Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee
Debates between colonial administrators and anti-slavery British reformers during the interwar years about the nature of slavery within the mui tsai system in the British colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya and the Straits Settlements feature strongly in academic work. However, few scholarly articles cons...
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| Format: | Final Year Project (FYP) |
| Language: | English |
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Nanyang Technological University
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147293 |
| _version_ | 1826114704264658944 |
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| author | Chan, Evelyn Ju Ying |
| author2 | Jessica Bridgette Hinchy |
| author_facet | Jessica Bridgette Hinchy Chan, Evelyn Ju Ying |
| author_sort | Chan, Evelyn Ju Ying |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Debates between colonial administrators and anti-slavery British reformers during the interwar years about the nature of slavery within the mui tsai system in the British colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya and the Straits Settlements feature strongly in academic work. However, few scholarly articles consider the 1932 Mui Tsai Ordinance’s impact on former mui tsai’s lives, or analyse the Po Leung Kuk’s (PLK) rehabilitation of abused mui tsai in the context of the Straits Settlements. While the ordinance regulated and managed the mui tsai’s labour, its shortcomings were highlighted in the Mui Tsai Commission’s Minority Report in 1937, the report stated that the ordinance failed to protect the welfare of colonized children, regardless of their race. This thesis paints a fuller picture of the ordinance by arguing it provided mui tsai with various forms of agency and offered them a degree of protection. As an institution of refuge for marginalized girls, the PLK’s role in rehabilitating the mui tsai was integral towards knowledge formation of how the colonial state perceived them. This thesis argues the colonial state’s control over the mui tsai through the PLK provided them a smoother path to becoming a dutiful wife and domestic servant. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:43:28Z |
| format | Final Year Project (FYP) |
| id | ntu-10356/147293 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:43:28Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Nanyang Technological University |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1472932023-03-11T20:09:18Z Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee Chan, Evelyn Ju Ying Jessica Bridgette Hinchy School of Humanities JHinchy@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::History Debates between colonial administrators and anti-slavery British reformers during the interwar years about the nature of slavery within the mui tsai system in the British colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya and the Straits Settlements feature strongly in academic work. However, few scholarly articles consider the 1932 Mui Tsai Ordinance’s impact on former mui tsai’s lives, or analyse the Po Leung Kuk’s (PLK) rehabilitation of abused mui tsai in the context of the Straits Settlements. While the ordinance regulated and managed the mui tsai’s labour, its shortcomings were highlighted in the Mui Tsai Commission’s Minority Report in 1937, the report stated that the ordinance failed to protect the welfare of colonized children, regardless of their race. This thesis paints a fuller picture of the ordinance by arguing it provided mui tsai with various forms of agency and offered them a degree of protection. As an institution of refuge for marginalized girls, the PLK’s role in rehabilitating the mui tsai was integral towards knowledge formation of how the colonial state perceived them. This thesis argues the colonial state’s control over the mui tsai through the PLK provided them a smoother path to becoming a dutiful wife and domestic servant. Bachelor of Arts in History 2021-04-01T04:55:25Z 2021-04-01T04:55:25Z 2021 Final Year Project (FYP) Chan, E. J. Y. (2021). Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147293 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147293 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University |
| spellingShingle | Humanities::History Chan, Evelyn Ju Ying Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee |
| title | Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee |
| title_full | Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee |
| title_fullStr | Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee |
| title_full_unstemmed | Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee |
| title_short | Construction of a lost childhood : the 'rehabilitation' of Mui Tsai in the Straits Settlement by the colonial government and the Po Leung Kuk committee |
| title_sort | construction of a lost childhood the rehabilitation of mui tsai in the straits settlement by the colonial government and the po leung kuk committee |
| topic | Humanities::History |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147293 |
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