The majie (as called in Nanyang) is a continuation of the Chinese women’s tradition of devotion to care and providing for her parents.
The term majie appears not to be used in Kwangtung, China, to refer to these women. It is not used at all by Marjorie Topley in her research paper. She calls them ‘unattached or unmarried women.’ (p 443)
Majies are not amahs. While all majies are amahs, not all amahs are majies. They are both domestic servants.
The difference is that the majies had taken a vow before a deity, in front of witnesses, never to wed.
The vow is preceded by a hairdressing ritual similar to one performed by a dad for his daughter on the night before the wedding ceremony to signal the daughter’s arrival to social maturity.
These women who took vows not to marry are all peculiar to three small rural areas in the Canton Delta.
This resistance to marriage, as described by Marjorie Topley in her excellent 1978 essay “Marriage Resistance in Rural Kwangtung,” was practiced for about 100 years, from the early 19th to the early 20th century, in Pan Yu, Nan Hai, and Shun The.
These 3 small areas were all engaged in sericulture, i.e., the production of raw silk by raising silkworms.
This link was mentioned briefly in the excellent Star article on Majie. See part 1 of my essay on Majie.
Intrigued by this link, I recall I have a book in my library that has a compilation of essays and research papers on Cantonese society in Hong Kong and Singapore.
I checked and found a substantial essay on the origin in Kwangtung of the phenomena that gave rise to the arrival of these unmarried women, called majies in Nanyang. (See pp. 423- 446).
LWH @ Lone Pine Hotel
2 June 2025