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    One Roof, Two Lives
    One Roof, Two Lives
    One Roof, Two Lives
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    One Roof, Two Lives

    By ann chin

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Traces the lives of 2 girls. The poor girl is sold to the rich girl as a slave aka mui zai to serve her for ever. Different Chinese Tradition are explained, and tragedy brings them to the South Seas. The Japanese invasion, the slave protects her mistress and is sent to a brothel as a comfort women.


     

    LanguageEnglish
    Publisherann chin
    Release dateMar 13, 2016
    ISBN9780473350628
    One Roof, Two Lives
    Author

    ann chin

    Ann is the author of “Diary of a Bereaved Mother, Goodbye my baby”, “From China to Borneo and Beyond.” English and Chinese Edition, "Mail Order Bride," and "Cry, the Oppressed Women" , " World War Two In Borneo" and "One Roof , Two lives."

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      Book preview

      One Roof, Two Lives - ann chin

      Ann Kit Suet Chin-Chan

      ––––––––

      Copy right:

      All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without permission in writing from the author.

      ––––––––

      While this is a fiction, events happen in China and Borneo. They tell of old Chinese practices and custom and therefore very unique.

      Title:  One Roof, Two lives.

      Author:  Ann Kit Suet Chin-Chan

      Publisher:  Ann Kit Suet Chin-Chan

      Address:  Auckland 1022

      Format:eBook

      Publication Date:  2/2016

      ––––––––

      About the author

      Ann Chin is a New Zealand Chinese.

      Her full name, Kit Suet meaning pure snow, is her Chinese name.

      Her Dad’s surname is Chan, and her husband’s Chin. She chose to use both for her professional name

      Ann Chin was born in Sibu, British Sarawak in Borneo.

      She attended Methodist Primary and Secondary school in Sibu.

      She graduated from the University of Windsor (Canada), Auckland University and Auckland University of Technology.

      She teaches ESOL to children and adults in New Zealand.

      She is a parent advocate, and a public speaker.

      Her favourite charity is the Deaf children in Kenya. She helped raise funds to separate the pair of Nepalese Siamese twins in Singapore.

      Ann is the 4th child of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Chan Hiu Fei and Mrs. Mary Kong Wah Kiew.

      Ann is the author:

      Diary of a Bereaved Mother, Goodbye my baby,

      From China to Borneo and Beyond.

      English and Chinese Edition,

      Mail Order Bride,

      Cry, the Oppressed Women

      World War II in Borneo.

      Mail Order Bride,

      Cry, the Oppressed Women

      http://annkitsuet-chinchan.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/ann-book-cv-november-2015.html

      Acknowledgement:

      To my husband, Dr Chin Chen Onn for his love and help in the production of this book.

      To my surviving children, Deborah, Gabrielle and Sam

      To my siblings for their ideas and encouragement.

      To Sam who helped in the formatting.

      To Jane Kallang and Arlene Teo for artwork.

      To my daughter Deborah for encouraging me to venturing into eBooks.

      To my many friends who gave me ideas and notes of their   parents' war times experience.

      To Chung Mui Kong for sharing experience in writing and encouragement.

      To my late father for instilling the love of writing in me when I was very young.

      To my late mother for guiding me every afternoon.

      To her late baby son, Andrew, Not one moment is she not thinking of him.

      Author’s note

      This is a work of fiction with very plausible scenarios. It is a figment of imagination of the author. Any resemblance of persons is purely coincidental. While these scenarios are fictitious, the reader will notice that some of them are familiar. This is because I use ideas from reading the newspapers, watching television news and listening to tales of my grandparents and my parents. I have also used Cantonese Quang Ning pinyin when referring to names or titles of certain people. This gives the authenticity of the book. The Cantonese words are well explained in the foot notes.

      Introduction

      Under one roof but worlds apart.

      This is the sad story of two girls, bound by tradition in a Confucian paternalistic society. The rich girl Kui Hiong and her mui zai [1]Ah Lan. Both girls, one rich and one poor, their parents were bound by the belief that girls were useless. Eventually girls would be married off .[2]

      On the wider scheme of things, it was the world of the rich who owned everything including people. Babies, male and female were sold at a minimal price or even given away. They were brought up as ka noo [3][4]for males and mui zais for females. In the western terminology, these poor humans were sold off to be slaves for the rest of their lives. This was akin to the slaves from Africa.

      The poor mui zais were often sexually abused by their lascivious Lou Ye [5]and sometimes by the ka noo, and physically hurt by the senior mui zais who themselves were abused when they were young.

      This story is also about the inequity of the sexes. It was fine for a man to have many wives and concubines[6], in fact it was a show of wealth for the man and concubines were chattels. For the poor women, and it was a no-no for women to commit adultery. She would be shamed publicly as an unfaithful wife, paraded like a sow in a pig basket and drowned for making her husband a cuckold.

      The following scenario about a mui zai is true, it happened to my ancestors. What had past had past. I cannot deny it happened, I am not ashamed of it because what had happened was in an era before my time.

      My grandmother was a Siew Jie [7], a chin kam siew Jie,[8] and she had a mui zai. This mui zai followed her from her rich parents in China, to my not so rich paternal grandfather’s house when they got married. They crossed the South China Sea and came to the Sarawak in Borneo known as South Seas, Nang Yang[9].

      After a few years, there was talk of the White British authorities ordering the emancipation of the slaves. There was no place in the British government for slaves. Any one flouting the rules could be jailed.

      To pre-empt this, my grandfather got rid of the mui zai , married to be a labourer’s wife. Whether she was sold off as a principal wife or a concubine, my Dad wasn’t very clear about it. My Grandmother was very cross with my Grandfather. This mui zai was bought by her parents when she was a teenager after she was too old for her nai ma[10]. This mui zai was to serve Grandma for the rest of her life. When the emancipation didn’t take place, my grandfather didn’t hear the end of grandmother’s nagging.

      All Dad remembered was the mui zai whom he called Ah Jie [11].was she pampered him, being the baby in the house. She cooked mung bean soup as a snack for the family. Mung bean soup was said to be a cooling food to counter the tropical heat. Dad constantly talked about this anecdote, even to his dying day. Dad remembered his Ah Jie who carefully removed the rough husk of the mung bean so

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