A Historical Study of Self-Combing Women in Singapore
Self-combing women (自梳女) is the name for some special women who decided to stay single in whole life. The most representative ones were the women from Shunde and Panyu counties in the province of Guangdong,China,from late 19th century to the middle of 20th century. The motive for self-combing is rather complex,so was their life very rough.The journey they took to the South Sea to take up the jobs as maids in the service industry had given them a particular name—majie. In Singapore,very few majie had made it back to their hometown in China when they got old. Most spent their whole life in Singapore.