Once a while you'd get to learn about Chinese culture from some of the stupid things people say. It is said that in Chinese culture, both mum and granny are sacred beings not to be encroached upon or desecrated. I learned that when someone said that Chinese women came to Malaya, now Malaysia - to jual tubuh, that means, to prostitute. Since the Indians have also been labelled as beggars, this surprising episode in Malaysia reminds not only of the shallow nature of some men who utter through their asses; but also the vast contributions of both the Indians and Chinese in Malaysia. Apart from the Indians who came to Malaya first to trade and later, in bigger numbers to tap the rubber trees, work the railway lines and teach in schools, the Chinese came to do business too, for who would you think the Indians would do their bartering with? Towards the nineteenth century, many more Chinese came. First it was just the men and later, their spouses and other women. Many women ended up as dulang washers, mining for tin in the tin-rich mines in Perak and Selangor and as amahs or domestic helpers. It is said that there was a group of women in Shun Tak in the Pearly River Delta in Guandong, China, who were very independent. They earned their keeps by rearing silk-worms for silk and when the Japanese invaded China, they had come in droves to Nanyang aka South East Asia - to Singapore, Malaya, Indonesia and Thailand. Here, they became domestic helpers, doing all sorts of menial tasks from washing to marketing, cleaning, sweeping, ironing, cooking and even taking care of the children of their employers. These women usually wore pig-tails and would Sor Hey or combed their hair into a bun as a symbol of being married if they decided not to be dependent on man and like a nun, took a vow of becoming a spinster for life and leading a life of celibacy. A celibate would not be much of a prostitute, don't you think?
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When I went out from that place (together with the group) there were many men long all the way till our bus and all they cryed I'm a prostitute etc etc. I had to go different minutes among this crowd.
Why I was called this way? Because I did not accept to BE it.
It was the first time in my life and I remember it very good. I was shoked. But than it happend more times for me. So, I accepted the men have this feeling of humiliation and need to humiliate a woman.