The house was small with an open kitchen in the back, a
communal toilet and a room with 4 wooden slats make-do beds, each one with a
straw mat on top. Yin Jie was very kind and chatted to Mei for a while before
she started getting dinner ready. There were four ladies sharing the communal
house; Yin Jie, Jen Jie, Wu Jie and Fang Jie.
These ladies are the Mah Jie; a voluntary sisterhood of
ladies from China who vow celibacy and work as domestic help in Singapore. They
all wear a uniform of a white blouse buttoned to the neck, with black trousers.
They do not trust in marriages hence initiated a ceremony to vow their celibacy
by brushing and tying up their hair (自梳).
Many of them heard about the misfortune of some married life; being bullied by
their husbands, having to look after their husband’s families and abandoning
their own.
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