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The Black And White Amah Sets Sail For Nanyang (The South Seas)
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Subject :The Black and White Amah Sets Sail For Nanyang (The South Seas)
Published By : None
Location : Chinese Port
Estimated Year : 1930
Media Type : Photograph
Source : Ian Anderson, Ipoh
Remark : The photograph shows a group of women, Black and White Amahs, leaving a Chinese Port (probably Swatow or Xiamen) to catch the Steamer waiting for them. They were emigrating to ‘Nanyang’ to take up the role of domestic servant in Colonial South East Asia.
During the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century Chinese women were a rarity in terms of numbers in Perak. Apart from the few that were genuine Principal Wives of rich Chinese Towkays, the majority were likely to be employed in brothels, domestic slaves, secondary wives or concubines, catering for the ever urgent needs of the male dominated society.
However, in the early 1930’s, as Colonial Wives started to become a common community in Malaya (for initially most Colonials left their wives at home) a new breed of women emerged, known as the Black and White Amahs (or more politely amah-chieh, the little mother). They were known by this name as they always wore a loose white blouse and black pants, and their clothes, a hairstyle of a long braid and their occupation signified their membership of a sisterhood which had taken an oath of commitment to a life in service with celibacy, thereby escaping from the traditional sexual role for the majority of immigrant women as independent, wage-earners.
Such an Amah may have been only 20 or younger when she was sent away from her peasant family in Fujian or Kwungtung Province to work overseas as a combination of cleaner, cook, seamstress, nurse and general factotum. As such she would have a tremendous influence on the family and particular the children who were in her constant care.
For the Colonial wife, a white woman or ‘Mem’, suffering from the heat and humidity of steamy Malaya these gentle but tough servants were a godsend as they cooked, cleaned and looked after the children, while Mem spent her mornings at tennis, her afternoons at bridge, and appeared freshly starched on the veranda at sundown to greet her returning husband with cold stingers, hot curry and eternal complaints about the hardships of life in Malaya.
In Ipoh, the band of Black and White sisters had their own temple where men were not allowed and on their day off they would meet to share their experiences with each other and the Gods and here they could sleep for the night, free from the labours of the demanding Colonial family.
During the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century Chinese women were a rarity in terms of numbers in Perak. Apart from the few that were genuine Principal Wives of rich Chinese Towkays, the majority were likely to be employed in brothels, domestic slaves, secondary wives or concubines, catering for the ever urgent needs of the male dominated society.
However, in the early 1930’s, as Colonial Wives started to become a common community in Malaya (for initially most Colonials left their wives at home) a new breed of women emerged, known as the Black and White Amahs (or more politely amah-chieh, the little mother). They were known by this name as they always wore a loose white blouse and black pants, and their clothes, a hairstyle of a long braid and their occupation signified their membership of a sisterhood which had taken an oath of commitment to a life in service with celibacy, thereby escaping from the traditional sexual role for the majority of immigrant women as independent, wage-earners.
Such an Amah may have been only 20 or younger when she was sent away from her peasant family in Fujian or Kwungtung Province to work overseas as a combination of cleaner, cook, seamstress, nurse and general factotum. As such she would have a tremendous influence on the family and particular the children who were in her constant care.
For the Colonial wife, a white woman or ‘Mem’, suffering from the heat and humidity of steamy Malaya these gentle but tough servants were a godsend as they cooked, cleaned and looked after the children, while Mem spent her mornings at tennis, her afternoons at bridge, and appeared freshly starched on the veranda at sundown to greet her returning husband with cold stingers, hot curry and eternal complaints about the hardships of life in Malaya.
In Ipoh, the band of Black and White sisters had their own temple where men were not allowed and on their day off they would meet to share their experiences with each other and the Gods and here they could sleep for the night, free from the labours of the demanding Colonial family.
Filename : 20080129-057