Choo WaiHong was a corporate lawyer with top law firms in Singapore and California before she took early retirement in 2006 and began writing travel pieces for publications such as China Daily. She lived for six years with the Mosuo tribe and now spends half the year with them in Yunnan, China.
A fascinating portrait of one of the worlds last matriarchal societies, a land without fathers or husbands, without marriage or divorce, written by an international corporate lawyer who ditched her hectic life to embrace this Shangri-La inside deepest China. Jan Wong, author of Beijing Confidential
A crisp account by a high-powered Singaporean lawyer of how she renounced her former life of fifteen-hour working days in a male-dominated corporate world to find her feminist soul in the last matriarchal ethnic group remaining in China. Full of insights and touching descriptions, this is one of the most accessible and concrete descriptions of the Mosuo, a group more analysed than understood, putting the humanity of this tribe at the forefront of their identity. Kerry Brown, author of CEO China and The New Emperors
A most engaging account of life among the matrilineal and matriarchal Mosuo tribe in Chinas Yunnan province, but also a lament to a way of life now threatened by modernity and tourism. Full of detail and telling insights into gender roles, it will appeal to armchair travellers as well as to anthropologists and sociologists. Jonathan Fryer, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
A refreshing and authentic portrait of a hidden society in patriarchal China. A must read for anyone studying women and alternative societies. Hsiao-Hung Pai, author of Scattered Sand
Published in 2017 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
Reprinted in 2017
London New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright 2017 Choo WaiHong
The right of Choo WaiHong to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
ISBN: 978 1 78453 724 1
eISBN: 978 1 78672 170 9
ePDF: 978 1 78673 170 8
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Typeset in Perpetua by A. & D. Worthington, Newmarket Printed and bound in Great Britain by T. J. International, Padstow, Cornwall
To my dearest friend Yvonne Jefferies, litigation solicitor extraordinaire, without whose brilliant suggestion this book would never have been conceived.
And to a special soulmate, the late Margaret Allen, journalist and writer extraordinaire, without whose encouragement and critical eye this book would never have seen the light of day.
Plates
1.A matriarch by the family hearth. (Courtesy of Aujin Rew)
2.A Mosuo with her years supply of dried pork.
3.A view of Gemu Mountain Goddess from my terrace. (Courtesy of Tom Jefferies)
4.Dancers getting ready to perform at the Gemu Festival.
5.Preparing to perform the circle dance at the Gemu Festival.
6.Erchima (left), Gumis elder sister (right) and me at the Gemu Festival.
7.A Ma, grandmother of my godchildren and Gumis mother, in her courtyard. (Courtesy of Lee Choo)
8.Men strutting their stuff at the Gemu Festival.
9.My Mosuo home under construction.
10.The much decorated grandmothers room in my typical Mosuo home. (Courtesy of Lee Choo)
11.Ladzu and her teenage friends all dolled up for the Spring Festival.
12.The matriarch of a 300-year-old Mosuo house, and me.
13.The shrine built to honour Gemu Mountain Goddess.
14.Three Mosuo women during the Gemu Festival. (Courtesy of Tjio Kayloe)
15.Tibetan Buddhist lamas chanting funeral rites before the burning pyre. (Courtesy of Lee Choo)
16.Zhaxi, reputedly the Prince of Walking Marriages or the Don Juan of Don Juans.
Unless stated otherwise, all photographs are the authors own.
Acknowledgements
M y first acknowledgement must go to my dearest friend Yvonne Jefferies, who at the end of a visit to my Mosuo home in Lugu Lake suggested that I write about my experiences among the matrilineal Mosuo tribe. With her suggestion came a list of 12 topics she scribbled on the back of an envelope, which formed the basis of the chapter headings of this book. Not only did Yvonne inspire me to embark upon this book but provided a London refuge to complete my manuscript in utter comfort and warmth, for which I shall forever be grateful.
Encouraging me all the way while I was nursing the manuscript was my close friend the late Margaret Allen, herself the author of nearly a dozen books. Margaret used her critical eye as the first reader of my completed work to make invaluable suggestions without which this book would have been the poorer. I only wish she could have seen it through to publication.
When I was struggling with an appropriate and catchy title for the book, my friend Choong Chu, a media consultant, came up with a winning formula grateful thanks to him.
I am indebted to my editor Tatiana Wilde for her sharp critique which led me on a path of rediscovery that refined many of my previous assumptions and conclusions. The book is in much better shape for her guidance and intelligence.
The wonderful pictures appearing in the book are among the hundreds taken by my favourite photographers, beginning with my brother, photographer Lee Choo, my friends Tjio Kayloe and Tom Jefferies, and professional photographer Aujin Rew. The rustic map of Lugu Lake was designed at short notice by Nathan Chia.
Thanks also go to two friends in China, Ben Mok, with his unreserved support of my social enterprise rice project, and Houston Wu, with his keen perspective on Chinese culture.
I have left the last but not least acknowledgements to my Mosuo friends for so warmly inviting me into their homes and families and sharing their unique world with me. My thanks go especially to Gumi and my godchildren, Ladzu and Nongbu, who have become my Mosuo family. I am grateful for the close friendship extended by Erchima and Zhaxi, Jizuo, Duojie, the late Aha grandmother, Zhiba Zhashi and other Mosuo friends too many to name.
Preface
I never set out to write a book when I first stepped inside the Kingdom of Women. I was on a journey to discover my Chinese roots and explore the vast land of my ancestors with its 5,000 years of historical and cultural treasures. Picturesque Lugu Lake, on the borders of Yunnan and Sichuan in western China, the home of the Mosuo tribe, was just one stop on my grand tour of China.
