the

traditional Confucian sense of f i l i a l obedience held by the girls

themselves (Purcell

1967, p. 177).

In varying degrees, most of

these women who were without their families regarded their keepers as having parental authority over them, and did not dare rebel or defy them for fear of punishment.

31

It

was thus a mixture of

fear,

intimidation

and

filial

obedience

themselves that further reinforced

the

on

part

their keepers' controls.

The interplay between class

and gender relations

clearly i n the organization of prostitution. leisure

activities

the women

of

by the interconnected

emerges

The organization

of

agents of the employer,

secret society leader and creditor kept the male workers and the

women indebted and was, i n effect, an indirect

form of control

over the men and a direct one over the women.

Within this direct

form of

servicing

workers',

control,

the women's role

leisure for

was the

the reproduction of

of male

their lab our power and

for the p r o f i t and revenue of owners.

Prostitution and Colonial Policies Colonial

state

policies

also

prostitutes' working conditions

set

the

and l i v e s .

context

of

Policies

towards the

t r a f f i c i n women and prostitution varied over periods,

on

various

intervention

control.

pressure

and

societies

conditions

However, from the 1870s onwards, the intervene

and check activities of in the Malay states.

of trade and investment

was one o

colonial

state

8a'»;ter's

control

the

which were considered threatening to the general

The monopoly of publ ic a c t i v i t i e s par t,

direct

In the early years of colonial rule, the state did not

was pressured to

secret

depending

and ranged from non-

to attempts to bring prostitution under i t s

intervene in the traffic. state

considerations

Chinese

of which prostfiution was a

the two major areas of r:onf1 j c t

and the

secret

societies,

of the t r a f f i c in labour

government's attempts

the

between the

other

supply.

being the

The coloni as

t o control these a c t i v i t i e s met w i t h varying

39

degrees of success.

It maintained a strong hold over opium farms

and opium sales and managed to wrest a monopoly of opium farms and smoke houses as from 1910.4

It

also head a monopoly of public

gambling whi ch was f armed out to tax f armers in the FMS.

Revenue

was further derived from the iioensing of brothels although there are no concrete figures opium smoking,

to

gambling,

show.

Together,

drinking

the

activities

and prostitution became the

major sources of revenue for the government.

The colonial

thus played a major role i n setting up and maintaining from which i t

benefited

directed

of

state

a system

but which i t s colonial

members

were so fond of attributing solely to the Chinese as their "four well known e v i l s " . Where

the

state

was

not

entirely

able

to

control

the

a c t i v i t i e s of the secret societies because of their power but yet stood

to

benefit

from them,

it

resorted

to

a policy

of

non-

Hence, in the struggles and general tolerance. between the state and the secret societies over the traffic and intervention

control or

of women, the s t a t e ' s aim was not to abolish the t r a f f i c

prostitution, but

to

regularize

and control the

females and to check the worst abuses of the t r a f f i c .

inflow

of

(The latter

contributed to what was considered the secret societies "riotous" a c t i v i t i e s threatening "peace and order" i n the colony.)

The colonial

government also f e l t i t

was unreal i s t i c to ban

prostitution, given the highly unbalanced sex r a t i o .

In Singapore

i n 1884, for example, there were 60,000 Chinese men compared with

6,600 women of whom at least 2,000 were prostitutes.

Every

Raffles

{1819-25) who founded Singapore appreciated that i t would be unrealistic to ban prostitution i n a predominantly male immigrant society

and

prostitutes.

he

only

forbade

men

living

off

the

earnings

of'

A ban would a l s o encourage homosexual prostitution

which was fostered

for many years by the importation of Hainanese

33

boys reputed to have f air skins and good Tooks.

Both features are

highly valued by the Chinese i n their perception of beauty. Thus, on the whole, state $01 i c e s

prostitution

before

limited controls

towards the t r a f f i c and

the 19205 was characterized

and a reluctance

by tolerance,

t0 take action other

curb abuses such as forced prostitution.

than to

To curb abuses, brothels

were legalized and registered under the Contagious Diseases Act passed i n 18?0, despite great opposition from brothel The features

of

this

keepers.

act are probably the same as those in the

Contagious Diseases Acts passed in Britain

at about the same time

t o register

venereal diseases as a

and examine "prostitutes" for

means of checking their spread among the soldiers

southern

England.

Under

these

prostitutes were registered,

acts,

women

and sailors

thought

subjected to a periodic

of

in

being

examination,

and i f found suffering from verlereai disease, were incarcerated i n a certified locked hospital

for a period (Waikowitz and lialkowitz

In Malaya, the Contagious Diseases Act and the Women and

1976).

G i r l s Act of 1896 were meant to check the worst excesses of the

traffic

such as slavery i n prostitution and venereal diseases.

Both acts provided for the incarceration

venereal

diseases

and

of women for treatment of

rehabilitation

for

"proper"

roles

as

respectable wives or workers in the Po Leung Kuk, an institution

set up for the "protection

of the good" (of Chinese women).

Contagious Diseases Act also gave power t o the protectorate

in

which

the

paternalistic offering local

colonial

of

the

responsibility for regulating

protection

wealthy

Vaughan, i n

"Protector

to prostitutes,

and middle-class speaking of

government to

of

system

assumed

prostitution and for

assisted by a committee of

Chinese men and colonial o f f i c e r s .

the protection offered

Chinese prostitutes under

"untiring exertions

Chinese"

The

the

by the colonial

act,

spoke of

the

the gentlemen appointed by the Government

t o carry out the provisions

of that ordinance

34

into e f f e c t , to get

these women free

and encourage them t o 1ead pure and virtuous

l i v e s ; many have, through their influence,

l e f t the brothel s and

married, and are happy and contented" (Vaughan 1971, p. 8 ) . Prostitution,

contagious prostitutes.

of

however,

venereal

continued

diseases

among

to

the

generate

male

and

of

the

While there i s no concrete evidence to show the rate

venereal diseases, their presence among the male workers and

prostitutes

which i f

unchecked, clearly

threatened to result

diseased labour forc e which would be detrimental of

problems

workers

production

consideration

in

mines,

plantations

assumed a particular

increased labour pi antations.

the

requirements

Furthermore,

for

and

seriousness the

rapidly

treatment for

in a

to the condition towns. in

This

the f ace of

expanding rubber

such diseases would incur

considerable costs for the colonial authorities and the employers, a point well illustrated by the fact that in the early 1900s when some medical benefits were being extended to mine workers, the

treatment

for venereal disease was not included.

The seriousness

of the problem was also highlighted by the prevalence of venereal disease among incarcerated

visit

women.

Purcell

for

example, i n his

to a Po Leung Kuk in Singapore in 1931 noted that of 266

g i r l s i n the institution, 159 of them were suffering from venereal disease (Purcell 1967, p. 178). Pressure was put on the colonial government to take action on venereal disease and p r o s t i t u t i o n throughout

and early ranging

twentieth

century.

from eminent

expressed mainly

and morality.

It

individuals

to

the r a t e nineteenth

came from

various

quarters

organized

groups

and were

in terms of prostitution's "dangers" to health

As early as the 1880s, a local Chinese rnunicipai

councilor i n Singapore, Tan Jiak Kim, spoke of "the absence of any

regulation

diseases,

for

arising

checking

from

the

the

spread

dangerous 35

of

trade

certain contagious

or

practice

of

prostitution, [which] publ ic

of

this

i s proving injurious t o the health of the

place..."

and called

for

regulations

public health (quoted i n Song 1923, p. 253). century, colonial

administrators

Chinese members of

social in

to protect

At the turn of the

and middle-class Christianized

clubs

and representatives of the Po

Leung Kuk

committee,

immorality

and the ruin of very many of the g i r l s " (Song 1923, p.

pressing

for

action,

spoke of

"much

The Advisory Committee on Social Hygiene i n the 1920s made

432).

recommendations on various European morality

grounds of what i t

health

and of

considered

protecting

were the "Chinese

Their recommendations, among others, included the

social e v i l s " . gradual

against

closure

procurement of

of

known

brothels,

the

recruits, the prevention

women and g i r l s

and the

suppression

of

prevention

of

the

of the exploitation

of

brothels

by

frequented

Europeans (cited in Lim 1980, pp. 103-4). By the late 1920s, the government was forced to tak e concrete

steps to deal with the problems generated by prostitution. 1927,

the

strategy.

colonial Part

of

government this

adopted

strategy

was

an the

anti-prostitution control

immigration for the purposes of prostitution. r e s t r i c t i o n on the inflow

t o check all

strategy involved

female

While there was no

of females, the Protectorate

the

control

of

undertook

The other part

brothel operations.

were allowed on a selective licensing Class" brothels

and

Brothels

system i n which the "higher

withdrawn and were forced to close.

brothels

of the

frequented by wealthy Chinese males and Europeans

were permitted while "lower class" brothels

occupation

of

female immigrants at the point of entry to ensure

that there were no "avowed" prostitutes.

class"

In

were told oily

those

to

had their licenses

The women of these

get married or

who

were

unable

transferred t o the "high c l a s s " ones (Lim 1980).

36

II

lower

find some other to

do

SO

were

Prostitutes Women in a public house entertaining a client with a "fingers" game. (By courtesy of Lim Kheng Chye.)

By 1930 however, due to further pressure on the government, brothels

were closed after much argument,

remained legal.

The Protectorate

additional responsibilities for girls

rescued

brothels.

At

from

immigration

subjected to close scrutiny

aided by the police

the

prostitution

although prostitution

incarceration of

and

points

for

all

the

assumed

women and

suppression

female immigrants

of

were

to ensure they did not enter for the

purposes of prostitution or domestic servitude (state action was at the same time being taken against

37

the traffic i n young girls

for domestic servitude as mud t s a i ) .

girl s were believed to

be victims

In cases where the women or

of

the t r a f f i c ,

they

were

detained and sent to the Po Leung Kuk in Penang, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. Contrary

closure

to i t s

of

brothels

prostitutes

aim of eliminating

reinforced

"underground"

it

into

prostitution however, the

and

"sly"

drove

the majority

prostitution.

For

of

the

prostitutes

from the "lower class" brothels who were t o l d to get

married

or

find

closed

in

1927,

Hostility

some other

such

occupation when such brothels

opportunities

were

extremely

and social stigma attached to prostitutes

samseng women prevented opp or unities

for

many

from marriage.

alternative

work as most of

were

limited.

as immoral,

There were few the work i n

mines and trades i n the towns were dominated by men.

the

Those cases

transferred

to "high c1 ass" brothels must have been r e l a t i v e l y few

and limited

to women who had the advantage of youth and beauty.

Many women therefore

resorted

to " s l y "

prostitution despite the

total ban on brothels and crackdown on prostitution by 1930.

The

economic depression of the 1930s saw even more women driven into prostitution

(Purcell

1967, p . 184).

"Sly" prostitution had the further effect of reinforcing

prostitutes' clients

dependence on gangsters and brothel keepers for

and

officials.

protection

from

funds

police

raids

and

Protectorate

While such raids broke up some of the organization of

the brothel-secret society the

the

of

chains and cut off

the samseng, they

quickly

reorganized

The number of touts employed on the streets

for clandestine prostitutes

a large

amount of themselves.

to s o l i c i t customers

increased considerably (Purcell 1967,

pp. 176-9Y)» State

Iegislation

as so

forced

38

prostitution

to

assume

new

form s.

Prostitutes moved their operations from open brothel s to

"sly" brothels, coffee»shops, lodging houses, hotels, dance-halls, cabarets and premises where rooms were set out.5

Some prostitutes

assumed disguises as cashiers, "singsong" g i r l s , taxi-dancers waitresses i n dance-haHs

and

arid cabarets i n amusement parks which

had became a feature of the 1930s, representing a new form of male 1 eisure a c t i v i t y i n which the p i easure of dancing, listening to songs and the company of escort g i r l s could be sought by paying a fee.5

However, not aH cashiers, "singsong" g i r l s , taxi-dancers and bar

waitresses

were

prostitutes

as

commonly

misconceived.

Professiorlal dancers and singers employed i n the cabarets received f i x e d say aries according t o their popularity and dance partners

in

addition,

received a share of the proceeds of the safe of dance

tickets.

In this way, they could usually earn enough as a dancer

to support themselves without having to resort t o prostitution an additional

means

of

income.

In

as

the 1930s the numbers of

taxi-dancers increased with the proliferation of dance~hai i s and "singsong" g i r l s were i n great demand (Purcell 1980, p . 104).

1967, p. 176; Lim

During the years of economic boom (1952-53) when

dance-haHs and cabarets reached the peak of prosperity, salaries of the singers reached $1,200 or more.

After the boom, salaries

as law as $300-$500 a month ( S t r a i t s

dropped to

Times Annual

1954_55). That cashiers

women

turned

to

and as "singsong"

taxi-dancing,

waitressing,

girls

be seen against

has to

work

as the

severely limited alternatives to earn self-supporting incomes for

women

in

general

alternatives conception their

to

and

for

ex-prostitutes

prostitution

tended

to

in

be

particular.

structured

that women's work was i n servicing,

traditional

roles

as

wives

39

and mothers

Any

by the

an extension of at

home.

Older

prostitutes had even fewer alternatives Some became servants i n brothels *young

g i r l s for

support

them

than young prostitutes.

or brothel keepers and acquired

training as prostitutes. as

their

"walking

These g i r l s would then

sticks"

with

their

incomes.

Topley's study (1958) of the single women who lived i n the c_hai tang (vegetarian h a l l s )

i n Singapore i n the immediate post-war

period found ex-prostitutes

and ex-dancers among the residents.

These were women who were unable to marry when young and in old age had nowhere to g0 and no one to turn to.

They thus turned t o

the vegetarian h a l l s which were virtually the only form of social organization material

that catered for single aged women.

support while religious

He re, they found

practices i n these halls offered

them salvation from their past stigmatized l i f e as prostitutes

and

dancers. Prostitutes

arrested i n police raids were incarcerated i n the

Po Leung Kuk for rehabilitation. traditional roles

and included

Rehabilitation the

meant a return to

teaching of

the traditional

s k i l l s of cooking and sewing as well as basic reading, writing and arithmetic

for

general

competence.

Unless adopted,

the

girls

stayed i n the Po Leung Kuk until they reached eighteen years of

age when they could leave to get a job or to get married.

The Po

Leung Kuk also served as a marriage centre where poor Chinese men

who could not afford the expenses of an arranged marriage chose their wives, subject to certain conditions

of suitability and the

consent of the g i r l s .

The Po Leung Kuk system of rehabilitation one extreme form of subordination

removed women from

which was regarded as immoral

and trained them to be workers and wives which were regarded as respectful and rightful roles for

women.

Where they previously

came under

owners,

the

thernseives

the

tight

control

of

girls

now found

i n a r e l a t i v e l y better position as workers and wives,

40

in so far control

as they now had some possibility of exercising more

over

their

lives.

Purcell,

a Protectorate

official,

claimed that most of the arranged marriages at the Po Leung Kuk were successful; if

not,

it

was largely due to poverty (Purcell

1967, pp. 178-79)World War

II

i n Malaya saw an even greater

prostitution, partly out of deliberate the conditions of war.

The colonial

increase in

policy and partly due to

state machinery which dealt

with prostitution collapsed and brothels re-emerged, together with gambling

f arms and amusement houses opened for

Japanese administration.

After

revenue by the

the initial waves of raping of

women by advancing Japanese soldiers (as well as local men), women were required to be offered as part of services demanded from the people by

Japanese military

officers.

The Japanese military

required villages to supply women for their troops.

In the larger

towns, young girls were rounded up and kept in military to

service

Japanese

soldiers

and

such brothels

brothels

were

se t up

wherever a garrison was stationed (Chin 1976, p. 16).

Other women

were forced

during

occupation.

prostitutes karayukisan.7

into prostitution by economic hardship The

Japanese

as

"rest

and

also

imported

recreation"

By the end of the occupation,

much worse than i t

Japanese

girls

or

the

Korean

(ianfu)

or

prostitution was very

had been at any time during the history of

Malaya.

Stigmatization of Prostitution

While prostitutes

had common origins

with other working women in

terms of class background, they were isolated from other women and from the general

working class by state

41 I

legislation and by the

control

of

reinforced

secret

non-conforming

negati ve

societies.

This

isolation

was

further

by moral ideas against prostitution and any form of behaviour

connotations

of

of

women which bore stigmatizing immorality,

"badness",

and

degradation,

helplessness, wretchedness, a craving for men and a preference for

selling sex for money over work. such concepts as sarnseng

sexually enticing

These ideas were embedded in

or (female thug), hau (sexually loose or

behaviour put on to

attract

men), t20 kai

(become a prostitute), kun t o (follow men) and associated with i t , the highly shameful and punishable

act of kun l o Chou (eloping

with men).

While some of these ideas were probably inherited from traditional Chinese conceptions of prostitutes and the

unconventional behaviour of women, other concepts such as samseng por and tzo kai were probably developed within the Malayan context

of women's position

as prostitutes

and their control

by secret

society men. The power and prevalence of these conceptions were so strong that any attempts by women to seek alternatives

to prostitution,

so long as such alternatives were held to be s t i l l non-conforming, generated conceptions

women.

quick and

responses to

to

reimpose

re-establish

the

and

control

reassert

and isolation

such of

Thus, the creation of new jobs for women in servicing in

the l930s drew much objection.

It was felt that female cashiers

and waitresses would become a source of trouble with the samseng and secret societies. Guild representing

The President of the Hock Chui Coffees fop

230 shops, said that the guild was prepared not

t o engage women i f other Chinese dialect groups would do the same (Lim 1980, pp. 104, 108).

for

encouraging

girls

to

The cabarets were strongly c r i t i c i z e d lead

a

"gay"

life.

Taxi-dancers,

waitresses and singsong girls were commonly seen as prostitutes or "loose" women who "went out and danced with men" or who liked to be " i n the company of men" (Purcell 1967, p . 1 7 7 ) .

42

The extreme subordination and stigmatization

of prostitutes

and non-conforming women also had the effect of reinforcing socialization

and control

to

and

enforce

uprightness" samseng.

and

maintain

to

family

over female members as the family sought the

protect

women's

"chastity",

them from being

"moral

deceived by the

Stigmatizing concepts originating from prostitution

non-conforming

behaviour

were

commonly

used by

working

or

class

parents to socialize and discipline female children into observing codes of

behaviour

ostracized

deemed proper

for

girls.

A g i r l might

or s t r i c t l y reprimanded as being samseng

having the intention

be

or, hau or

of tso k a i or kun 10 Chou, depending on the

nature of her non-conforming behaviour.8 L i t t l e i s known about the position of women i n prostitution in

the

immediate post-war

and post-coioniai

periods.

clear i s that, far from being eradicated, prostitution existence. brothels

Frequent

newspaper reports

of

What i s i s s t i l l in

women rescued from

in police raids and of brothel keepers and pimps fined i n

court

for

j i v i n g on the "immoral" earnings of prostitutes suggest

that

prostitution

is

legislation regarding

controlled

by

various

agencies.

State

prostitution has remained largely unchanged

and the systems of incarceration

and rehabilitation follow closely

those of the colonial Protectorate.

However, colonial

persistence

of

prostitution

into

the post-

period cannot be explained in terms of the cornmonly held

view that i t world's

this

oldest

control of

has always existed profession".

and w i l l

always exist

We have seen how the

women in prostitution have their basis

conditions i n China and Malaya.

existence

of

as "the

traffic

and

in the social

In the post-war and post-colonial

periods,

the

relations

and the subordination of women must similarly be seen i n

terms of the social conditions

prostitution

as

a form of

and relations of the times.

43

gender

HGTES

1

An outstanding example is the Chinese Captain Yap Ah Loy o f Kuala Lumpur. See Gullick (1955), Part A; and Comber (1959), Chapter l&.

2

Purcell (1967), p. 175. Prostitutes until the 19203 also included women of' European origin, whose career brought them eastwards over the years, Singapore as the "lowest point of` degradation". See Turnbull (1977),

p. laz. 3

First Report o f the Advisory Committee on Social Hygiene, Straits Settlements 1925 (cited in Lebra and Paulson 1980), p. 35.

-II

The revenue derived from opium amounted to about 50 per cent o f the revenue of the Straits Settlements between the years 1898 and 1906.

5

Report by the Secretary Enese Affairs o f the Straits Settlements on actions taken "__I - with reference to prostitution in 1927, in Secretary o f Chinese Affairs File 65/28, {cited in Lim 19B0, p. 103).

total

;___.._

6

Amusement parks remained a feature until the early l960s. An example is the Bukit Bin tang Amusement Park in Kuala Lumpur. It was and still is a well known brothel area.

7

The karayukisan are women who, from the nineteenth century onwards until the end of' World Her 1, left Japan to £ell sex in China, Siberia and especially Southeast Asia. The ianfu originate from the early karayukisan.

M

III 1

MUI TSAI IN DOMESTIC SERV1TU0E1

From the turn of

the century onwards, the t r a f f i c in women and

girl s between southern China and May eye included the importation

of young girl s for the purpose of domestic servitude as mui tsai. The mui tsai within

the

hardship,

system reflected

Chinese

social

the position

structure.

In

times

young g i r l s were sold or transferred

domestic servicing in return for

of poor women of

economic

as mui tsai

food and shelter.

for

When a ennui

tsai grew up, she was either married off to a man usually of her employer's

choice

or

remained

in

domestic

servitude

household.

She could also be a San p0 char ( l i t t l e daughter-in-

law) betrothed t0 a son of the household as his future

concubine. labour

Until

she reached a suitable

power could,

in

in

the

wife or

age for marriage, her

the meantime, be utilized

in

domestic

servicing and other work.

In Malaya, the mud .tsai system i s to be seen i n the context of

the

shortage

of

adult

women

for

reproductive

particularly i n weaithiy Chinese households,

poverty in China and Malaya.

servants based on a regular

new and unfamiliar system.

servicing,

and the conditions of

Some households hired make domestic wage system but this was a relatively Hired male domestic

lab our was more

expensive because fixed wages had to be paid and conditions

45

of

work negotiated

with

the make servants

who were organized i n

secret societies or groups and thus were in a position to bargain with the empIoyers.2

It

also jacked some of the advantages gained

from traditional forms of female domestic servitude,

particularly

those services required by female members of the household as w e ]

as the possibility

of the mui tsai becoming a wife or concubine of

a make member of the bouseho1d.3 control

In contrast,

the conditions for

by employers were greater under the traditional mui tsai

system and the demand for domestic lab our thus largely

f e l l upon

t h i s system.

The t r a f f i c i n young g i r l s that grew to meet this demand was largely fed by the conditions Malaya.

Mui tsai

from the

girls'

from China were acquired from traffickers

parents

by members of households returning

to

in

visits

Malaya.

Local-born and

or

or who came to join husbands and relatives

China for f amities

of poverty i n southern China and

single

mui

tsai

women

were

including

acquired

from

prostitutes

impoverished 1937,

(Woods

p . 118). The extent of the mui tsai

system i n Malaya i s d i f f i c u l t to

ascertain due to the mui t s a i ' s isolation

i n private households.

The number of mui tsai i n Singapore was estimated to be 7,000 by the Chinese Protector and 10,000 by another

1937, p . 190)

source in 1922 (Woods

and there were several thousands more i n the FMS.

In the same year, i t was estimated that mui tsai were arriving

a rate of sixty to seventy per month in the colony. probably

of

increased with l o c a l family formation

wives among the wealthy.

after 3,004

at

The numbers

and the immigration

The number of registered

mud tsai

their registration was made compulsory in 1933 stood at in

that

concentrations

year

and

of mui tsai

2,109

in

mid-1936.

The

largest

were i n the Straits Settlement

(SS)

particular t y Singapore, and the main towns of the Federated Malay

46

States

(FMS),

where there

were 1arge Chinese settl ements and

wealthy Chinese households. Some information i n the registration

on the mui t s a i ' s backgrounds can be found records of the colonial

administration.

In

1934, of the total number of 2,749 mui tsai recorded i n Malaya (irzciuding Singapore), 32.4 per cent were born i n Malaya and 54 per cent were born i n China.

The birth origin of 10 per cent of

the total cases were unknown and 89 per cent of them were without

parents. 60 per

Thirty per cent were under ten years of age and nearly cent of them were between the ages of ten and fifteen.

Among those born i n Malaya were g i r l s acquired from impoverished

f amities

and

single

mothers,

examination of 100 mui tsai

most

of

acquired

them were between

transaction

including

employed by Teochew

the

ages

prostitutes.

A test

i n Singapore in 1930 revealed that six

of

and

shopkeepers thirteen.

and were The money

involved i n acquiring them ranged from $50 to $260.

However, a large number of the g i r l s were acquired i n China and there was thus no evidence of payment.

The work of the mui tsai

in

a wealthy Chinese household

involved domestic servicing such as cleaning and washing, running of errands,

household production,

servicing

and providing

for the female and sometimes male members of the household. were rarely paid, w i t h only food, clothing

and shelter

company

Wages

provided.

In homes where they were treated more l i k e adopted daughters, they were relatively better off but i n homes where they were acquired

mainly for

their lab our , they had to work long hours and were

of ten ill-treated.

their

owners in

They were generally under the tight control of

a system of

traditional

authority and f i l i a l

piety.

The mud tsai

system appears to have been intensified and the

47

The above was a typical bond signed between the colonial government and an adopted child'e parents to guarantee that she would not be used for domestic servitude or prostitution. (Photograph by courtesy of the Ministry of` Community Development, Singapore.)

Hui tsai

1

I

mui t s a i ' s position deteriorated

in China. to

In Malaya the mui t s a i ' s position was more vulnerable

exploitation

relatives

in Malaya compared with the case

and

ill-treatment.

In

China,

and

pare-nts

of the mui tsai probably lived i n some proximity

to the

household that had acquired her and could therefore exercise some

amount of surveillance over her welfare. girls were t00 far

In Malaya, the imported

away from their parents or had lost

contact

with them and could not seek their support or protection in case of

ill-treatment.

probably contact

Similarly,

children

of

local

prostitutes

girls

and

with their parents or mothers.

households made

support.

In

it

extremely

China,

of

women,

whom were had lost

Isolation i n individual

difficult

some of

some

single for

mui

tsai

them could return to

to

seek

their

own

families when their parents repaid their debts but those in Malaya

were bound to the household indefinitely as they had nowhere to go to.

When they grew up, they ..either remained with the household or

were married

or

sold o f f ,

depending on the

choice

of

their

employers. The conditions colonial

of the mud tsai led to various pressure on the

government, mainly

from Christian quarters,4 to

take

action, and i n 1933 a commission was set up to study the mud tsai system in Hong Kong and May eye.

The Majority Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the mui tsai

system

conditions.

in It

Maiaya5

took

an

optimistic

view

head that mui tsai were generally

of

their

well treated

and that the f a c i i i t i e s of the protectorate system were sufficient to ensure against cruelty and i11~treatment.

The Minority Report,

however, conflicted with the Majority Report. In describing the conditions of the mui tsai, E. Picton Turberviiie, a member of the commission and signatory of the Minority Report, cited one witness of the cases sent to the Po Leung Kuk: 49

Sixty per cent of them were i11-treated, beaten and scolded

and

many cases who had been terribly

treated as mud Tsai, some of whom s t i l l bore on their bodies the marks of their treatment.

IN-treatment

also

overwork

came

in

other

forms

such

as

and

overpunishment.

She also cited results

of medical examinations i n the Po Leung

Kuk, which revealed cases in which mui tsai had been raped or sexually assaulted by their owners or empl overs and sometimes by a son of the family (Wood 1937, p. 232). t _sai was also cited by others.

The ill-treatment of mud

In a v i s i t t o the Po Leung Kuk i n

Singapore i n 1938, Lasker (1972, p . 35) noted that about half of the g i r l s had been sold by their parents

taken

from

their

owner-mistresses

by

or mothers and had been

court

order

because of

ill-treatment. Prior t o 1932, the colonial authorities took the stand that

while i t did not recognize the mui tsai_~ system, i t was not i l l e g a l t o keep a young girl as mui t s a i . the

Labour

Ordinance

The mui tsai were covered under

and Labour Code as domestic

under the Women and G i r l s Protection Ordinance.

servants

and

Under the Labour

Ordinance, the master or mistress of the mui tsai were regarded as

her lawful guardian, while the Protection Ordinance was invoked to deal

with

cases

Protectorate, against

of

ill-treatment.

According

to

the

Chinese

the inspection of women and g i r l s was not directed

the mui tsai

system but

to d e ]

with iii-treatment and

slavery.

The SS government began to take action against the mud tsai

system i n the 1ate 1920s as a result of pressure from various quarters,

Targely on grounds of cruelty.

50

In 1925, the Femal e

Domestic Servants B i l i was passed to deal with the iii-treatment of young servants by making i t

an offence to acquire or employ a

mui t s a i less than ten .years 01d.

However, this was ineffective

because i t was impossible to prove the age or the circumstances of a mui t s a i ' s acquisition. Further

pressure

Jed to

the Mui Tsai B i l l

provided for

the compulsory registration

between 1933

and 1935

Under

system.

Protectorate

the

and

bill,

for

the

extensive

of

i n 1933 which

existing mui tsai ab ol iti on

eventual

powers

of

the

were head by

the

to deal with registration, acquisition

and transfer

of mui t s a i , their wages and conditions of work, the detention of cases of tsai's

iii-treatment,

conditions

at

prosecution

their

places

and the

of

inspection

work

as

well

of

mui

as

at

immigration points to check against their t r a f f i c .

The Mui Tsai B111 was aimed at making the mud tsai workers who would be paid wages for

who

could

1 eave their

employers

"free"

their domestic services and

if

they

wished.

It

set

a

compul sort wage of at Teast $1 per month to be paid to those Tess than ten years old, $2 for those between ten and fifteen years of age and $3 for those above f i f t e e n .

However, despite the b i l l ' s aim to make mui tsai free wage workers,

the wage rates

set were more of

a token than a real

l i v i n g wage on which the mui tsai could survive without depending

on the employing household for the provision

of her other needs.

Nor could they be considered free workers who could leave their employers i f

they wished.

Most of them had lost

contact

their parents and had nowhere t o go, and their isolation

with

within

the household further prevented them from knowing of alternatives outside.

Their

conditions

were, therefore, l i t t l e

changed and

most of them remained with their owners u n t i l they were married or

sold o f f .

51

and checks under the Mui Tsai B111 also had the

Registration

effect of driving the system underground.

Evasion of registration

was widespread, with only a fraction of mui tsai registered 1937,

p.

adopted

Owners

226).

daughters.

immigration

took

Checks

to

disguising

against

the

their mui

mui

tsai

(Woods

tsai

as

traffic

at

points were circumverated by traffickers who claimed

mui tsai were their adopted daughters.

Only in clearly suspected

cases were the mui tsai

and their traffickers detained.

registration

thus

and

checks

had

the

unintended

effect

The of

perpetuating the system through the g i r l s ' disguise as daughters. Under the Mud Tsai B i l l ,

the Protectorate

also adopted a

paternalistic system of protection

of the girls where " i n case of

ill-treatment, they ( t h e mui t s a i )

knew they had only to go to the

protectorate

for

assistance"

and

the

Commission

stressed the Protector's "easy accessibility appeal" (Woods 1937, p. 189).

of

Enquiry

even to a mui tsai to

This overlooked the f act that the

majority of the unregistered mui t s a i , given their isolation, nothing of the existence of the Protectorate l e t it.

Furthermore,

the mui tsai

by their owners.

were generally

alone approach

closely controlled

7he sense of f i l i a l piety and fear

g i r l s worked strongly

knew

among the

against whatever wish they had to complain

against their owners.

Nevertheless, mui tsai could be detained and incarcerated in the Po Leung Kuk by Protectorate

and Po Leung Kuk o f f i c i a l s on

grounds of iii-treatment under the Mui Tsai B i l l and the Women and Girls

Protection

Ordinance.

shifted

the

colonial

protector

paternalism

Po Leung Kuk protection of mui tsai

and authority of

their

and Po Leung Kuk o f f i c i a l s .

owners to

Kuk, the system of rehabilitation removed the mui tsai extreme form of subordination traditional roles

and prepared them for

as women and workers.

52

the

In the Po Leung from one

respectable

And unless they

were

adopted, the ex-mui _tsai remained in the Po Leung Kuk until they were

eighteen

when

they

left

servants, or to get married.

to

work,

usually

as

domestic

As discussed earlier, the Po Leung

Kuk also served as marriage c e r t e s where suitable men came to choose wives from.

Thirteen per cent of those registered

married over the 1933-36 period.

Alternatives

cases

to marriage and the

traditional forms of work i n domestic service were very limited. Despite the above shortcomings of the bi11, colonial state $01 i c e s

attempted

to eradicate the system through

The Minority Report's recommendations for legal

as I

status of mui tsai

the

and the registration and protection

g i r l s under twelve who were transferred

were adopted.

ss

The

minimum age

legislation.

the abolition of

the of

from their parents,

Children's Ordinance passed i n 1938-40 fixed

limit

for

domestic

p r o f i t e d c h i l d labour below that age. not enforced because of

the outbreak

service

at

fourteen

and

However, the ordinance was of war.

After the war in

1949, i t was incorporated under the Young Persons Ordinance which consolidated and extended the laws protecting young persons. By the l a t e 1940s and early 1950s, i t was assumed that, given

the above pieces of legislation, there was no further need to deal with the mui tsai system despite renewed t r a f f i c in young g i r l s .

The system was also fast being replaced by hired adult female service.

The matter, therefore, became largely one of preventing

the illegal immigration of mui tsai by the late 1940s. cases appearing on the register, i t

Of those

was assumed that there were no

more problems as they had reached the age of eighteen arid had therefore passed into the general adult population.

the

poor

economic

background

commission took the optimistic

of

girls

were

In so far as

considered,

the

view that w i t h an improved status

in the l i f e of Chinese women in Malaya, the system would die out i n the course of time.

Although some attention was given to the 53

welfare services offered such as

social

by the state to impoverished f amities,

services,

education

and public

commission noted at the same time that entirely "feasible"

assistance,

the

these services were not

for reasons of "cost and demand" (Woods 1937,

p . 112).

L i t t l e i s known about female child labour in the post-war and

post-colonial

period other than that i t

there i s l i t t l e recorded evidence, i t

s t i l l exists.

Although

i s known that i t i s s t i l l a

fairly common practice for poor f amities to send daughters to work as domestic servants i n households in return for food, shelter and possibly

a small wage.

scale industries

A recent study of child labour

i n small-

pointed out poor economic background as a crucial

f actor leading to male and female child labour, although

it

did

not examine any cases of g i r l s in domestic service (La i 1982).

It

is

likely

diminishing,

that

this

given

.

form the

of

work

expansion

for of

young

girls

alternative

is

fast

forms

of

employment as well as the recognition of a minimum primary school education for g i r l s .

NOTES

1

For this chapter, most of the information has been drawn from H.H. Woods, Mud Tsai in Honqkorlq and Malaya, Report o f Commission, no. 125 (London: HMSO, 1937).

2

Colonial Office, colonial

See Sung (1923), pp. 238-39 For a brief account o f the male domestic workers' strike.

3

Furthermore, For some households, bride-money could be gained when disposing o f the girls when they grew up.

a

S F ampl , H 1 d d H BI d, Child S1 Tsai Qystem (London: Sheldon Press, 1930).

5

The report (Woods 1937) contained a Majority Report and a Minority Report.

54

y i

H

gku q:

Th

Mui

. .. . ...

6

Hoods (1937), p. 197. Evidence was based on are examination of' 101] selected cases. It was found that all but six were happy and there were no definite cases o f cruelty. However, the commission itself" admitted that the girls were taught by their employers what to say at the enquiry as news of` it had spread.

55

IV

TIN MINING

It

i s d i f f i c u l t to establish when women f i r s t began to work i n t i n

mining.1

Mining on a large scale began as are exclusively male

occupation

with

nineteenth

century and since then, various methods of mining have

the

import of

male Chinese labour

been dominated by male workers. probably began with family

the mid-

Mining work by Chinese women

formation

the 1900s until World War I t .

in

and female immigration

from

The process of family formation had

already begun by the turn of the century

when some mine workers

returned to China to fetch their wives or sent for

them.

The

immigration of relatively large numbers of females, some of whom went to the mining areas to work or workers, greatly p.

subsequently married mine

increased their numbers i n mining (Blythe 1938,

The 1930s particularly saw an i n f l u x

103).

of women into

mining as this was the period of significant immigration Of single women into

Malaya.2

after the indenture

Chinese women thus entered mining mainly

system was abolished in 1914,

and included

both married women whose husbands were also miners and single women working individually or i n groups.

A large number of the

latter

associated

were

anti-marriage

Hakka

and

Samsui

women

with

the

groups in south China.

The number of Chinese women in mining can be inferred from the number of duTang (pan washing) passes issued since t h i s method

56

Dulang washers The vast majority of` women in tin mining work were dulang washers. They were employed in mines owned by big companies or were self'-employed in marginal mines and rivers. (Photograph by courtesy of the National Archives, Malaysia.)

was used only by women, the overwhelming number of Chinese.

whom were

First issued by the colonial government i n 1907, the

number of dulang passes increased from 8,278 in 1909 to 12,867 in 1920 and 11,809 in 1936 (Jackson 1961, p. 146; Sieve 1953, p. 406). By 1931, out of a total working population of 89,618 i n mining and

quarrying, 10,168 or 11.3 per cent were women most of whom were Chinese (Del Tufo 1949, p. 103).

had become the third largest women after rubber though (Del

the

industry

Tufo 1949,

pp.

By the late 1940s, tin mining

source of

cultivation

employment for

and servicing

remained predominantly 532-33).

Chinese

activities, even a male occupation

However, their participation in

mining fluctuated depending on economic and p o l i t i c a l situations.

57

During the depression years (1914-18)

their numbers varied from

14,000

about 11,300

t o nearly

16,000 but

fe11 to

i n the late

1930s, only to r i s e rapidly to more than 20,000 i n the immediate post-war years (Jackson 1961, p. 146; Slew 1953, p. 406).

Women

workers i n t i n mining were either wage workers or self-operators. O f f i c i a l figures

in 1947 showed that the majority of them were

wage workers and the rest were "own account" workers (Dei Tufo 1949, pp. 532-33).

A distinct

sexual division of 1about existed i n the various

mining methods i n which men dominated at the various levels

and

parts of each labour process while women's work were confined to what was considered as general

unskilled mining and manual work

(Awberry and Dalley 1948, pp. 58-59; Slew 1953).

Women's mining

work was almost exclusively limited to dulang washing. worked

at

ore-dressing

extraction

(washing

of

and

ore)

w h i l e manual work done by others

clearing,

lampan

included

(sieve)

weeding,

odd jobs, washing and what were known as kongsi kung

(company work) and tsap kung (odd jobs). dulang washing were regarded as unskilled, were not

under

Some women

Such manual work and marginal work.

Women

allowed t o tend machines or work i n underground mines

the

managerial,

Mines

and Machines

supervisory,

Enactment.

technical

l e v e l s , such as kepala (contractor),

mining

And and

jobs

at

the

apprenticeship

assistants, f i t t e r s , smiths

and apprentices were all for men. Concomitant with their unskilled manual jobs,

women workers

were a t ] found at the bottom Ievei of the wage structure. workers were also paid lower wages than male workers for jobs.

Women the same

In kongsi kung and tsap kung, women workers were paid an

average d a i l y wage of $1.30 compared w i t h $2.60 received by ma1 e

general

workers

in

the

dredge mining areas i n 1947.

In

the

hydraulic mining areas, women general workers were paid an average

58

daily wage of $1.05, while male general workers received $1.28 (Awberry and Dalley 1948).

In the annual reports

of the Mines

Department, the wages per kung (daily average rate per eight hours

of work) of women workers in the selected years 1929-32 and 1950 appear to be higher than male wages. and $1.98

Women workers received $0.25

i n 1929-32 and 1950 respectively,

received $1.46 i n 1950 (Slew 1953, p. 42?).

while men workers However, only male

workers were supplied food and accommodation under the kongsi_ contract

If

system.

the daily cost of

food and accommodation

allowance of $0.13-0.17 and $1.20 for the two periods respectively were subtracted from female average wages, then their real wages were, in f act,

lower than that of the male workers.

In Slew's

study of male and female wages of thirty mines i n the early 1950s, the same reason accounted for favour

of

women

workers.

the discrepancy Furthermore,

in money wages i n

women

workers,

being

irregular piece-rated workers, did not receive bonuses which were

pa id only if a number of hours of work had been done i n a month on a regular daily or monthly paid basis (Slew 1953, pp. 422, 429). The differential wages paid to men and women workers i n the mines arose partly from the different systems of employment which

they came under.

In the contract

system of lab our allocation,3

the gang of workers under a contractor depended on him to secure a

contract

their

for

supervision.

work

and

earnings

and came under

his

They entered into agreement with him on a daily rate

of so much per kung while the contractor himself obtained a cut from the sum agreed upon with the mine owner on the contract. Regular workers were usually provided food and male workers were given accommodation at

the kongsi

houses (company mine h o u s e s ) .

In most Chinese and European-owned mines, other than the work of the administrative staff directly employed by the owner, various aspects

of

the

mining process

ore recovery, engineering

such as ore dressing, residual

and technical works were a l l

59

under t h i s

contract were

system of

regul

1 about allocatiorl.

monthly-salaried

at

or

Almost aH may e workers

daily-paid

empl eyed d*Erectly by the

mine owner or

female labour

daily-paid

was mostly

contract

contractors.

or piece-rated

workers However,

casual

and

irregular 1lab our and thus did not receive any of the benefits.

The sexual

division

of

labour

was further reinforced

perpetuated through a system of male apprenticeship by

owners

daughters

older

and contractors

and young women i n

women on the

reinforced

on

the methods of

other hand.

by state

one hand,

the

legislation

It

was

women as polluting

training

of

duiang washing by

also perpetuated

and

Ideologically,

it

was

system i n which women were regarded as

"bad Tuck", a version of

bearers of

and

prohibiting women from tending

machines or working in underground mines.

sustained by a make belief

and

i n the mines

the traditional notion of

agents in Chinese culture.

It

was a belief

that held much sway among the rnale workers working under dangerous conditions

i n the mines.

In

f a c t , before 1900, women were not

allowed to approach the mines for fear they brought "bad luck" and

caused accidents or even deaths (Slew 1953, p. 4 2 4 ) . The r i g i d sexual d i v i s i o n of lab our i n t i n mining a c t i v i t i e s

thus largely has i t s roots in the historical development of mine which has been almost exclusively male from i t s very

labour

beginning and has remained so throughout.

Women entered mining i n

r e l a t i v e l y insignificant numbers only i n the later phases of the

industry's

development and the

mine workers.

first

ones were mostly

wives of

By the time immigrant women entered mining i n large

numbers i n the l a t e 1920s and 1930s, the practice

workers and male interests

of hiring male

at various levels and processes of work

i n the different methods of mining were already deeply entrenched. Women

could

only

u n s k i l l e d work

enter

processes,

what

were

regarded

mainly dulang

marginal mining land. 60

washing

as in

marginal tailings

and and

While there i s some truth in saying that women's jobs in mining were of a peripheral that what constitutes

and unskilled nature, i t i s also true

s k i l l e d and unskilled 1abour and what women

can or cannot work at i s socially defined.

Hence, dulang washing

was defined as a woman's job and only women were allowed to do i t . It

was also regarded

as only

a method of recovery rather than

mining.

This definition of s k i l l overlooks the fact that dulang

washing

demands

skilful

estimation

of

ore

concentrations

s k i l f u l hard lab our i n separating ore from the soil ore.

It

over

the

and

and dressing

also overlooks the special advantages of dulang washing other

washing i s technically

methods of

mining.

able to recover recovered

otherwise be l o s t .

by

It

Although primitive, dulang

ore that any

other

cannot be profitably method

incl odes panning of

and

which

ore which escapes

concentration in t a i l i n g s and of ore in marginal mines, r i v e r s

streams.

Despite

its

peripheral

nature

or

would

and small

and

individual

output, i t accounted on the average for f i v e per cent of the total

annual output by all methods of production throughout the f i r s t half of the twentieth century.4 Equally significant and peripheral

work of

i s that what i s regarded as the casual women ignores the importance of dulang

washing t o the requirements of mining capital i n terms of the changing allocation of iabour. This clearly showed up during

specific periods of economic and political c r i s i s . The s t a b i l i t y of employment and wages was highly dependent on the international t i n market

of

and during the

economic depression

the 19305 when make employment and wages i n the mines f e w ]

drastically (Palmer

1960, p . 2 3 6 ) , women and their f amities who

were not repatriated or fend for themselves. subsistence

f arming

absorbed into

r e l i e f work were l e f t

to

Many of the women took to duiang washing and and the number of

61

duiang

washers increased

from less than 9 per cent of total number of t i n mine employees in 1929 to 22 per cent i n 1932 at the depth of the depression (Slew

1953, p. 405).

(For old women unable to work, the Chinese mine

owners

for

argued

their

repatriation

repatriation scheme of the colonial

to

government.

China

women repatriated during the depression i s not known.) during

the

war

under

the

The number of old

when dulang passes were freely

Similarly,

issued by

the

Japanese i n an effort to raise tin production, dulang washing was taken up by thousands of women as an essential means of survival for

their f amities.

hardship

and

This was in the f ace of extreme economic

the

households.

absence

or

death

of

many males

of

their

In the immediate post-war years of unemployment and

severe food shortages, women again took up dulang washing to earn essential

incomes.

passes to provide

The B r i t i s h administration re-issued

dulang

employment to women and partly to keep t i n

output i n the country as high as possible before the mines could resume operations.

By the end of 1946, their numbers had almost

doubled from 12,000 in 1936 to nearly 23,000 and during the next three years, the number stood at around 20,000 (Yip 1969, p. 305, Sieve 1953,

p.

Duiang washing became the most important

406).

mining method after dredging and gravel accounting for

production

the total output i n 1946 ( Y i p

of

25.4 per cent

pumping, i t s

1969, p. 402).

The foHowing years was a period of militant and severe economic hardship population

were relocated

Emergency rule.

when large sections

into "new villages"

This was to prevent

iabour activity of the Chinese

(Nyce 1962)

under

them from giving support to

communists who were engaged i n armed conflict with the colonial government.

as

in

During this period, women in these villages

squatter

responsibilities

and of

mining

areas

continued

to

as well

bear

the

family and subsistence maintenance through

duiang washing and various

occupations.

62

In other words, female

workers

served

as a reserve

army of

casual

Tabour drawn into

mining at c r i t i c a l periods of the industry to sustain the industry

until i t got back onto i t s feet. Casual labour 'is i n general cheap and flexible as i t does not involve

bonuses,

payments

regular

permanent

workers,

in

kind

While men and women both constituted female casual specific

lab our made up i t s

characteristics

and other

and can be easily

especially

benefits

due to

hired and f i r e d .

part of t h i s casual lab our, majority i n mining

and bore

attractive to mining capital.

As women and wives, women workers carried with them socialized attributes

attributes

of

docility,

chastity

and industriousness.

These

were sustained in male-dominated mining communities and

made women workers easy to control

when extended from home and

between husband and wife, to the workplace.

relations

While the

men workers' social l i f e focused around clan associations,

secret societies, especially

kongsi,

gambling and opium smoking (as well as brothels

i n the early period),

the activities of women l i v i n g in

mining and squatter communities were confined to home and work.5 As early as 1909, the Mines Department reported that there i s no [more] pleasing sight to be seen i n the Federated Malay States than the Chinese woman washing for the t i n ore i n a stream -- up to her waist in

water

--

with a small child strapped to her back

above her waist. these States...

Of a t ] the alien races who j i v e in there

these women, who For are

not

to

are none to be compared with sobriety, morality and honesty

be beaten...

(quoted

"sobriety"

ensured

in

Jackson 1961,

p , 146). While

their

productivity,

their

hard

primary responsibilities

63

work in

the

with family

high as

wives and mothers enabled employers to regard their work in mining only as marginal or supplementary to the maintenance of the household,

and could

rnarginai

therefore be hired

and unskilled

as casual

workers

in

jobs at dependents' wages.

While women workers were treated only as a reserve army of labour for

the mining industry, the work opportunities

nevertheless necessary

for

households. poverty,

constituted the

some

of

maintenance

The 1after

the of

few

the

sources

women's

available

of

income

f amities

or

i s better understood in the context of

indebtedness and unemployment within mining and squatter

communities in which the poor mining family of ten came under the

powerful

grips

contractor,

of

the

ore dealer,

monopsonistic creditor,

(sole)

kongsi

company storekeeper

miner, who were

of ten one and the same person or were closely interconnected agents (Yip 1969, pp. 92-3). Various family members had to seek

incomes towards maintaining the entire family household.

For the

women not only did they have to see to household reproductive labour,

they also had to earn incomes through various means, such as through dulan_g washing and casual work in the mines, odd jobs, vegetable growing and livestock

maintain

f arming for food subsistence, to

and reproduce the family.

That

women workers i n

the

kongsi worked on average 7% hours per day while men worked a longer nine-hour day

(Awberry

and Dalley

1948,

pp.

58-9; Slew

1953, pp. 431-32) overlooks the fact that women also worked at household reproductive work and other income-generating activities which when added to kongsi work hours, could amount to fourteen or sixteen hours of work per day for

estimates

of

women s contributions

the women.

While there are no

to household income

it

is

highly probable that in some f amities, the contribution of women's earnings

to total family

income was higher

than that of the men

some of whom squandered money on gambling and other male leisure activities. 6»1

Single

women,

many

of

whom

were

self-operating

dulang

washers, did not escape the grips of monopsonists and creditors and the general

marginal

conditions

miners

moriopsonistic

the

on

Many dularig washers and

basis ore

credit

the

from

dealer/financier

terms of

the

credit.

and were

Marketing channels

The only

alternative

for

to

tin

the ore

was the smelting agency which tended not to accept small

deliveries of concentrates at a time. small deliveries

of concentrates,

fee

every

of

of

concentrates only to licensed t i n ore dealers

concentrates were clearcut. dealer

the

mine owner cum t i n

compelled to sell

under

of poverty.

operated

$4 for

of

delivery

In fact,

concentrates

one-ninth ton i n weight (Yip 1969, pp. 29-30).

l i t t l e choice but to sell washers were, under

to ore dealers.6

normal

to discourage

they charged a small "parcel"

conditions,

of

less

than

Dulang washers had

Furthermore, dulang

allowed to s e l l

only

a

limited amount each month, the quota being imposed to regulate production

under various

international

tin

control

agreements.

The amount of tin mined was also dependent on weather and soil conditions

and quotas could well be reached within the f i r s t two

weeks of the month (Y ip 1969, pp, 303-5; Sieve 1953, pp. 407-9).

Dulang washers therefore had to turn to other sources of income to maintain themselves.

rubber estates,

These included tapping and weeding i n nearby

vegetable growing and livestock

farming and odd

jobs i n mines as piece-rated casual workers. Some of the single women workers, who earlier belonged to the anti-marriage

movement i n China, f e w ] back on i t s

ensure economic survival and i n o`ld age. leader

owners.

and support during

practices

to

their working j i v e s

They operated i n small groups of s i x to ten, the

among them bearing

the

task

of

securing

work

from mine

Work was distributed on a profit-sharing basis among the

group members w i t h the leader the contract

taking

a commission for

obtaining

and for her s k i l l at estabiishirzg the amount of ore

55

recoverable.

Should the actual output be below estimation,

they

were able to bargain for a change in the terms of the contract as

an organized group.

They might

as so

share in food and housing in

fernande k_ongsi houses (Sieve 1953, pp. 410-11). was

organized

around

collective

adoption of female children

living

Security in 01d age

and

as daughters.

the

purchase

or

These daughters were

trained to work at duiang washing and socialized

into traditional

f i l i a l roles of daughters who would care and support their mothers especially

in old age.

The position

the

of Chinese women in mining illustrates clearly

dynamic interaction

incorporated

between gender and class:

they

were

into the mining economy as workers but only as casual

workers in unskilled and lower paid jobs within a clear cut sexual division

of lab our.

This subordinate

their social position

work status

was shaped by

as women, whether as singles or as wives or

women had to bear the consequences of poverty and the responsibilities of overcoming i t dependents.

Caught in this dual position,

which were heightened in times of depression and c r i s i s

in the

industry and wider economy.

H0755

1

The Malaya were already involv d in small-scale tin mining as a side activity

to pad growing but it is u r n wn if' Malay amen w r 2

Blythe (1953).

While there were only 3,829 women in

i v Iv d. the major mining areas

o f Kinta, Perak in 1879, their numbers had increased to 19,503 or 16 per cent of the total production in 1901, 36 per cent in 1931 and 11-6 per cent in 1947 (Doi 1955). 3

This contract

system

is

a

development

From

the earlier indenture labour

system. Despite the latter's bolition, few Chinese workers became free wage workers. They remained in go gs under a work contractor and obtained wages ore a contract system.

a

As late as 1963, it Malaya.

Wages v tied from gang to gang and by industry.

still acc unfed for nearly 3 per cent of` total output of

Boi (1955), p.

350.

66

5

mi iulng ut her

category

of`

women

in

the

mining

communities

was

the

prostitutes. 6

In Kantar in 1956 For example,

20 per cent o f the concentrates purchased by from marginal

the tin ore dealers came from dulanq washing and the rest miners mostly operating on credit.

67

V

RUBBER ESTATE PR0DUCTI0N1

It

was noted earlier that

secure,

cheap

plantations,

and

colonial

the

malleable

ethnicity

consideration.

in

and

Indian

sources

gender

labor

various strategies

was

of

were

and Javanese labour)

for

focal

recruited

government and came to constitute

workers by the 1930s.

labour

two

to obtain

rubber

points

directly

by

of

the

the majority of estate

However, Chinese labour

(as well as Malay

was also recruited, to a lesser

private employers and through free immigration

for

extent,

by

estate work.

Thus, in 1907 there were 5,388 Chinese making up 9 per cent of the total estate workforce of 58,073 and this proportion increased to

19 per cent in 1911, 26 per cent i n 1919, 25 per cent i n 1929 and

24 per cent in 1935 (calculated from Parmer 1960, p. 273).

By

1947,

of

rubber

production

was

ore

of

the

largest

sources

employment among the Chinese after mining and services.

Within

the estate workforce, Chinese workers comprised the second largest group after the Indians.

Despite the colonial

government's attempts

to control

the

overall supply of Chinese `Iabour, i t encouraged the free inflow of female Chinese iabour., the

agricultural

This was part of the overall aim t o expand

population

particularly

for

rubber

through l o c a l f amity formation and to thus ensure

and permanent work f o r c e ,

By 1933,

68

female

estates

a more stable

and c h i l d

lab our

constituted 34 per cent of the estate labour force, the proportion increasing

to

45 per

cent

in

1947 and 47 per

Chinese women made up the majority

cent

i n 1957.

i n these total s after Indian

women, for lowed by May ay and Javanese women.

Chinese women made

up 5 per cent

(5,267) of the total female workforce i n 1921 and

this proportion

increased to 9 per cent (13,715) and 25.5 per cent

(45,738) i n 1931 and 194? respectively (Dei Tufo 1949, p. 113). The absence of r e s t r i c t i o n s of female immigration

led to a

steady growth i n the number of Chinese women working and l i v i n g i n the

estates,

immigrants.

especially

the

during

1930s'

influx

of

female

Blythe (1947) noted the extraordinary increase i n the

employment of Chinese women on estates as members of family lab our

l i v i n g in

family kongsi

groups i n all-female

houses and as single

women l i v i n g

kongsi houses in the late 1930s.

in

In the

1940s the increase in the Chinese female estate population was due to the proliferation of a squatter labour was recruited.

single

largest

population from which female

By 1947, rubber c u l t i v a t i o n had become the

source of

entire agricultural sector

employment for (Del

Chinese women i n

Tufo 1949, pp. 442-45).

the

Chinese.

women made up 20 per cent of the total Chinese estate lab our force by 1937 and this

proportion

increased to 33.5 per cent and 45.2

per cent i n 1947 and 1952 respectively Chinese c h i l d labour constituted

(Gamba l962a, pp. 250-51).

an average of 8 per cent of the

total Chinese labour forc e over the same period. lab our together

Female and child

formed nearly 54 per cent of the total Chinese

labour force in the late 1940s and early 19505 and constituted a

family

mode

of

employment

similar

to

that

of

Indian

family

labour. However, while the Indian f amity lived within the estates and were directly employed by the estate, Chinese family iabour tended

to be drawn from the squatter

population

69

around the estates and to

be employed on a contract components squatter

served

as

i n which the female and c h i l d

basis

a reserve

populations

around

army

estates

e a r l i e r , had their origins i n the t i n 1910s, 19305 and post-world

War II

of

casual

and

mines,

1abour. as

we

The noted

and rubber slumps i n the

dislocations.

Chinese women

were also involved i n subsistence rubber smallholding production,

some of which were carried out i l l e g a l l y on rural squatter land.

In 1953, Chinese smallholders worked 40.1 per cent of total rubber smallholding acreage while Malays, the other single large category of rubber smallholders, worked 47.3 per cent of total smallholding acreage (Lim 1967, p. 3 3 2 ) .

Chinese iabour i n the estates mostly worked under a contract system

in

which

contractor owner.

the

were paid

workers

and

supervised

by

a

t o whom work had been contracted out by an estate

In t h i s system, make iabour was mainly hired under regular

contract

while female and c h i l d

contract

workers.

The

other

employment by the estates

labour were employed as casual form

of

employment

was

direct

and most Indians were employed under

this system. Several employment:

methods of checkroii,

the checkroii

payment came under' these two forms of task and result

(Parmer 1960, p . 167).

system, workers were paid a fixed daily wage

provided a whole day's work was completed. of

In

wage payment, the iabourer

Under the task method

was assigned a certain

amount of

work, say nine hours, and paid by the number of tasks completed

The task of the rubber tapper was fixed at a certain

per month.

number of trees, say 350. distance from the factory

trees.

The figure varied according to terrain, and height

of the tapping cut on the

Under the method of payment by results, the tapper was

also given a task but was paid at so much per pound of dry rubber contained

in

the

latex.

Payment

70

by result was the most common

method of renumeratirzg Chinese estate

Tabourers under contract,

w h i l e most Indians were employed under the standard checkrow wage

rate

system.

Some Chinese, however, began to be employed on

checkroll by the 1ate 1930s (Partner 1960). Women workers were found i n a t ] three major forms of work in the technical division of iabour within estate work: processing rubber, tree-tapping and f i e l d

factory work

work chiefly

weeding.

Factory workers were engaged i n the preparation of the latex or l i q u i d rubber

for

initial

those who actually field the

marketing.

tapped the trees

The rubber

tappers

were

latex.

The

and collected

workers were employed in miscellaneous jobs of maintaining estate,

regarded

chiefly

as

unskilled.

in

skilled

weeding.

work

Generally,

while

field

rubber tapping

work

was

was

considered

In 1947 out of the 50,068 women workers i n the rubber

industry, 40,524 or 81 per cent were tappers and the rest were weeders and factory workers on the estates (Dei Tufo 1949, pp.

In other

442-45}.

unskilled jobs. i n tapping,

words, women were found i n both s k i l l e d arid

However, make workers tended to be concentrated

except for

and odd-job workers.

children

and old workers who were weeders

At the supervisory

level,

there

were no

women. A

sex

differential

existed

in

the

payment

of

wages.2

Chinese, Indian and Malay female iabourers received less than make iabourers when employed on checkroli.

For example, i n June 1946,

the f i a t rate wage for a may e Chinese f i e l d worker was 80-90 cents per day and 65-80 cents per day for a female Chinese f i e l d worker (Gamba 1962a, p. 12). Association

of

Organized employers i n the United Planning

Malaya i n 1946 recommended i t s

following rates to f i e l d workers:

members pay the

55 cents per day basic rate to

females and 70 cents to ma1 es for South Indian, Javanese and May ay

workers, and 70 cents to Chinese females and 90 cents to Chinese

71

males.

The cost

workers.3

of

living

allowance was 40 cents

for

all

The sex d i f f e r e n t i a l , however, disappeared when female

Tabourers were remunerated according to results

rather

than on

checkroii

(Parmer 1960, p. 168).

basis for

the d i f f e r e n t i a l d i d not Tie i n women doing Tess work

than men,

as has of ten been argued to justify Tower wages to

women.

This clearly indicated that the

the differential employment and wage

Instead, underlying

structures by sex were the constant calculations of Tabour costs and control

and the manipulation of women's social

(Gamba 1962a)

roles as w i f e and dependant of men to ensure a Tabour forc e that was cheap and malleable. In the debates among employers as to how to maximize surplus value, i t was argued that "the

tappers"

dependentsI

dependents

wages were not adequate to cover h i s cost

of

living.

were employed as

Ordinarily

the

workers.

To

field

require the rubber tapper to do additional work after tapping would deprive the dependants of f i e l d work. Either the

tapper

had to be paid enough to support

h i s dependants or the dependants had to be employed. The

latter

course

was

cheaper.

The non-tapping

l a b o r e r s also constituted a reserve tapping force, needed t o f i l l

in

absences among the tappers.

To

reduce or do away w i t h the non-tapping labour force

would make maintenance

difficult.

of

a

full

d a y ' s wages saved by leaving latex

to

tapping

force

Every field must be kept in production; a

a vacancy i n

compensation for

the

tapping

i n the trees due

force

is

the revenue l o s t . It

not

tapper's

job i s a s k i l l e d one.

maintain

i s important

the d i s t i n c t i o n between the tapper

f i e l d worker (Parmer 1960, pp. 197-98).

72

enough

Finally,

the to

and the

Women and children were thus hired as dependants as a means of maximizing surplus value through reducing total wages. wages could be paid to women and children

as casual

Lower

contract

Tabourers on the j u s t i f i c a t i o n that they were merely dependants of the male workers and need not be given the status of standard wage regular employees.

The

family

mode

of

employment

among the

various

ethnic

categories of labour i n the rubber estate economy continued into

the post-war period.

Among the Chinese workers specifically,

the

1about contract system and the casual contract employment of women and children

persisted,5

the

latter

increasingly

ensure the maintenance and reproduction general

labour

absence of

a single

family

wage.7

of

necessary to

the family

i n the

Thus, Chinese female

force increased from about 20 per cent of total Chinese

rubber estate labour force in the 1930s to 45.5 per cent by 1953, while i n general, total female estate 1 about forc e increased from

26 per cent of total rubber estate labour force to 43.3 per cent in the same years (calculated from Gamba 1962b, pp. 250-51).* This at so applied to those women who were not married. conditions

were particularly borne out during crises

industry,

The

and position of women estate workers and their families periods

in the rubber

in which employment and wages were closely affected by

international trends.4

During the boom periods of the 1900s and

19105, the inflow of women as workers and reproducers of labour power was strongly encouraged to meet the acute demands for labour

supplies to expand the agricultural

*

However,

population.

In a period of

in the post-colonial period particularly since the early 19705, the

Family mode of` employment has been affected by the diversification o f estate agriculture structure, . . Pkchnological changes in the rubber estate industry, through the displacement o f estate workers especially women workers (Hazer 19a1). my w

anni

. w w w

73

slump, however, women workers and their families

were severely

affected by unemployment and drastic reductions i n wages. the depression

of

the

1930s,

for

example,

workers to be affected were women. restricted

to

the

barest

some of

During

the f i r s t

Estate maintenance work was

minimum

and

the

practice

weed-clearing, a task done mostly by women, was abandoned. cuts were severe and the rubber industry's

Great

Depression

was

possible

only

of Wage

a b i l i t y to survive the

through

the

lowering

of

production

costs, chiefly through cuts

The central

question for the workers during this period was how to

survive.

in the workers' wages.5

Some unemployed Chinese occupied unused 1and to grow

vegetables

and

rear

poultry

for

subsistence,

constitute the squatter populations

urban areas. number of activities.

in

the

These

Women constituted

squatter population

forms

of

came

to

around mines, plantations and

Other took up hawking.

those

and

subsistence

a large

who took

up these

activities

expanded

greatly and became some of the major forms of work among Chinese

women in the post-depression and post-war years until the present. The position

of Chinese women in subsistence production on

rubber smallholdings i s beyond the scope of this discussion, suffices

to

competition

high

note

to

here

that

estates,

as 32 per

cent

rubber

smallholding

to

nearly

smallholders

serious

production ranging

from as

50 per cent of

production in the 1930s (Lim 1967, p. 328). policies

towards rubber

It

posed

total

rubber

The colonial s t a t e ' s

smallholders were clearly influenced by

organized estate capital, mainly European, and were discriminatory

towards

them

restrictions

in

within

replanting,

export

the

quotas

Malayan

national rubber regulations rubber

prices

the

Chinese

and restriction

between 1934 and 1942.8

Malay smallholders

hardest for

smallholders

taxation imposed

to

and by

the

output inter-

schemes to control

These policies hit

the

they constituted the majority, and

a

74

lesser

extent.

Neither

did

smallholders escape the conditions of economic depression and most turned to subsistence food production for survival.

In terms very similar position

of

backgrounds)

to those of women in the mines, the

Chinese women (as in

the

estates gender

well

as women of

illustrates

interaction

between

interaction,

women were incorporated

and

class

clearly relations.

other

ethnic

the

dynamic In

into the capitalist

this

estate

economy as workers on the one hand, and as married women, wives

and children who were considered dependants of men i n the family, on the other hand.

NOTES 1

This section discusses the position of Chinese women only. A study of the position of` Indian women in the plantations is highly relevant as they constitute the majority of Female workers and a crucial component of` labour in the state. By the same argument, a study of` Malay women's work in smallholding rubber cultivation is also relevant.

2

There also existed a wage differential between adult labour and youth labour, particularly among the Indians within the family l a b o r system. See Palmer (1960), p. 169.

3

Except for children who received half` that of' adults' (Gamba 1962P_, p. 27-fu). Another wage differential with implications on ethnic and industrial relations was along ethnic lines in which Chinese workers were paid more than

Indian workers. The justification was that the Chinese workers were not employed directly by the estates and the higher wages were to cover housing and other costs of living otherwise provided to live-in workers as required by e t significantly diflflernt oe rates made possible the substitutability Iof` one kind of labour for another at particular historical con8ur1ctures the cost of one form of labour employment was higher than another. See Palmer (1960), p. 169.

a

This discussion Focuses on economic crises only. During labour disputes such as those which occurred in 1946, casual female labour appear to be used to in the plantations insisted on a pool o f break strikes. Employers a only be obtained and maintained unemployed, for profits and operations by replacing striking works low-paid workers who were either migrants or women and children. See Gamba (1962Q)-

75

5

As has been pointed out, the chief instruments o f colonial policy tow rds the iodwerptz~itlo,the t t l g p f up unemployed duri g t h e s l p p and the creation Iii public works to absorb the unemployed at very low wages. In the 1930s depression, large numbers lane were repstriated. Assistance to unemployed Nndians mostly helped the middle class and white collar workers.l See Farmer (1960); pp. 238-39.

was

6

As late as 1956, 62 per cent of the Chinese estate labour force were still under the contract system and the rest under direct employment. Calculated from Gamba (l962b), p. 287.

7

wages W male A comparison of rates cost of living showed that . Indian and Malay estate workers were inadequate to support an average family, and that when rubber prices e low, even the sum total of` the wages Hf all working members was insufficient to maintain the f'amily. See Gamba (1962b), p . 278.

8

For details of` these y discriminator smallholders, see Bauer (1944).

ii

\.\,,"

Y6

state

policies

towards

rubber

VI I.

AMAH IN PAID DOMESTIC SERVICE

Prior to the 1930s, paid domestic service was almost exclusively

dominated by Hainarlese men. virtually

synonymous with the Hainanese "cookbook" or

who served European and local

other

In f act, paid domestic service was "houseboy"

wealthy Chinese househoids.l

The

form of domestic service was unpaid domestic servitude by

mui t s a i . began i n

The massive entry of women into paid domestic service the 1930s with the iarge-scale immigration

0? single

women from China into Malaya and coincided with the abolition the mui tsai system.

of

By 1947, an overwhelming 85 per cent of the

total female iabour force i n the "personal services" sector were engaged i n p a i d domestic service alone.

Women quickly

displaced

men at paid domestic service, making up as much as 68 per cent of

the total workforce in t h i s form of employment in the same year,

and domestic service become strongly identified as women'5 work

.

The women largely responsible for the identification of paid domestic service as women's work were the Cantonese immigrants, many of whom were formerly anti-marriage i n China.

resistance movement women

In Malaya. many of these women found work as domestic

servants i n wealthy Chinese and European colonial

hosueholds, and

became commonly known as the Cantonese amah.

They made up a

sizeable proportion i f not the majority of women domestic servants and, for many, domestic service was their only form of employment

77

throughout

their working l i v e s .

A study of women in the clan

associations and vegetarian halls of Singapore in the mid-1950s (Topley 1958) confirmed that a large number of single women who entered

paid

domestic

service

resistance

area i n China.

evidence,

it

is

known

were

there

(While

that

from

the

is

Cantonese

anti-marriage

little

women

documented

from

the

same

background and employed i n paid domestic service were also found

in the major towns of Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang where they worked Their

for

wealthy

organizations

Chinese were

similar

Thus, while the following

study of

domestic

conditions

and European colonial to

those

households.

studied

by Topley.

account i s drawn mainly from Topley's

servants

in

Singapore,

it

were similar to the rest of Malaya.)

immigrants constituted at least a significant

is

believed that These Cantonese

proportion if

not

the majority of domestic servants since their arrival i n the 19305 up to the 1960s and l970s. While other categories of paid domestic servants existed,

it

i s this

category of amah domestic

servants which i s focused here.

(The other category of women who

entered

in

paid

domestic

Hainanese women.

Hainanese domestic live-in

servants

service

the

1930s

and

1940s

were

Most of them came to Malaya as the wives of

servants in

the

and same

of ten,

the

household.

couple Thus,

worked

as

to

the

identification of paid domestic service with the Hainanese "cookbook" or "housebo.y" was added the Hainanese husband and wife work team). Paid domestic service in private households was usua'iy done by a single

amah or by two or three amah each with her task of

cooking, cleaning, childcare or general housekeeping.

In European

households, the division of iabour i n domestic service tended to be very clear cut with different amah being hired as cook amah or baby amah.

Some amah worked singly or i n pairs as sworn sisters,

while a third arrangement

was joint work with a male cook who was

often a Hainanese. 78

Domestic service had a special attraction for these immigrant single women.

Besides being one of the few economic opportunities

opened to them, i t s status was high as a result of the abolition of the mui tsai system and restrictions on women immigrants in the

post-war period.

of

amah

who

servants.

The latter had the effect of limiting the supply

were

generally

preferred

married

domestic

By the 1940s and 1950s, the domestic amah could command

an income comparing favourabiy clerk

over

with that

of an English-speaking

and better wages than the other few jobs opened to women

such as those of waitresses, cashiers, cleaners and hairdressers. Domestic servants working for

a Western f arniiy i n Singapore i n

1955 were paid about $140 t o $180 for ai1 household work including washing and cooking, and had lodgings but not food provided.

In

the case of work in a Chinese household, they were paid $80 t o $120 for the same work but with food included (Wee 1954, p. 162; Topiey 1958, pp. 187-88). servant

In Kual a Lumpur, a female domestic

i n an European household was paid about $ 1 0 per month

with accommodation but no food provided while a make cook earned about $150-$180 per month under the same conditions.2

Domestic

largely

service

also

provided

from those who worked

in

social

prestige

households

that

derived

paid them

re atively higher wages and provided re atively better conditions of

work

and f a c i d i t i e s

employment.

It

such as accommodation and security of

also enabl ed those in the anti-marriage movement

t o continue their practices as they could work i n pairs as "sworn" sisters. to

Among employers,

local-born

many preferred single

women who tended to be married

leave and get married.

immigrant

women

or were l i k e l y t o

Domestic servants who were committed to

remain single were prepared to l i v e in, spend more time on their work and had less distractions conflict between family their

choice

of

outside.

For most amah, the

l i f e and work did not arise because of

non-marriage

and, 79

in

some

cases,

they

were

Ann Prior to the 1930s paid domestic service was almost exclusively

a male task.

The

women largely responsible f`or the identification of` paid domestic service as women's work were the Cantonese immigrant women many of whom remained unmarried. (Photograph by courtesy of the National Archives, Singapore;)

considered a member of the family they worked for.

between social

Any conflict

l i f e and the isolated nature of domestic service

was largely resolved by their organizational

arrangements around

work

them to

and living

isolation Indeed, position

and to

their

conditions,

maximize

ability to

as immigrant

which enabled

the

opportunities

for

break

the

interaction.

cope with their economic and social

single women workers won them prestige as

being "successful" and capable women, which in turn enhanced the prestige of domestic service as an occupation.

The women's organizational

arrangements to cope with work and

l i v i n g were focused on the kongsi fong and char tang.3

The women

kongsi fong, f i r s t opened in the 1930s with the immigration of

80

women workers to Malaya, were basically communal living quarters organized by example,

construction

as well those

women

domestic

in

similar

occupations.

amah kongsi

Fong,

There were,

sewing amah kongsi

for

Fong,

kongsi Fong and kongsi Fong in mines and plantations

as kongsi Fong of mixed occupations. who

formed

kongsi

Fong

were

The majority

originally

members

of of

sisterhoods i n China and as such, the kongsi Fong were commonly organized

along sisterhood,

lines.

Most

of

them

dialect,

were

village

Cantonese

or

women,

construction kongsi fong tended to be Samsui women. sub-dialect

even d i s t r i c t although

(Samsui i s a

of Cantonese.)

The kongsi Fong was set up by pooling wages together quarters

the

and for

to rent

communal l i v i n g , the number of members ranging

from two to f i f t y .

It ranged i n size from a cubicle to a number

of rooms and i n function from a simple space to l i v e and to keep belongings

to

an

elaborate

clubhouse

with

various

sorts

of

benefits schemes and regular social a c t i v i t i e s .

The level of development of the kongsi fong depended on the s i z e of the group and the earnings of the women.

A well organized

kongsi forrg also functioned as kind of trade guild with a woman leader

having some degree of authority, usually

on the basis of

her seniority and experience, and who played a leading role i n the

organization of the kongsi Fong.

She took care of the welfare and

employment conditions of the kongsi Fong members, such as ensuring

that

the

terms

of

employment

were

appropriate

so

that

the

standards of employment i n general and of members i n particular, were maintained. function

as

themselves,

members.

The well

a recruitment where

organized centre

potential

jobs

kongsi

for

Fong might

amah run

were

made

by

known

the to

at so

women fellow

Employment in domestic service was mainly found through

such arrangements as well

as through

81

friendship

and sisterhood

ties within the kongsi Fong.

Work conditions were also determined

by the kongsi Fong through discussions before an amah took up a

job.

Topley cites the case of a thirty woman-strong kongsi Fong

started

by two "sworn"

Japanese occupation.

sisters

lived

together- since the

In another case, one Samsui association had

a majority of women among i t s single

who

800 members.

and were employed as labourers

Most of

them were

or domestic servants.

third case was the Kwong Ngi Guild, one of the earliest registered

i n Singapore i n 1939.

It

A

guilds

was an entirely Cantonese

female organization with 167 members, the majority of whom were i n domestic service.

In i t s twenty-one member committee, twelve were

amah, and the president was a sewing amah.

t o find

The society undertook

employment and other mutual benefits,

medical treatment, forth.

money for return

such as costs of

or v i s i t s

to China, and so

However, while a well organized kongsi Fong might act as

an effective

small groups.

guild,

such organizations

In general,

there

were mostly

limited

to

were no organizations between

different kongsi Fong to f i x common regulations

for conditions of

work i n domestic service.4 The

other major

form of

organization

was

the

(vegetarian h a l l s ) that many domestic servants joined.

char

tang

Topley, i n

her study of the char tang i n Singapore i n the mid-1950s, found that

domestic

membership.

for

servants

constituted

a 1a r e

majority

of

their

These were religious houses which women frequented

various social

activities

and retired to i n old age.

Thai

tang were in existence among the early Chinese in Malaya, and they expanded in the 1930s when Cantonese women came to Malaya i n larg e numbers. Their proliferation during the war arose out of the

specific circumstances f aced by single women. the need for

women to flee

Japanese s o l d i e r s , Johore

and

It

i s believed that

from the sexual exploitation of

the

r e s u l t i n g i n a southward movement of women i n t o

Singapore,

partly

1ed

82

to

their

growth.

In

these

religious

halls, the women were relatively

violence

of

Japanese

soldiers

who

safe from the sexual

generally

left

religious

establishments alone, being Buddhists themselves. Chai tang members also retained their anti-marriage and sisterhood

practices

tang's functions

lodging.

but

unlike

the

position the char

I.I

were not limited to econ

provisions such as

They also provided social supports for unattached women

i n a variety of ways both during their working l i v e s and i n their

retirement.

It

was these social

economic ones that

supports

in

addition

made them more attractive

than kongsi Fong

which catered for women only during their working l i v e s . study found that most of the women frequenting

were more than forty years

of

Cantonese women, the majority domestic nowhere

of

tO

These

go.5

Topley's

and l i v i n g i n them

age and were mostly

servants who had lost

to the

immigrant

whom were working or retired

contact with relatives

haTls

were really

homes

and had

for

single

immigrant women and women who lacked support in old age. The economic organization on financial

resources.

of the char tang varied, depending

Basic

working and on retirement

lodging f a c i l i t i e s

were provided for

both while

in return

for

a

certain

sum of money or services towards maintenance of the char

tang.

The contributions depended on the financial position and

physical

abilities of the women.

The old, weak and poor could

l i v e in the char tang by contributing

services such as cleaning

and general maintenance, while those who could earn contributed cash regularly.

In the char tang, some women at so earned income

by sewing, making baskets,

weaving and other economic a c t i v i t i e s

that they could cope with i n their o l d age.

and financially

stronger

facilities

arrangements,

and

schemes and social

char

activities

tang,

in

organized

The more organized

addition various

which reinforced

83

to the mutual

mutual

above

benefit

support.

Festivals provided the occasions for organize

activities.

the women to socialize

These were particularly

unattached women who worked i n isolation

for retired women. food cultivation

and

significant

for

i n domestic service and

Some char tang had their own plots of hand for

and for the burial

of members.

Arrangements for

funeral r i t e s and a burial place were particularly significant the immigrant women who had no relatives China.

As has been a p t l y

and who did not return to

quoted by Topiary, vegetarian h a l l s

offered "care while a l i v e and a funeral It

is

significant

for

that

the

at death".

vegetarian h a l l s ,

as the only

organization to cater for the needs of unattached immigrant women, were religious i n character.

The Salvationist

religions of the

halls were a particular attraction for Chinese women who rejected the

subordinate

practices on

roles

of

women

in

marriage.

The religious

offered equal status with men i n paradise, reincarnation

earth

as

cultivation

a

male,

spiritual

rewards

in

to maintain purity and chastity

rejection

of

marriage

religious

system

in

in the

status and authority.

their halls

and l i t e r a t u r e .

offered

Other religious

self-

as well as justified

teaching also

religious

The

opportunities

for

establishments such as the

Buddhist nunneries which some of the women frequented also offered similar forms of salvation. girls

who

rejected

establishments

It has been noted that i n Canton, the

marriage

and

vegetarian

were

fond

of

halls.

visiting

In

religious

Singapore,

these

establishments were set up by single women in continuation of that practice

and

were

extremely

popular

among

Chinese

women,

especially among the domestic servants. The strategies women

also

involved

groups by adoption. the

to cope with their specific position

traditional

the

formation

of

all-femaie

These were modifications

family

system

and

84

support

as single

f amities

and substitutions structure,

and of

based on

f i l i a l mother-daughter

relationships.

Adoption was common among

unattached working class women and many amah took up the practice

Although fear of childbirth

of adopting g i r l s as their daughters.

was a reason for joining the anti-marriage movement, many of them were fond of

rather

children,

especially

girls.5

They adopted g i r l s

than boys as daughters were f e l t to be more f i l i a l

to

parents and would look after them in their old age by earning a l i v i n g and giving them company.

This rested on the expectation

and hope that l i k e their mothers, they would not marry.

were

obtained

through

impoverished f amities,

traffickers,

the price

unmarried

The g i r l s

mothers

or

a girl ranging from a nominal

US$5 to us$350 i n 1954.7 Adoption took various forms the char tang or"'aj'"'"""""°"""

:i..1u|mu|-

either by individual

as a whole.

women or by

In the char tang

OY'

kongsi Fong, the adopted children were socialized into traditional roles of f i l i a l daughters and the a c t i v i t i e s of the group.

While

in principle, the chiidrerz had the choice of remaining unmarried and j i v i n g i n the char tang or ko ng o Fong or leaving, to working and marrying when they grew up, their mothers usually hoped that they

would not

marry

but

remain f i i i a l

support i n their old age.

to

provide

them with

.

Despite the conduciveness to marriage given the imbalanced

sex ratio and strong "traditional" values attached to i t , continued to retain their strong anti-marriage

the amah

orientation.

While

this can be attributed to persisting fears of childbirth, men, the subordinate position of a traditional wife, and so forth, which

the y held originally i n China, the fear of being a concubine or secondary wife instead of a f i r s t wife was a new and traditional reason i n Malaya.

It

was common for

a male immigrant

who had a

w i f e in China to acquire more wives i n Malaya (Wee 1954).

Among

the working class males, this was largely because they could not

85

afford to send for their wives from China or had long lost contact with their f amities; for the wealthy males such as the merchants and businessmen,

it

Many of

system.

Furthermore,

marries

part

of

the

traditional

the women did not find

many of

and her

wife; i f

was the

spinsters

this

remarked

husband becomes wealthy,

concubinage

position

secure.

that " i f

a woman

he takes a secondary

poor, he sends his wife out to work" (quoted i n Topley

1958, p. 192).

Their ability to maintain economic independence

through earning and controlling their own incomes, rather than being subject to the authority of a husband, figured predominantly in

their

together

calculation

to

with

sisterhood

their

remain

unmarried.

This

institutions

they

and

felt,

substitute

f amities, was a more r e l i a b l e form of security and protection

for

o l d age than marriage.

The reputation

of the amah as capable and successful women

thus appears to stem from their organizational women and as workers. social

support

a b i l i t i e s both as

The forms developed for

were to

a large

extent

interaction

feminist

and

in character,

organized around the rejection of marriage and based on principles of

sisterhood,

organization

solidarity

and

support.

Although

these

a b i l i t i e s and forms originated in China, the ability

to work and earn an income in Malaya provided the economic basis

for

the women to maintain their independence as single women.

Their immigrant status, the isolating nature of housework (Jelin 1977), the lack of family connections and their unattached status w i t h no one t o care for them and nowhere to go to in o l d age gave further

impetus

organizational

It

is,

and new meaning to

however,

misleading

servants and single immigrant Fong and char

their development of

these

forms and a b i l i t y .

tang, or

to

think

that

aH

domestic

women were well organized i n ko ng o

that these

86

i n s t i t u t i o n s were a l l

highly

developed.

Whether or not the women could band together

for

economic and social support depended crucially on their financial

resources and employment status.

The highly organized kong

or

char tang which provided elaborate mutual aid and benefit schemes were probably an exception and their flourishing days were limited

to

when

their

financially.

members

in.

provided

working

and

could

contribute

Generally kongsi fong and char tang provided the

--

most basic needs to live

were

a physical space t o store one's belongings and

A chief

living

working l i v e s ;

drawback of the kongsi fong was that

quarters

and

when they

support their stay

leave.

While

retired

to

in

only

grew too o l d to

i n the kongsi

a few kongsi

live

support

them

during

work

the

women's

and could not

fong f i n a n c i a l l y , they

fong did make provisions

permanently,

their

it

had to

for

f acilities

the

were

generally inadequate due to the limited financial resources of the women. It must be borne i n mind that most immigrant women worked at low paying and unskilled

jobs with l i t t l e or no social security

in old age when they retired. usually

had

employment. retirement

quarters

For live-in domestic servants, they

provided

Access to

by

vegetarian

employers halls

but

only

during

to secure a place of

depended to a large extent on the women's financial

standing and a b i l i t y to save.

This was largely limited to that

category of domestic servants who earned relatively high incomes

in wealthy local and European households. The question of economic and social support for

single women in general

~- a constant f actor

the amah and

i n their l i v e s

--

became particular t y acute i n o l d age when the y were no longer able to earn incomes.

The a b i l i t y and success of banding together for

support appear to decline with retirement.

Kaye's (1960) study of

Upper fan kin Street, Singapore provides some useful insights

the position of the immigrant women i n their o l d age.

into

amah and other single working class

The majority l i v e d

8?

i n cubicles,

their

whole g i v e s bound by the poor conditions i n which they l i v e d as they had nowhere else to g0.9 await death.

Others stayed in "death houses" to

Many of the women belonging to the kongsi Fong in

Topley's study expressed the fear of ending their days in a "dying house".

A recent study of three old people's homes in Penang in

1979 found i t s

inmates who were largely

i n poverty and loneliness.

single immigrants j i v i n g

Most of them had been abandoned or had

10st ail contact with their relatives (Sri Ranjini et a t . , 1978). Questions about economic and social support systems for

poor,

aged and

relevant

today

single as

women

retired

in amah

particular and

are

other

generation women are now i n their s i x t i e s

all

single

the

the

m re

immigrant

and seventies.

It

is

doubtful that they are as organized and active as when they were

younger, given the above considerations.

NOTES 1

Domestic service did exist under the indenture system

.

exceedingly small.

2

Informant Soon Yoke Lin was a Hainanese domestic servant who teamed up with a male cook t o work in

3

but the number was

Blythe (1947), pp. 90-1

Much of

the

a European household for Five years.

information an the _igpngsi _Fong and char tang is obtained from

Topley'.s stL in the major towns

Singapore.

the

areas of Chinese immigrant settlement in Kuala Lumpur and Penang reflect similar patterns of` female immigration ghd their housing patterns. In Singapore for example, some streets consisted almost entirely of konqsi Fang inhabited by Cantonese female immigrants and most o f them were amah konqsi. Singapore,

4

For example, a younger .amah might not become a cook or general alanah until she had worked in a subordinate capacity, such as an "apprentice" under a more experienced Hmah-

5

Other women who frequented these halls included war widows, old retired women, married women and concubines deserted by their husbands or separated from them, and actresses, prostitutes and dance girls who, unable to marry while young, found themselves alone and without support in old age.

88

6

Many o f them preferred t o be baby amah math r than do other domestic work.

7

D i g t h p r i d l 9 3 D - 6 D , i t

s

f

Families to sell or give away their c h i l d e

--

,

d m t h r

n d i p v r i h d

especially girls.

8

Another Farm o f adoption was the Chi a bond between a child and a woman or man with the consent o f the child's parent In this form of adoption, both girls and buys were adopted.

9

In Kaye's (1960, p. 32), study, it was found that 39 per cent o f total households were single person households a d another 4 per cent were koruqsi

.

_Fong

in which a group of` more or less unrelated persons o f the same sex formed the household. Sixty-six per cent of the single person households were women and the Female korlqsi households consisted of` two or three

per

.

Gareth

9Dp

t f

th

m

i

s ch h u

holds

e

m

than forty years old: as per cent o f the omen were spinsters, 25 per cent were widows. Among the spinsters, most of them came between 1935 and 1944 during that period of mass immigration o f women and those Hrs widows came mostly between 1915 and 1944. House amah and baby amah were among the occupations t women, ers being cooks, dressmakers and seamstresses r Factory workers, construction workers (mostly Samsui women), hawkers and odd job labourers.

mr

89

YII

MANUFACTURING

The integration of

the Malayan colonial

capitalist system was such that i t materials,

specifically

economy into

the world

served as a producer of raw

t i n and rubber, for the metropolitan Europe and especially the industries of

capitalist

cert res of

Britain.

The exchange between these centres

and the Malayan

economy took the classic form i n which manufactured goods were

imported into Malaya in return for its primary exports. the Malayan economy had l i t t l e industrial basis of l i t t l e manufacturing

production

within

a c t i v i t i e s resembling such a production processing

included

of

raw materials

and to

food

processing,

clothing

As such,

its

own and

a factory system.

Any

system were limited to the commodity

and

production

footwear

which

and

light

industries

such as brick making, saw milling, cement production,

foundries

and

revealed that

engineering industries

works.

The

Blythe

Report

such as saw m i l l i n g , rubber

(1938)

processing

and production of watches were already i n existence i n the 1930s.

A key feature

i n the factories manufacturing goods such as

matches, rubber items, the

employment

of

female immigration feature,

and

and aerated water

many Chinese women

in

included

f i l a t u r e s i n China.

cigars

the l920s

(Blythe

in the 1930s was 1938).

Massive

and 19305 accounted for

anti-marriage women

displaced

from

this sick

Women from the Tung Kun county of China, for

90

exampl e, usually

ended up i n factory

as ready

work which they were

familiar with when they were i n China. During

World

consumer items manufacture

War

II,

the

such as paper,

of

products

in

local

substitution

foo d and cloth,

shoes 3 small

simple

of

industrial

and

and the

commercial

enterprises were set up t o replace goods which had become scarce

1967,

(Purcell

p.

the

For

256).

first

time,

a majority of

consumption goods were produced l o c a l l y to substitute for

items

and,

although

of

a

makeshift

nature,

s one

imported

of

these

manuf acturing a c t i v i t i e s became the basis for permanent industries

in

the

post-war

Chinese

period

women played

(Purcell

It

1967).

an important

role

in

is

probable

that

the

invention

and

manufacture of many such items, as many men were recruited by the Japanese for forced 1abour i n road and railway construction, colonization f arming arid various

schemes i n

the

land

Japanese army.

The Restriction of Male Employment Ordinance passed i n December

1944 to bolster labour

had

the

manuf acturing

effect

of

for

further

various forms of forced

replacing

male

labour

in

and various services and trades with that of women

For example, the manufacture of ropes and twine, a new

and g i r l s .

industry

up male recruitment

to

meet

trade

provided employment

and

transport

for tens of

needs

thousands

of

during

the

war,

women and g i r l s

as

well as men and boys (Purcell 1967). The

overall

extent

to

which

femal e 1 about

Tambour in manuf acturing during the war i s unknown, but i t that the large-scaie

other war

period.

outside

Uveraii, provided

agriculture,

i s clear

participation of women in manufacturing

commercial a c t i v i t i e s was strongly established

manufacturing

male

replaced

immediately

the largest

personal

after

the

and

during

war

in

the

1947,

source of employment for women

services,

mining

and

hawking,

accounting for 0.76 per cent of total Female working population in

91

1931 and 1.25 per cent i n 1947.

largest

employment

sector

In Singapore,

after

personal

it

was the second

services.

However,

despite women's inroads into the manufacturing sector before and

after World War II, its

overall

i t remained heavily male-dominated i n terms of

working population

and i n certain industries.

1931, women on the whole constituted

In

11 per cent (12,017) of the

total workforce i n manusacturing, and 19 per cent (28,319) in 1947 (oei Tufo 1949, p. 103)»

In

the

sexual

division

workers were mostly

women I s

of

limited to

traditional

skills

lab our

in

in

cloth

sector,

th is

those a c t i v i t i e s

making,

women

which involved

tailoring

and

dress making, rubber and tobacco processing and, i n earlier days prior to the abolition

of opium smoking, the processing of opium

in opium f arms 5 factories and dens. Report,

there

industries

were nearly

manus acturing

According to the 1947 census

2,000 Chinese women i n each of clothing

tobacco and raw materials.

and processing food,

the

drinks,

In the processing of raw materials,

nearly half of the women were involved in rubber works alone, such as vulcanizing,

and

packing

manufacture

grading and stripping rubber, making rubber goods

rubber of

sheets.

clothing

Those

were

mostly

women tailors

involved and

in

the

dressmakers.

About 1,000 women were employed in the manufacture of tobacco and cigars. There were another 600-odd women i n the manufacture of goods using wood and cane, such as i n basketry.

There were also

cases where women were found i n t r a d i t i o n a l l y male tasks.

included 160 women employed i n the manufacture of bricks, and glass, 426 women i n the manufacture and machines and i n smelting, works

(out

of

a total

these industries),

founding, engineering

Chinese working

population

pottery

of metals

and electrical of

25,765 i n

and some 640 women i n woodwork and basketry

(Del Tufo 1949, p . 103). male-dominated

and repairing

They

industries

On the whole manuf acturing work in the such` as

92

light

engineering

work

and

Rubber graders and packers

A key festgre in the Factories in the 1930s was the employment o f many Chinese women. Women factory workers were mostly limited to those activities which involved women's traditional skills, such as the processing, sorting and packing o f rubber. (Photographs by courtesy of` the National Archives, Singapore.)

93

woodwork tended to be defined

as skilled work, while those in

which women were concentrated such as the grading, stripping and packing of rubber and the manufacture of cloth and garments tended

to be viewed as unskilled or semi-skilled

"women's work".

L i t t l e else i s known about the conditions of work of Chinese women in factories

and in the manufacturing

during the colonial period. factories

and

manuf acturing

often

under

as a whole

This i s partly because many of the establishments

enterprises which employed only

concerns,

sector

the

were

small-scale

a few workers or

supervision

of

were family

a male.

Women's

participation in such enterprises was either as part of unpaid

family

labour

workers.

or

as

part-time,

full-time

or

irregular

wage

Of the total 7,758 Chinese women in the manufacturing

sector in 1947, 73 per cent were wage workers while 20 per cent were

self-employed

workers.

workers

and

the

rest

standardized

determined

clan,

unpaid

(These figures should be viewed with caution

involve only cases covered by the census.)

not

were

in

the

small-scale

family

as they

Work conditions

enterprises

were

but

were

either by each enterprise or by kongsi organized along

dialect and trade lines.

factory work until the 1950s.

The labour

code did not cover

Any further understanding

in manufacturing

of

the

origins and conditions of

female labour

require much more research

into both factory forms and family or

would

petty commodity forms of production many of which s t i l l exist. Red atively more i s known about the position of Chinese and

other women in manuf acturing

*

The post-1969 years in

in the post-coioniai

period.*

In

particular have seen vast social and economic changes

under the New Economic Policy. Une major change affecting women has been their massive recruitment into the vastly expanded sector of industrial manufacturing (Hirschman and Aghajanian, 1980). This is significant not only f`or Chinese women but for Malay and Indian women as well, and in particular

94

industrial manufacturing,

a large proportion of women workers are

employed by multinational processes

producing

electronics

in

lab our-intensive

textiles,

precision

These firms

young women workers for

processes because of

productivity of the women. established that underlying

the s k i l l s ,

production equipment,

components and various consumer items.

employ almost exclusively

intensive

firms

mainly

their labour-

cheapness and high

By now, various studies have firmly the firms' profitability calculations

i s their a b i l i t y to manipulate and control

female 1 about through

their gender roles, and which result in the relative cheapness and productivity

of

female

Chapter 1, note 4 ) . gender roles

and

labour

compared with

male

labour

(see

The multinational companies in incorporating attributes

of

women into

lab our, become gender-bearing relations

its

relation with

which subordinate women

both as workers and as women at the same time.** It

appears

manufacturing their position

that

throughout

Chinese

work from the colonial has been continuously

two primary f actors:

women's

period

in

up to the present,

and consistently

class and gender.

history

defined b.y

These factors

tend to

f`or those who are young and single. For Chinese women, those from both urban and rural backgrounds are involved; for Malay and Indian women their entry into manufacturing represents a shift from agricultural work and household reproductiv

**

work.

As subordinated workers, the women are concert ated in

low-paying, dead-end

jobs involving the extension o f their traditional skills and attributes which are conside ed low or non-skilled in the sexual division o f labour. In their brdi t s a g d r , o f`thef s F p t i h l power are preserved and utilized to manipulate them inside and outside the factory floor, such as the male authority of bosses in the Factory and managementorganized "family" leisure activities. For those women with families, this process of intensification of' gender subordination works simultaneously as a recompositi n process in which the authority of the male boss replaces, d r i add t th 1 the t y of`, f r ampl th f th (S nth East Asia Chronicle 66 [1979]; Elson and Pearson 1980).

,

95

subordinate them as workers and women simultaneously. the same time,

work in the factory

their survival

and that of their f amities.

economic family

independence

controls.

and relative

However, at

provides income crucial It

freedom from

Both economic and social

for

also provides "traditional"

freedoms are well

appreciated by the women, during the colonial period in particular by those who remained single.

But much s t i l l

remains to be

researched and understood on the complex and contradictory

effects

of f actory-based work on women's lives inside and outside of work,

during the colonial period as well as in the post-1959 period of industrialization.

96

VIII

OTHER ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Apart from the above forms of economic activity i n which most

Chinese

women

increasingly

were

found,

provided

other

employment

sectors

for

and

women.

industries

These

include

hawking, construction and services.

Hawking Hawking provided Chinese women

service

in

the

after

1947,

fourth mining,

accounting

largest

source

of

employment

of

agriculture

and private

for

6,000 women vendors,

nearly

domestic

pedlars, hawkers and sales women (Del Tufo 1949, p. 103). This i s probably an underestimation as i t excludes

figure, however,

those women who were involved in the production and preparation of foodstuffs and various items but who were not directly involved i n

the actual hawking of these goods. Although hawking on the whole was a heavily male-dominated activity, women hawkers and traders capable

businesswomen.

small-scale

had a reputation

Hawking activities

for

were usually

being on

a

individual or family basis, and goods hawked included

food and non-durable items such as cooked food, vegetables, f r u i t s

97

Hawker Cigarette vendor. Women hawkers were well known For being capable businesswomen although hawking on the whole was a heavily male-dominated activity. (Photograph by courtesy of the National Archives, Singapore.)

Sewing woman Self-initiated activities ba~ed on traditionally women's skills such

as sewing represent response and strategies to survive in the f`ace of unemployment,

economic hardship

and lack of social support in old age. (Photograph by courtesy of the National Archives, Singapore.)

98

HUH up 1? 'fil 1

ALl

*

U*

'sir

- I I ! I v ! !

Construction workers Women workers (c. 1950) in the construction sector were

identified

with

the

Sansui

women who worked individually

or

in

together

houses.

groups in

and

female

lived konqsi

(Photographs

by

courtesy of Kouo Sheng Wei).

99

and flowers

(largely

self-grown),

as well as durables such as

cooking utensils

and toys.

centres,

and markets as well as within

streets

Goods were hawked cheaply in town local residential

areas such as squatter settlements. Women hawkers came mostly from squatter areas, new villages and generally poor urban populations.

Hawking was also one of the

few alternatives of livelihood for old people who could not afford to retire for economic reasons.

In the post-war period, hawking

has remained virtually the only economic activity opened to the

old who need to earn an income to survive. The proliferation

of

hawking

general

and women's participation

context

of

and services

in

i n them are to be seen i n the

the pauperization and dislocation of working class and f amities, apart from their natural growth to

individuals service

activities

growing populations.

large-scale

These phenomena f i r s t began on a

i n the economic depressions of 1912-14 and the 1930s

and resulted

in the growth of poor squatter populations around

towns, mines and estates.

The situation

was further accentuated

i n the post-war period of unemployment and dislocation. 1 after, one m i l l i o n people were regrouped and resettled

In the into new

villages, estates, mines and other settlements as a counterinsurgency measure by the colonial government under the Emergency

(1948-60), a period of intense military and industrial conflict between the colonial government and communists. Those relocated were largely mostly

took

left to

to

the

rearing of livestock

fend for

themselves economically.

cultivation

of

vegetables

for subsistence and for

and fruits

They

and

sale, as well as to

hawking, and odd jobs. For the marginalized populations,

income for

subsistence.

hawking provided a means of

For women hawkers, this often involved

100

the extension of their traditional s k i l l s such as food preparation and sewing.

Hawking also provided the flexibility necessary for

women to cope with household reproductive

work, as i t

could be

done for only part of the day or could be combined with household tasks.

It

bring

their

foodstuffs

was not uncommon for market women, for young

children

along

with

them

example, to

to

and for older children to help them sell

hawk

their

their wares.

Often, hawking took place close to the women's homes so that they could alternate between housework and hawking. In

recent

years,

there

has

been much

marginal economy and the r o l e of the informal the

needs of

1974).

poor

capita]

accumulation with

its

debate

about

the

sector in serving cheapness (0uijano

However, seen from the perspective of the marginalized and populations,

of

particularly

women,

such

self-initiated

income-generating a c t i v i t i e s represent responses and strategies survive i n the f ace of unemployment, economic hardship lack of economic alternatives

i n addition

to

and the

to coping with house

work and childcare.

Construction The construction

industry was also among the industries i n which

women immigrants sought work.

with similar backgrounds.

Many of these women were single,

The Samsui women in particular mostly

worked at construction

sites and, in f act, women in construction

work

with

were

identified

individually or

in

groups

houses, very much l i k e

the

Samsui

and lived

women.

together in

They

worked

female kongsi

the dulang washers i n the mining areas.

The number and proportion of women in the construction

workforce

prior to the i n f l u x of women into Malaya i n the 1930s i s unclear,

101

but the 1947 Census recorded the total Chinese working population

in the building

industry as consisting of 1,908 women and 4,987 The figure is, however, probably an underestimation as women

men.

workers i n construction

were mostly employed on a casual contract,

not regular, basis.

A sexual division of labour existed in construction work.

As

noted by Ann Wee (1954, p. 162) foundation diggings was almost exclusively earth.

a female task.

Women were also involved

the contract

system in the late 1950s and early 19605, a clear

sexual division of labour was also noted.

ii

Sui

i n moving

In my own observation of women construction workers under

k.un

(cement

and earth works)

Women were limited to

which involved

digging,

moving earth, wood, cement and bricks, mixing cement, sand and stones, picking

wood and manual odd jobs

cleaning on the completion of a building. all

forms of construction

wooden

and

iron

such as sweeping and Male workers dominated

work such as carpentry, the fixing of

structures,

cementing,

bricklaying,

electrification work and fixing of doors and windows.

painting,

These were,

i n f act, strictly male tasks which were considered skilled work earning higher incomes, compared with the tasks performed by women

which were considered as tsap_ _k_ung (general work) and unskilled.

There was also a discrepancy in male and female wages for the same kind of work done.

A male worker in I i

about $6-$8 per day while women workers between $4 and $6 per day.

in

Sui kung could earn the same kung earned

Male workers tended to be hired on a

regular contract basis while women were casual contract or daily contract workers.

L i t t l e else is known about women in the construction industry but

again,

it

is

suggested

here

102

that

their

participation in

Barbara The hairdressing saloon is usually headed by an older woman who has risen in the trade through experience and has accumulated sufficient capital to start her own business. (Photograph by courtesy of the National Archives, Singapore.)

construction

be seen as a survival

strategy of urban poor and

squatter women, both young and old}

Services The service sector was the second largest source of employment of

Chinese women workers after agriculture in 1947, mainly services

and incl oded

of a "personal" nature such as domestic

103

servicing

in

private

households and various

waitressing and laundry. private

In

this

forms of

servicing

"personal"

domestic service alone accounted for

such as

services sector, an overwhelming 85

per cent of the total female workforce in 1947.

The remaining 15

per cent of women workers were mostly employed in restaurants

and

hotels as cashiers, waitresses and cleaners, in laundries and in hairdressing saloons.*

Such "personal" services were concentrated

in the towns where the majority of the Chinese population settled, namely Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Taiping and Penang, and were usually run on a small-scale family or individual

basis except for

the larger hotels and restaurants.

Apart from domestic servants,

l i t t l e i s known about women

workers in the other trades within the services sector.

However,

i t i s common knowledge that in the hairdressing trade, young women are preferred and are trained under an apprenticeship system with long

working

hours,

without cash payments. by an older

food

and lodgings

provided

and

with

or

The hairdressing saloon i s usually headed

woman who has risen

i n the trade through years of

experience and has accumulated sufficient capital to start her own business.

one of

the

In general, women's work i n this sector may be seen as

few income-earning sources for

poor women and as

extensions of their traditional s k i l l s of servicing.

*

Del Tufo (1949), pp. M12-l&5, £177_82. While men were also involved in personal services in large numbers, they tended to be hotel, restaurant and lodge keepers, waiters and barmen.

104

VIX

CONCLUSION

The concept of going out of the home to work i s certainly not new to Chinese women.

Early Chinese women were found i n a diversity

of work situations of which prostitution, domestic servitude, paid domestic

service,

manu acturing

mining,

were the

rubber

first

estate

work,

forms.

major

hawking

Other

major

and work

a c t i v i t i e s included persons] servicing as cashiers, waitresses and

cleaners in restaurants, hotels and bars, hairdressing in saloons, laundry

work,

livestock

construction

rearing.

women's s k i l l s

work,

and

vegetable

gardening

In some of these work situations,

and

Chinese

and tradition of economic independence originating

from their peasant and working class origins

i n southern China

were continued and further developed i n Malaya.

The subordinate position of Chinese women in colonial Malaya was largely the outcome of the dynamic interaction and class relations

between gender

i n which they were both members of a class and

a gender at the same time, the

two being not mutually exclusive.

As members of a c l a s s , they did not own the means of production

and sold their 1about power or conditions

for

reproduction.

their

own

their

and their

sexuality f amities'

to ensure the maintenance

and

At the same time, they entered the labour market or

were sold and traded i n a t r a f f i c i n women as women i n subordinate roles

defined by

gender

relations,

105

such as w i v e s , mothers, mui

tsai

and prostitutes.

Some of these gender roles were already i n

existence i n China; i n Malaya, they were intensified,

decomposed

and recomposed into new forms with a new basis and significance. Capital-1 about relations

such as i n the mines and estates fed on

these gender defined roles supplementary,

to subordinate women as dependants,

inferior or marginal

workers.

such as i n prostitution, gender relations

In other contexts

were clearly dominant i n

determining women's position within the make-dominated mines and pioneer

towns.

State policies and ideologies

further reinforced

and structured women's position and options, particularly i n the case of prostitutes The

common

and mui tsai. generalization

and

assumption

that

women

in

Malaysia traditionally have been subordinated thus requires much careful

qualification.

broadest ievel,

While such a generalization

holds at the

the m u l t i p l i c i t y of work and social situations

in

which Chinese women were found during the colonial period reveals

a complex and contradictory women were far

others.

and

far

from

in which some categories of subordinated

For example, compared with prostitutes

controls

their

less

picture

were extremely

conditions

tight

were highly

and their

abilities

constrained,

the

independence and feminism enabled them to maintain degree of self-determination

extent of subordination on the particular

over their conditions.

compared with

for

whom the

to determine

amah's economic a much greater

The forms and

experienced by each category thus depended

conjunctures of forces shaping the women's l i v e s

in each work and social situation. In linking the changes in the position the

colonial

and

picture emerges.

post-colonial

periods,

of Chinese women i n a

similarly

eompiex

On the one hand, processes of decomposition of

subordination, such as through expanded educational

and employment

opportunities, provide the potential for freedom from controls and

106

for

change.

On the other

have remained even i f

hand, their subordination

i n different forms, being constantly

and reshaped i n changing contexts. not

suggest

women

has

a one-dimensional worsened

possibilities

or

shaped

Such a complexity thus does

concision

improved.

that the position

Rather,

the

of

strategic

f acing women for control over their own j i v e s vary,

depending on their specific women for

appears to

In the case of factory

situations.

example, the extensive massing together

for

the f i r s t

time of women of various ethnic and social backgrounds to work in the factories

for

i n the post-1969 period provide the potential basis

them t o struggle both as a gender and as a class and to be

abstracted out of their particularized

gender ascriptive relations

(Eison and Pearson 1980).

What i s also clear existence

from the above cases i s t h a t d e s p i t e

and persistence

of subordination

the

and the constraints

on

alternatives and p o s s i b i l i t i e s for change, the picture of women's

responses i s not one of passive victims i n their "natural"

state

of helplessness as the "traditional" attributes of d o c i l i t y and

obedience t o authority

would seem t o suggest.

The a b i l i t y of

women t o respond actively and with i n i t i a t i v e or to confront the sources of subordination with potential

protest and opposition are

the contradictory tendencies emerging out of their experiences as

subordinated women.

The amah's ability to organize themselves

clearly shows that women are capable of taking determination

of

various

conditions

their f amities i n the mines and plantations actively daily

to the conditions of survival

l i f e and during c r i s i s

action

affecting them.

se1f-

were able to respond

and reproduction,

situations.

for

Women and

It

both i n

i s also well known

that women were a c t i v e members of trade unions and were involved in

strikes

in

estates

and factories,

although

women workers i n trade union a c t i v i t i e s i s unclear be researched.

the p o s i t i o n

of

and remains t o

According to Wee (1954), i n Singapore, where there

107

was a union i n an industry which employed women workers, there were

always

strikes.*

women members

and

they

participated

massed together over their specific conditions

feminist

actively

in

Other forms of organization around which women have lines,

have taken clearly

as the amah's a c t i v i t i e s around the kongsi Fong

and char tang show.

At the same time, these forms of organization

were able to cope with the economic demands of their position.

The

capacity

interests

of

women

to

organize

themselves

around

their

also include that category of women so of ten stigmatized

dance hostesses'

schemes ( i t World War

trade

union

--

the dance hostesses.

The

in Singapore organized mutual

aid

by society and portrayed as helpless

was i n i t i a l l y set up as a mutual aid society before and

II)

directly related

support

to

for

each other

on economic

issues

their working conditions such as wages and

allowances for clothing and make-up (Wee 1954, p . 163). the subordination of women has persisted.

Nevertheless,

persistence

i n whatever forms dispels the common c r i t i c i s m

issues regarding

the subordination

secondary to other

*

Th is that

of women are irrelevant or are

forms of subordination

for

women.

The cases

Wee noted that in the more conventional activities o f the trade unions, women did not seem to be "enthusiastic" and it was not possible t o trace any women active in the central committee or council of trade unions in Singapore. most obvious possibilities for action, response H struggle as workers are around issues such as wages and working c-onditions, there also exist shortcomings and limitations o f Factory~based struggles and Erek union organizations. Among others, they fail to take up the specific problems of gender subordination faced b y women workers which, f`or many women may, in fact, be primary and class exploitation is only secondary a d derivative in their concrete situations. The forms which workers' organizations have traditi fly ii d r f`te i d q to F r th' r d ' par ticipation trade union activities may be found wanting but not because women are in their understanding oF struggle as is often believed. @d" is, however; a general Point. Much research into the structures and activities various trade ons during the colonial period is required to establish the concrete situation of women's participation in them. While the

,

am.

='=l=l

108

examined above clearly historically

show that Chinese Malaysian women have

experienced

specific

forms

of

subordination

as

gender besides that of a c1 ass, and that the social relations gender are as significant as class relations. such as that

of

more significant

prostitution,

than

In specific context

gender relations

class relations.

a

of

are immediately

Any attempt

to

fully

understand Malaysian women should, therefore, place gender at an

equally

important

level

as other

dimensions such as class and

ethnicity, and i n dynamic interaction with them.

109

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ahem, E.M. "The Power and Poi i utiora of Chinese Women". In Women in Chinese Society, edited by M. Wolf and R. Withe. California: StanfOrd University Press, 1975. A r i f f i n , J. "Female Labour Migration to Urban-based Factories i n Malaysia and Malay Nomen's Participation in the Labour Force An Analysis of the Changing Trends and Patterns". Paper presented at the n t h Sumner Seminar Workshop on Analysis of Female Migration, East-Nest Center, Honolulu, June 1980.

--

Awberry, S.S. and G.w. Day Icy. Organization i n the Federation

Lab our and Trade Union of Malaya and Singapore.

Colonial Office Publication, no. 234.

London:

HMSO, 1948.

Bauer, P.T. "Some Aspects of the Malayan Rubber Slump $929-1933". In Readings i n Malayan Economics, edited by T.H. Siicock. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 1961. Blythe, w.L. "A Historical Sketch of Chinese Lab our in Malaya". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society

xx,

Part 1 (June 1947).

.

Methods and Conditions of Employment of Chinese Lab our i n the Federated Ma1 ay States. Kual a Lumpur: Federated May ay States Government Press, 1938-

Boserup, E.

Women's Role in Economic Development.

London:

Allen

and Unwind, 1971. Cardosa-Khoo, J. and K . J . Khoo. "Work and Consciousness: The Case of Electron ics 'Runaways' i n Malaysia". Paper presented at the Conference on the Subordination of Women in the Devel opment Process, Brighton, 1978.

Emigrant Communities of South China: A Study of Chen Ta. Overseas Migration and i t s Influence on the Standards of L i v i n g and Social Change. China Institute of Pacific Relations.

Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1939.

110

Chin,

K.0.

Malaya

Upside

.

Down

Publications, 1976.

Kuala

Lumpur:

Federal

Chin, Y.F. "Chinese Female Immigration to Malaya i n the 19th and 20th Centuries". Paper presented at the 8th Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 1980. Comber, L.F. Chinese Secret Societies Association for Asian Studies, 1959.

Cr'oH, E.

New York:

in May eye.

Feminism and Socialism in China.

London :

Routl edge

and Kegan P a u l , 1978.

Davin, D. Woman~Work: Women and the Party i n Revolutionary China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.

.Society, "Women i n the Countryside i n China". In Women in Chinese edited by M. Wolf and R. Nitke. Can iforraia: Stanford University Press, 1975. Deere, C.M. "Rural Women's Subsistence Production in the Capitalist Periphery". In Peasants and proletarians, The Struggles of Third Norid Workers, edited by R. Cohen et a t . London: Hutchinson University Library, 1979.

0eT

Tufo, M.V. A Report on the 1947 Census of Population. London: London Crown Agents for the Colonies, 1949.

Diamond, N. "Coiiectivisation, Kinship and the Status of Women in Rural China" I n Towards an Anthropology of Women, edited by R.R. Reiter. London' Morathiy Review Press, 1975. Edholm, F . ,

0.

Harris

and K. Young.

"Conceptual isirag Women"

C r i t i q u e of AnthrolJoTogy 3, nos. 9 & 10 (1977).

Eison, 0 . and R. Pearson. "'Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers': An Analysis of Women's Employment i n Third World Export Manufacturing". Feminist Review ? (Spring $981).

.

"The Latest Phase of the Internationalization of Capital and i t s Implications for Women i n the Third World". Institute of Development Studies Discussion Paper 150, Brighton, 1980.

Gamba, C.

The National Union of Plantation Workers: Plantation Workers of Malaya, 1946-1958. Eastern Universities Press, 1962a. the

The Origins

of

Trade

Unionism i n

111

Malaya:

A History of Singapore: A Study

in

CoTonia1 Lab our Press, 1962b.

Unrest.

Singapore:

Eastern

Universities

Guiiick, J.M. "Kuala Lumpur: 1880-1895". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal A s i a t i c Society X X V I I I , Part 4 , 1955. Embong Abdul Rah ran. "A Comment on the State of Sociol ogy of Race Relations and Pow i t i c a l Sociology". Jernal Anthropologi an Sociology, Jim. III (1974).

the In

Haslewood, H.L. and Haslewood. Chi i d Slavery i n Hongkong: Mud Tsai System. London: Sheldon Press, 1930.

The

Hajj

Hazer, N. From Rural Subsistence to an Industrial Peripheral W_o.rkforce: An Examination of Female Malaysian Migrants and Capital AccUmulation in Singapore. Geneva: ILO Pubiications, 1980.

.Peninsular A Prel seminary Study of Women Rubber Estate Workers i n Malaysia ILO Empl oyment Policy Research Program Working Paper WEP 10/wp 19, Geneva, 1981. Hirschman, C. and A. Aghajanian. "Women's Labour Force Participation and Socio-Economic Development: The Case of Peninsular Malaysi a, 1957-70". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies X I , 1 (March 1980).

Jackson, L.

"Prostitution".

In Chinese Women in Southeast Asia,

edited by J. Lebra and J. Paulson. International, 1980.

Jackson, R.N. 1786-1920. Jelin,

E.

Singapore:

Times Book

Immigrant Labour and the Development of Malaya Kuala Lumpur: Government Press, 1961.

"Migration

American Women:

and Labour

Force

Par t i c i p a t i o n

of

Latin

The Domestic Servants in the Cities".

In

Women and National Devel o.pment: The Complexities of Change, edited by the Nel!1esley Editorial Committee. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977. Kaye, B. Upper Nankeen Street, Singapore: A Sociological Study of Chinese Households L i v i n g i n a Densely Populated Area. Singapore: University of Ma1 eye Press, 1960. Lai

9

A.E. "The L i t t l e WorkersChiTd Labour i n the Sma11-Scalle Industries of Penang, Malaysia". Special Issue on C h i l d Workers. Devel opment and Change 13, no. 4 (October 1982).

Lasker, B.

.

.. Human Bondaqe i n Southeast A s i a .

Greenwood Press, 1942.

112

Westport, Conn.:

Lebra, J . and J. Paulson, eds. Chinese Women in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Times Books International, 1980. Lim,

Lim,

Chong-Yah. Economic Devel opment of Modern Malaya. Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 196?. Julian.

"Social

Ma1 eye 1925-40",

Kual a

Problerns of Chinese Female Immigrants

in

Malaysia i n History 23 (1980).

Lim, K.C. "C1ass and Ethnic Consciousness among Women Factory Workers in Penang A Case Study". M.Soc.sc. thesis,

--

University

Lim,

Linda.

Saéns Malaysia, Penang, 1979. "Women

Workers i n Multinational Corporations i n -- The Case of the Electronics Industry i n Malaysia and Singapore". Women's Studies Program Occasional Paper No. 9, University of Michigan, 1978.

Developing Countries

Mullard, C. and M. Brennan. "The Malaysian Predicament: Towards a New Theoretical Frontier". Journal of contemporary A s i a 8, no. 3 (1978)_

Nyce, R. The Chinese i n New V i l l a g e s : A Community Study. Kuala Lumpur: May aysian Sociol ogical Research Institute, 1962. Ooi

3

J.B. "Mining Landscapes of Kinna". Geography 4 (January 1955)

Palme r, J.N. Colonial History of Lab our

Phillips,

1_941

Ma1 eye_,_ 1_9_101960.

.

New York:

A. and B. Taylor.

V.

of

Tropical

Labour Poi i c y and Administration: i n the Rubber Plantation Industry

Feminist Economics".

Purcell,

Journal

A in

Association of Asian Studies,

"Sex and skim-

Feminist

Notes Towards a

Review 6 (1980)

The Chinese in Malaya.

.

Kuala Lumpur:

Oxford

University P r e s s , 1967.

Quijano,

A.

"The

Marginal

Marginal i2ed Lab our Force". (1974 ).

Pow e of the Economy and the Economy and Society 3, no. 4

Rat ram, K . J . Communal ism and the Po1 i t i c a I Process in May eye. Singapore' University of Malaya Press, 1965.

Rogers,

B.

The Domestication

Developing Societies. Rubin,

G.

"Th e T r a f f i c

of

London:

in

Women: Discrimination Tavistock, 1980.

Women: 113

Notes on the

'Political

EconomyI

of

Sex".

In

edited by R.R. Reiter.

Towards an Anthropology of London:

Women,

Monthly Review Press, l9?5.

S a f f i o t i , H. "Women, Modes of Production and Social Formations" Lat_in American Perspectives IV, nos. 1 & 2 (1977). Sieve, N.C. "Lab our and Tin Mining i n Malaya". Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1953. Song,

One Hundred Years John Murray, 1923.

0.5. London:

Southeast

Asia

Chronicle.

of

the

Data Paper No. Y,

Chinese

"Changing R019 of

in

Singapore.

Southeast

Asian

Women: The G1oba1 Assembly Line and the Social Manipulation of Women on the Job". 66 (1979). Sri

Ranjini et aT. "A Study of the 01d Folks' Homes i n Penang". Project paper submitted as course requirement for course on Introduction to Development Studies, School of Comparative Social Sciences, U n i v e r s i t y Sails Malaysia, Penang 19?8.

Stemson, m.R. Class, Race and Colonialism i n West Malaysia: The Indian Case. Australia' University of UL1eens1 and Press,

19%. Straits Times.

Straits Times Annual 1954-55.

"Restructuring Society, Surxdaram, J. Revisited" Mimeographed. 1980.

v.

Thompson,

Singapore, 1955. Po1 icy

The New Economic

Lab our Problerns i n Southeast A s i a .

New Haven:

Yale

University Press, 1947.

Topley, M.

"Marriage Resistance i n Rural Kwangtung".

Chinese S o c i e t y , e d i t e d by N. W o l f and R. W i t h e .

Ir: Women i n Callfornia:

Stanford University Press, 1975.

.

"The Organization and Social Function of Chinese Women's Char Tang i n Singapore". Ph.0. dissertation, University of

London, 1958. Turnbull, C.M. -A History of Singapore 1819-19?5. Oxford University Press, 197?. Vaughan,

J.D.

Lumpur:

The Manners

and Customs of

.

Kuala Lumpur:

the C_hinese.

l{U&l[§

Oxford University Press, 1971

Walkowitz, J.R. and D.J. Nalkowitz. "We Are Not Beasts of the and Field: Prostitution and the Poor in Plymouth

Southamption under the Contagious Diseases Acts". 114

In From

C l i o ' s Consciousness Raised: New Perspectives on the History of Women, edited by M. Hartman and L.w. Banner. New York: Octagon Books, l § 7 6 . Wee ,

Ann. "Some Aspects of the Status of Chinese Women Malaya". In Status of Women i n South Asia, ed i red A. Appadorai. Bombay: Orient Longmans, Genesco :Hi Relations Organization, 1954.

Tb

1 I

i

Whitehead, A. "Some Preliminary Notes on the Subordination Women". IDS 8 u i l e t i n 10, no. 3 ( l 9 7 g ) .

of

sum

!Mud Tsai i n Hongkong and May eye, Report of Woods, Colonial Office Colonial No. 125. London: Commission. HMSO, 1937.

Yip,

Y.H. Lumpur:

The Devel opment of the T i n Mining Industry. University of Malaya Press, 1969.

115

Kual a

THE AUTHOR Lai Ah Eng i s currently

works include Sca1 e "Family

"The L i t t l e Workers:

Industries

Coming t o

a researcher i n Singapore.

of

Penang,

Grips w i t h Sexual

Lifestyles

Among

research interests include in Ma1 aysia and Singapore.

HDB

Her published

Chi i d Labour i n the Sma11-

May aysia"

(1982),

Inequal cities Residents"

community, ethnic

Lab our

(co-author, (1985).

Pains:

1984) Her

and

current

and gender r e l a t i o n s